Jeanette Sue Nayadley

Jeanette Sue Nayadley, 93, died at the Washington County Hospital, September 8, 2025, following a bout of pneumonia. Her funeral will be held on Friday, September 12, 2025, at 11:00 AM at the Peterseim Funeral Home in Kalona. Burial will follow at the Wellman Cemetery. The family will greet friends from 10 - 11 AM at the funeral home. Memorial donations may be directed to Final Frontiers Foundation. The Beatty Peterseim Funeral Home is assisting the family.

She was born in North English, Iowa, September 19, 1931, the daughter of Horace “Harry” and Daisy Simmons Dougherty.

She was born in the telephone office there, which her parents managed and where her mother was the telephone operator. She grew up in North English and graduated in 1949 from North English High School. In high school, she played six-on-six girls’ basketball, in the guard court.

Jeanette worked for A.C. Gingerich’s Maplecrest Turkey Farms in Wellman, where she met the family of her husband-to-be, Milan Nayadley. They were married August 15, 1952, in Sigourney, and celebrated almost 64 years of marriage before Milan’s death in July 2016.

In the mid-1960s, Jeanette began to work for University Hospital, Iowa City, her first job there being the preparation of baby formula from scratch, before it was available commercially. Later, she was transferred to work in the hospital’s main kitchen, a job she held until taking early retirement in 1988. She subsequently took part-time employment doing patient transport for Parkview Manor, Wellman, and then part-time employment in the housekeeping department of Pleasantview Home, Kalona.

The couple lived in Wellman from 1952 until 2004, when they moved to West Chester. Jeanette lived there until August 2024, when health reasons forced her move to the United Presbyterian Home, Washington, where staff made her final year comfortable.

Jeanette’s favorite pastime was traveling, the enthusiasm for which she learned from her parents. She loved to recount the adventure to Montana in 1951 with her parents, brother Bill and a high-school friend. Eventually, Jeanette made it to all 48 Continental United States as well as traveling abroad to the Czech Republic, England, Scotland and Ireland, from where the Dougherty family originated. She was never happier than when she could pack a suitcase for another getaway, even if it be for a weekend.

Jeanette’s other pastimes included cooking, writing long letters to many pen-pals at home and abroad using the old-fashioned method of pen and paper, and reading, especially Christian books dealing with Bible prophecy. She always enjoyed a good visit with family and friends, loved to laugh and enjoyed keeping track of the whereabouts of her more than 60 first cousins.

She is survived by a son, Jeff, of West Chester; a brother, Bill Dougherty (Rosie) of Cedar Rapids; two nieces, Carol Miller of Tonopah, Ariz., and Colleen Freese of Anamosa; three nephews, Randy Kelley and Ron Kelley of Wellman, and David Dougherty of Cedar Rapids; sisters-in-law Donna Kelley of Kalona and Shirley Charbonneau of Wayland. She was preceded in death by her parents and husband.