Mona Chapman Obituary

Mona Carole Chapman

July 7, 1937 - July 25, 2025

Mona Carole Chapman, born 7 July 1937 in Indiana, Pennsylvania to Eugene and Laura Chapman, left behind the living on July 25, 2025. She was the mother of Lara Elizabeth Brown and Thad Chapman Brown; sister of Iris DeBastiani; aunt of Jeffery DeBastiani, Allison DeBastiani, and Kimberly Laatsch; and great aunt of Jon, Jessie, Jack, and Emma.

Mona Carole grew up with her sister Iris in small town western Pennsylvania, near her large extended family of hardy Scots-Irish businesspeople, ministers, teachers, coal miners, and professionals. While still a child her knack for figures allowed her to help her father with his insurance business, and she continued studying mathematics to the college level. After using her math degree to teach high school, Mona Carole decided to spend a few years raising her own young children. Teaching and education, though, were never far from her heart. With her kids starting school, she returned to work in public education as a counselor for over 20 years at Eau Claire Memorial High School. She was particularly proud, during those two decades, when her encouragement and counsel led a student to take a more challenging educational path than might have been chosen otherwise.

Outside of work and school, Mona Carole was gifted a rare three octave soprano singing voice, which she used as a youth performer and as an adult enthusiast, singing in choirs or the shower with generally equal enthusiasm. She was passionate about women's rights, volunteering for years with the American Association of University Women. During her 88 years she saw only a handful of TV ads that she thought could not be improved by including more women. She loved travel, in particular a year spent doing research in Scotland, but for her almost any destination would do. She climbed Machu Picchu while well into her 60s, but also collected concert programs from Vienna, shells from beaches in Hawaii, pictures from Singapore, and stories from the four corners of the earth she was always ready to share.

As her 80s progressed and travel became increasingly difficult physically, Mona Carole returned to Wisconsin to be closer to friends and family. In recent years she faced her fights with illness from the same state of equanimity that she used for a missed haircut or a late arrival at dinner. She continued to adore ice cream, trusted a new acquaintance more if said acquaintance was liked by cats, thought every car should be a convertible, loved to listen to music, and read anything on her trusted Kindle, from the highest brow literature to the trashiest romance novel. Those who knew her well marveled that she actually seemed to enjoy eating carob. She will be missed.