D. Annette Shousha

D. Annette (Gentry) Shousha passed on September 8, 2025. She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Alfred Shousha, M.D.; their identical triplet sons: Matthew, Luke, and John; her parents: Thurman and Laura Belle Gentry, and her brothers: Charles, Robert, and Thomas. She leaves behind her sons: Mark and T. Andre’ (wife Barbara); daughters: Anne, Mary (husband Michel Heitmann), and Melanie (husband Roland Folz); her grandchildren: Kyle Heitmann, Hannah Folz, Christina Shousha Lepka, Marina Folz, Kevin Heitmann, Lucas Folz, Olivia Shousha, Christian Shousha, Andrew Shousha, Isabelle Shousha, and Arianna Shousha; her great grandchildren: Max Mason and James Lepka; her many nieces and nephews; grandnieces and grandnephews and many other relatives and close friends.

Annette was born in Nashville, Tennessee on May 25, 1936. After graduating from East Nashville High School in 1954, she obtained her RN degree from the Saint Thomas School of Nursing in 1957 and later she received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from South Dakota State University. She also took some classes at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and Northern University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She married Dr. Alfred Shousha in 1959 in Nashville, Tennessee and they lived in several places including Rome, Georgia; Hoven, South Dakota; Britton, South Dakota; Nashville, Tennessee; and Chandler, Arizona. Their marriage expressed a love that was felt by everyone around them. They were a doctor and nurse team besides being husband and wife. Their marriage set a wonderful example of love, compassion, and commitment. After her husband’s passing in 1998, she later moved back to Nashville, Tennessee and finally to Panama City Beach, Florida.

Annette enjoyed music, playing the piano, singing, dancing the Charleston and Jitterbug, oil painting, rose gardening, reading, international travel, and spending time with her children and wonderful grandchildren. Community service was important to her. She enjoyed being a lector, eucharistic minister, and teaching religious education classes at the Catholic Churches where she was a member. She served on the Northeast South Dakota Mental Health Board, was elected as a school board member, and served as a state president of the South Dakota Medical Auxiliary (during her time in that position, she also wrote monthly articles published in the South Dakota Journal of Medicine). She was also recognized by the governor of South Dakota for “outstanding service to her community.”

She worked most of her life as a nurse starting as a camp nurse at Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee then worked as a school nurse at Belmont University in Nashville and an instructor teaching nursing students in Nashville. She met her doctor-husband, Dr. Alfred Shousha, at Nashville General Hospital and worked beside him as an obstetrics staff nurse delivering babies with him. After they moved to Britton, South Dakota, she worked as a nurse in her husband’s medical clinic for many years. Later they moved back to Nashville where she worked as a nurse in the gastroenterology lab, the Medical Service Quality Assurance at the Nashville VA Hospital, and as a nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) in a Nashville hospital.

Annette was a kind and gentle person who cared and listened. She had a warm heart, beautiful smile and was full of love and compassion. The most important part of her life was being a wife, mother, grandmother, and friend in addition to her Catholic faith. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends, and all who knew her.

Visitation and Rosary Service will be 6-8pm (Rosary at 7pm) on October 2nd at the Whitney & Murphy Bueler Mortuary in Chandler, Arizona. and the Funeral Mass will be at 10:30 am on October 3rd at Saint Mary Roman Catholic Church in Chandler, Arizona. The Pallbearers and Honorary Pallbearers are Mark Shousha, T. Andre’ Shousha, Paul Gadsden, Richard Clark, Victor Shousha, Eissa Shousha, Jon Snyder, David Logan, Mike Gentry, Roland Folz, Mike Heitmann, Mark Gadsden, Michio Kubota and Ernesto Chacon. The Committal Service will follow at St. Francis Cemetery and Mausoleum in Phoenix, Arizona.