Charlotte Ann Dafoe Welch

Hastings resident Charlotte Ann Dafoe Welch, 90, passed away Saturday, July 27, 2024, at The Heritage at College View, Hastings, NE. 

Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, August 3, at First United Methodist Church in Hastings with Rev. Lance Clay officiating. Private family burial will be at Parkview Cemetery in Hastings. There will be a private visitation for family and relatives prior to the burial. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to the First United Methodist Church, Adams County Historical Society, or the Hastings Community Foundation. The service will be live-streamed on Livingston Butler Volland Funeral Home’s website. To view the service, go to Charlotte’s obituary and click the play button shown towards the bottom of the page. 

Charlotte Ann Dafoe Welch was born on April 11, 1934, in Tecumseh, Nebraska to parents Mary Alice Findley Dafoe and Charles Albert Dafoe. Charles was a lawyer and Nebraska legislator. Charles, as an officer in the U.S. Army, suffered a tragic death in a military airplane crash in 1942. Charlotte and her mother moved from Tecumseh to Shenandoah, Iowa, where she met her future husband George Leon Welch during high school.

At the University of Iowa, Charlotte majored in home economics with an emphasis on textiles, was a member of the Pi Phi sorority, and was Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a member of the Scottish Highlanders, a group for bagpipers that would perform frequently at events including Hawkeye football games, and became the largest female bagpipe band in the world.

Charlotte and George were married in 1955. After graduation from medical school at the University of Iowa, George pursued an internal medicine residency at the University of Kansas, followed by a cardiology fellowship. They then moved to Hastings with their four children. George had other job offers in big cities but chose Hastings. It was a good choice. They loved Hastings. Charlotte fostered a home filled with love, education, and music.

Charlotte and George were devout lifelong members of the United Methodist Church, and Charlotte was frequently a Sunday school teacher. She was a longtime member of PEO Chapter G, a YWCA member, member of the George Eliot book club, bridge clubs, and birthday clubs. She was an avid reader of history and studied genealogy. She and her daughters developed a love of Arabian horses. They would travel with their horses to shows across the Midwest. 

Charlotte cherished her family and friends always. She developed so many wonderful friendships throughout the years in Hastings.

Our family could always rely on her to tell us what was the right thing to do, knowing that it is one of the most important things for a mother to do.

Charlotte was preceded in death by her parents, Mary Alice “Allie” and Charles Dafoe, her husband of 49 years, George L. Welch, sister Mary Elizabeth Osborne, brother-in-laws Willis Steinberg and Lawrence Osborne, niece Jane Steinberg, and cousin Robert Troxel.

She is survived by her four children, son John Welch and daughter-in-law Peg Welch, their children George Welch (Chelsey), Jack Welch, Alice Welch (Chase), daughter Jennifer Schmitt and son-in-law Larry Schmitt, their children Laura Counsell (David), Ellen McLean (Myles), Claire Schmitt, daughter Janet and son-in-law Jeff Matthes and their children Jennifer LeMoyne (Sam), Anna Fair, Elise, and Celeste Matthes, daughter Barbara Welch and her children Henry Molnar and Elizabeth Molnar. She is also survived by six great-grandchildren and a sister Barbara Jane Steinberg.

The family would like to extend their deepest appreciation for the excellent care that Charlotte received at College View.