Charlene Woeste

CHARLENE WOESTE

Robins

Charlene Marcia Woeste, 84, of Robins, passed away Nov. 12, 2014, at her home. Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 17, at Faith Bible Church in Cedar Rapids, with Pastor Bryan Regier officiating. Interment will be at Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery, Cedar Rapids. Visitation will be at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.

Charlene was born Jan. 17, 1930, in Edgewood, Iowa, the daughter of Herman and Wilma (Little) Bassett. She married Donald Woeste on June 3, 1951, and together they raised five children, Mark (Dana) of Mantorville, Minn., Donalyn (Cal) Peter of Osage, Karen of Cedar Rapids, Wanda (Scott) Ohrt of Waterloo and Judy (Jon) Greeb of Robins.

Charlene taught second grade in the Edgewood-Colesburg Community School District for 32 years. She and Don belonged to First Congregational Church of Edgewood, where she was church organist, and helped with the church Christmas programs and Vacation Bible School. She continued to play organ for various churches that they attended when they went to Florida for the winters and when they moved to Robins. Overall, she played the organ for 42 years.

She was an avid gardener in raising vegetables and caring for her flowers in her many flower beds in their rural Edgewood home, and was instrumental in sharing her expertise of flowers and vegetables to different home and garden groups. This love of flowers led her to become a Linn County Master Gardener in 1991.

In 1996, Don and Charlene moved to Robins, where they bought almost an acre of land and had a home built. Through the years, with her husband's significant help, they built up their vegetable and flower gardens, which featured a tiered bed, an arbor garden, a hosta bed and hybrid and day lily gardens. Charlene was actively involved with the Linn County Master Gardeners, with teaching, establishing and chairing or co-chairing the plant sale for 14 years, working the hortline and answering questions on the WMT Radio weekly show. In 2013, she was awarded for her volunteer work of over 6,000 hours to the Linn County Master Gardeners.

She and Don traveled extensively, as they visited many countries and went on many cruises. It was a joy for them to take their five children, spouses and grandchildren on five trips, including Alaska, Mexico, Costa Rica, the National Parks in the western United States and Nova Scotia.

She was preceded in death by her parents and three sisters.

She is survived by Don, her beloved husband of 63 years; her five children; eight grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; one great-grandson; and five stepgreat-granddaughters.