Taylor Funeral Home

Obituaries
Earline Westerman Vares
Date of Death or Service Nov 15, 2020
Earline Westerman Vares
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Private family services will be held. Thomas Southerland will officiate. She will be buried in the Dickson Union Cemetery.

Those desiring, memorials are suggested to the Wounded Warriors Project.

Mildred Earline Vares, 91, of Dickson passed away November 7, 2020 following a brief bout of Covid-19. She was a resident of the memory care unit of The Village Assisted Living facility in Bellevue, TN.

The daughter of Vonnie and Alice Berry Westerman, she was born July 21, 1929 and raised on a farm in Sylvia, TN with her brother, now deceased, Roger Lee Westerman. She graduated from Charlotte High School and attended Austin Peay College.

Earline married the love of her life, Endel Vares, and was the recipient of complete, unconditional love throughout their marriage, including the years of Endel’s decline and death. They met on a double-blind date and Earline was the date of Endel’s friend. Halfway through the date Endel convinced his friend to swap dates and the rest is history.

Earline is survived by their children: son, Don (Jeanne) Vares of Mississippi, and daughter, Marcia (Wendell) Williams of Dickson. Earline fiercely loved her grandchildren: Seth (Danielle) Williams, Arrah (Jeff) Addison, Ashley (Michael) Ragland and Phoebe Davis. Surviving her also are her great-grandchildren whom she cherished: Tanner and Avery Addison and Rayleigh Williams. She loved her nephews, Mark and Neal Westerman, sister-in-law Ida Westerman and the whole Westerman/Berry clan. Preceding her in death are her parents, son, Dan Vares, and granddaughter, Amber Reeves.

Earline began her working career as a teacher at Oakmont Elementary, transitioning to social work with the Department of Human Services where she served for thirty years. Her personal life was filled with creativity and she was prolific with her crafts of oil painting, hand sewing, embroidery, decoupage, and assorted other arts. In fact, Marcia’s Christmas tree is fully decorated with her mother’s exquisite hand sewn, beaded, sequined and embroidered ornaments as well as hand painted ones.

Earline was widely known as a rival of Martha Stewart’s for a clean, well-kept home. A spot of dust was short lived there! This was quite a feat as her home was a gathering spot for the friends of her three children. Endel cooked pancakes for masses of kids and she cleaned up the sizable messes. Earline was also admired for her sense of fashion, and ability of wearing clothes like a model.

An avid reader, Earline passed along her love of the written word to Don and Marcia. The massive bookshelves she had built in her home could not contain her library. She left her books behind when she entered Olive Branch Assisted Living, but kept three versions of the Bible, reading out of each daily until she could no longer remember what she had just read. Dementia began to color her days, progressively stealing her ability to process some things, or understand others. However, it never interfered with her recognition of loved ones. In her later years God blessed her with a new found peace and joy, especially demonstrated with her family.  Her distance vision was eagle sharp and she could see us from some distance. Her blue eyes widened and sparkling, grin large with excitement, she’d throw her hands in the air and declare, “It’s so good to see you!” She made each of us feel special and loved. It is the mark of a good life that someone would want to emulate you. I distinctly remember leaving her facility, basking in her love and compliments and thinking, “I hope I can be just like Mom”. Well done, Mom, well done.

 

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