Donald Warden

Donald Eugene Warden, 88, fortified by the sacraments of the Holy Mother Church, departed this life on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, surrounded by his family.  He was born on Nov. 17, 1937, in Owensville, to Ralph and Thelma (Gibson) Warden, and spent most of his life in his hometown.

Visitation is scheduled for 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at Gottenstroeter Funeral Home in Owensville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church with Fr. Phillip Kane presiding. He will be interred at the church cemetery.

In 1958, he married his high school sweetheart, Irmagene Koepke, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Owensville, and Jeannie, as she is known, survives at the home. They celebrated their 67th Wedding Anniversary on Nov. 29, 2025. 

Don attended the University of Missouri in Columbia. He was an avid Mizzou football fan and enjoyed season tickets for around 35 years. He and his brother Tom co-owned the Gasconade County Republican from 1960 until 2001, a vocation they inherited from their parents. When Tom retired in 2005, Don and his wife assumed ownership of the Republican.  In 2008, they retired and sold the newspaper to their son, Dennis and his wife Connie, although Don had a desk and computer at the newspaper office until his death. He started working at The Republican as a printer’s devil at age 15, and so was associated with the newspaper for over 72 years.

Don was ordained a Permanent Deacon in the Roman Catholic Church in 1982. He served the Immaculate Conception Church congregation and St. Alexander’s Catholic Church in Belle until his retirement in 2012.  

He served on the Board of Directors of Gasconade Manor Nursing Home for over 30 years. Don was also a charter member of the Owensville Jaycees, which he helped form in 1966. As a deacon, he was an honorary member of the Knights of Columbus of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. He was also a member of the Owensville Lion’s Club for several years. 

Don and Jeannie hosted an AFS student in 1981from Malaysia, Lelian Solip. She has become a member of the Warden family.

In 1993, Don was elected president of the Missouri Press Association, where he served on the board of directors for many years. He was known for giving the invocation prayer at the start of the convention’s annual Hall of Fame Banquet. In 2011, he was honored to be chosen as a member of the Missouri Press Hall of Fame, as was his brother, Tom.

Don and Jeannie enjoyed traveling, both in the U.S. and overseas. Don would print a page of pictures of their travels overseas and also to National Parks in America in the newspaper. He had 40 such pages printed. 

He enjoyed big band music and dancing with Jeannie to it. Other interests included ragtime and jazz music, classic movies, golf, Cardinals baseball, and a good book — especially westerns by Louis La Amour, of which he believed he had all but two in paperback.  

Most of all, he enjoyed his family, believing that family was of the utmost importance: that we live on in our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, even though we are no longer alive. He compiled the Warden Family Tree genealogy from many sources and family members.

Don was preceded in death by his parents Ralph and Thelma, and his brother Tom.

Survivors include his wife, Jeannie of the home; children, Dennis Warden and wife Connie of Owensville, Denise Stanley and husband Charles of Boone, N.C., as well as Lelian Solip-Testroet and husband Paul, of Tacoma, Wash.; grandchildren, Jacob Warden wife Jessica of Owensville, Ethan Warden and wife Hillary Mitchell of West Hartford, Conn., Abigail Warden of Madison, Wisc., Sarah Stanley and finance Matthew Nilsen of Lafayette, Colo., James Stanley and wife Kaitlyn of Everett, Wash. and Nadia Testroet of Orlando, Fla.; great-grandchildren, Kaylee Mae and Lucas Warden and Remy Mitchell-Warden; and several cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

Memorials may be made to family’s choice, which will be sent to Don’s favorite charities.

Arrangements entrusted to Gottenstroeter Funeral Home in Owensville.

-30-

The -30- at the end of this obituary, above, is an old-time newspaper symbol used to denote the end of a story.   It was a slug line cast on a Linotype machine in “hot type” and set at the end of each story to mark the end so that it could be easily seen and then discarded as the story was placed on the newspaper page.  When I first started work at this newspaper, in the 1950’s “hot type” was the method used to print our newspaper.  This  -30-  denotes the end of a newspaper man’s life... the end of his story. As I owned this newspaper for many years, I have written my own obituary. 

The final   -30-   for Donald has been printed!