Carol McLeester

McLeester, Carol G. MADISON - Carol G. Behling McLeester, age 85, died peacefully at home on Tuesday, March 20, 2007, after a brief, unexpected illness. She was born on Dec. 15, 1921, in Amery, the daughter of George and Laura (Delaney) Behling. Carol graduated from Amery High School in 1939, and completed the two year rural education course at River Falls Teachers College in 1941. She taught in one room rural schools in St. Croix County for two years, then enrolled in a six month emergency management wartime training course at University of Missouri, College of Electrical Engineering, followed by six months work at Wright Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Carol enlisted in the Womens Army Corps, June 1944, had basic training at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa, and was assigned to Arlington Hall, Va., where she served in the Army Signal Corps as an electronic cryptographic repairman. Discharged in June 1946, she worked for one more year as a cryptographic clerk, enjoying Washington, D.C. in her free time. Carol received her B.S. degree in home economics from the University of Minnesota in Dec. 1949, married Robert Charles McLeester in June, 1949, and spent the next 18 years as a stay-at-home-mother in Plymouth and Wayzata Minn., before moving to Madison in Nov. 1967. She worked as a research specialist at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research for 20 years, meanwhile developing a passion for genealogy which she has actively pursued since 1979, and devoted much of her time to after she retired. She traced her own lines back to British royalty. She joined the DAR in 1983 and has served the Governor Nelson Dewey Chapter as treasurer, regent, registrar, and genealogic records chair. She was Wisconsin DAR lineage research chairman for 13 years and has helped many women join. A proud member of United Womens Veterans, she was also a member of the Wisconsin Society of Mayflower Descendents, with lineage from Francis Cooke and Richard Warren. In August of 2003, she traveled to Ireland and England, including a stop in Plymouth, England to see the site where the Mayflower set sail. She also loved growing flowers and vegetables, visiting and being visited by her children, grandchildren, relatives and many friends, and helping and giving to others. Always generous, she was also proud of being thrifty. Carol is survived by her four children, Dick McLeester of Greenfield, Mass., Bruce (Christie) McLeester of Santa Rosa, Calif., and their children Mara and Beth, Grant (Jenny Williams) McLeester of Madison and their children Madeline and Beatrice, and Ella (Rob Meyer) McLeester of Madison; nieces, Ann Schmidlin (Steve Dickman) Delaney of Tampa, Fla. and Susanna Behling of Colorado; nephew, Thomas Behling; and stepson, Bob (Debra Wendt) Bacon, of Blaine, Minn. She was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Marion Behling Schmidlin; and former husband, Bob McLeester. The status of her brother, Jim Behling, Caracas, Venezuela, is assumed deceased. Funeral services will be held at GUNDERSON FUNERAL HOME, 7435 University Ave, Middleton, on Saturday, March 31, 2007, at 2 p.m. Visitation starting at 12:30 will precede the service. Burial will be the following Monday, April 2, 2007, at the Veterans Cemetery in Union Grove. Flowers are welcome. Alternately, donations to Governor Nelson Dewey Chapter of DAR, in Carols honor, toward the Fort Winnebago surgeons quarters restoration, would be greatly appreciated.