Emily Chris Astle

Emily Christine GÇ£ChrisGÇ¥ Astle, of Fort Collins, passed away Thursday, March 2, 2006, at the Hospice Care Center of Larimer County at McKee Medical Center in Loveland after a year long battle with cancer. She was born May 24, 1933, to Isaac and Martha Wyckoff, of Fredonia, Kan. She graduated from Fredonia High in 1951, where she was crowned homecoming queen her senior year. Following graduation, she attended Newman Memorial Hospital Affiliated at Emporia State University and graduated with a degree in nursing in 1954. She then completed her registered nurses training at Menorah Medical Nursing Center in Kansas City, Mo., where she met her future husband, John Richard Astle, D.D.S., ret. She then went on to work at Wesley Hospital in Wichita, Kan., where she and J.R. were married in May 1957. For the last several years Chris returned every year to Fredonia for homecoming where she and her gal pals were in many a parade. After J.R. served two years at Edwards Air Force Base in California, they settled in Fort Collins in 1960 where J.R. set up a dental practice and she worked as an R.N. in the blood bank at Poudre Valley Hospital. She also worked as an R.N. in a private practice for a short time in Fort Collins, as well. She loved nursing and was proud to call herself a registered nurse. Christine was a longtime recreational tennis player right up to the time of her diagnosis, and generous supporter of the Larimer Humane Society. Gone before her are both parents and older siblings, Mary, Leon, Martha and Bill Wyckoff. She is survived by her husband, J.R.; son, Kevin; daughter, Marcell; daughter and son-in-law, Joy and Jim Santner; and two grandchildren, Emily and Nicole. A funeral will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Bohlender Funeral Chapel. Interment will be in Laurel Cemetery in Haven, Kan. Bohlender Funeral Chapel is handling the arrangements.