Sandra Lee McCleary

Sandra Lee Hollis McCleary, age 75, of Jefferson City, died peacefully in her sleep Saturday, April 27, 2013. She was a kind and loving woman who brought happiness into the lives of all who knew her. Born on September 13, 1937, to Lee and Ruth Hollis, nee Reid. Her father, Lee, died when she was a small child and her mother married Harrison Cummins, a professor of engineering at the University of Missouri, who raised her as his own daughter. The family moved to Gainesville, Florida, in her youth and spent summers in the Cummins family home in Wildwood, New Jersey before returning to Columbia, where they lived for many years. She was married to John Rigby McCleary and they had one son, Randolph, before moving to Jefferson City where John had taken a job as a caseworker at the Missouri Department of Corrections. In the early seventies she volunteered as a nursery school teacher at Grace Episcopal church and was active in the Beta Sigma Phi sorority. In 1976 she took a job as an admission's clerk at Charles Still hospital, a job she held until retirement. She is survived by her son and her sister-in-law, Mary McCleary Posner, and brother-in-law, James Northrop, of Latham, New York, and Jamie, Laura, and Kimberly, her nieces and nephew and many great-nieces, nephews and cousins. She is preceded in death by her parents and husband and beloved sister, Betty Lou Northrop. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, May 2, 2013, in Columbia Cemetery The family asks that in lieu of any tribute or flowers a donation be made to any dog rescue organization the giver prefers. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.parkerfuneralservice.com