Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Woodbury, Norma Jean (Ritchey) March 9, 2020 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Pat Currigan currigan1932@comcast.net March 3, 2021, 12:48 pm Ionia Sentinel Standard-Sat. March 14, 2020 NORMA WOODBURY, 89 After enduring many years of painful maladies, surgeries and treatments, Mom asked only to be kept comfortable and passed away peacefully in her sleep Monday, March 9, 2020, under a full moon, just as her husband Charlie did in June 2014. Norman Jean Ritchey, 89, was born April 9, 1930, in Lansing, Mich. the first child of Theron J. and Cruea E (Wilbur) Ritchey. It was the height of the Great Depression, which hit Michigan particularly hard. Mom recalled growing up in Ionia, then Muir; her mother made all the children's clothes and her father would carve little toys for them, and both parents worked hard to provide for her and her four little sisters. Milk and other staples were at a premium, and fruit was a real treat at Christmas time. Mom took on the role of an adult early on, helping raise her siblings while her mother and father worked, and they scraped by. Norma attended Twin Rivers elementary, which went up through grade nine, and then to Lyons township High School, where she graduated in 1948, and also met Charlie Woodbury. He came back in 1946 from his adventures in the U.S. Navy to complete his last year of high school with several friends who all went off to war together. By the time she started high school in 1944, she was working at Reynolds; Grocery Store on M-21, which required daily walks from the Lyons high School back to Muir and up the hill to the store. Charlie got himself a car and begged Mom to let him take her from school to work, allowing her to get more time in at the store. Mom began a full time job at Mitchell-Bentley in Ionia the summer of 1948, where she worked for a dozen years. She and Dad wed on Nov. 13, 1948, at the First Christian Church in Muir, and 'honeymooned' at deer camp up north. They started their family in 1950 and purchased a house in Muir on Liberty Street. While raising us, Mom became the village of Muir Clerk, and later began working at the Chrysler Trim Plain in Lyons. She spent over 15 years there until it closed in the late 70s. She attended classes at Montcalm Community College for a year to learn new skills while looking for other work. The family moved from Muir to Ionia in 1976 so the two younger kids could walk to the junior high and high school and participate in sports and band. Norman and Charlie began annual trips to Florida and bought a place near Leesburg so they could spend more and more weeks of winter there, building up to six-month stays. They enjoyed 19 winters there, hanging out with friends going out to eat, to shows, playing cards and occasionally hosting family. They sold the Ionia house with the pool and camped at Crystal lake in the summers. In the winter of 1991, mom had lifesaving emergency surgery, causing several of us to fly down to Leesburg, cramped in a van. It seemed Mom always had to have more surgeries and "procedures" for various health issues. Mom and Dad both were cancer survivors. They moved into the Masonic Home the all of 2012. They enjoyed 66 years of wedded bliss before Dad died in 2014. Mom did get taken out by family for dinner often, or to a movie, and she had an abundance of snacks, fresh fruit and other amenities to supplement the nursing home food. Many events were attended at the Masonic Home as well including Ionia Community Band performance. Family would gather every first Saturday in August for the Masonic Home picnic. Norma had several special caregivers over her years at Masonic Pathways, and Mom was happy to offer them unsolicited advice on how they could improve their lives. You all know who you are! THANK YOU for being there for her. Thanks also to Heartland Hospice, and the Pathways bus drivers. Through all her suffering and declining health, Mom never lost her sense of humor. Surviving Norma are three of her four children Gerry (Becky) Woodbury of Woodburn, IN., Patty (Max) Strong of Mt Pleasant, and Randy (Kirsten) Woodbury of Pewamo; grands and great grands; Matt (Amanda) Woodbury, an Connor, Reis, Parker and Addyson all of the Ft. Wayne area; Brian (Andrea) Woodbury, and Makayla, Samantha and Alexandra, all of Ft, Wayne; Aaron Woodbury of Greenville, Chad Woodbury of Ionia, and ex daughter-in-law Diane Redick; Alexis Strong of Mt. Pleasant and Mark Strong (Melinda Jack) of Barryton; Ben Woodbury of North Carolina and Nick (Karen) Kassuba of Japan, and Alison Stoken (Nick Chira) of Jenison, Clark and Robbie; and sister, Pat (Raymond) Linderman of Ionia, sister-in-law Judy Woodbury of Florida, and her best friend at Masonic; Jane Denton. Norma was preceded in death by her husband Charlie in 2014, son of Michael (2014) and his wife Nancy (2013); sisters and brothers-in-law Marilynn and Bob Townsend, Nancy and Ronnie Davis, and Wanda and Walt Eckley; and Charlie's siblings and their spouses; Rosie and Leo Randall, Lee and Ruth Woodbury and Keith Woodbury. There will be a memorial service Thursday, March 19, 2020, at 1 p.m. at the First Christian Church, 138 W. Garden St., Muir, with visitation at noon until the service begins. There will be a brief graveside ceremony at Oakwood cemetery, with a luncheon in the church annex. Arrangements in care of Lake Funeral Homes in Ionia, MI. Donations in her name may be made to the First Christian Church of Muir. Online condolences may be made at lakefuneralhomes.com File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/ionia/obits/w/woodbury40078nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/mifiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb