Doris Jean Mayer, age 89 of Prior Lake, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, December 6, 2017. Visitation is Friday, December 8, 2017, from 4:00 to 7:00 pm at Ballard Sunder Funeral home in Prior Lake. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Saturday, December 9, 2017, at 12:00 pm with visitation one hour prior, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 16311 Duluth Avenue SE, Prior Lake. Father Tom Walker will preside. Pall bearers will be Doris’ 7 grandchildren. Doris will be laid to rest at St. Michael Catholic Cemetery.
Doris and Jerry Mayer raised their 9 children in Prior Lake and were faithful and active members of St. Michael Church. Doris lived a life of faith and volunteered many hours at the Saint Francis Retreat Center caring for elderly and infirm clergy. Doris earned her nursing degree at St. Katherine’s College in St. Paul, MN where she roomed with Mary Jo Mayer the sister of her future husband. Doris and Jerry were married November 24, 1951, and were married for 37 years before his untimely death. After working as a nurse at Methodist Hospital in Minneapolis for almost a decade, she focused on raising her children.
Doris was an amazing hostess. Anyone arriving at the Mayer household was greeted with home-baked bread, caramel rolls, cookies or her famous apple pie. She enjoyed old-fashioned visiting with a cup of coffee around the kitchen table, and when no visitors were around she watched the myriad of birds outside her window. Once children were old enough, Doris was very successful as an Avon Lady, eventually reaching the President’s Club level. It paid for an entire new set of living room furniture!
Doris’ kind, caring, patient, forgiving, tolerant and prayerful qualities stemmed from a simple life growing up on a farm in Pine City, MN with parents John and Mildred Hady, her brothers and sister and a large extended family. At one point, more than 15 people lived in a small, woodstove heated farmhouse. This may account for Doris’ wonderfully dry sense of humor!
Wherever she was Doris made lasting friendships. She will be dearly missed by all. The Mayer family extend heartfelt thanks to the staff at Auburn Manor, who lovingly cared for her and who were her friends.
Left to honor Doris’ life are her children, Anne Bailey, Mary (Sookdeo, “Sam”) Anomalay, Patrick “Stretch” Mayer, Jim (Nancy White) Mayer, John Mayer, Amy (Andrew) Thalacker, Carol (David Johnston) Mayer, Anthony (Nancy) Mayer; 7 grandchildren; 9 great-grandchildren; siblings Mary Winter and Mike (Nancy) Hady and many other loving relatives and friends.
Doris is preceded in death by Husband Jennings “Jerry” Mayer; son Thomas Mayer; brother Kenneth (Sharon) Hady and parents John and Mildred Hady.
