Charlene Pasquale

Charlene Stevens Pasquale, beloved wife, mother and grandmother, died Aug. 16, 2025, at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, four days shy of her 74th birthday. A longtime resident of Mount Kisco and later Fishkill, New York, the lifelong teacher gave her family, friends and students a pure lesson of a life lived in love.

Born in Newburgh on Aug. 20, 1951, Charlene made her way through the Newburgh schools and Mount Saint Mary College. She lived a simply wonderful life with her husband, Christopher Pasquale, her daughters, Sarah and Julia, and the wider Pasquale and Stevens families.

On May 1, 1977, she first met her future husband at a softball game. A whirlwind romance followed. They married six months later, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, a union that lasted more than 47 years.

Hers was an active kind of love, a love that blossomed when her daughters were born. It's no surprise they landed in the professions they chose. Sarah, a pediatric emergency physician, and Julia, an elementary school literacy coach, were instilled with a desire to help children, as they grew up witnessing their mother's relentless passion for doing the same. She was a role model to her daughters in demonstrating how to achieve career success while treating others with generosity, compassion, and respect. Above all, she was their best friend and biggest supporter.

Charlene had always been close to her brothers, Gary and James Charles ("J.C.") and she found a new tribe in the Pasquales, a loud and loving Italian clan where regular family gatherings drew dozens and the dessert table was something to behold. Her sisters-in-law - Carol, Juliet, Angela, Laura, Janis and Carla - became her sisters. As children were welcomed, they were adored by "Aunt Char."

She graduated early from Mount Saint Mary College in 1972. Somers soon hired Charlene to teach sixth-graders reading and English. She spent 35 years in Somers and worked with countless students, retiring in 2007.

After retirement, she turned to tutoring, both for Manhattanville College and for high-schoolers looking to sharpen their writing to prepare for the SAT and ACT, often volunteering her time to do so. The voracious reader always had books to recommend and authors to discuss. She nurtured this love of reading in her daughters, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

In 1969, Charlene gave birth to a son who was placed for adoption. In 2020, she reconnected with him-Jerry Stokes of Texas-through Ancestry.com, ending decades of worry and wonder. Their connection meant a great deal to her.

She was predeceased by her parents, Shirley (nee Van Duren) and Charles Stevens, and by her cherished sister-in-law, Carol Stevens. She is survived by her husband, Christopher Pasquale, of Fishkill; daughters Sarah Cascone (Jason) of Katonah, New York, and Julia Osei (Patrick) of East Meadow, New York; grandsons Miles Osei, Oliver Osei and Daniel Cascone; her brothers, Gary Stevens (Angela) of Charlottesville, Virginia, and James "J.C." Stevens (Juliet) of Chili, New York; and 10 nieces and nephews.

Char also made friends wherever she went and valued these connections deeply.

"Charlene ardently wanted a family, a happy life, children, a marriage that worked, and she did everything in her power to achieve it," her husband said. When she began to see it taking shape, when her girls were starting elementary school and making friends and having sleepovers, "she began to recognize that the life she had dreamed of was actually coming true and those were very happy times."

"She had more courage than people could imagine, making her own life," her husband said. "She wanted to be loved and to love and by that criteria, there aren't a lot of people that had a more successful life than Char."

A memorial service is planned for October 4.