Obituaries

Devoted mother, daughter, and aunt passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at Chelsea Retirement Community. She was born July 20, 1929 in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of Roy Dale and Beulah (Pierce) Mitchell. Regenia was born just weeks before the Great Depression began. This world-shaking event, along with WW2 that followed it, influenced both her upbringing and young adult life. She acquired many skills that equipped her to support herself right out of high school. Regenia's bookkeeping skills made her a valuable employee at Cunningham's Drugstore in Detroit. Later, she worked in a dentist's office, where her future father-in-law Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. was a patient. He so admired her poise, demeanor and work skills that he introduced her to his eldest son Robert, part of the family insurance agency. Regenia was a lifelong learner who passed those values on to her children. On her 40th birthday (July 20 1969), she and her young children watched Apollo 11 astronauts land on the moon.
 
Her love of travel and early adoption of recreational vehicles (RVs) in the mid-1960s led her to employment at Royal Toyota, where she was the first woman dealer of motor homes. There she met her second husband, Newton Lee Compere ("Newt"). They bought property on the White River in music festival country near Branson MO, where Regenia designed and built a campground she named "The Headwaters". Through determination and hard work, the campground overcame challenges like the oil crisis of 1979 and eventually became quite successful. Jeanie treated her camping guests like family. She developed entertainment package plans for campers in conjunction with area festivals and other regional attractions.  This proved so profitable a sales strategy that it was widely adopted by other private campgrounds around Branson. Regenia sold the Headwaters to the KOA Kampgrounds conglomerate after 18 years in business. This afforded her time to move to central Florida and take up residence in a manufactured home community.  She spent little time there at first, instead visiting relatives in California and Nevada plus many attractions around the USA , driving solo in her 36-foot motor home with her car in tow.  She also resumed knitting and crochet, as well as the painting and pastel drawing that she had put on hold while building her campground business. Her artwork was initially inspired by emulating her mother "Boots", an accomplished painter in the central Florida region around Sarasota.  All these favorite activities ended in the  early 2000s when her sight became too impaired as a result of severe macular degeneration.  She continued reading, learning online and managing her investments for a number of years thereafter at her home in Lady Lake, near what became "The Villages" senior living development, using a "Merlin" magnifying device.  In 2011 Regenia moved to The Pines, an independent senior living community in Michigan, eventually receiving assistance from visiting caregivers.  Regenia entered Chelsea Retirement Community assisted living in December 2021.  She never caught COVID-19 and remained remarkably healthy throughout her life.
 
Survivors include her daughter Carole and son-in-law Jon Ryburg of Dexter; son Keith Schlesinger of Philomath, Oregon; sister Shirley Martin and niece Gale Martin (a retired geology professor) of Henderson, Nevada; niece Nikki Martin of California City, CA; nephew Gary Martin (wife Toni) of Garden City; and several great nephews and nieces. She was preceded in death by her two husbands Newton Lee Compere and Robert Schlesinger; her sister Norma Miller; and her nieces Terri and Cindy Miller.
 
Funeral Services were be held Tuesday, October 18, 1:30 p.m. at Towsley Village Chapel in the Chelsea Retirement Community, with LeAnn Seto officiating. A private burial was held at Parkview Memorial Cemetery in Livonia.  Memorial contributions may be made to Wounded Warriors and the American Macular Degeneration Foundation. Arrangements have been entrusted to Cole Funeral Chapel.
 
 
 

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