Donna Lee (McGonigle) McCabe, 77, of Gale Road, died on Thursday, July 21, 2016 at the Rose Monahan Hospice House in Worcester, Massachusetts after a brief illness. She was born in Hopedale, Massachusetts on June 16, 1939, the daughter of Harold C. and Rita M. (Corcoran) McGonigle. She graduated from Hopedale High School in 1957 with high honors and earned her BS degree from Sargent College of Boston University in 1961.

Donna had a long and productive career as a physical therapist. In the 1960s she worked at the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan in Detroit specializing in pediatric care and rehab and became Director of Physical Therapy for Pediatric Rehabilitation. In the early 1970s she was Chief Physical Therapist at Franklin Regional Hospital, where she created and built the first Physical Therapy Department.

In the late 1970s and 1980s she was a physical therapist for Franklin Visiting Nurses and 10 years later was Head of Physical Therapy for Mountain Ridge Center for Rehabilitation in Franklin. After that,  Donna was a physical therapist with Lake Sunapee Region Visiting Nurse Association, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she was Head of Physical Therapy for Havenwood Heritage Heights Retirement Community in Concord.

Donna lived in Andover for 45 years and thoroughly enjoyed the seasons in the Lakes Region. She was a communicant of Immaculate Conception Parish in Potter Place and loved spending time in Wells Beach, Maine with her family  and friends over the years.

Her husband, Leo L. McCabe, died in 2012. She is survived by her son and his wife, Daniel L. and Julie A. McCabe and twin grandsons, Ryan and Gavin, and granddaughter Kathryn of Northborough, Massachusetts; her nephew and his wife, David and Wendy McGonigle and their children Caitlin and Sean; her nephew Michael; her sisters-in-law Elizabeth Rizzo, Angela Jones, Deb McGonigle, and Nancy McCabe; and her brother-in-law, Phillip McCabe, Jr.

Friends may call at the Chadwick Funeral Home, 235 Main Street, New London, on Tuesday, July 26, from 5 to 7 PM. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 27, at 11 AM at Immaculate Conception Church, 12 Church Lane, Potter Place. Burial will follow in Proctor Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, 15 South Franklin Street, New Ulm MN 56073; The Andover Lions Club, PO Box 204, Andover NH 03216; or The Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, 30 Danforth Street, Suite 106, Portland ME 04101.