Nancy Lee Sanders, 87, of Ankeny passed away peacefully Aug. 17, 2024.
Nancy was born Oct. 8, 1936, to Robert and Ruby Fearing in Cedar Falls. At age nine, her family moved to Sioux City, where she graduated from Central High School. Nancy received her teaching degree from the University of Northern Iowa. She went on to teach school in Grundy Center and then later in Guthrie Center.
While in Guthrie Center, she met Floyd Sanders who was also teaching there. The couple was married Dec. 27, 1963. From that union, they were blessed with two daughters, Mary and Donna.
After Floyd accepted a teaching position in Storm Lake, the couple moved and resided in Storm Lake for 25 years. Nancy worked as secretary to the dean of students at Buena Vista University. During the years of raising her girls, she freelanced as a secretary for various attorneys, a farm appraiser and as a transcriber for a court reporter. In 1991, Floyd and Nancy moved to Des Moines where Nancy worked and eventually retired as an insurance rater from GuideOne Insurance in 2002.
Through the years Nancy was active in Eastern Star, BPW, BV hospital auxiliary, church bell choir, West Des Moines United Methodist Church Mit-Wits, and water aerobics at the YMCA. She and Floyd loved their many vacations to Hawaii to visit her brother and sister-in-law. She enjoyed sewing and doing crafts such as crochet and counted cross-stitch. Her passions were to spend time with family and in her later years she especially enjoyed playing cards, doing jigsaw puzzles, playing Bingo and watching WWE wrestling.
She was preceded in death by her parents; loving husband Floyd; and brother Ken Fearing.
Surviving are daughters, Mary (Kevin) Carlisle of West Des Moines; and Donna (Kelly) Huffman of Ankeny; granddaughters; Emily Carlisle (Ryan Owens) and Macey Carlisle (Paul Schroeder).
A memorial service will the held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the family or directly to Rescue Rehab Rehome, where her dog Callie was adopted and provided her loving companionship up until the end.
Nancy will forever be in the hearts of her family and friends. A loving wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin and friend, she will be missed by all who knew her.