Michele Ann Forest, 67, of Red Oak, and formerly of Cherokee, passed away Saturday, May 24, 2025, at Red Oak Rehab and Care Center.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, June 2, at Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee. Father Dan Guenther will officiate. Burial will be at Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Cherokee. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.greenwoodfuneral.com.
Michele Ann Forest was born on June 10, 1957, in Canton, S.D., to Duane and Eleanor (Knutson) Forest. She passed away on May 24, 2025, at Red Oak Rehabilitation Center in Red Oak, Iowa, after a lengthy illness.
Michele moved to Cherokee from Inwood with her family in 1963, where she lived until 1967. In 1969 she was enrolled in St. Coletta School in Jefferson, Wis., where she graduated in 1976. Michele spent most of her life in group homes for the intellectually disabled. She lived many of her years at a group home at Pacific Junction, until they closed in 2015. She and her longtime roommates Joyce and Merna moved to Glenwood and then to Shenandoah in 2016, until her health required a move to the Red Oak Rehabilitation Center in the fall of 2024.
Michele liked to run, swim and bowl and earned many ribbons for swimming in Special Olympics. She loved a good rodeo and to drop a few dollars at the casino. Later in life she enjoyed working on puzzles and coloring books. Michele was always very social and she loved to help others. Most of all she loved her bears, especially her favorite companion, Lori Bear.
Michele was preceded in death by her parents, Duane and Eleanor Forest; stepmother Betty Forest; grandparents: Olaf and Blanche Knutson and Hans and Geneva Forest; nephew Josh Carney; several aunts, uncles and cousins.
She is survived by her siblings: Michael (Suzanne) Forest of Columbia, Md.; Linda (Paul) Cuthrell of Peterson; Bruce (Mary) Forest of Park Hills, Mo.; and step-sister Sally (Dennis) Carney of Des Moines; 10 nieces and nephews; and 10 great-nieces and nephews; along with aunts and uncles: Mavis and Ron Greenwood of Merrimack, N.H.; John and Lyla Severson of Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Roger Knutson of Sioux Falls, S.D.; along with numerous cousins.
