Corene Trevelyn Johnston

Corene Trevelyn Johnston July 22, 1943 - April 4, 2010 Corene Trevelyn Johnston died April 4, 2010, at Mount Nittany Medical Center. She was born on 22 July, 1943 in Muskegon Mich., the daughter of Barbara Lundborg Johnston and Trevelyn Paul Johnston. She grew up in their little house in the woods in Laketon Township with her younger brother, Kendrick, and attended Giles, Laketon Central and North Muskegon High Schools. At various stages of her life, she attended Bronson Hospital School of Nursing and Western Michigan University, both in Kalamazoo, Mich., Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md., and The Pennsylvania State University, collecting credentials as a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner, a Reiki practitioner, and a Bachelor of Science in biological health. As a young, single woman, she bought an old house in a tiny Appalachian village and took on the guardianship of a teenager. She also started a 4-H Club there and befriended many of the kids in the village. In addition to her clinical work specializing in women's health care, she pursued a lifelong career as a part-time writer, doing food articles, the "hard" news coverage of a small town, a regular rural-life column and publishing a number of poems. Her writing won several awards. Corene was one of the first audio describers for the Sight Loss Support Group of Central Pennsylvania. She was co-founder of the Bellefonte Poetry Collective. In the 1980s, Corene directed, produced and acted for the Project for the Performing Arts (PPA) in Bellefonte. She survived five episodes of breast cancer, and co-founded Centre County's first breast cancer support group. For the last half of her life, she resided at Champagne Cork Farm, a little Appalachian hollow, with her husband, John Haag, cats, dogs, goats, chickens, deer, raccoons, bears and a small garden. Her favorite beverages were champagne and coffee. She was married three times, to Ronald J. Klauda, Jim Kattner and John Haag. She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Ken and Kathleen Johnston; nieces, Molly and Arissa Johnston, Amy Mills-Plummer, Mary Polak and Athea Herbstritt; nephews, Pat and Brian Johnston, Stefan Polak, Mike Summerson, Jake and Levi Moser; and a large family of friends and animals. A celebration of her life will be held on June 5, 2010, at the Centre County Library in Bellefonte at 5:30 p.m. Memorial contributions can be made to the Johnston-Haag Fund of the Centre County Library, 200 North Allegheny Street, Bellefonte, PA 16823 or to Centre County PAWS, 1401 Trout Road, State College, PA 16801. Arrangements by Wetzler Funeral Service Inc., in Bellefonte.