MADISON - Doris Jean Cleary, age 87, passed away at home on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. She was born on March 19, 1937, to Charles and Carrie (Burke) Hoppenjan.

Jean attended a one-room schoolhouse with her older siblings, just down the road from the family farm, before attending Cuba City High School where she graduated as valedictorian of her class in 1955. Her religious education was at St. Peter’s Catholic Church across from the farm. She worked for American Family Insurance in Madison in the 1960s and early 1970s before moving with her family back to Cuba City where she and her former husband, Joseph LaRue, owned and operated the Corner Bar with her sister and brother-in-law, Florny and Harry Segerstrom. In the mid-1980s, Jean moved back to Madison where she met Terrance Cleary, and they married in 1985. She worked first for the Department of Public Instruction and then the Department of Revenue, from where she retired in 2002.

You could find Jean at Home Talent baseball games, cheering on the Packers and watching Badgers basketball and football games. She also enjoyed watching NASCAR, doing crossword puzzles and reading a good book.

Jean is survived her husband, Terry; her children, Mike (Denise) LaRue, Leonard LaRue, Kathy (Todd) Erstad and LeRoy Cleary; grandchildren, Shane (Cassandra) LaRue, Dustin (Jennifer) LaRue, Heather (Mike) Steuerwald, Ben (Danielle) LaRue, Kristina (Jason) Kessler and Samantha (Tim) Ornes; and great-grandchildren, Elise, Cate, Wyatt, Parker, Mykaela, Charlotte, Kennedy, Olive, Alaina, Abigail, Jillian, Natalie, Josie and Lena. Jean is further survived by her sisters and brothers-in-law, Dick Sorensen, Renee Hoppenjan, Mike (Sue) Cleary, Dennis (Darlene) Cleary, Patricia Hefty, Mary Latchford, Jim Cleary and Marlene Cleary.

Jean was preceded in death by her parents; siblings, Eileen (Jerome) Simon, Ann Marie (Guerdon) Riechers, Harry (Pat Burke) Hoppenjan, Charles (Esther) Hoppenjan, Florence (Harry) Segerstrom, Richard (Joyce) Hoppenjan, Mary M. Sorensen, Joyce Hoppenjan and Robert Hoppenjan; granddaughter, Jennifer Dietzel, and in-laws, Maurice and Marjorie Cleary, Lawrence Hefty and John Latchford.

Mom is with her siblings once again. They had a truly remarkable relationship, and she has missed them as they each went before her.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at ST. THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, 602 Everglade Drive, Madison, at 11 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, with Father Brian Wilk presiding. Burial will take place at Sunset Memory Gardens. Visitation will be held at the church from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the Mass on Friday.

Thank you to the caregivers from Agrace HospiceCare for their loving and dignified care of Jean these last few weeks.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to WayForward Resources (formerly Middleton Outreach Ministries) where Jean volunteered for many years. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson West
Funeral & Cremation Care
7435 University Ave.
(608) 831-6761

Doris Jean Cleary

March 19, 1937 - September 13, 2024

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