Welch, Earlene

Earlene Welch of Waccabuc, N.Y., died Monday, June 20, 2011, at Smilow Cancer Center at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., after a valiant two-year fight with cancer.

Earlene is survived by her husband, Teed Welch (formerly from Cedar Rapids); and was daughter-in-law to (the late) Ted and Maxine Welch of Cedar Rapids.

Earlene was a 14-year resident of Waccabuc, N.Y., where she was involved in a number of local community activities, including Waccabuc Landowner Council and with the local Lewisboro Library in more recent years.

Earlene was born in Manila (Philippines) and grew up there and in Hong Kong before coming to the United States after high school. After a series of varied jobs in television and marketing, she enrolled at Columbia University in New York City and embarked on a five-year program for a B.A. in economics and an MBA in marketing. Upon graduation, she worked in product brand management at RJR Nabisco in the Planters Peanuts division. In 1984, she then moved to Boston, where she married Teed and worked at Kiddie Products, now called The First Years, which developed children's (ages 0-2) developmental toys. They returned to New York in 1989 and she took a job in marketing communications with IBM in Westchester before leaving the workplace in 1998 to be a stay-at-home mom.

Besides her husband, Earlene is survived by her son, Theodore “TJ” Welch; her parents, Norbert and Elizabeth Wirsching of New York City; and her sisters, Elizabeth Del Alamo of New York City and Margaret Still of Memphis, Tenn.

Any donations in her memory can be made to the Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy in Hiawatha, the American Cancer Association or a charity of your choice.