Raetta (Rae) Marie McCleery, age 75, of Bowling Green, passed away September 30, 2009 at the Maple Grove Lodge in Louisiana.  Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday at the Mudd-Veach Funeral Home in Bowling Green, with the Rev. Gary Green officiating.  Burial will be in the Ashley Fairview Cemetery.  Visitation will be held from 4pm until 7 pm on Friday at the funeral home.

She was born April 8, 1934 on the family farm near Milan, IL, the daughter of Raymond John and Carrie Clara Coyne Muhleman.  She attended a one room country grade school, Sherrard High School and graduated from Orion High School in 1952.  IN 1956 she graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. 

She moved to Quincy, IL where she was employed in the newsroom of The Quincy Herald Whig, serving as state editor, home section editor and created the television section.  In 1975, she married C.T. “Bud” McCleery and moved to Ashley, MO where she spent 25 years working in the Bowling Green R-1 School District as a substitute teacher.  She was a member of Alpha Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star in Quincy, IL.  Additionally, she was a board member of the Ashley Fairview Cemetery. 

Survivors include her daughter, Carrie Freeman and husband Kevin of Mexico; son Tom McCleery and wife Carissa of Ferguson; three grandsons Thomas, Spencer and Caden Freeman; granddaughter Raegan McCleery; sister Evelyn Fullmer of Milan, IL.  She was preceded in death by her husband. 

Serving as pallbearers will be Terry Fuerst, Jason Hakenwerth, Jim Hakenwerth, Darrin Fanning, Jeremy Gilbert, Irvin Fuerst and Jeff Trower.

Memorials may be made to the Ashley Fairview Cemetery and the Pike County Hospice.