Visitation for Dawn Brancheau, the trainer at SeaWorld Orlando who was killed by a killer whale during a performance Wednesday, is this afternoon on Chicago's South Side.
The visitation is 3 to 9 p.m. today at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, 7740 S. Western Ave., Chicago. Funeral mass is 11 a.m. Monday at the same location. She will be buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip.
Brancheau, 40, whose maiden name was LoVerde, grew up in Cedar Lake, Ind., about 47 miles south of downtown Chicago in northwest Indiana. She was a 1987 graduate of Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind., and later graduated from the University of South Carolina.
She took a job at SeaWorld in February 1994 and met her future husband, Scott Brancheau, there before the two were married in 1996 in Chicago.
Working at SeaWorld was a dream job for Brancheau, who was inspired by a Shamu show she had seen as a child. "When she landed the job at Sea World, it was the happiest day of her life," her sister, Diane Gross of Schererville, Ind., told the Gary Post-Tribune.
A memorial service will be held in Orlando at a future date.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Dawn Brancheau Memorial Fund, c/o US Bank, P.O. Box 809231, Chicago 60680-9231. The complete obituary is here.
-- Staff report
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