It is with great love and sadness that we announce the passing of Nancy Jean Turner Douglas, who left us on November 4, 2025, at the age of 76.

Born on December 12, 1948, in Detroit, MI, Nancy lived a life filled with kindness, creativity, music, and love. She spent her formative years in Southeast, Michigan as well as Caracas, Venezuela where her father was assigned by General Motors, then returning on her own to finish high school in Dearborn, MI. After college she started a family, passing on her love of music and travel, talent for cooking and holiday decorating, as well as artistic creativity and imagination to her three children. Always involved, she proudly accepted the role and title of Den Mother and Troop Leader collectively for over a decade.

Nancy devoted her professional life to teaching. Starting her degree in Art Education at Michigan State University and completing it at Western Michigan University, She was passionate about teaching kindergarten through fifth grade children how to both make and appreciate art. Igniting the spark of creativity in thousands of elementary students, Nancy taught for 35 years in eight of the ten elementary schools in Portage and several others in Kalamazoo and Allegan. She excelled at teaching students to bring their art off the page and made it relevant to their learning by crafting lessons using paper to create three dimensional works that always reinforced the concepts being learned in math, science, social studies, and reading. Always working to keep her curriculum relevant and current, Nancy was the first art teacher in Portage to incorporate the use of computers to create art. For over twenty years after her regular school days ended, she taught hundreds of elementary education students how to infuse art into their lesson plans while teaching classes in the evenings at Western Michigan University. Additionally she served for 21 years as a Region 5 co-liaison within the Michigan Art Education Association ensuring that her students’ work would be enjoyed by the public and recognized for their achievements and creativity beyond their schools at the regional and state level. For her efforts and skills Nancy was honored as a Michigan Teacher of the Year and also received the Michigan Art Education Association Distinguished Service Award. Further, Nancy helped dozens of families bring new life into the world by teaching Lamaze to expectant parents for nine years with the Kalamazoo Association for Prepared Childbirth.

Retiring from teaching in 2015, Nancy easily switched gears to focus more energy on family, travel, and community. She was a fun loving grandmother who always welcomed any reason to make a special treat for, read a book to, or play a game with her numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren, making memories that will last for the rest of their lifetimes. She loved to travel and find new and interesting things to paint, relaxing in Hawaii, eating her way across Europe, as well as exploring 38 of our 50 states. Always willing to help others in her community, Nancy used her time and talents to paint murals for various churches and schools, create custom stuffed angels honoring colleagues and friends, and sew countless quilts that keep friends and family warm all across the country.

The many who knew and loved Nancy will delight in remembering her every time they hear a choir sing, walk a beach looking for sharks teeth, eat a “little pizza” on Christmas Eve, play a game of Peanuts, smell a box of newly opened crayons, catch a glimpse of QVC on TV, snuggle up under a handmade quilt, or when they see Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye dance to the Sisters song from White Christmas.

She is preceded in death by her parents, George and Ida Malecki (Kish); husband, Fred Douglas, numerous Aunts and Uncles.

She is survived by three children, Rob Turner (Kristine), Karey Turner, and John Turner (Laura); sister, Marty Garrido; nieces, Adrianna Quintero (Leo) and Naomi Garrido; step-children, Bob Daniels, Sarah Swafford, Rick Douglas (Rebecca); grandchildren, Brody, Marin, Cassadie, Stacey, Maggie, Erick, and Aeden; three great-grandchildren.