Kathleen "Ozy" Thompson

Kathleen "Ozy" Thompson, age 83, passed away October 2, 2025, surrounded by her family and their love.
Kathleen was born February 5, 1942 to David and Beatrice Sullivan in Ashland, WI. The third oldest in a family of nine children, she told stories of hauling hay and riding horses on Thunderbird Farm in Duluth. She attended St. Scholastica College, and worked as a math teacher in Duluth, Minnesota; St. John's, Arizona; Yakutat, Alaska; Guam, and Saipan. Later, she served as a substitute teacher across central Wisconsin.
She married her beloved husband, Leonard (Len), in 1975, and together they gave their four children a magical childhood. Favorite memories include strawberry picking with her on the fire lanes, toboggan rides, picnics, and afternoons at the beach. She made a legendary chocolate sheet cake and the best pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, but never cooked a piece of fish without leaving at least a few bones inside.
Kathleen was unfailingly positive. Even an average day could be "just perfect" in her book, and there wasn't a task she couldn't accomplish or a challenge she couldn't overcome by the end of the week.
She was an avid yet unofficial collector of sewing machines. One for the kitchen, one for outside, and three or four for embroidering meant she always had a project or many in the works. She was a prolific knitter, and her yarn and needles traveled with her to every sporting event and holiday dinner. Regular yarn was acceptable, but she could never resist a skein of rare and expensive yak wool. One could often find her in her sewing room, teaching her grandchildren to make pillowcases or hand-knit blankets.
If she wasn't at her sewing table, she was probably out on her bicycle. She and Len criss-crossed the state exploring Wisconsin's bike trails, and she rode hundreds more miles around her neighborhood. She almost always had a book in her hand; she would read anything, but mysteries and true crime stories were her favorite.
She loved popcorn, alpacas, Detective Columbo, her apple trees, rummage sales, Irish music, Coke, her new red Pinto, Forensic Files, word jumbles, and Paul Bunyan. She was loved, so greatly, by her children Kristin (Andy) Carlson, Karlyn (Troy) Oleson-Hall, Caitlin (Marcus) Shaw, and Kyle (Casey) Thompson, and her grandchildren Brant, Gavin, Kyle, Evy, Rylan, Mason, Macy, Quinn and Marlo. She is missed by her surviving siblings Gail, Paula, Brigid, David, and Patrick, and many nieces and nephews. She is reunited and playing Perquackey with her husband Len, and singing (off-key) around the piano with her sisters Fritzie, Sheila and Mickie.
A small private memorial service will be held later in the fall.