Page created by: Regina Voorhees

Charley Mae Meadows Roden was born on February 6, 1932 to Aaron Cecil and Ola Mae Honea Meadows in Siloam, Texas. An as only child, Charley was the center of her parents’ world and although she was named after both of her grandfathers, she was referred to as “the baby” by her mother and “the kid” by her father throughout their lives. Charley grew up in Simms and graduated from James Bowie High School where she was a basketball player and majorette.

After initially attending Baylor University, Charley transferred to East Texas State Teachers College (now East Texas A&M University) where she graduated in 1952 with her Bachelor of Science. Upon graduation, she worked for the County Superintendent’s Office in the Bowie County Courthouse. Charley married James Roden on April 11, 1952 and welcomed daughters Regina in 1954 and Kerry in 1956. When their family started to grow, James and Charley moved to DeKalb where James taught Vocational Agriculture at DeKalb ISD and Charley taught at Hubbard School. In 1964, Charley earned her Master’s in Education at East Texas State College (now East Texas A&M). Charley, James, Regina, and Kerry moved to Denton in 1968 where Charley resided for the remainder of her life. That year, she began teaching English in Lewisville ISD at Delay Middle School and went on to teach English at Hedrick Middle School and Business Computer Information Systems at Lewisville High School, as well as Driver’s Education, until her first retirement in 1992. Charley then took a job in HR at Peterbilt where she worked for several years until she was recruited to come out of retirement and return to LISD to teach Business Computer Information Systems at Marcus High School until she retired for the final time in 2006.

Charley loved being a teacher and developed special relationships with her students and colleagues. Even into her final years, Charley would tell stories about various students she had throughout her career and recount special memories with colleagues who had become lifelong friends. She was a firm, but empathetic teacher and her students always knew where they stood with her even though she notoriously called them by their last names. This had become a necessity once she reached the point where she was teaching the siblings and even the children of former students. As a student of Charley’s you knew to expect rules and consequences, but you also learned to expect a stack of Rolos candy to help you through an exam. As a grammarian and a book lover, you could count on Charley to edit your writing and recommend a good book. She often read books aloud to her students, but when she read Where the Red Fern Grows, she would have a student ready to take over reading when she got to the parts that made her cry. Charley’s love of reading and teaching extended beyond the classroom and into her grandchildren’s and great-grandchildren’s lives. She regularly read to all of them and taught all four grandkids how to drive.

Charley loved life and lived it to the fullest through her social groups, travels, and adventures with family and friends. She belonged to, and served in active leadership roles in, Delta Kappa Gamma, Lions Club, American Association of University Women, Cuisine group, and the First United Methodist Church Bungalow Sunday School class. She spent time laughing and socializing with the Wild Bunch (teacher friends), her Peterbilt softball team (she played catcher), and her neighborhood group. Charley traveled throughout North America, but her favorite trips were to Alaska, Hawaii, and Mexico. And everywhere she traveled, she sought out some new adventure whether it was a 60th birthday hot air balloon ride, parasailing and jet skiing in Florida, swimming with dolphins, taking a helicopter ride to a glacier, or ziplining Mt. Hood at 80. Because of all this and more, Charley was the fun grandma. Charley’s house was where the grandkids went for sleepovers that included burnt pizza and nachos for dinner and donuts and Dr. Pepper for breakfast with a rated R movie or two thrown in the mix. Once her great-grandkids came along, Charley was able to spend time helping to take care of them as babies and later attend their games, recitals, and other activities. Charley was fun and funny – always ready with a new joke and a tacky greeting card. Everyone loved to be around her and her contagious laugh.

Charley passed away on March 15, 2025. She is preceded in death by her parents, Aaron Cecil and Ola Mae Meadows, friend and former husband, James Roden, and son-in-law, Herschel Voorhees. She is survived by her two daughters and son-in-law, Regina Voorhees, and Kerry and Scott Norton; four grandchildren, Kathy (and Mike) Dixon, Marc Voorhees, Cole (and Madison) Norton, and Garren (and Alex) Norton; five great-grandchildren, Michael Dixon, Caroline Dixon, Liam Norton, Waylon Norton, and Blake Norton; sister-in-law, Nadra Roden Thompson; nephew Alan Thompson; caregivers Maria Torres and Rosa Roman; ten first cousins; and many, many extended family members and friends.