M Catherine Wenner

BARBERTON---Mary "Catherine" Wenner died peacefully Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at the VNS Hospice Center in Copley after a month long illness. She was 94. Catherine was born February 9, 1921 in Wayne County, West Virginia to Boyd and Louella (Webb) Artrip. She moved to Rittman, Ohio in 1925, graduating Rittman High School in 1939. She was preceded in death by her parents as well as her brother, Clyde (Mildred), and sisters Blanche (Richard) Reed, Nolda (Walter) Pelphrey, Faye (Shirley) Trogdon, and Juanita (Harold) Snyder.

She married John "Jack" Wenner in 1942, the love of her life, who preceded her in death in 2000. After Jack returned home from serving in the Navy in WWII, he and Catherine moved to Barberton in 1946 where they made their home. Catherine and Jack had two children, Carole Anne (Terry) Fawcett, who died in 2007, and survived by William Edwin (Beth); four grandchildren, Kristin (Shane) Springer, Jennifer (Jason) Gailey, Julianne (Trey) Nihoul, and John (Priscilla) Wenner; five great-grandchildren, Lucas, Isabella, Elena, Andrew and Adelaide. While her children were going to college, Catherine worked as a billing clerk at Babcock & Wilcox, retiring in 1978.

Catherine loved her family and loved her church, Columbia United Church of Christ, where she had been a faithful member for 62 years. She loved gardening, growing flowers, knitting, crocheting and reading. She was truly a renaissance woman who could make brownies from potatoes, grow flowers from cuttings and make kites when her son needed one for grade school at the last minute.

In her last weeks, she was surrounded by her loving family, including the many nephews and nieces living in and around Barberton and elsewhere who visited her in the hospital and hospice; showering her with love, cards, flowers and candy.

Visitation will be from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, February 26th at the SILVA-HOSTETLER FUNERAL HOME, 1199 Wooster Rd. West, Barberton. Funeral service will be Friday at 9:30 am at the Columbia United Church of Christ. Burial at Rittman Cemetery and a luncheon at the church will follow. Memorials may be made to either Columbia United Church of Christ or VNS Hospice.