Alita Anne McCleskey

Anne was born in Rawlins, Wyoming to Vera and Tom Campbell and looked up to her loving sister, Ginny. Her friends and family called her Dotsie growing up. Anne was a social butterfly from a young age and continued to be one throughout her life. She was a drummer in the University of Wyoming marching band and pledged Pi Beta Phi where she made lifelong friends.

Anne and Mike were delivered by the same doctor in Rawlins, and their romance finally developed while students at the University of Wyoming marrying their senior year. Oregon’s medical school brought them to Portland where Anne taught at Northwest College of Business. They also welcomed two children there, Tom and Michelle.

After Mike completed his studies, they moved to Minneapolis for a surgical internship after which the navy gave them five more years of world travel and numerous friendships. The family’s love of Oregon drew them back, and Tigard became their home. Anne and Mike worked together in the family medicine clinic for two years, and then Anne moved back to teaching at the business school until its permanent closure. While building their dream home, Anne became enamored with home building and worked in this industry at Blazer Homes for eight years. The couple’s love for wine and European vineyards prompted them to plant Horseleap Vineyard and craft wine as McCleskey Cellars.

Finally, after 34 years of medicine, the couple fully retired and focused again on world travel. Their passion for travel was exhilarating, but it was cut short after ten years when a global pandemic and Anne’s ruptured mitral valve changed their lives. Anne successfully survived valve replacement, but severe heart failure limited her activity. Despite this, Anne still brought laughter, kindness and joy to all who knew her.

Her great physical beauty could not compare to her internal beauty. Complications from heart failure ultimately took Anne too soon, but she leaves a legacy of love in her children and grandchildren: Michael, Daniel, Allie, Frankie, Ryan, and Jasmine. She was also blessed to have four great grandchildren: Julia, Arlan, Emmaus, and Lucy. Anne also loved her nieces, Cathy and Sandi, and her children’s spouses, Jamie and Randy, as her own children.

Anne will be remembered for her intense compassion, love for crafting, passion for travel, and joy of the bridge table. She will be missed greatly by her husband of 55 years, her family, and her many friends.