Dorene Krueger

MONONA-Dorene Krueger, age 101, of Monona, Wis. and Key West, Fla., passed away on Sept. 19, 2017, in Dousman, Wis.  She was born on April 30, 1916, in Randolph, Wis., the daughter of Maude and Edgar Williams.  She married Melvin (Mel) W. Krueger on Aug. 18, 1938, in Randolph, Wis.  Dorene loved the water and was fortunate to live on Lake Monona and go fishing in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico with her beloved husband, Mel, in Key West, Fla. for significant periods of her life.  She was a lifetime volunteer at Meriter Hospital in Madison, where in the Madison General Hospital days she donated O+ blood whenever called upon (day or night) and more recently she knit hundreds of baby caps in Green Bay Packer and Wisconsin Badgers colors.  Dorene was a life-long golfer, and on occasion would describe her first set of hand carved clubs.  She witnessed huge changes in the world from horse drawn sleigh rides in her childhood, stories of her father driving his Model T up the hills backward (because he never kept the gas tank very full), raising her family in the midst of World War II, hosting her children's school class to watch an early Apollo space program event (on one of the first black and white TVs in the community), the birth of computers (including an early pc built by her husband), and over a decade of the new millennium.  Dorene was a life-long learner and never hesitated to call upon experts at the University of Wisconsin to help her identify a plant or tree.  For many years she attended Professor Leckrone's big band class and he would call upon her to describe her experiences of seeing and listening to some of the bands he was describing live and in-person, for his young students.  She is survived by her three children, Paul Krueger, Jeanne Lunde (Vern) and Shirley Klauser (Jim); seven grandchildren, Pam Krueger, Patti Epstein (Larry), Kern Lunde (Dawna), Ken Lunde (Hitomi), Kitrin Crane (Jim), D.J. Klauser (Connie) and Jamie Klauser; ten great-grandchildren; and two great-great grandsons.  She was preceded in death by her husband Mel; her daughter-in-law, Pat Krueger; and her son-in-law, David Whitehorse.  Memorial services will be held at GUNDERSON EAST FUNERAL AND CREMATION CARE, 5203 Monona Dr., Madison, at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, with the Rev. Sam Starnes and Army Chaplain Doug Hedman presiding.  Burial will be at Roselawn Memorial Park.  Visitation will be held at the funeral home from 11:30 a.m. until the time of the service on Thursday. The family requests memorials in Dorene’s name instead of flowers.