Doris Jean Leavens

Doris was born on a farm outside the village of Sherrodsville, OH, to Richard Doral and Lorena (Romig) McCartney on January 20, 1932. Growing up in a country setting, until moving to Canton during her 7th grade year, left her with a love for rural areas.

She fondly remembered her father playing the guitar and singing in the evenings, her mother working in her large vegetable garden, Sunday dinners with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and Sunday drives, loading the whole family in the old Model T. Their happy life shattered when her mother died unexpectedly in Doris’s ninth year, leaving her father to raise four children alone. Extended family members worked hard to help fill in where needed, and her father remarried to Helen Renicker two years later.

In high school, Doris struggled with being shy. She started taking speech classes and joined the debate club to try to grow in areas that were difficult for her. She was not naturally gifted at academics, feeling she had to work harder and longer than many, but she applied herself, graduating as Valedictorian of her class.

Doris attended Bowling Green State University with a speech scholarship. She dated, fell in love, and was proposed to in her freshman year, but she had worked so hard to get to college, and felt so strongly about graduating, that she said she would marry him in three years. He found someone else. #FirstLoveFreshmanHeartacheDetermination

After graduating with a degree in Education, Doris taught at Bay Village High School, on Lake Erie. She taught English, Public Speaking, and Drama, as well as directing school plays. She looked young enough that it was said that people would look into her classroom and wonder where the teacher was. One of her students, Jeanette Leavens, impressed with her teacher (and her fashion sense), set about trying to set her up with her older brother Roland “Lefty” Leavens.

It took several tries but they eventually started dating. At school, fellow teachers (who had taught Lefty in high school) regaled her with stories of what an exemplary student and athlete he had been. They spent the summer rock climbing together, often climbing at Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, where he gave her his Dartmouth Pin. They were married at the top of Seneca Rocks, August 28, 1955, even finding a climbing preacher to marry them. (This was the day after they were married in Bay Village Methodist Church, legal issues having complicated the marriage license of Ohio residents in West Virginia.)

Both worked for a time saving money, then they embarked on a low-budget grand adventure, traveling through Europe for nine months via motor scooter and thumb, camping at farms or staying at youth hostels. They climbed Mt. Blanc as well as hiking and climbing throughout Europe. Doris enjoyed experiencing so many countries, cultures, foods, loved the natural beauty, and was in awe of the art in Florence, Italy, as well as other areas in Europe.

When asked if she really liked climbing mountains, Doris said, “I love the beauty, and have enough fighting Irish in me to make it to the top!” After arriving back on the East Coast of the United States, they traveled via VW bus to the Pacific Northwest. On the way, they climbed the highest peak in each state they crossed.

The couple eventually settled in beautiful Hood River, Oregon, for eighteen years, where they added six children to their family. Activities there centered on hiking, climbing and skiing Mt. Hood, as well as sailing and swimming in the Columbia River. Doris gave up teaching to raise their children (not an easy job with their rambunctious crew). She never regretted it. She considered her posterity her greatest accomplishment in life.

In 1966, the family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Doris served faithfully in many teaching and leadership callings over the years. She and Lefty served a Mission in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission from 2009-2011. One of her favorite things was doing summer Girls Camp for Young Women with a dear friend (June Longmire) and laughing long into the night.

Doris inherited a love of gardening from her mother which only grew through the years, as did the size of her vegetable garden, flower gardens, rose garden, assortment of fruit trees etc., particularly after moving to Selah, Washington, in 1976. She also spent summers and falls canning to preserve fruits and vegetables (and pressing her kids into helping). She eventually qualified as Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver through the Yakima County Extension.

As the kids started heading off to college, she began taking painting classes with a good friend (Trudy Latham). An unexpected gift blossomed from this that has blessed her family. It was a common occurrence for her to ask Lefty to pull over and get a picture of an old barn, a mountain, a rainbow behind grain silos, so she could paint them later.

It’s safe to say Doris never met a cookbook she didn’t want to coax home to her shelves in the laundry room, nor a pretty piece of fabric. She also delighted in copying recipes wherever she went. While visiting away from home, she was often busy writing. If it wasn’t copying recipes, it was catching up on her incredibly detailed journal entries (which did double duty as letters to her children). Perusing seed and plant catalogs (especially roses) was her guilty pleasure, as was shopping at plant nurseries. She and Lefty also loved to travel and were able to do much more of that as the kids left home, doing major tours in the Holy Land, Mexico, Central, and South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Doris is survived by her children, Wendy Arce of Salmon, ID, Teri Adkins of Williamsburg, VA, Tami Hesselgesser (Todd) of Selah, WA, Kara Hanna (James) of Blackfoot, ID, Paul Leavens (Amy) of Snohomish, WA, and Stephen Leavens (Susan) of Pasco, WA, 23 grandchildren, 31 great grandchildren and half sisters Ruth Ann Cice and Debbie Johnston of Canton, OH.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 69 years, their son, Peter Benjamin, sons-in-law Jeffrey Arce and Michael Adkins, grandson Samuel Adkins, her parents, step mother, brothers

Doral “Paul” McCartney, Eugene “Lefty” McCartney, sister Caroline “Susie” Suttle, and half sister Marlene Ward.

Services will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 702 N 1st St, Selah, WA 98942, on Monday, April 13, 2026, viewing at 12:00 pm, Funeral at 1:00 pm. We invite all who desire, to wear flowered ties, clothing, or colors, to the services to celebrate the amazing beauty that Doris created in her gardens and in our lives.