Barbara Ann Leifheit

Service Details

Services will be held Friday, December 17, 2021 at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, 6400 Spring St, Mt Pleasant, WI 53406, at Twelve O’ Clock Noon.  Visitation will be held on Friday, December 17, 2021, from 10 am until the time of service.

Memorial Suggestions

In lieu of flowers, memorials to HALO or Bethany House have been suggested.

Barbara Ann (nee: Schwieter) Leifheit, 72, passed away peacefully at Season’s Hospice in Oak Creek on December 8, 2021. Barbara was born on April 6,1949, in Cincinnati, OH to the late Clifford and Bernice (nee: Hare) Schwieter. She spent much of her life and career in the Cincinnati area, before moving to Racine.
On July 25,1981, she was united in marriage to David Leifheit. They met at work, set up by their friends. David learned her joy for entertaining and being with friends and family while Barb learned his joy for camping and hiking. This started their love of travel and being with good people throughout their life together.
Barbara graduated from Reading High School in Cincinnati, OH and continued her education at the University of Cincinnati with a BA in Education and went on to achieve her MBA in Business Management at Xavier University.
Barbara’s work experience started in the Drackett Co. Legal Division where she developed her expertise in government regulations at the start of the EPA and Clean Air Act. The scope of her work included product hazard warnings, MSDS’s, child resistant closures, and disinfectant registrations. She was often called the “Binder Queen” for her documentation of product compliance with Federal and State regulations, and for her documentation of the methodology she used. After Drackett, she formed Leifheit & Co, Inc. as owner and lead consultant with clients that included SC Johnson and Sealed Air. Her employees were dear friends. She mentored many young people who all went to successful careers in any of their endeavors.
During her life her interests and hobbies included cake decorating, entertaining with new recipes, and reading mysteries from Rex Stout to William Kent Krueger, with her favorite being Nero Wolfe. She loved traveling with David beginning with camping and moving on to ocean cruises, including two Trans-Atlantic experiences, Alaska, and Australia to New Zealand. She loved church. Barbara was a catechist for many years, Eucharistic Minister, Lector and Sacristan. She prayed the rosary often. She was a creative soul, sewing her wedding and bridesmaids’ dresses and did the decorating for her wedding.
In retirement, Barbara and David enjoyed travel, entertaining and just being with friends. In addition to world travel, she loved staying in Florida with her daughter, Sarah, during the coldest months including becoming Disney World fans and spending time enjoying the parks and resorts together.
Left to cherish her memory is her husband, David, and her daughter, Sarah; her brothers, Clifford (Char) Schwieter and Robert Schwieter; sisters-in-law, Patty Anderson and Diane (David) Richardson; niece, Casie (Scott) Bray and nephew, Joseph Richardson. In addition to her parents, preceding her in death, was her brother, Kenneth Schwieter, and her mother-in-law, Marilyn Leifheit.
Special remembrances go to all of the angels at St. Luke’s Hospital and Aurora Visiting Nurses who cared for her during her illness.