Woon Yin Chin Bouttenot Obituary (1943 - 2022)

Woon Yin Chin Bouttenot, 79, died Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, among the gardens she loved in Fairfield. A service will be held at 5 pm Sunday, Nov. 13 in the Sanctuary of the Golden Magnolia Sanctuary, 200 S. Main St, the former First Presbyterian Church. Memorials to the family may be sent care of Cranston Famiily Funeral Home, P.O. Box 189, Fairfield, IA 52556. Friends may leave online condolences at www.cranstonfamilyfuneralhome.com. Woon Yin was born July 26, 1943, in Malacca, Malaysia to Chin Sai Cheong and Wong Pit Yong. She married Rick Wiedner in 1975, who died in 1978. She then married Marc Bouttenot Aug 31, 1993. Woon Yin grew up in Malaysia and immigrated to the US in 1973 to study art in Toledo, OH. She met her long-time partner Carl Eklund and they had three children. Together, they worked in their commercial greenhouse in Tecumseh, MI. She moved to Fairfield in 1980 to join the Transcendental Meditation movement, working in the kitchen to feed MIU faculty and staff. Ever a plant lover, she cultivated and sold large succulent and cactus arrangements in her backyard greenhouse as well as establishing a small landscaping company called Plant Art, through which she cared for many home gardens. Plant Art also did interior plant design and maintenance for local businesses. She retired in 2017. In her later years, she enjoyed traveling and spending time with family and her grandchildren. She brought joy to many with her artistic plant designs, fine and generous cooking and giving and compassionate nature. She is survived by her husband Marc; two brothers Woon-Kin Chin and Robin Gresham Chin of Oaklyn, NJ and Woon-Sein Chin of Ann Arbor, MI; two sisters, Woon-Ping Chin and Duncan Holaday of Rochester, VT and Woon-Sin Chin and Glen Vanderbeck of Asbury Park, NJ; and three daughters, Chloe and Jason Hennesy of Fairfield, Agnes Eklund of Lawrence, KS and Sonja Eklund and Stephen McClellan of Worcester, NY; and six grandchildren, Zef and Felix Hennesy, Aurora Eklund-Deal and Signe Eklund and Liam and Lyca McClellan. She was preceded in death by her father, mother, first husband, former partner and brother, William Chin.