Irene Elizabeth Worley

Irene Elizabeth Steen Worley, 93, died on April 15, 2026, in Manistique, MI. She is survived by her five children, Christine (Peter Hood) Worley, Gretchen Worley, Johanna (Richard Ekstrom) Worley, Rob (Gisele) Worley, and Peter (Jill) Worley; and many grandchildren and her sister, Sonja (Charlie) Blomster. She was preceded in death in 2016 by her husband of 63 years, Robert C. (Bob) Worley.

Irene was born on July 24, 1932, in Ludington, Michigan, to Reverend Otto H. Steen and Signy Svendsen Steen. After graduating high school in Escanaba, she attended nursing school in Chicago, where she met Bob, whom she married on December 27, 1952.  After raising her 5 children, Irene worked as a nurse in the Chicago Public Schools. She and Bob and their family lived in Chicago and Oak Park, IL spending summers and holidays at their cottage on Indian Lake in Manistique, MI.

A first-generation Norwegian American, Irene took wonderful care of her family and guests from around the world, embodying the Scandinavian sense of “hygge”—a word that evokes coziness and contentment—in her home and at the cottage. An accomplished pianist and organist, she instilled a love of music and art in her children and their children and children’s children. She also passed along her love of travel, undertaken with a sense of curiosity, humility, and openness to the world. In more than half a century together, she and Bob visited all seven continents. One of their last big trips was to Antarctica and South Georgia, a remote island in the South Atlantic where her father, a sailor as well as a Methodist minister, had once spent a winter.

Donations in Irene’s memory can be made to the Manistique Chamber Concert Society (PO Box 156, Manistique, MI, 49854).

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