Esther R. Westbrook

Esther R. Westbrook, 95, of Moline, Illinois, died Tuesday, January 30, 2018, in UnityPoint Health - Trinity Rock Island.

A hospitality visitation is 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday in the Horizon Room at Trimble Pointe, 701 12th Street, Moline. Funeral services are 11 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home, with The Rev. Bill Adams officiating. Following the funeral, friends are invited to join the family at a luncheon at Trimble Pointe. Following the luncheon, burial will take place at the Wagner Cemetery in Louisa County, Iowa. Memorials may be made to Riverside United Methodist Church.

Esther was born July 24, 1922, in Brodhead, Wisconsin, to Godfried and Eda Binggeli, Laeser, and moved to Muscatine shortly thereafter where her father and mother bought a farm. After high school Esther went to work at the Pearl Button Factory in Muscatine. One of her sister's boyfriends set Esther up on a blind date with his brother who was home on leave from Army Air Corps basic training. Her blind date, Robert Wagner Westbrook, became her husband on June 15, 1944, in El Paso, Texas, just prior to his deployment to Seething England in the European Theater of WWII. After Robert returned home from WWII they moved to Ames, Iowa, where Robert finished his studies at Iowa State College and Esther worked on campus in the Duplication Department. After Graduation from Iowa State, Robert and Esther moved to Moline where she worked at Eagle Signal in the Central File Department. In 1958, she began a new career as a stay at home mom; one at which she thrived. In 1975, Esther acted on a lifelong dream to become a cosmetologist, a craft she perfected until retirement a couple years ago.

Esther was a Past-President of The Moline Jaycee-ettes, member of Riverside United Methodist Church, its various circles and Kings Daughters. Esther loved flowers and her various flower gardens around her house proved it. When not gardening, she loved to cook, bake, knit and play cards. She also loved music. She was a member of a small organ club. Every other week the club would rotate to a different member's home to play songs and socialize. She continued playing organ until the last. She realized the importance of staying active even after Robert's passing almost three years ago. She went to St Louis and watched the 100% solar eclipse, attended three family weddings in Wisconsin and one in Iowa, attended Cheese Days in Monroe, Wisconsin, attended her granddaughter's high school graduation in Tennessee, vacationed at Table Rock Lake, Missouri, to fish and sightsee and visited Starkville, Mississippi, to spend time with her other granddaughter.

Esther is survived by her son Terry Westbrook of Moline, and fiancé Jill McKenzie of Rotherham, UK; granddaughters, Margaret Westbrook of Starkville, Mississippi, and Elinor Westbrook of Knoxville, Tennessee; and brothers John Laeser and Robert Laeser, both of Muscatine. She was preceded in death by her parents, three older sisters and two younger brothers.

Esther's family invites friends to share stories and condolences at TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.