Carolyn "Cookie" Ruth Wiemer

Longtime SWFL resident, Navy brat, and grandmother Carolyn “Cookie” Wiemer returned to her ancestors on Thursday, October 16, 2025 after dying at home in Naples Park surrounded by her family. She was 82 years old.

Carolyn Ruth Wiemer, eldest daughter of Bruce Orvis and Shirley (Richards) Wiemer, was born June 16, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. She was preceded in death by her parents, and two husbands, Peter Jeffrey Bolton and Lawrence John Zurek.

The Wiemer family resided in Newark until 1956, when the the U.S. Navy needed their father in the Caribbean. They lived at the U.S. Naval Station in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, B.W.I. until 1959, when they returned to the U.S., to summer with maternal grandparents in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Then they were off to her father’s next assignment in southern California. In 1961, after graduating Escondido Union High School, she attended Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Her 2nd-great grandparents, Frederick Taylor and Louisa (McDougall) Hayes were pioneers of Estero, Florida. and buried in Fort Myers. In 1973, Cookie and her second husband Larry relocated the family to Fort Myers, where she raised her two daughters, and worked as an archivist librarian for the News-Press.

Carolyn was active on the Rape Guidance Council, and in 1978, she and friend Trudy Cutshell, founded ACT (Abuse, Counseling and Treatment). By July 1979 they opened the first spouse abuse shelter for victims of family violence in town. She was the President of Fort Myers National Organization for Women (NOW); a member of the Lee County Commission on the Status of Women, appointed by the Board of County Commissioners; and on the Advisory Board for the Women’s Center and Human Resources and Development at Edison Community College.

Carolyn always had a love for music, even being a college radio DJ…which was amplified on 12 February 1964, when she saw the Beatles at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Other favorites included the Dave Clark Five, the Rolling Stones, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Stevie Wonder, and War. She had a love for music, and disco dancing. Besides pop and rock, she loved surf, calypso, ska and reggae.

In her retirement, Cookie was an avid genealogist, and a member of the Caloosahatchee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She had a green thumb and was a garden warrior, who enjoyed tilling the earth and keeping a variety of native plants.

Cookie is survived by her daughters Deborah (Sam) Cahill, of Naples, and Rebecca (Brian) Adamiak, of Omaha, Nebraska; and grandchildren: Magnolia and Benton Cahill, and Aidan and Amelia Adamiak.

She is also survived by all her siblings: Fred (Lu) Wiemer, of Fort Myers Beach, Bill (Theresa) Wiemer of Fort Myers, and Janet Wolchko, of Point Pleasant; and many nephews and nieces in Florida, New Jersey, and New Hampshire including Kris (Flannery) Wiemer, Kurt Wiemer, Marc (Heather) Wiemer, Kim (Jim) Champine, and Jason (Christine) Parent; Julia Wolchko, and Alice (Matt) Smagacz.

In lieu of sending flowers, please make a donation to the wonderful caregivers and support staff at Avow Care Services, who made Cookie comfortable at home in her final months. We cannot possibly thank them enough.

A Celebration of Cookie's Life will be Saturday, November 15, 2025 from 1 - 4 pm at River Forest Community Association Clubhouse 13506 Island Rd. Fort Myers, FL 33905.