Caroline Mae Gatrost , 95 of Chandler, Arizona, formerly of Cherokee, Iowa passed away on September 4, 2024, due to cancer.

Graveside memorial services will be held on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 1:30 p.m. at Oak Hill Cemetery in Cherokee, Iowa.

Pastor Jeff Harris will officiate.  T he Boothby Funeral Home of Cherokee, Iowa is assisting the family with arrangements.

Caroline was born to Henry and Emma Edmand on April 6, 1929.

She attended Ames High School, graduating 1947. She then attended

Stephenson College in Columbia, Missouri and graduating in 1949.

She married Claude Everett Gatrost on June 27, 1951, at the Methodist

Church in Ames, Iowa. Shortly after, they moved three times before

settling in Cherokee, Iowa in 1964. She worked as a piano instructor

from 1958 to 2003. Caroline enjoyed her students very much!

Her hobbies included playing the piano, organ, doing the Des Moines

Register paper crossword puzzles, and with her husband, fishing,

golfing, and reading.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Claude Gatrost,

her daughter, Claudia Pickens, son David Gatrost, and granddaughter,

Emery Kay Stimpel.

Left to cherish Caroline's memory is her son, Mark and his wife, Roxanne

Gatrost of Chandler, Arizona, Rob Pickens of Vermillion, South Dakota,

grandchildren, Cameron Gatrost, Joshua Gatrost, Katie Stimpel, and

Christopher Gatrost, and seven great grandchildren.

She will be laid to rest in The Oak Hill Cemetery with her husband, Claude,

daughter, Claudia, and her son, David.