Laura Bresnahan Bush, of Whitefish Bay, Wisc., died peacefully on December 2, 2022 after a courageous 13-month battle with young-onset colon cancer. She was 36 years old.
Born on May 22, 1986, Laura was the third and youngest daughter of Dr. Timothy and Sharon Bresnahan (neé Roggow). Laura grew up in Elmhurst and graduated from York Community High School in 2004, where she excelled academically and athletically. She was president of the National Honor Society, Editor-in-Chief of the school newspaper, York-High, and a standout volleyball and track athlete. After high school, Laura chose to attend the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a Monogram as a member of the varsity women’s volleyball team. After her freshman year, Laura focused her attention on academics and ultimately earned her Bachelor of Architecture with high honors.
Laura’s time at Notre Dame included a year spent in Rome, where she sketched and ate her way through Italy with a few dozen of her closest friends — an experience that Laura and her beloved husband, Brendan, dreamed about someday recreating together. Laura went on to become an immensely gifted designer and architect. She found her calling and spent nearly all of her successful career in custom residential architecture, the vast majority of which at Wade Weissmann Architecture in Brown Deer, Wisc. Laura took pride in her work, and in many ways, the heirloom homes that she designed are a direct reflection of who she was: one-of-a kind, stunningly beautiful, and timeless. She loved what she did and who she did it with.
Laura’s most important and cherished roles were those of wife to the love of her life, Brendan, and mother to her two boys, Benjamin and Theodore “Teddy.” She loved Benjamin and Teddy more than anything in the world and always made them her first priority no matter the circumstance and throughout the entirety of her harrowing battle against cancer. Laura will live on forever in the hearts of her boys and will always be there to comfort and guide them through her eternal love for them.
Laura is survived by her beloved husband, Brendan, and their two boys, Benjamin and “Teddy”; parents Dr. Timothy and Sharon Bresnahan (neé Roggow), Elmhurst; sister Theresa Bresnahan-Coleman and husband, Zane Coleman, Elmhurst, and children Shayna “Shea”, Reece, and Neal; sister Maureen Baska (neé Bresnahan) and husband, Jake, Granger, Ind., and children Madeline, Tegan, and Chloe; father- and mother in-law Michael and Kathleen Bush, Davenport, Iowa; brother-in-law Daniel Bush and wife Megan, Davenport, Iowa, and children Hannah and Lucy; and sister-in-law Kelly Bush, Davenport, Iowa. Laura is also survived by many beloved aunts, uncles, and cousins.
The family would like to issue a special thanks to all of the doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, and support staff for their loving care of Laura the past 13 months, including those at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s, Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Colorado Hospital, and ProMedica Hospice. We also want to thank all of Laura’s family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, parishioners, and community members for your loving and continued support of our family. Funeral services and a Mass of Christian Burial for Laura was held on Monday, Dec. 12 at Holy Family Catholic Church in Whitefish Bay, Wisc. The burial took place at Resurrection Cemetery in Mequon, Wisc., the same day. Memorials may be made in Laura’s name to the Hartford Family Foundation, Inc., Colorectal Cancer Alliance (impact.ccalliance.org/fundraiser/4308284), or Froedtert Hospital Foundation. The family encourages and appreciates requests for the offering of Masses for the repose of the soul of Laura Bresnahan Bush. Arrangements entrusted to Feerick Funeral Home Shorewood.
