Charlotte Rustin Cassels

COLUMBIA - A funeral service for Charlotte Rustin Cassels, 88, will be held at 3:00 p.m. Sunday, November 4, 2018 at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends following the service at the church in Thompson Hall. A private burial will be held in Greenlawn Memorial Park.

Mrs. Cassels died Thursday, November 1, 2018. Born on May 17, 1930 in Greenville, SC, she was a daughter of the late Wallace Daniel Rustin and Katherine Charlotte Rustin.

She moved to Columbia at an early age and was educated in the city schools, graduating from Columbia High in 1947. She graduated from Brenau College in Gainesville, GA in 1951. While there, she was president of her sorority, Tri-Delta, editor of her senior annual, on the Dean’s List, member of the Senior Honor Society, and of Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges.

Two months following graduation, she married her childhood sweetheart, William T. Cassels, Jr. on August 11, 1951. On the last day of their honeymoon, they reported for active duty in the U.S. Army. While he was deployed, she worked as a secretary. Following his discharge, she began a lifetime commitment to her church, her family and to young people.

Always possessing a zest for the unusual, she enjoyed various activities. When the family was young, there were many camping weekends. In later years, there were numerous trips to the Bahamas with her husband on their boat, where they were often joined by the rest of the family. She was a licensed pilot and one of the first female members of the Columbia YMCA, appearing in TV interviews to encourage other women to join. There were many moments of joy from being with her friends in her bridge club, garden club, and especially those with whom she played social and league tennis.

She was a member of Rose Hill Presbyterian Church for 25 years and was very active, serving as Sunday School teacher, president of the Women of the Church, and leading a Brownie Troop of Girl Scouts, and a Cub Scout group of Boy Scouts. Along with her family, she joined Eastminster Presbyterian Church in 1975. There she again led a group of Cub Scouts from Carolina Children’s Home. She was active in many parts of the Church’s ministry including such things as VBS teacher, chair of Congregational Care Committee, District Shepherd, Sunday School teacher, Elder, and Co-Chair of Capital Campaign to build the Christian Life Center. Her great joy was Bible teaching and to better prepare herself, she undertook an intense two-year study of the Bible to become a Bethel Bible Instructor, and then led others through two-year courses of the study of the Bible.

Surviving are her husband, William Tobin Cassels, Jr.; her children, Katherine Cassels Wolfe (Jack) and William Tobin Cassels, III (Pat) both of Columbia; four grandchildren, Katherine Wolfe Wallace (Jason) of Charlotte, N.C., Marie Wolfe Lord (Westin) of Charleston, S.C., Jack William Wolfe, Jr. (Bailey) of Charlotte, N.C. and Rustin Rae Cassels of Columbia, S.C.; and two great-grandchildren, Katherine Charlotte Wallace and Brawley Elizabeth Wallace of Charlotte, N.C.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her sister, Mary Alice Rustin Brown and her grandson, William Tobin Cassels, IV.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 3200 Trenholm Road, Columbia, SC 29204; or Toby’s Place, P. O. Box 7697, Columbia, SC 29202.

Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is assisting the family.

Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.