Charleen J. Staffan
Charleen J. Staffan was a caretaker all of her life, whether that was customers at her mother's restaurants, her husband and partner, or guests at the get-togethers she enjoyed hosting. She was a loving woman who is dearly missed by her family and loved ones.
Charleen J. Staffan (nee Moran) of Moses Lake passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, Oct. 11, 2024. Char was born in Yakima in 1928 to a stern German-American mother and a free-spirited Irish-American father.
She spent her childhood in the shadow of her high-achieving older sister. Following her parents’ divorce, she worked the counter in her mother’s short-order restaurants, while attending Yakima High School until graduation in 1946. After high school, she sandwiched a few college classes in between shifts at the lunch counter where she met Vernon Staffan, an itinerant farm worker from Oklahoma. They married in 1949 and had two children, John and Florence (Rindy).
Following Vernon’s kidney failure in 1966, he and Char commuted twice a week, for a year or so, to the Northwest Kidney Center in Seattle for night-time dialysis so he could continue his work as a warehouseman in Yakima. Eventually, the Center approved Vernon for the first home kidney machine in Yakima and Char became Yakima’s first dialysis nurse.
Vernon died in 1971, and Char set out in search of new vistas, traveling through Mexico and Central America with John in 1973. In 1974, she returned to the restaurant business in Moses Lake where she met Norm Vehrs who became her second life partner. Norm and Char traveled all over the United States and hosted many social gatherings at the home they shared. They also hosted annual gatherings of the combined Staffan and Vehrs families at Priest Lake. When Norm’s health failed, she resumed the caregiver role until his death in 2010.
Even more than the travel, Char loved the hosting. She was happiest when she could feed and entertain a crowd of people, whether at home or the DAR, where she gave talks on Revolutionary-era history, or St. Martin’s Church, where she worshipped and volunteered.
Char is survived by son John Staffan (Helga), son-in-law Jewell Morehead, three grandchildren, Astrid Stark (Brian), Holly Staffan and Nora Leider (Nick), four great-grandchildren, niece Mary Winter, nephew John Kelly (Sally) and by Larry Vehrs, Lynette Vehrs Dellwo (Dennis), Greg Vehrs (Patty), five Vehrs grandchildren and 11 Vehrs great-grandchildren.
Memorial service for Char will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at St. Martin’s Church, Moses Lake.