Jean McLeod McCaughey died peacefully on June 21, 2015 surrounded by her loving family. Jean was born on April 8th, 1940 to Robert and Ethel McLeod and was the younger of two daughters. She attended St. Mary’s Elementary School and graduated from Girl’s Butte Central in 1958.
Jean married her high school sweetheart, Ralph McCaughey, in which they celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary just this past week. Jean and Ralph were blessed with five beautiful children, who were her pride and joy. Jean managed The Montana Legal Services for over 25 years where she made many lifelong friendships with her clients.
Jean loved spending time with her family on the Big Hole River, Flathead Lake, and most of all spending quality time with her children and grandchildren cooking in her kitchen, especially making povitica during the holiday season. Jean personally taught each of her children to swim while on summer family vacations at Medicine Hot Springs.
Jean enjoyed and followed all of her children and grandchildren’s sporting and scholastic events. Jean had a unique and special one-on-one relationship with each of her grandchildren. Jean had a tremendous amount of special and loyal friends in Butte through her club and her lifelong friendships with her school best friends.
Jean was preceded in death by her sister Ethel, father Robert, and mother Ethel. Jean is survived by her husband Ralph and sister and brother in law Sharon and Jim Hanley. She is survived by sons Kevin McCaughey (Kim), Mike McCaughey (Julie), Paul McCaughey (Andi), and daughters Patti Driscoll (Joe) and Shauna Schrapps. Jean is survived by her thirteen grandchildren; two great grandchildren, and one great grandchild on the way. The grandchildren are Krysee, Marcus, Katie, Megan, Robbie, Chelsey, Kelly, Stephanie, Matthew, Reilly, Ethan, Cody and Zach.
Jean’s love, loyalty and friendship will be missed tremendously by her friends and family. Nana, dance your heart out in heaven and watch over us all until we meet again.
Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated on Wednesday, June 23rd at 11:00am at St. Ann’s Catholic Church, with visitation starting at 10:00am and a reception to follow. Donations may be made to the Butte Central Catholic Community or to the Butte Food Bank.
