Doris Allene Church

Doris Church was born on November 6, 1928, at Maple Avenue Hospital in DuBois, Pennsylvania, to loving parents Clifford and Mary Lane. She spent her early years growing up in Pennfield and Upper Darby alongside her beloved sister, Janis.

Her whole life turned on a single evening in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, when she was out on a double date with Janis. That night, her sister was paired with a young man named Harley Halverson, the man Janis would go on to marry. Doris was set up with a fellow lost in this family’s history, because unfortunately for him, that was also the night she met Lorran Church. Shortly after that chance meeting, Doris and Larry married in 1948, and had two children, Wade and Barbara, who they raised in Claymont, Delaware. An entire family flows from a blind date that did not go as planned.

In 1974, Doris and Larry followed Janis and Harley to Wisconsin, where they moved onto a small sheep farm lovingly called “Wooly Acres.” As a ship captain for Sun Oil, Larry spent long stretches away at sea, so for much of the year the farm belonged to Doris and the sheep. Those who were there remember it as a happy time: the animals, the family, and the rural Wisconsin countryside all living in harmony.

Doris was, both literally and symbolically, a shepherd. She loved every part of raising sheep, especially lambing season. That life inspired her three books: Tales from Woolly Acres, a 1992 memoir of her years on the farm, then The Gift to the Animals in 1997 and Rainbow Bridge in 2000. She poured that same devotion into the Girl Scouts. In 1981 she received the Thanks Badge, the organization's highest honor for an adult volunteer.

There was little Doris could not do. She was a gifted painter and an exceptional cook, and in winter she rode with the Hudson, Wisconsin snowmobile club. She and Larry loved to travel, with trips to Alaska, Yellowstone, and a boat journey down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. She was also far tougher than she looked. In 2011, while filling her bird feeder, she fell and broke her neck. Against all odds, the 82-year old Doris recovered and lived another fifteen full and happy years.

Her love of animals never faded and showed itself one last time in the Spring of ‘26, when her home health aide arranged for her to hold a baby lamb again. Decades after she last walked her pasture at Woolly Acres, Doris held a lamb in her arms. She was, to the very end, happiest with one nearby.

Above everything, Doris was a woman of deep faith, and the image that meant most to her was the parable of the Good Shepherd.

Doris is survived by her sister, Janis Halverson; her daughter Barbara O'Gorman; her son Wade Church (Patricia Behounek); her grandchildren Mary Ellen Reihsen (Troy) and Christopher Roan (Claire Mazur); and her great-grandsons Lucas, Cole, and Cameron. She was preceded in death two years ago by Larry, the husband she met on a borrowed date and loved for three-quarters of a century.

At large holiday gatherings, the two would often look across the room at four generations of family, and say with quiet pride, "look at all we've done."

We will miss her more than words can hold, and take comfort in knowing she is home at last, in green pastures with her shepherd and her flock.

Visitation will be held at 11:30 a.m. on June 19, 2026, at Boutwells Landing, 5600 Norwich Pkwy, Oak Park Heights, MN 55082, with a memorial service at 12:30 p.m. followed by a light lunch. Arrangements are by O'Connell Family Funeral Home, Hudson, WI.  For more information or to share a memory, please visit www.oconnellfuneralhomes.com or call 715-386-3725