MOUNDS, Ill. — Doris M. Hargan, 79, of Mounds peacefully left this earth on Thursday, September 13, 2012.

She was born June 22, 1933, the daughter of Eino Esaeas and Helmi Wilhelmina (Wiita) Ikola at home on the family’s small dairy farm, located in a Finnish community in rural Esko, Minnesota.

She and Harold David Hargan were married July 8, 1955, at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mound City, Ill.

Doris was a graduate of Esko High School in Thomson Township, where she was a cheerleader for the “Esko Eskomos.”

She continued her education in Duluth, Minn., and then began her 44-year career as an X-ray technician in 1953 at St. Mary’s hospital in Cairo, Ill., and thereafter served in a variety of roles at the Community Health Clinic in Cairo, Ill. She retired in 2011, having dedicated 58 years in service to others.

She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother (Dee Dee), friend, neighbor and caregiver. She was a member of St. Mary Catholic Church, the Ladies’ Sodality of St. Mary, the VFW Auxiliary, and a volunteer for a number of local charities, especially Ms. Birdie’s Second Hand Angels Animal Rescue.

Besides having a full-time career and taking care of her own family and members of her extended family, she was engaged in a wide variety of activities: visiting and caring for shut-ins and those in nursing homes, nurturing and adopting abandoned animals of all kinds, gardening, canning vegetables, making jelly, refinishing antique furniture, sewing, piecing quilts, crocheting, doing cross stitch, painting, cooking and baking, learning trivia, working at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, playing bingo, shopping in Cape Girardeau, watching the Wheel of Fortune, growing plants and flowers indoors and outdoors, and recycling and re-purposing. Thus, she earned the nickname of “Road Runner” by her husband.

She is survived by three daughters, Sandy (Bobby) Stricker of Karnak, Ill., Jo Deanne Hargan of Paducah, Ky, Lori Jane (Rex) Hall of Fort Worth, Texas; a son, Eric (Emily) Hargan of Hinsdale, Ill; a brother, Norman (Pauline) Ikola of Esko, Minn.; and seven grandchildren, David and Brantley Stricker; Aaron, Allan and Kelly Hall; and Thomas and Joe Hargan.

She was preceded in death by her parents; an infant son, Joseph; and her beloved husband of 53 years, H.D.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, September 19, at St. Mary Catholic Church in Mound City.

Funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, September 20, at St. Mary Catholic Church, with Monsignors Bill McGhee and Jerome Hartlein officiating. Interment will follow at the Mound City National Cemetery.

Memorials may be sent to: Tribute Program for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9142 or Second Hand Angels Animal Rescue c/o Birdie Conant, 726 Wessenberg Rd., Villa Ridge, IL 62996.

Jones Funeral Home in Villa Ridge is in charge of arrangements.