Sharlene Wozniak

Sharlene Wozniak, 91, of Bellevue, NE passed away on Friday, December 12, 2025. Funeral services will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at the Loess Hills Funeral Home in Glenwood, IA. Visitation for friends to greet the family will be held prior to the funeral beginning at 11:00 a.m. at the funeral home. Burial will be at the Omaha National Cemetery. Loess Hills Funeral Home in Glenwood is caring for Sharlene and her family.

Memorials: Directed to the family.

Sharlene Louise (Bartos) Wozniak was born on April 5, 1934 to Joseph and Louise Bartos on their family farm, in Burwell, NE. There were three girls born before her, Rose Ella, Evelyn and Agnes. After Sharlene’s birth two sons followed, Jerald and Leroy.

She grew up on their family farm helping her mom and siblings take care of the farm. Their dad spent a lot of time away working at other farms from Idaho to Wyoming for extra money. Our mom would often talk about milking cows and washing bottles for canning. Her and her siblings would either walk or ride Georgie Martha Washington to school. As I am sure you guessed the horse was born on President Washington’s birthday.

Her family moved to Burwell the year she began High School. During this time she worked at the Movie Theater in charge of making the Popcorn. No one made popcorn better then her.

On the weekends all the kids would meet in the town-square and she would bring her Guitar and sing for every one. In her senior year she was voted “Most Likely” to move to Texas and become a country singer. Wasn’t meant to be.

She enjoyed going to the Burwell Rodeo, which was the Event of the year. People came from across states to participate in bull riding and barrel racing. The entire rodeo experience.

She worked in Burwell until April 1955, when she married Vern Wozniak on April 5th her 21st birthday. He was still enlisted in the Airforce and they moved to Long Beach, WA until his tour ended a year later in February 1956. At this time she did not know how to drive so on the highway Vern started to teach her. A police officer ended up pulling them over because the car was so weighed down with all their possessions the car lights were shooting up. Before they got pulled over they switched places while still driving since she did not have a license. A close call.

In February 1956 they moved to Ord, NE and worked Vern’s parent's farm but the crops had all dried out. During this time she gave birth to Terrill.

Vern said enough of this and moved them to Omaha, NE where they had three more children, Sherry, Alan and Diane. She was a mother and housewife plus helped Vern with his business for about 15 years. For another 15 years she did secretarial jobs. During this time her children had kids giving her six granddaughters (two of the girls were twins) and three grandsons. She worked and did a lot of babysitting and was the best grandma ever by spoiling them with her love.

She also got into bird watching and feeding small wrens and hummingbirds. One of her proudest moments was when she spotted two families of Eastern Bluebirds and Purple Throated Humming birds in which were never spotted before in our area. She called the Audubon society and someone came out to verify they were in fact the rare hummingbirds. Once he confirmed they were the Purple Throated Hummingbirds he took a picture of them to put on record for a Hummingbird book in which listed their address as their first sighting. As she said “What a Thrill”.

Sharlene loved to watch the Olympic Ice-skating competitions and was a huge fan of Tara Lapinski and was so thrilled when she won the Gold.

We would often find her in front of her TV watching CBR Bull-riding. She still had that Burwell cowgirl in her blood. The bull riding, clothes and music.

Sharlene was a “Fashionista” before it had even became a thing. She was always dressed to the nines no matter where she was going. She was also an amazing interior decorator, did ceramics, sewed both clothes and draperies and was a great cook. She even took Tole painting classes with one of her daughters and friends. Last but definitely not least was her talent at landscaping. She was 80 years old when she landscaped their yard putting a rock and brick walkway in their Bellevue home yard in which was absolutely amazing. She had also landscaped the yard at their Beaver Lake home. She was good at everything and was never afraid to tackle anything.

The toughest time she said in her life was when they decided to build their 3,250 sq. ft house on Beaver Lake. She had designed the house and helped with the finishing work. She says it was not her idea especially at their age. Once they finished they decided to move into their last home in Bellevue in which she decorated all out. She was hoping for a simpler life with just regular house keeping.

She was never a person who just gave up. She tried and exceeded in everything she did.

Christmas was a favorite time for her. She loved buying gifts and decorating her home til it was a Christmas Wonderland. Every nook and cranny was decorated with figurines, snow and garland. The grandkids would always come in with their eyes wide open and a smile on their faces.

Another great part of her was her humor. We all have had such a great time being around her and laughing so much. One moment of many comes to mind is when Sue was in the hospital and Sharlene and Diane went to visit. Sue was in a wheel chair and they were taking her to the cafeteria and were trying to get her into the elevator and Diane was the driver. Before we could get the wheelchair in the elevator, the doors would close with our mom alone in the car and we could hear her laughing all the way down in the elevator. People would look at her and I’m sure they thought she escaped from the crazy ward. Now this did not just happen once, twice or even 3 times. Lesson learned…Don’t put Diane in charge of wheel chairs.

She had also mentioned when she went to the eye doctor and she had found some glasses with googlie eyes and when the eye doctor came in she put them on and said “she had something wrong with her eyes. The doctor loved it.

As time passed on she began having trouble getting around and falling. Her children took turns taking care of her so she could stay at home. Unfortunately it got too much and out of our knowledge so she was placed at Alan’s son Steve and daughter-in-law Sierra’s house. Sierra had the expertise of taking care of the elderly and took great care of Sharlene until her final days. We can never thank Steve and Sierra enough for all the love and caring they gave her the last of her days.

Sharlene is survived by her children, Terrill Woziak and wife Sue of Omaha, Sherry Bunz of Omaha, Alan Woziak and wife Brenda of Tabor, IA, and Diane Coontz and husband Dean of Bellevue, NE; nine grandchildren; and nineteen great grandchildren who will greatly miss her. She lived a full and happy life in which she shared with her family. She will be greatly missed by all that knew her.