Brenda Lynn Thurber

MOUNT HOREB - Brenda Lynn Greve Thurber, age 59, of Mount Horeb, passed away peacefully on Monday, June 28, 2021, at Agrace HospiceCare in Fitchburg. “Stupid cancer,” as Brenda always called it for everyone else, took from the world one of its brightest lights and most beautiful souls. Brenda’s light came into the world on July 29, 1961. She was born to Marilynn (Freeman) Greve Williams and Bruce Greve at Madison General Hospital. The Greves lived in Mount Horeb, where young Brenda was a loyal cookie-selling machine of a Girl Scout and the ringleader of a mischievous clarinet section in the Viking Band. Prior to Brenda’s senior year of high school, the Greve family moved from Wisconsin to Kansas, where she graduated from Blue Valley High School in Stilwell, Kan. And while Brenda was sad to leave her hometown and beloved friends, the move gave a whole new state of people the chance to be part of the Brenda Fan Club. It was in Kansas that she met and married Tim Thurber. Brenda and Tim lived in and raised their three boys in Wellington, Kan. She loved their years in the Wheat Capital of the World (with a festival that included Cow Pie Bingo - Google it) and many happy times. The Thurber family eventually moved to Overland Park, Kan. Brenda always stayed close and connected to her friends and extended family in Mount Horeb, “running away” at any opportunity to spend time in the place she called her “DNA home.” After Tim died and her boys were grown, she did what she had wanted to do forever: return home to Wisconsin. She did so in 2011 and a few years later reconnected with a Mount Horeb classmate, Mark Witte, who unbeknownst to Brenda had had a crush on her since the first grade. Mark was Brenda’s “happily ever after” and they had many amazing adventures in their too-short six years together, including winters in Florida and visits to friends and family in Hawaii, California, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and the Ozarks, among other places. Brenda and Mark also simply enjoyed life up north in Wisconsin and just being together with their growing families. Like anybody else, Brenda did stuff and worked and all that, but her life was defined by the people she loved and who loved her - which, cliché as it sounds, was anyone who ever met her. Brenda had the heart of a giant in her 5-2 frame and to be loved by Brenda was to be given the gift of a wide smile, a twinkle in her beautiful blue eyes, a hearty laugh and a hug that would wrap you like a cozy warm blanket. She was loyal and she was true, and if you messed with someone she loved … look out. A big part of Brenda’s heart belonged to her grandchildren - nine of them in all, and when they were small they gathered together for weekends with Grammy B. They pitched tents in her living room, played dress-up and put on shows for Grammy B, who was an enthusiastic audience of one. They brought a whole new level of joy to her life and she loved them as much as was humanly possible, maybe even more. Brenda is survived by Mark Witte as well as her three sons, Jeffrey (fiancée, Beth Armstrong), Justin (Vanessa) and Jared; her grandchildren, Taylor, Jordan, Lilly, Emily, Dakota, Leighla, Nicholas, Andrew and Carter; her mother and stepfather, Marilynn and Jim Williams of Overland Park, Kan.; her father and stepmother, Bruce and Pam Greve of Overland Park, Kan.; and her brother, Bryan (Karlyn) of Lawrence, Kan. Brenda also deeply loved Mark’s children, Amanda, Mike, Morgan and Kayla. Brenda is also survived by a lifetime collection of loyal, loving friends who will think of her any time there is a good band playing, a room of people dancing or a rollicking game of bingo underway. While her presence will be painfully missed, those who loved her know there are enough good (and bad) Brenda stories to provide a lifetime of raucous laughter. Brenda’s family and friends would like to acknowledge and thank the Agrace staff for their tender care as well as for providing Brenda a perfect “party room” where she could experience a week’s worth of love and laughs with “her people.” A celebration of Brenda’s life will be held on her 60th birthday: Thursday, July 29, 2021, at STEWART COUNTY PARK, 3106 County Highway JG, Mount Horeb. A remembrance time will be held at 4 p.m. with Brenda’s pre-ordered funeral sandwiches and fellowship to follow until 7 p.m. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com. Gunderson Camacho Mount Horeb Funeral & Cremation Care 500 N. Eighth St. (608) 437-5077