Noni Troester

‘Noni’ Troester, age 94, of Hampton, passed away Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Memorial Community Care in Aurora. 
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, August 1 at the Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 209 South 16th Street, Aurora. Rev. Tim Wells will officiate. Burial will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Salem Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, July 31 at the church. Memorials may be made in care of the family to designate at a later date. Higby-McQuiston Mortuary is in charge of the arrangements. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family at the mortuary website at www.higbymortuary.com. The service will be livestreamed on the Cross of Christ Lutheran Aurora Facebook page.
Dear Friends, the time has come for me to bid this complicated old world and all my remaining relatives and friends “Adieu”.   It’s been 94 years of fun and laughter, heartaches and tears, but nothing to complain about.   I always knew I had God on my side and I depended on him a lot.   I also think it’s time to give my guardian angel a vacation.   I was a child of the “dirty thirties”, born on August 15, 1931 on a farm about 4 miles south of Aurora in Hamilton County, Nebraska, to Cyrus Eugene and Carrie Mae VanWormer Carlson.   My parents had 3 children: Gloria, Donna and Warren “Red” when I appeared on the scene 6 years later.   Two more followed me, Carrolyne and Gerald Richard “Dick”.   Around 1935 the family moved into Aurora where my dad became caretaker of the Aurora Country Club and golf course as well as helping my grandfather J.H. VanWormer with his construction business.   I attended East Ward School (where East Park Villa stands) until a move to 418 N Street and I joined the 6th grade at the West Ward.  Then it was Junior High and High School in the Old but elegant High School building.   I enjoyed typical high school years, but also had to work to earn spending money.   Babysitting, cleaning houses, a paper route, Pete Pedersen Creamery and Fred Wilmot shoe shop.   My Uncle Van owned the Little Owl Diner and I helped him there too.   After graduation in 1949 I was receptionist for Dr. A.G. Zuspan until my marriage to Melvin P. Troester on Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951 and I became a farm wife and mother to 3 children, Douglas, Damaris and Dallas.   We led a full life on the farm.   In 1975 we bought the grocery store in Hampton from Sall Wall and moved into town.   In later years I also baked at the Red & White grocery, worked at Ben Franklin, Village Square Mall, cooked at Hampton Lutheran School and Petal Patch Floral (part-time) in Hampton.   Took part in many community and church activities.   I also sold Avon for several years and wrote the Hampton Community News for the Aurora News-Register for approximately 40 years.   Together Mel and I kept the Legion Club open as managers for 2 years until a more permanent manger was chosen.   I enjoyed a variety of crafts in my spare time mostly painting and raising gourds, finding old dolls and giving them a bath and new clothes, gardening, baking, decorating, reading, sewing and any kind of craft.   I also enjoyed junk jaunts and garage sales.   I loved my family and friends and getting together for coffee and family times.   We made many trips as a family or a twosome.  I was a 75-year member of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Hampton until its closing in 2025 when I joined Cross of Christ in Aurora.   In 2021 I was awarded “Admiral of the Navy” for my 90th birthday.  Mel passed away on July 2, 2000 and a new life began.  Family, friends and hobbies filled the gap.   
I was preceded in death by my parents, husband, son Doug,1 infant boy Gary Paul, and 3 unnamed children, 3 sisters Gloria Christian, Donna Taylor and Carrolyne Wolff, brothers Warren Eugene “Red” Carlson and Gerald Richard “Dick” Carlson and many close friends and other relatives. 
Those left to remember me are daughter Damaris (Mark) Olsen and son Dallas Troester, grandchildren, Gabriel Troester, Kylie (Mike) Way, Brett (Erin) Olsen, Micheala Olsen, Shelby (Spencer) Popple and Libby Troester; great-grandchildren, Bailey (Nick) Hamburger, Tristan Richman, Treagan Way, Brooks and Reid Olsen, Brooklyn and Harper Popple, 1 great-great-grandson, Luka Hamburger, many great and great-great nieces and nephews who are also special to me.   I leave you with one parting thought. “I’d like to linger longer, but I can no longer linger.”