Coletta Elizabeth Corwin

Coletta Elizabeth Corwin, known to many as Mom, Colette, Coli, and Grandma Coli, was born at home on a 160-acre Nebraska farm to Joseph A. Zavadil and Julia J. Goeden Zavadil. Growing up alongside her sister Mary Ann, four years her senior, she learned the values of hard work, resilience, and a deep respect for nature while helping with housework, farm chores, and the seasonal demands of planting, weeding, and harvesting. These formative years instilled in her a lifelong appreciation for the changing seasons and the interconnectedness of all living things.

Colette attended a small parochial elementary school, a denominational women’s high school, and later college, where she majored in home economics and education. After teaching for a year at a small high school in South Dakota, she pursued a master’s degree in English literature at Marquette University in Milwaukee. She later taught at a women’s college in Kansas before returning to Milwaukee to work as a home economist in the test kitchen at John Oster Manufacturing Company.

In 1970, Colette married Stan Corwin, and together they embarked on a life of adventure and travel, moving across the country and forming lasting friendships along the way. From Liverpool, NY, to Chesapeake, VA, followed by Sunnyvale, CA; Raleigh, NC; and Summerville, NJ, their journey continued to Cleveland, OH, where they lived for eight years before Stan’s retirement in 1995. Seeking warmth, they spent winter months in Nokomis, FL, before settling there permanently and later moving to Alva, FL, to cultivate their love of gardening on a larger scale. Eventually, they relocated to Asheville, NC, and finally to Madison, WI, to be near Colette’s sister, Mary Ann and her husband Emmett.

Throughout their many homes, Colette found joy in the outdoors and exploring the natural beauty of each locale. She maintained her deep-rooted connection to nature and fostered a growing awareness of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Her beliefs were further enriched by the wisdom of Indigenous teachings, emphasizing the oneness and interconnectedness of all creation. She held firm to the belief that what we do to Mother Nature, we do to ourselves.

Colette is survived by her children, David (Anne) Corwin, Lisa (Antonio) Cepeda, Timon (Rachel) Corwin, along with her 11 grandchildren, Agustín, Anik, Alexa, Marco, Allie, Madeline, Andrew, Timothy, Felix, Emma and Oscar, and two great granddaughters Soren and Maxine Corwin. She is also remembered by her nieces, Rose and Eva (Michael Moon) Schulte, and nephews, Ben (Anna Gitman), Mike (Yolanda Torres), Paul (Tashi Kessler), and John (Sharonann Madl) Schulte and their families.

Colette’s love for the outdoors and nature, her desire for spiritual connections, and her deep commitment to sustainability will live on through the many lives she touched and the earth she so deeply cherished.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Colette’s memory would be greatly appreciated to the Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens or by planting a tree through Cress Memorial in a forest in need of reforestation. A single tree provides oxygen for four people annually; ten trees provide oxygen for forty.

Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens, P.O. Box 5116, Madison, WI 53705

Cress Funeral & Cremation Services 3610 Speedway Rd., Madison, WI 53705

Burial to be at Natural Path Sanctuary in Verona, WI.

Please share your memories of Colette by posting on her Tribute Wall.

Cress Funeral Home

3610 Speedway Road Madison

(608) 238-3434