Obituary: Charlotte West

As received from the O’Neill-Dennis Funeral Home:

Charlotte West passed away peacefully in her sleep on November 17, 2021 at St. Therese-Oxbow Lake in Brooklyn Park, MN. She was 94.

Charlotte was born in 1927 in Hancock, MI. After graduating from Hancock High School, she enrolled in business courses at Suomi College (now Finlandia University), receiving her Associate’s Degree in Bookkeeping. She started working at Michigan Bell Telephone in Calumet, MI traveling around the state conducting training for the company. She would travel many times throughout her long life.

Char had the good fortune to take a trip on the Queen Mary ocean liner with her friend Corky Plassa to England. It was on the return trip home she met Edith West, her future mother-in-law, who mentioned that her son David also lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. A few months later, Dave made his first trip to Hancock to meet her.

Charlotte and David married in 1959, and moved from Negaunee, MI to Munising, MI in 1967 where she became very active in local politics, St. John’s Episcopal Church, the Girl Scouts, and volunteer work while raising their daughter, Mary. She was twice elected to the Munising City Commission, and for a brief time served as Mayor pro tempore. In 1978 they moved to Gladstone, MI where she worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Escanaba. They eventually settled in Elkhart, IN, where she found her dream job as Executive Secretary to the Academic Vice President of St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, IN. Following retirement from St. Mary’s they moved to Englewood, FL where she and Dave spent winters, returning to Hancock, MI in the summer for many years. In 2014, Char moved one last time to the Minneapolis, MN area to be close to her daughter Mary.

Char always had a word of encouragement for you, a great sense of humor, and a smile for everyone. Her passions in life were her family, travel, reading, the Green Bay Packers, politics, and her two dream trips; to Egypt in 2000 with Dave, and to Greece in 2008 with Mary.

She is survived by her daughter Mary West and son-in-law Joel Beres; nephews Grant Forsythe, James Uren, and Jonathan Uren; nieces Sarah Forsythe and Barbara Uren; and family members of her heart Beverly Lupa, Corky Plassa, Betty Randolph, Kathy Root, Judy Tschiltz, and Michael Tschiltz.

Charlotte was preceded in death by her husband David, parents Isabel and James Uren; her brother Jonathan ‘Jack’ Uren; sister Margaret Uren; sister-in-law Sarah ‘Sally’ Carrington Uren, and niece Mary Forsythe.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 A.M. on Monday, June 20, 2022 at the First United Methodist Church in Hancock with Rev. Scott Lindenberg to officiate. Interment will be at Lakeside Cemetery in Hancock.

The O’Neill-Dennis Funeral Home of Hancock is assisting with the arrangements. Please go to www.oneilldennisfh.com to leave online condolences.