Jeannette Werthmuller Obituary

Jeannette Michel Werthmuller VIRGINIA BEACH, VA - Mrs Jeannette Michel Werthmuller, of Charleston SC, and McLean & Virginia Beach, VA passed away 26 September 2017. From a family residing in Charleston, SC since the 1700s, Jeannette is an alumna of the College of Charleston. After graduating from college at 19, where she earned a B.A. Degree and a teaching certificate, she completed dance and ballet instruction in Charleston and New York City. She then opened a dance studio in Charleston, where she taught ballet, tap dancing and ballroom dancing to include presenting her dancers at the historic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston SC. In 1940 she married Tom M. Trotti, then a Lieutenant USMC. He was killed in action as a 30 year old Lieutenant Colonel Battalion Commander in the 1945 WWll Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the most senior officers to die in that battle. Subsequently she managed and taught ballroom dancing at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio at the Hotel Del Coronado in Coronado (San Diego), California. Her students there included Hollywood actors/actresses, well known business men and women, and national dignitaries. She received several awards presented personally by Arthur Murray for her work there. She married then Lieutenant Commander USN Roy W. F. Werthmuller 5 June 1948 in Coronado, California. Roy, a Naval Academy graduate of the war shortened class of 1942, was a highly decorated (Silver Star) WWII submariner who as Executive Officer of the submarine USS Torsk (SS-489), navigated an underwater mine field to enter the Sea of Japan and helped Torsk sink the last two Japanese warships of that war. USS Torsk is currently a monument ship in Baltimore Maryland. She and Roy were loving parents to two sons as they traveled the world on their numerous Navy assignments (Washington,DC; San Diego; Norfolk; Portugal; and Turkey; among others. While assuming the duties of a senior Naval Officer's wife, she also participated in many civic activities to include working in the White House Communications Department in the President George H. W. Bush Administration, working with The Hospitality and Information Service (which helps foreign Diplomatic families in Washington D.C.), being President of the Alianza Iberio Americana Cultural Group, participating as an active member of the Washington, DC Capital Speakers Group, and being Director of the Hospitality Group at the Atlantic Shores Retirement Community. She is survived by two sons, Captain Roy "Skip" Werthmuller Jr, USN (ret) and Doctor W. Carey Werthmuller, his wife Warwick, and her two grand- daughters Anna and Erin. Services will be held for both Roy and Jeannette at Arlington National Cemetery June 18, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. Visit our guestbook at www.legacy.com/obituaries/ charleston