Nancy Woolery

September 13, 1949 – December 20, 2009
Nancy Woolery, 60, of Homestead, Iowa, died Sunday, December 20, 2009, at the Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy in Hiawatha, Iowa. Celebration of Life Service was held Wednesday, December 23, 2009, at St. John’s Lutheran Church near Homestead. Burial will be held Thursday at St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery in Wine Hill, Illinois. Memorials may be made to St. John Lutheran Church. Messages and tributes may be left at www.powellfuneralhomes.com.

Nancy Elaine Matzat was born September 13, 1949, in La Porte, Indiana, the daughter of Ewald and Flora (Kothe) Matzat. She was baptized and confirmed at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in North Judson, Indiana. She graduated from St. Peter’s Lutheran School in 1963 and North Judson High School in 1967. She graduated from Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1969 and from Concordia Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska, in 1971. She was united in marriage to Wayne N. Woolery July 15, 1972, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in North Judson. She taught in Lutheran Schools in Michigan, New York, Texas, Illinois and Indiana. She managed the foodbank at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She was a 4-H leader and worked for the Illinois Extension, was a substitute teacher in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, taught ESL at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel and for the last eight years was a Library Assistant at the Amana Public Library. She was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Ladies Aide, LWML, church organist, choir director, band instructor and an instrumentalist and singer in church and community groups. She loved to read, cook, bake, sew, garden and do things for her children and grandchildren.
She is survived by her husband, Wayne Woolery, Homestead; six children, Michael (Jennifer) Woolery, Winnebago, Illinois; Karen (Brian) Garkie, Cottage Hills, Illinois; Nathan (Ruth) Woolery, Cameron, Missouri; Stephen (Pam) Woolery, Greenfield, Iowa; Phillip Woolery (fiance Maria), West Lafayette, Indiana; Rachel Wolery, St. Louis, Missouri; nine grandchildren; her parents, Ewald and Flora Matzat, North Judson; four brothers and sisters, Dolores Matzat, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Eugene (Linda) Matzat, Walkerton, Indiana; Paul (Barb) Matzat, Greenwood, Indiana; and Annette (Jerry) Zeller, North Judson.