Hazel Hill Westendorff

Hazel Hill Westendorff, 102, widow of John David Westendorff, Sr., has gone home to be with her Lord. She passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family on the evening of November 27, 2018. Her Celebration of Life Service will be held Saturday, December 1, 2018 in Asbury-St. James United Methodist Church, 754 Rutledge Avenue at 11:00 a.m. Interment, Riverview Memorial Park. The family will receive friends Friday in J. Henry Stuhr, Inc. Downtown Chapel from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Hazel was the daughter of the late James Henry and Susan Browning Hill. She was a woman of deep faith, love, and compassion.

Hazel and her husband, Johnnie, were the proprietors of C.W. Westendorff and Son hardware store and oil company on the corner of St. Phillip and Warren Streets. It was a business started by his father that was vital to the war effort delivering rationed oil to the people of Charleston. After raising their children, she worked side by side with her husband in the business.

Hazel was a graduate of Memminger High School, class of 1935 and Rice Business College. She was still in possession of her Gregg Shorthand book. She was proud of the years she worked for Judge Holmes on Broad Street in her early life.

Hazel was a Sunday school teacher for over 50 years, sang in the church choir, and held almost every office in her church, Asbury-St. James UMC.
She still attended almost every Sunday and still went to the alter for communion. Hazel loved to dance and just recently showed some of her great-grandchildren where she once danced on the steps of high battery during a Charleston festival.

She had a life full of service to her community, which among many other groups, included the Red Cross even going back to making bandages at the Citadel at Marion Square for the war effort. Hazel was a girl scout leader for decades, involved with the boy scouts, a DeMolay mother, and faithful poll volunteer. She was a PTA president for all of her children, whose births spanned 20 years, giving her 34 years of volunteer service to the school system. She was a devoted advocate for special needs.

Hazel was a consummate hostess and her home was open for many clubs and organizations to which she belonged, including the Daughters of the Confederacy of which her mother was a charter member.

She is survived by five adoring children who will miss her everyday: Susan Bullock (Pat), Pamela Prestegard, Jamie Westendorff (Judy), Deborah Seifert all of Charleston and Kelly Powell (Horace) of Adams Run; 11 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren, the youngest being 9 weeks old and is her namesake.

Hazel is predeceased by her husband of 59 years; her son, John David Westendorff, Jr.; her parents; her sisters: Elma G. Hill and Mildred Millar; her brother, Ernest Hill; and most of her peers.

Flowers will be accepted or memorials made to Asbury-St. James UMC, 754 Rutledge Ave. Charleston, 29403.