Noelle Katherine Kearney

Noelle Katherine Kearney will be greatly missed by family and friends who knew her for her cheerfulness – her family nickname was “Sunshine.” Noelle passed away October 29, 2025, at her home in Asheville, North Carolina.

Noelle was born December 13, 1978, in Miami Beach, Florida, to Robert and Pamala Kearney and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. She graduated from Coral Gables High in 1997 and attended the University of Central Florida before moving to Savannah, Georgia. She earned associate’s degrees from both Armstrong State in Savannah and Haywood Community College in Waynesville, North Carolina – the latter a 2012 degree in low-impact development.

Noelle operated a cleaning and home organizing business for residences and vacation rentals. She was creative, industrious, and often generous. Even as a child, when she uncovered the prized “Golden Egg” at the Coral Gables Youth Center’s annual Easter egg hunt and won a shiny new bicycle, she immediately gave it away to a younger friend simply because she wanted her to have it. In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Helene in western North Carolina in 2024, she stuffed her car with food and clothing items she gathered and delivered to a relief center.

Her greatest joy was the 2016 birth of daughter Ayden Olivia Kearney, who survives her. Noelle is remembered with much love by her parents, Robert and Pamala Kearney of Asheville; by her sister, Heather Stricherz (Mark) of Washington, DC; and by numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends principally in the Midwest and South.

A private graveside service will be held in spring 2026 at the churchyard of Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher, North Carolina.