Adelaide "Addie-Lou" Wahlert Cawood

Adelaide "Addie-Lou" Wahlert Cawood passed away peacefully at home with her husband Hobie on January 14, 2025.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 22, 1930, to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wahlert. After a year in high school, the family moved to Crestwood, New York, and she graduated from Roosevelt High School (1948) in Yonkers. Addie-Lou was the first in her family to attend college and graduated from Bryn Mawr College (1952). After graduation, she continued to work for eight years in the Bryn Mawr College Chemistry Department as a lab assistant.

Through the Philadelphia Junior League, she became a part of a volunteer guide program at Independence National Historical Park. This was a commitment that she continued for 27 years and where she met her husband Hobie. In 1972, she joined with others in founding the Friends of Independence National Historical Park (now the Independence Historical Trust), an organization that had great success in assisting the National Park Service.

Addie-Lou was everyone’s best friend. Her friendships came from her infancy and continued throughout her life. Dancing was her joy beginning at three years of age and continued as a senior performer with “The Snappy Tappers”.

She is survived by a loving family, husband Hobart (Hobie) Cawood; daughter, Antoinette (Toni) Butterfield (husband Mark Butterfield); two granddaughters, Allie Butterfield and Hannah Butterfield all of Sugar Hill, New Hampshire; son, Stephen Cawood (wife Kassi Cawood); and two grandsons, Michael Cawood and Andrew Cawood, all of Louisville, Kentucky.

A Memorial Service will be held on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 11:00 a.m., at the Centenary United Methodist Church, Winston Salem. Those attending should enter the church by way of 4 ½ Street. Parking is available near the church entrance. 

A graveside service will be held at the Middlesboro Cemetery in Middlesboro, Kentucky, at 11:00 a.m., on what would have been her 95th birthday, February 22, 2025, with Pastor Chuck Schroll presiding, followed by a reception. 

In lieu of flowers, if you choose, please make a memorial gift to Historic St George's United Methodist Church, America's oldest Methodist church in continuous service since 1769. Hobie and Addie-Lou were married here in 1977 (https://www.historicstgeorges.org/). 

Condolences may be shared online at www.cawoodfh.com.  Cawood Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements in Middlesboro, Ky.

Cawood Funeral Home is honored to be of service to the family of one of our very own.