Naomi Jean Westby Ware passed away peacefully after a brief illness in Boulder, with her family at her side on March 9, 2017. She was born at home in Boone County, Nebraska, to Olga Hildegard Holm Westby and John Fredrick Westby on the family homestead near Elgin on November 15, 1924. The youngest of five daughters, she attended a one room school house there. Her family moved to Oak Park, Illinois, after the family farm was lost during the Great Depression. Naomi attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, where she graduated in 1942. After the war she met Winthrop Horace Ware, who joined her youth group at First Presbyterian in Oak Park, where they were later married in 1948. Naomi and Winthrop enjoyed many adventures together and traveled all over the North American Continent. They honeymooned on Mount Hardesty in Oregon as fire watchers, and owned a bike shop in McMinnville where they attended Linfield College. Later, following Winthrop’s ordination as a Presbyterian minister at McCormick Seminary in Chicago, they traveled to Alaska where he was assigned his first church in Anchorage. While there, Naomi entered the Pillsbury Baking Contest, where she was a finalist for “Grandmother’s Raisin Cream Pie” in 1953. As she raised her growing family, she and Winthrop moved from Chicago, to Anchorage, to Buffalo, NY, Baltimore, MD, and Guadalajara, Mexico, returning to Oak Park, Illinois, in 1965. During her life, she met challenges with aplomb and grace, whether playing the organ during church services, or whipping up a meal for unexpected guests at the parsonage. In her later years, she became known for her fiber art: quilting, spinning yarn, and knitting. Throughout her life, she made friends easily, and maintained correspondence with them until the end. After settling in Colorado in 1983, her last decades were spent at Presbyterian Manor in Boulder, where she continued to grow her circle of friends, where she is greatly missed. As a lifelong Christian, she embodied those ideals throughout her life, which comforted her to the end. Naomi is survived by her five children, Sarah Hewitt of Boerne, Texas; John Ware of West Des Moines, Iowa; Laura Ware of Glen Haven, Colorado; Alice Bellmont of Longmont, Colorado; and Katherine Wolniewicz also of Longmont. She is also survived by her 15 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and her elder sister, Beulah Townsend, of Spokane, Washington. There will be a celebration of life service with her family on Saturday, March 18th at 9:30 am at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 2425 Colorado Ave., Boulder, CO, 80302. Donations may be made in her honor to: Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, 201 E. Simpson St., Lafayette, CO, 80026. Cremation entrusted to Ahlberg Funeral Chapel and Crematory. Visit www.ahlbergfuneralchapel.com to share condolences.

Source:  Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) – Wednesday, March 15, 2017