Mary Ann A. Gehring

Mary Ann A. Gehring (nee Schae­fer), 77, of Hart­ford, passed away peace­fully De­cem­ber 8, 2022, at Angel’s Grace Hos­pice, Oconomowoc, after a brave 15-month bat­tle with brain can­cer.
Mary Ann was born on June 10, 1945, in Hart­ford to Lu­cille Schae­fer (nee Beine) and Nor­man Schae­fer.
She was united in mar­riage to Den­nis J. Gehring on Au­gust 14, 1965, at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Nenno and was a long­time mem­ber of St. Lawrence Catholic Church.
Mary Ann is sur­vived by Den­nis, her lov­ing hus­band of 57 years; and five chil­dren, LeRoy (Anne) Gehring and their chil­dren, Jacob (Molly) Gehring and Thomas (Bobbi) Gehring of Hart­ford, John (Kristin) Gehring and their chil­dren, Han­nah (Kyle) Berlin, Kayla Gehring of Orono, MN, Eu­gene (Chris­tine) Gehring and their chil­dren, Derik, Jor­dan, and Emily Gehring of Hart­ford, Al (Angie) Gehring and their chil­dren, Raechel and Nathan Gehring of Hart­ford, and Sue (Scott) Mudra and their chil­dren, Made­line and Saman­tha Mudra of Hart­ford; great-grand­chil­dren, Kim­berly and Mag­gie Gehring. She is also sur­vived by her three sis­ters and brother, Rita (Daniel) Fel­lenz, Bev­erly Brath, Nor­bert Sonny Schae­fer (spe­cial friend Lynda Di­ener), and Dar­lene Becker; and her sib­lings-in-law, Eileen (Ruben) Gun­drum, Mary (Ken) Gehring; and many nieces and nephews.
She was pre­ceded in death by her par­ents, Nor­man Schae­fer and Lu­cille Schae­fer; her hus­band’s par­ents, John and Celia Gehring and their in­fant daugh­ter, Emily Gehring; and brother-in-law and sis­ter-in-law, Ger­ald and Mary Ann Gehring.
Mary Ann and Den­nis both at­tended Hart­ford High School and met at a polka dance at Le­gion Hall in Theresa, after which they be­came high school sweet­hearts. They dated for three years, and their dates con­sisted of going to dances, often three times per week and to her fa­vorite live music, the Bernie Roberts Band.
After mar­riage, Mary Ann and Den­nis worked side by side on the fam­ily dairy farm for 21 years. Mary Ann bal­anced doing the book­keep­ing for the busi­ness, rais­ing five chil­dren and keep­ing the house­hold spot­less. She loved tend­ing to her flow­ers and can­ning. Mary Ann also qui­etly and self­lessly vis­ited, helped, and cared for ex­tended fam­ily and friends. Often with her young chil­dren in tow, she pro­vided lessons in help­ing oth­ers in need.
After pass­ing the re­spon­si­bil­ity of farm to the next gen­er­a­tion, Mary Ann and Den­nis trav­eled ex­ten­sively to Eu­rope, Hawaii and Mex­ico, and to polka fes­ti­vals in Michi­gan, Ohio, Min­nesota and South Dakota. Mary Ann helped to arrange trans­porta­tion for 44 bus­loads of polka fans to some of these fes­ti­vals, en­list­ing the help of her grand­chil­dren to bake and pack­age home­made cook­ies and treats for each bus. She made travel easy for peo­ple who would oth­er­wise have been un­able to travel by them­selves, and Mary Ann turned many of them into friends across the Mid­west, in­clud­ing one cou­ple who met on a trip and got mar­ried. In re­cent years, Mary Ann en­joyed es­cap­ing the Mid­west cold – spend­ing win­ters in Mesa, Ari­zona.
Mary Ann took great plea­sure in car­ing for her grand­chil­dren and watch­ing them grow up to­gether. They made cook­ies, played cards, baked, and canned. The grand­chil­dren will al­ways re­mem­ber mak­ing enough Christ­mas cook­ies to cover the en­tire fam­ily-sized din­ing table, with Grandma di­rect­ing all of the ac­tiv­ity.
A Mass of Chris­t­ian Bur­ial for Mary Ann will be held Sat­ur­day, Dec. 17, at 12 p.m. at St. Lawrence Catholic Church, 4886 State Road 175, St. Lawrence (Hart­ford), WI 53027, with Rev. Russ Ar­nett of­fi­ci­at­ing.
Fam­ily will greet rel­a­tives and friends at the church on Sat­ur­day from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Com­mit­tal im­me­di­ately fol­low­ing Mass, St. Lawrence Catholic Church Ceme­tery.
Con­tri­bu­tions re­ceived in mem­ory of Mary Ann will ben­e­fit Masses at St. Lawrence Church and/or the Glioblas­toma Foun­da­tion, in care of Den­nis Gehring.
Grat­i­tude is ex­pressed to the team at Au­rora Med­ical Cen­ter Sum­mit and An­gels Grace Hos­pice.
The Shi­mon Fu­neral Home is serv­ing the fam­ily. On­line con­do­lences and trib­utes may be share: www.​shi​monf​uner​alho​me.​com