Therese Greenhalgh: A whirlwind life

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BY ROD STETZERrstetzer@chippewa.com
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 12:03 PM CDT

It seemed as though Therese Greenhalgh would never stop. That energy came naturally to someone from a family of 18 siblings.

"She was a very busy woman," said Amber Linhart of Eagleton, one of Therese Greenhalgh's three daughters, including Amanda Greenhalgh of Chippewa Falls and Natel Greenhalgh of Minnesota.

The 51-year-old kept close tabs on the lives of her daughters, accompanied her husband, Doug, on his many trips as co-director of the Chippewa Falls Marching Band, and worked 11 years as a programmer-analyst for Chippewa County's information systems department.

She also had a knack for making home improvements.

"She loved working on the house," Linhart said. "She could take an old chair and refinish it and make it brand new."

But she was no homebody. On summer weekends, she zipped around the countryside with her husband on a gray, 2003 Gold Wing motorcycle that has some lovely doves airbrushed on it.

"They rode from the time Doug got out of school until Doug had to go back (teaching)," chuckled Sandi Kindiachi, co-senior district director for the Wisconsin Wings-Gold Wing Road Riders Association. (A Gold Wing is a top-of-the-line Honda motorcycle.) Together, the couple founded and led one of the group's chapters.

Therese Greenhalgh did slow down, however, for her six grandchildren. And she loved doing things with one of Amanda's children, Morgan, a smart and active 11-year-old.

Morgan, a sixth grader at Chippewa Falls Middle School, took after her grandfather, participating in the school's drum line and orchestra. "She was very involved with basketball. She loved soccer," Linhart said.

On early Sunday morning, Morgan was with her grandparents on a bus returning from the marching band's performance in Whitewater. They were among five people killed when the bus they were in collided with a jackknifed truck that covered both lanes of Interstate 94 near Osseo.

Struggling start for 'G'

Therese Nellessen was born in Woodstock, Ill., but graduated from Wisconsin's Wittenburg-Birnamwood High School in 1972. She married Doug Greenhalgh in 1978 in Stevens Point, where he went to college. They lived in Stevens Point, moved to Superior where Doug got his degree in music education from UW-Superior before finally moving to Chippewa Falls in 1983.

Linhart said as a young couple in college, her parents struggled. But they kept working at it and bettered their lives.

Therese earned a degree in computer programming from Chippewa Valley Technical College, and was hired in April 1994 by Chippewa County. And she was honored by the county last year for a decade of service.

That was her job.

Her love was her family.

"She was a great supporter of her husband. I saw so much love and mutual respect," said Kristen Brown, past president of the Chippewa Falls Music Association. Brown was a chaperone on six or seven marching band trips with the Greenhalghs.

Doug Greenhalgh was good at his job. He earned the respect of his students, who swarmed over him. For years he was simply known by some of his students as "G."

"I think it's because Greenhalgh was maybe too hard to spell," Linhart said.

Quite an artist

Morgan accompanied the Greenhalghs on many of the marching band's trips. "Sometimes, she added her little artwork," Brown said.

The chaperones would pack sack lunches for the trips. One time, Morgan and a friend began to draw pictures on the paper bags. Brown said eventually the chaperones joined in with their own artistry.

Morgan was very smart, Linhart said. As a young girl Linhart and her sisters would try to spell out words that they didn't want Morgan to know.

It didn't work. She already knew the words.

Another time when she was very young, her grandfather had a friend visit. The friend was blind, a condition that very young children may have trouble understanding. But Linhart said Morgan knew that she needed to grasp's the hand of the visitor to help him get around a different surrounding.

She loved the marching band, and that figured in her making an unusual request one Christmas.

"She said, 'I want a drum major for Christmas,'" Linhart said.

Well, how do you get a drum major for a little girl? It turned out she liked drums and called them drum majors. Once the confusion was cleared, Morgan received a drum set as a gift.

And Morgan loved taking a ride on a certain family two-wheeled vehicle.

"She just loved going on a motorcycle ride with my dad," Linhart said.

Sandi Kindiachi got to meet Morgan during Gold Wing outings.

"She was a sweetie," she recalled, adding Morgan was the apple of Therese's eye.

Zoom, zoom

It started with a question.

"They called us and said, 'What chapter do we belong to?'" Kindiachi said. The Greenhalghs were told the Gold Wing Club didn't have a chapter in their part of Wisconsin. So they started one on Feb. 14, 2000.

The chapter now has 50 members coming from Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Rice Lake, Spooner and Cumberland.

Kindiachi said the couple drove on a motorcycle to New York and many, many other places. Like other riders of Gold Wings, Kindiachi said Therese often took naps while holding onto Doug as he drove on long trips.

"It was something they could do together," she said of the motorcycle rides.

Last year, at the group's convention at the Telemark Resort in Cable, Doug put on a skit that, of course, revolved around a band. Kindiachi's role was of a drum major, one that Morgan may have loved to have.

Kindiachi said the Greenhalghs coordinated the group's motorcycle awareness program. They did a lot to improve motorcycle safety, she said.

Kindiachi enjoyed Therese's sense of humor and another trait she developed as a loving mother and grandmother.

"Her smile. She could always warm somebody's heart. She was always there for you," she said.

Reach Rod Stetzer at rstetzer@chippewa.com.