Carol Jean Stoker

   Carol Jean Stoker (88) Passed away peacefully on January 1^st, 2024, with her loving family at her side, in Des Moines, Iowa.

   Born in Pasadena California on August 16^th, 1935, to Justine and James Alsen Stoker, Carol lived her young life around the orange groves of southern California in Arcadia with her brother Phillip along with aunts, uncles, and grandparents that she loved.

   Carol married Norman Norris in 1951 and had her daughter Sharon before he passed away in 1958. After a brief modeling career, Carol met and married Robert Steinberger moving from California to Oklahoma, then New Mexico and having her two sons. She then focused on raising her three children, moving to Colorado and on to New Jersey.

   Carol was a joyful, kind person that loved life with an adventurous spirit. She studied interior design at Lasalle and became an expert gardener along the way. She attended Rutgers at the Livingston campus and graduated from the school of social work with a bachelor’s degree. Divorced from Robert, she worked in New York city and Washington DC in social programs for state and federal agencies then moved from Northern Virginia to Paoli Pennsylvania to study and become a real estate agent, then broker.

   Carol retired to Williamsburg Virginia living near her daughter, Sharon and developed a mastery of genealogy, traveled the world in search of sources and documented her ancestry back to the 1400’s. She loved her children and grandchildren and sponsored travel for each of them to enrich their lives.

   Carol’s life was informed by an innate sense of curiosity finding joy in new and unexpected places until the very end.

   Carol is survived by her brother Phillip of Georgia, sons Matthew Steinberger and his wife Tanya Sprague of Alaska and James and his wife Wanita Steinberger of Iowa, her Grandchildren Justin, Christina and husband Daniel Yeager, Melinda and Trevor Steinberger and her great grandchildren Tatum and Emrey Yeager of Iowa, and her many loyal friends of Williamsburg Virginia and across the country. Carol was predeceased by her daughter Sharon Norris of Williamsburg Virginia.

   A funeral service will be held Friday, January 5, 2024 at 10:30 a.m. at Lutheran Church of Hope (Chapel), 925 Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines, IA.  Interment to follow at Oakdale Cemetery in Adel, Iowa.

   Ernst Funeral & Cremation Services of Waukee has been entrusted with Carol's final arrangements.