Bernice Teel

1/16/1927 — 1/6/2017

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Bernice Olene Teel was born Jan. 16, 1927, to Maggie Bell (Jenkins) Stapler and Amos Franklin Stapler on their family farm in north Alabama. She would say "Sweet home, Alabama, Lord I'm coming home to you," about her beautiful north Alabama. She died Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, at Lewiston.

She was raised in a large family, with five brothers and five sisters. She was proud to be a country girl growing up on a farm, with cotton being the chief crop. She enjoyed picking cotton. Throughout her life, she always had an arrangement of pictures of blooming cotton in her home.

She attended the Kate Duncan Smith DAR School in Grant, Ala. She often referred to her school as a warm blanket in her life, having had some wonderful teachers who taught her lasting values. As a young woman she had a variety of jobs, including working in a photo store and in a chenille factory.

In 1950, she was an employee of St. Marys Kraft in St. Marys, Ga., where she met Willard Teel. They were married Oct. 26, 1950, in Woodbine, Ga., and had been married 64 years at the time of Willard's death in 2014. Willard and Olene had one son, W. Alexander Teel, who was born in 1953. The Teels moved to Lewiston in 1963, when Willard took a job with Potlatch Forests Inc. They had many travel adventures with the Good Sams Club.

Olene loved nature, woods, rivers and mountains and delighted in gathering special rocks, shells, branches and leaves for decorative arrangements. One of her favorite creative activities was making floral table centerpieces and altar adornments for her church, Lewiston First United Methodist Church. There she taught fifth- and sixth-grade Sunday school for 10 years. She loved children. She was proud to be among the first to support the new church building on Broadview Drive in the late 1960s. She was a superb party planner and always practiced the customs of Southern hospitality.

Olene was known to friends and business associates of her son and husband as a superb Southern cook. Her meals were sometimes masterpieces that always brought pleasure to those at the table.

Olene was preceded in death by her husband, Willard; and all of her siblings - brothers Shirley Stapler, Carlton Stapler, Monroe Stapler, Amos Stapler and Neal Stapler, and sisters Minnie Jones, Tiny Burroughs, Lucille Troup, Gertrude Whitehead and Clodessa Troup.

She is survived by her son, W. Alexander "Buttons" Teel, for whose loving devotion she was so grateful, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Honoring Olene's request, there will be no funeral service.

Special thanks to Dr. Daniel McIntosh and his staff for years of care. Very special thanks also to Dr. John Mahal at Valley Medical Express Care Center; St. Joseph Family Hospice and Palliative Care staff; and Cathy Palin and the staff of Care Connection Home Care LLC, who shared Olene's final days.

Memorials may be made in Olene's name to: Dogs for the Deaf Inc., 10175 Wheeler Road, Central Point, OR 97502, (541) 826-9220; or St. Joseph Family Hospice, 1250 Idaho St., Lewiston, ID 83501, (208) 799-5275.

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