Audrey Scharmen

It was a long winding road that led Audrey Yvonne Scharmen to the Chesapeake Bay area of Lusby, Md. Born in Topeka, Kansas in 1927, the oldest daughter of 8 siblings and the granddaughter of pioneers and Swedish immigrants, she weathered the Great Depression in the heart of the Dust Bowl. Learning to read the daily newspaper under her father’s guidance at a very early age, Audrey developed a life-long passion for reading and writing. She quit school as a teenager to go to work to help her family make ends meet but by the end of her life she had ‘traveled the world’ through her love of reading books. Just after WWII, she met her future husband Merrill while working at the Topeka Base Exchange. He had just finished flying thirty-five missions in the European theatre in support of D-Day. They married in 1946 and began their journey of 70 years together. Starting out in Detroit, MI; they lived in Fort Worth, Texas; Roswell, New Mexico spending many years in the dust of the desert as Merrill flew with the Strategic Air Command in the 50’s. As a military wife during the Cold War, Audrey raised her children on her own during long stretches of time and volunteered with the close community on base. She managed to enrich her creative endeavors in the arts, including hosting a radio show and participating in fund raising variety shows. She studied painting and music. She taught herself to play Mozart and Chopin with her kids jumping all over her, and she could sing some seriously sultry jazz. 1963 took the family to Montgomery, Alabama witnessing the brutal turmoil of the civil rights movement. Then it was off to Riverside, California into the heart of the 60’s. Audrey immersed herself in painting seascapes and florals and volunteered at the local community youth center. Simultaneously in 1968, her eldest son and husband went off to Vietnam. Weathering every detail in the news, they both returned safely to her. 1969 took the family to Washington DC for 8 years and then eventually, a retirement in Calvert County, Maryland in 1978. She enjoyed exploring the region through boating with her husband and friends, wrote a weekly column, ‘Bay Reflections’ for the Bay Weekly Times for over a decade - now a cherished collection for her family’s keepsake. She published award-winning stories and photography of local flora and fauna, mastered the medium of pastel in which she captured many a portrait of her dear grandchildren with their beloved pets. Witnessing events spanning the 9 decades of her life gave her a well-spring of material that inspired her writing and art. Audrey was ever aware of her blessed life amidst the strife of an ever-changing world and processed it through her creativity. One month before her death, she reminded us that she had watched the newsreels of WWII in the movie theaters as a young teenager. (See ‘Five Came Back’ on Netflix.) “I have certainly seen a lot”, she said. Audrey passed away in the arms of family on February 17, 2017- two days before her 90th birthday. She was blessed with four children: Kim, Tom, Deborah and Margaret; 13 grandchildren and two great-granddaughters: John, Fred, Frank, Adria, Pablo, Selah, Becky, Lisa, Hank, Sarah, Becca, Will, Marta, Leah and Gwendolyn. She is survived by a last living sibling, her sister Judy Longstaff of Topeka, Kansas. Audrey’s final resting place is beside her husband in Arlington National Cemetery. Memorial donations can be made to Calvert Nature Society at http://www.calvertparks.org/Donate-research