Madonna Marie Mcatee

Madonna Marie McAtee from Cheyenne Wyoming, passed away February 13, 2023 at the age of 92 after a long battle with dementia.

Madonna was born in Harlan, Iowa on January 28, 1931 in the middle of the Dust Bowl and the beginning of the Great Depression to Lee, a farmer, and his wife Margaret Koppold. She had two sisters, an older sister named Virginia, and a younger sister named Alice. She said she was unaware that she was growing up in difficult times because she always had food on the table and a home.

She graduated from Harlan High School in 1949. At first she was a bookkeeper at Squealer’s Feed. Her boss told her parents she was there at exactly the same time every day–five minutes late. A trait that must be genetic because she passed it onto quite a few of her children and grandchildren. Then she moved to Omaha, Nebraska where her cousins and sister, Virginia lived. She worked as a secretary at Wagner Electric. She said she had a dream that she walked into the office at Wagner Electric the night before the interview and it looked exactly as she had dreamed it. It was in Omaha on a double blind date with her sister Virginia that Donna met her husband Robert (Bob) McAtee, a handsome military man from Kansas who looked like Elvis.

She married him when she was 21 years-old in 1952, and ten months later they had a daughter they named Jeanne Marie. In 1955 they had Jackie Ann. They lived in Omaha for a few years before moving to Biloxi, Mississippi, then moved not long before Hurricane Camille destroyed the apartment complex they had lived in. Madonna experienced being a single mom for a year in Harlan while Bob went to school for computer programming. After that they moved to Montgomery, Minnesota and in 1961 they had their third child, Kathleen Cecile. Then they moved to Bellevue, Nebraska next to Offutt Air Force Base and Bob worked for Rosen Novak. Sometimes at night they would warm up a plane on the base ( the planes could be seen from the house) and the noise was so loud the neighbors would all come outside and the girls would scream and sing as loud as they could because they knew no one could hear them. Two years later they moved to Fort Collins where they had their son, Richard Charles in 1968 . Next they moved to Denver, and then four years later, in 1973, they moved to Cheyenne where Bob worked repairing planes for the National Guard on the FE Warren Air Force Base.

Madonna hated moving. She made friends in every town and then had to leave them behind, but she was great at making new friends as soon as she arrived at the next town. She was very accepting of all people. The only thing she never liked was a liar, and she could detect one in a matter of minutes. She was great at sizing up a person’s character and she was usually right. She always spoke her mind and told everyone what she believed to be true. Sometimes she shocked people with her candor, but it was a trait she passed on to her children (for better or for worse.) She also loved to laugh and had a great sense of humor, often asking to hear funny stories many times over and laughing at them each time.

So in addition to moving every few years, Madonna raised four children in an era where being a housewife was her only option. She often complained about her lot, claiming marriage was a trap, but she never failed to have a hot meal on the table three times a day and loved, watched, and worried about all four of her children the rest of her life. She was a great cook and was especially good at cookies, cakes, and pies, sour cherry being the best.

She was a great listener and advice giver. People loved to tell her their stories and she loved to hear them and tell hers, especially if they were funny.

Madonna had a beautiful singing voice, but her kids were the only ones that were privileged enough to hear her singing, usually from the laundry room or the kitchen. She sang in the choir at Harlan High School, but one day the choir teacher heard her voice and asked her to sing a solo. She said she opened her mouth to sing, but nothing came out, so she kept her talent a secret. She loved musicals and Barbara Streisand. She passed on the love of music to her children.

She also loved to dance, especially the jitterbug. When she was a young woman in Harlan she loved to go out and listen to the Big Bands that came to her area. She loved Tony Bennett, claiming she had seen him on a class trip to Canada in high school before he got big. One night she complained to her sister Alice about a guy she had danced with. She said, “He pumped my arm so hard I thought he was going to get water out of me! “

In 1980, Bob tragically died of an unexplained liver disease. It was sudden, and left Madonna in shock and raising a young son on her own–her daughters having already left home. She never married again, saying, “I’ve picked up enough socks for one lifetime.” She was equally tired of moving and was content to live out the rest of her life in Cheyenne. She survived the tornado of 1979 as well as the flood of 1985.

She made trips to the Cayman Islands, Hawaii, San Diego, Deadwood South Dakota, Yellowstone, Disneyland, and regularly went back to Iowa to see her sister Alice, and her other relatives.

Madonna was proud of her children’s achievements. All of them went to college.Jeanne got a degree in Spanish and became and ESL teacher, Jackie became an interpreter for the deaf, Kathy became a teacher and Richard followed in his father’s footsteps by working on computers.

In her mid 80s, Madonna got stage four lung cancer, she was a smoker for 65 years, and miraculously survived it with just radiation. Then in her late 80s dementia set in. In the last 2 years she was taken care of by the good people of Home Instead, and Encore Health. She received in-home hospice care this past half year. She suffered from heart afib as well. Everyone kept thinking each month and then each week was her last, but she persisted, defying all odds. Even with dementia, she kept her sense of humor and was much loved by her caretakers. Richard lived with her and the family was grateful that she would be able to pass away at her home. She finally took her last breath in the early morning hours on Feb. 13, 2023, leaving behind a lot of broken hearts after a life well-lived and well-loved. She is survived by her children, Kathy Briggs, Jackie Morgan (and her husband Lonnie) Jeanne McAtee and Richard McAtee, her sister Alice Varley, and her three grandchildren, Danny and Nick Morgan, and Joey Briggs.

There will be a viewing at Wiederspahn-Radomsky for Madonna tomorrow, Thursday February 16, from 2:00-4:00. The Funeral service will be held on Friday at 3:00 p.m. in the Rugged Cross Chapel at the Cheyenne Memorial Cemetery located at 4701 Christensen Road. Please send any flowers or letters of Condolence to 4745 Windmill Rd, Cheyenne, WY 82009, or bring them to one of the services.

Following the service we welcome everyone to join us at one of Donna’s favorite places to eat: The IHop on 1938 Dell Range Blvd, and have a pancake stack in her memory.