The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Mary Alice “Mickey” Duehren passed into eternal life on April 21, Easter Sunday, at the age of 83, from the consequences of vascular dementia.

She lived in Sisters for 33 years, most of that time with her husband, “Bill” (William Henry Duehren, Jr.), who pre-deceased her in 2013. They owned and operated Sisters Decorating from 1986 to 1997 when they retired. An active member of her community, Mickey volunteered with many civic, charitable, and church communities in the town.

Born in Milwaukee, WI, on July 12, 1935, Mickey was the oldest of two children of Andrew George and Helen (Klawiter) Dillett. She grew up in Milwaukee during the latter half of the Great Depression and WWII. She wrote in her family memoir, that “our milk was delivered by a milkman” and horse named Sandy. As a girl, she enjoyed penny candy and 12-cent Sunday matinees at the movies, as well as summers spent in Eau Claire with her cousins.

Mickey attended St. Michael’s Catholic grade school and graduated third in her class at St. John Cathedral High School in Milwaukee, where she was also elected to the National Honor Society and the Court of Honor for Senior Homecoming. She played the female lead in the senior class play and served as an editor of the school yearbook. A spirited and sociable red-head, she had many friends. She admitted she liked boys too much to attend the women’s colleges where she’d earned scholarships and chose instead to go to work in a dean’s office at Marquette University.

It was a “dream” job for her, allowing her to lead the life of a co-ed, but without studies and exams. She enjoyed going to mixers, football and basketball games, and auditing evening courses. She met her husband, Bill, a mechanical engineer, at Marquette.

Mickey had three sons and spent many years as a homemaker and Cub Scout den mother. Bill’s career led them to move many times. They lived in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Tigard, OR, before settling and living longest in Sisters. The seven houses they owned honed Mickey’s interior decorating skills, and when they moved to Tigard, she began working for an interior design company. It was this talent that led them to buy Sisters/Lutton’s Decorating Center in 1986.

Mickey was outgoing, vivacious and charming. She loved parties and potlucks. Known as the “mother superior” of the Sisters Hiking Group, she was an avid and active outdoors woman. Even as she neared the age of 80, Mickey could still hike seven miles or spend an afternoon skiing. She enjoyed traveling and maintained a lifelong passion for gardening. She kept a beautiful garden at her home on Camp Polk Road and belonged to the Sisters Garden Club. She served as a long-time volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and faithful parishioner at St. Edward the Martyr Catholic Church.

Mickey is survived by her sister, Patty Kinnee, in Wisconsin; as well as her three sons and three grandchildren: David and his wife, Anne, and their children (Hannah, Andrew, and Sarah) of Needham, Mass.; Dennis of Montpelier, Idaho; Derrick and his wife, Jeannine, of Scappoose, Oregon.

Mickey’s life will be celebrated in a rite of Christian burial at St. Edward the Martyr’s Catholic Church in Sisters on Saturday, June 29 at 9 a.m. A reception will follow the burial at 10:30. Donations in her memory can be made to Deschutes Land Trust.