Obituary for Devee Warner

DeVee Dean Warner, 87, of Marion, Iowa, joined her recently-departed husband (Edward Charles Warner) on Thursday, December 17, 2009, after having been lovingly cared for by the staff at the Hospice House of Mercy in Hiawatha. Memorial services will be held at the Marion Christian Church in Marion on Tuesday, December 22, at 4:00 p.m. Family members will greet guests, beginning at 3:00 p.m. The service will celebrate both her life and the life of her husband, Chuck, who died December 4, 2009. DeVee was born on a farmstead east of Marion on December 9, 1922, the daughter of Albert K. Dean and Pearl Laura Kenyon. She attended elementary grades at the Martin''s Creek Country School and then Marion High School. DeVee married Edward Charles "Chuck" Warner on April 6, 1946. She is survived by three sons, Dean Howard Warner (Pat Doan) of Oxnard, California, Charles Walter Warner (Cindy) of Colleyville, Texas, and Gary John Warner (Paula) of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and many grandchildren, great- grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. Even though Marion was always considered "home," she and Chuck lived in many states and dozens of houses over the years. They also traveled extensively throughout the United States and visited sons twice in Europe. DeVee devoted her life to others, whether that was as a staff member at the fledgling YMCA in Marion, teaming with Chuck to sponsor her church''s youth group for fifteen years, serving in a variety of capacities at the church (both volunteer and elected), or taking people into her home when they were in need and for as long as they were in need. The beneficiaries of that warm-hearted generosity were not only a variety of grandmothers, mothers, brothers, nephews, several grandchildren, and other family members, but a host of neighbors, family friends, children of friends and relatives, a foster child, and someone who would remain part of her family forever, Ronald Landis (Sharon) of Marion. DeVee, in her sixty-three-year partnership with Chuck, was able to do what few people are able to do in their lives. She reflected on what her own life had been like up to the point when they were married and then determined to live a very different life. Through her actions, she continuously modeled perseverance, determination, thoughtfulness, ingenuity, flexibility, respect for learning, organization, adventure, intelligence, freedom of thought, and (most important of all) unconditional, open-armed love to all who were lucky enough to step within her ring of influence. She touched the lives of an untold number of people in ways she never fully understood, but she will never be forgotten and her memory will always be cherished by all who knew her.