Arlene Conley

Arlene Elsie Wagner Conley
Born May 17, 1936, Hermantown, Minnesota
Died July 27, 2012, Cedar Park, Texas

Arlene was born in Hermantown, Minnesota and graduated from Hermantown High School, class of 54, then completed her Bachelor's degree at the University of Duluth.

After college she broke new ground by becoming one of the first five female police officers in the state of Minnesota. She then enrolled into the U.S. Army, as a Lieutenant of the Women's Army Corps, where she met the love of her life Charles Patrick Conley, in Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

They married in 1962, on a three day pass from the Army in Tombstone, Arizona. Then the newly married couple decided to call St. Louis, Mo. home, where she gave birth to her first child, a daughter Kim born in 1963. Little brother Shawn came to this world fourteen months later in August 1964. Eventually, the Conleys moved west to Seattle, then Greenville, Texas, then Littleton, Colorado and eventually settled in north Texas where Arlene enjoyed most of her post military life as a dietitian in area hospitals and nursing facilities while Pat worked in aerospace design.

Twenty one years after calling Texas home, Pat passed away... Arlene decided to open her home and heal her heart by hosting foreign exchange students from Hungary, Brazil and Malaysia where she discovered the joy of hosting students from around the world.

Eventually Arlene's health began to suffer as she spend several years fighting complications of diabetes. Her declining health brought her closer to her children in Cedar Park near Austin, Texas where she eventually succumbed to complications of her disease on July 27, 2012.

Today Arlene is in the arms of God and has reunited with her life long partner and husband Pat, her mom Elsie Wagner and brother Ray Wagner.

Those of us she has left behind mourn her loss, but praise her release. Those of us remaining are her son Shawn Conley, daughter Kim Conley-Garcia of Lake Travis, brothers Bud and Roger Wagner and all her nieces and nephews from the Wagner side still living in Minnesota, and the Conleys in Missouri.

Arlene's family wishes to thank everone who cared and loved her the last years of her life, especially the caring staff at Sagebrook nursing facility in Cedar Park, Tx.,