Benefit Feb. 20 to help Cleary family,
IVCC graduate loses battle to cancer
A benefit to help the family of IVCC graduate Debra (Hansen) Cleary with medical bills is scheduled for Feb. 20 at the Elk’s Lodge in Oglesby.
Cleary died Feb. 15, 1999.
Cleary, an R.N. at Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru, was battling breast cancer.
Carole Caresio Haas, retired director of nursing at IVCC, said the family has amassed huge medical bills in the process that included two bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy.
Services will be at 9 a.m. Feb. 19 in the Hurst Funeral Home, LaSalle with a Mass at 9:30 a.m. in St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Peru.
Burial will be in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, Webster Park
She is survived by her husband, Dick, a son, Christopher, a senior at L-P High School, a daughter, Amy, both at home; her parents, two sisters and a brother.
A graduate of L-P High School, Cleary was originally from Oglesby. Before entering the nursing program at IVCC, she worked at the Personality Frock Shop in Oglesby.
Haas described Cleary in her student nurse days as "a very dynamic, very positive student, very happy, a creative person. She was really a hard worker and always had a smile on her face."
She added: "She was always thinking of other people."
Nurse instructor Pam Mammano agreed saying, "Your could always depend on her; you could ask her to do something and she would do it."
Cleary was the vice president of the Student Nurse Association which Mammano advises.
Haas said the benefit would include live music and a dinner to be served at 5 p.m. Doors will open at 4 p.m.
Tickets will be available at the door. Further information and tickets are also available on campus from Mammano in B-220, from Deb Caresio at 224-1482, ext. 615 and at 223-8134 and 883-3283.
2/18/99 the Apache