Charlene Belle Oakley (Whalen), 74, from Brentwood, TN passed away peacefully just before midnight on June 12th, 2023. Her son, daughter and sister, Christine, were with her in her final hours.

Charlene was born in Portland, Maine on September 29th, 1948 to Charles H. "Porky" Whalen and Agnes White (Ludden). After her parents divorced, she split her childhood between Maine and Florida, and graduated in 1966 from Key West High School. She then relocated to Maine, where she studied and worked as a nurse for a short time before marrying and having her two children. She and her family resided in Portland, Westbrook and South Portland until her divorce in 1978.

Charlene was performing secretarial work at a bank in Portland when she met the love of her life, Robert E. Oakley, of Massachusetts. They married in 1984 and later moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana briefly before settling in Brentwood, TN where she spent the remainder of her life. In Tennessee, Charlene worked as a secretary for the Director of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University before eventually starting her own pet sitting business. Charlene loved animals, she was an avid reader, and she enjoyed staying in touch with her many distant friends and relatives by mail and on facebook. She also made many close friends while operating her pet sitting business. She loved and missed her home state of Maine, where she will ultimately return to lay at rest.

Charlene is pre-deceased by her younger sister Maureen, and her parents. In 2014, she lost her beloved husband, Bob. She is survived by her sisters Christine Childers of Noblesville, Indiana, Linda Mundee of Standish, Maine, and Meredith Murray of Sebago, Maine, her two children, Jay Gagne, and Nicole Pennisi, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

There will be a graveside service for Charlene at Highland Memorial Cemetery in South Portland, on July 19th, 2024 at 11am. She will be buried with her father, in Section Lower BB, Lot 115, Plot 3.

En lieu of flowers, please consider donating to Sierra Pacific Furbabies at www.sierrapacificfurbabies.com, or The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (www.elephants.com); two causes she cared deeply about.