Jean Dolores Wright

Jean Dolores Wright 90, of Hanover Township, passed into life eternal August 10, 2025 surrounded by her loving family. Born May 26, 1935 in Hamilton, Ohio to Zelma Pearl Glardon and raised by her mother and devoted grandparents Grace and Glenn Butterfield. She was a lifelong resident of Butler County. On June 26, 1954, she joined hands and hearts eternally with the “love of her life,” her best friend, Donald Wayne Wright at United Presbyterian Church in Oxford.

She was a 57-year member of Westwood Presbyterian Church where she joyfully devoted her time, her resources and her heart in committed service serving many times as elder and deacon, as a member of the Ruth Esther Circle, the Women’s Association, as hostess of the Church Supper Club and Sunday morning Coffee hour, and provider of communion bread. While in high school, she was chosen to attend and completed vocal coursework at the University of Miami in Oxford. Westwood members fondly remember receiving the gift of her talent and training as she shared her beautiful soprano voice, raising their spirits to a place above the ordinary and into worshipful readiness. She treasured the many precious friendships nurtured in the sacred spaces of Westwood.

Her day always started as a “short order cook” because each of her children had a favorite at breakfast. Then, after a quick trip around the gardens to pull the few weeds that might try to gain the upper hand before she could get to them again after dinnertime, she headed to Fort Hamilton Hospital where she served as Unit Secretary of the Nursery, making sure the littlest of these always received the most loving care. She also served as chair of the area’s Welcome Wagon Committee, extending the hospitality of her home and table outward into her neighborhood, while also making sure newcomers got acquainted with area businesses.

She was given many talents, and found blessings in abundance as she faithfully used what she had, creating talents tenfold. Her children and grandchildren have no further distance than her when searching for a Matthew 25 faithful servant role model. She was an avid gardener, planting more than enough of everything in the vegetable plots and in her many flower beds, ensuring all God’s creatures could share in the abundance and beauty. Her eye for detail and passion for crafting, drawing, sewing, and creating in many mediums, leaves a legacy of treasures that her children and grandchildren will hold as symbols of the limitless possibilities within themselves when they choose to use their talents to expand beauty upon the earth.

She would stay up all night to make sure holidays were magical and meaningful. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without everyone’s favorite pie (even if that meant baking two of 5 different types!) and Easter without Sunrise Service in an outfit Mom made and then an Easter egg hunt on the two acres. Doesn’t everyone’s family rise by the dawn’s early light to find their flag is still there and then share breakfast and the pledge of allegiance with their neighbors? And then there was the perennial Christmas Eve drive with Dad, searching for Santa and Rudolph’s red nose in the night sky only to return home to find he had been where they started out from and left only his sleigh tracks and lots of presents under the tree - the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction to keep believing in things not seen. Thoughtfully woven into all of these moments was her hope that her own abiding faith in Christ would leave the largest imprint of the truest magic – Christ’s gift of His eternal love for them.

In all the places she found restoration, her 65-year love affair with all things Leelanau County, Michigan will continue as a testament to the importance of nurturing a love of place. She always packed more in the boat (after her beloved husband snapped the cover shut for the last time Jean!) because she wanted to make sure she had what she needed so vacation meals were just like her home-cooked ones. She loved fishing and often caught all the fish the boys said “weren’t in the lake.” Her children and grandchildren have joined her in walking their own shoreline journeys, searching for just the right rocks and pieces of driftwood. May they forever sense her presence there as they leave their footprints in the sand.

She was above all honored to be called Mom, a joy of parenthood she shared with her loving husband, Don, who preceded her in death. She is survived by her children Scott Wright (Kim), Kymberly “Kym” Smith (Paul), Michael Wright (Elizabeth), and Donna “DJ” Wright;” grandchildren Adam Wright (Melissa), Emily Healy (Patrick), Meghan Sturni (Peter), Stacey Rake (Mike), Lauren Lee (Dan), Brittany Freeman, and William Wright (Madeline); great grandchildren, Cameron, Kelly Ann and Austin Wright, Ruth, Edith, Hazel and Everett Sturni, Ella, Audrey, and Katherine Rake, Oliver Lee, William Nehemiah and John Matthew Wright. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Judy Wright (William, deceased) and nieces Debbie Baker Spaeth (Dennis), Rachel Wright and nephew Alan Wright.

The family extends a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Erika Brudzinski for her kindness and the loving care she provided for our mother and to our family.

Memorials may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, August 16, 2025 at Ross Community United Methodist Church, 2943 Hamilton Cleves Rd., Hamilton, OH 45013 from 10:00 AM until the time of her Funeral Service at 12:00 Noon. Burial will follow at Darrtown Cemetery.