A loving soul who shared so much of herself with others, Michelle "Mickey" Therese Hansen passed away suddenly at her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on November 10, 2023.  She was 75 years young.

Mickey was born June 6, 1948, to Wilfred "Mike" and Helen (Granger) Hansen at St. Mary's Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. The couple and their first child lived in Detroit for a year until Mickey's first sibling, Bill, whom she adored and sometimes liked to call Bildy, was born. At that time, the growing family moved to Royal Oak, where five more kids -- Lynn, Ree, Joe, Donna and Steve -- were added to the clan over the next thirteen years.

Mickey attended Royal Oak Shrine Grade School and Shrine High School, graduating in 1966. She then went to Oakland University for two years. Her trip to Mexico for a Spanish class ignited her wanderlust, which led her to traveling to South America and the American Southwest.

Quickly enamored with the sunny, blue skies and the people of Santa Fe, Mickey settled there in 1976, living the rest of her life in the small, quaint town that over the decades burgeoned into a larger city. Once or twice a year, though, she would travel back to see her family in Royal Oak, always on the Christmas holidays and sometimes in the summer, or for an extended visit when a family member was seriously ill.

Mickey worked as a legal secretary and medical transcriptionist most of her life. She retired in 2014, relishing the next nine years of unencumbered freedom. She sent cards, gifts and emails relentlessly, always wanting to make people happy and to know what was going on in their lives. When caught unaware, she would exclaim, "I didn't know. Nobody told me." She routinely made phone calls to family and friends to minimize that from happening.

Mickey's passing caught everyone by surprise. Her love, kindness, mirth, talents, and zest for life will be sorely missed. Mickey's cremains will be returned to Royal Oak and interred in Oakview Cemetery, where she biked and enjoyed the surroundings as a kid. In 2005, she had found the burial sites for herself and her siblings on eBay, having decided to make the city she grew up in and which was always home for her, the final resting place.

Michelle is survived by her siblings Marie Faulkner, Joe Hansen, Donna Hansen and Steve Hansen; her brothers-in-law Rich Vlasic and Ian Faulkner; sister-in-law Joyce Said, nieces Celeste Faulkner, Alyssa Faulkner, Kelsey Faulkner; and nephew Michael Faulkner. She is preceded in death by her parents and her siblings, Bill Hansen and Lynn Vlasic.

A memorial service has not been planned at this time.

Send to someone

Share this obituary with others

https://everloved.com/life-of/michelle-hansen/obituary/

Copy