Evelyn Irene Wooster

On April 3, 2024, following a brief illness Evelyn Irene Wooster (Munion) returned home to God and our savior Jesus Christ. Evelyn was surrounded by her immediate family as God received her. Her family is blessed to have had Evelyn in their lives and to be with her at the time of God’s calling.

Evelyn, also known as Evie or Tootie, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October 23, 1937, and raised in Pittsburgh as the fourth of five children from her parents James Edward Munion and Evelyn Cornell Barnett. Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, sisters Laura and Pauline, and brothers James (Jimmy) and Robert (Bobby). She is survived by her husband Donald, son Wayne and daughter-in-law/bonus daughter Tina, daughter Dawn (Sparks) and son-in-law/bonus son Scott, and five grandchildren Zachary (Sparks), Adam (Wooster), Arin (Wooster), Jacob (Sparks) and Bobek (Wooster).

Evelyn had a full, impressive, and amazing life. She had a quick wit, was authentic, had a sense of fairness, great sense of humor and loved a good practice joke, albeit mostly when she was on the sending end rather than the receiving end. She touched many lives in a positive fashion. Many of her friends and family say that she was a “trailblazer” in how she lived her life and what she did with her life. Evelyn graduated early from high school at age 16 and remained in Pittsburgh a couple of years before moving to San Diego, California where she met her husband, Donald, while he was serving in the United States Navy. Their son Wayne was born in San Diego and daughter Dawn was born in Long Beach, California. In September 1961, following Donald’s naval service, Evelyn, he, and their children moved to Castle Rock, Washington, Donald’s hometown. Evelyn experienced quite the shock of small-town Americana living in Castle Rock after living in big cities of Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Long Beach.  Nevertheless, for the past 63 years Evelyn adopted Castle Rock as her new home and never again wanted to return to city living.

Castle Rock provided Evelyn many new opportunities and challenges and man did she ever take full advantage of her newfound country life!  She was a wonderful mother to Wayne and Dawn, and a great wife and best friend to Donald for 65 years. She made many new life-long friends. Once her children became school age and beyond, she pursued multiple civic and public service volunteer and employment opportunities. A few include the Junior Woman’s Club (mid-1960s – early 1970’s); the Cowlitz County Advocate newspaper (1967 – 1979); the Castle Rock Fire Department (1981 – 1999) as one of the first two women to join it, and a Castle Rock Fire Department Commissioner; the City of Castle Rock Municipal Court as a lay-person municipal court judge (1983 – 2004); and the Friends of the Library as a founding member (1984 – 2024); and more recently as an usher at the Columbia Theater in Longview. Evelyn also married dozens and dozens of Castle Rock area couples during her judge years.

Evelyn had several hobbies and interests including crafts and greeting cards. Evelyn hand-made hundreds of greeting cards to family, relatives, friends, church friends, neighbors, and others. If you were fortunate enough to receive one of her hand-made cards, you may have noticed Evelyn’s sense of humor with her “Holy Cow” production on the back of the card show a white cow with black cross on it. She also enjoyed playing cards and board games while at home or camping. She loved her beloved Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks whereas she faced a dilemma in February 2006 when her two favorite teams played in Super Bowl XL.   She was a voracious writer, and reader of fiction and U.S. history. Evelyn was a long-time member of local writing group for the past twenty plus years, and prior to that authored the “Around Town” column in the weekly editions of the Cowlitz County Advocate in the late 1960’s – 1970’s.

She and Donald loved camping and RVing during their retirement years as they enjoyed traveling most of the western United States. She and Donald also found time to enjoy multiple cruises including an Antarctica and South America. She also loved music, listening but not singing as she would be the first person to say she could not carry a tune if it was carried in a bucket. In her later years, she discovered the joys of genealogy as she researched much of the Munion and Wooster family history.

Evelyn and Donald joined the Castle Rock United Methodist Church congregation in 1996. Evelyn remained active with her church and her church family during the past 30 years. She had a special connection to her church family until the time of her passing.

A Celebration of Life for Evelyn will be held Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 1:00 pm at the Castle Rock United Methodist Church, 241 First Avenue, Castle Rock, WA. Her family requests any donations or contributions on Evelyn’s behalf be made to Friends of the Library, PO Box 865, Castle Rock, WA  98611 or donate to the Fibre Federal Credit Union, attention Friends of the Library.