Donna Marie James Estopinal

May 24, 2026

Donna Marie James Estopinal, born in New Orleans, Louisiana on November 23rd, 1954, passed peacefully into the arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in her home in Spring, Texas on Sunday, May 24, 2026. In a moment as gentle as her spirit, Donna slipped away quietly, without pain or distress, just minutes after she and her husband had gathered to watch Sunday Mass together via the livestream of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Spring, Texas. It was a departure as faithful and graceful as the life she had lived.

Donna faced the final chapter of her life with extraordinary courage. In mid 2025, she was diagnosed with an aggressive bladder cancer that moved swiftly and without mercy. She met it head-on, enduring chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and in January 2026, she received the remarkable news that no suspicious cells remained. Her fight was fierce and her faith unwavering. Though the cancer ultimately returned, bringing with it fluid in the chest cavity, heart failure, and kidney failure, Donna never lost her peace or her grace.

To know Donna was to be loved by her. She was fiercely protective of those she held dear, extravagantly generous, and seemingly incapable of being in someone's presence without showering them with warmth, love, kindness and affection. Her grandchildren, all six of them, held a special place in her heart, and she in theirs. More than anything she said or gave, it was the example of her deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ that will endure as her greatest legacy. She led her children and grandchildren not with words alone, but with the quiet, daily devotion of a life surrendered to God. That love, and that faith, will continue to echo through every generation she has touched.

Donna is lovingly survived by her husband, Bryan Estopinal ; her children, Mike and Jamie Ritchie and Dwayne and Ashlie Marshall ; her grandchildren, Elijah, Noah, Kaebrie, and Judah Ritchie, and Domonic and Harlie Marshall ; her sister, Tamera James Boyd ; and her brother, Michael James, his wife Paula James and a host of loving nieces, nephews and extended family members.

She was not just loved, she was treasured. And she will be deeply, deeply missed.