Norma Alice Rannels
Birth date: March 18, 1921
Death date: August 14, 2009
Obituary:
Norma Alice Jensen Rannels, of Clearwater, Florida, formerly of Columbia, Maryland, passed away on Friday at her daughter's residence in Ohio after a courageous four year battle with lung cancer. She was 88. Born Norma Alice in Eastport, Maryland, she grew up the daughter of Danish immigrants - Johan Norman and Emmy Ingeborg Muusfeldt Jensen. Her parents met in New York where Johan had settled after being in Denmark's Royal Navy. Ingeborg came to New York as a cook's assistant in 1913 through Ellis Island. While at Annapolis High School, Norma became interested in business, so she worked in the school office and took papers to the teachers each day. That fall, Norma began taking the train from Annapolis to Baltimore daily to go to Strayer Business College in Baltimore, MD. Upon graduation, she worked as a secretary for J.F. Murry plumbing, then Chevrolet Motors, both of Baltimore, before working as secretary in the personnel office of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Norma & Morris married in 1942. Norma became a fulltime homemaker raising six children, "none unwanted and never too many" said Norma. When the children became school age, she volunteered as a driver for Meals on Wheels and many other organizations. She enjoyed the local garden club as well as seeing friends with a challenge of bridge on a monthly basis. Norma retired with her husband to Clearwater, Florida, in 1978. She enjoyed close friendships with new neighbors as well as visiting family and friends. She volunteered at Morton Plant Hospital. She and her husband enjoyed many trips all over the world. Just days before his passing, they celebrated 65 years of marriage. Norma is survived by James and his wife Cindy, Constance Kerr and her husband William, Norman and his wife Betty, Jo Ann Bankert and her husband Neuman, Vickie Stofel and her husband Steve and Morris Jr and his wife Lynn. Norma was also blessed by 21 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
We were saddened last month with the passing of Jennie's Granny but happy at the same time to know that she has been reunited with her husband. She lived a wonderful life and has touched so many lives during her 88 years on Earth. She will be greatly missed but there is comfort in knowing that we will be reunited with her again some day. We are so thankful that she was so close during her last days and that we were able to spend time with her and have the great grandkids around her.
Granny with Connie, Jennie, Payton and Brooklyn.
Granny with Jennie.
Granny with all the Beard great grandkids.
With Granny's funeral being in Maryland it allowed us to visit with some of Jennie's family and to visit Washington DC. I had never been so I was pretty excited to see the sights and see what the city had to offer. Thank you to Chuck and Suzie who opened their home to us and let us stay with them for the three days we were there. Everything was about an hour from their house so it made traveling with the kids very easy. Plus there is something that Chuck has in his basement that Brooklyn has been dying to show Maddux ever since she went there a year or so ago (we will get to that later; I don't want to ruin the surprise).
Jennie, Spencer and Aaron in front of our Nation's Capital.
The Washington Monument from right in front of the Capital building.
Brooklyn, Maddux and Nolan standing in front of a huge water spout that shots water straight up in the air. It is in front of an office building and probably shoots the water up 30 feet or so. The kids loved it.
This peacock was in the Smithsonian Museum and Brooklyn had to have me take a picture of it.
Here is the Pile of Useless Junk which is a pile of items that have been used in various movies. It is also in the Smithsonian Museum which is the first place that we went when downtown. The building itself and the surrounding garden are amazing. The building looks like an old castle surrounded by flowers, plants, trees and waterfalls.
From the Smithsonian we went to the Air and Space Museum and spent quite a bit of time in there. They basically had a history of flight and space travel with all kinds of exhibits, planes, and spaceships that the kids could go into. Here they are walking out of the SkyLab which was used in space. They had planes they could go in and all sorts of games and activities that the kids could play with. They even had a paper plane contest that, if not for a corner, Brooklyn would have won. She came so close to winning and lost out by the slimmest of margins. From the Air and Space Museum we walked down to the Capital building and took some pictures. By then the kids were spent and we didn't dare walk all the way to the other end and see the White House or Washington Monument. We figured we would have to do that on another trip and maybe without the kids. Now that Spencer lives in DC we will have an excuse to go visit him and the city.
Nolan with his water back pack ready to hit the streets. Spencer had a bunch of these packs and the kids thought they were the greatest things. They could just put the hose in their mouth and drink water.
Chuck and Suzie live on the outskirts of Boonsboro and right next door are some donkeys, miniature horses and an Alpaca. She was kind enough to buy some bags of carrots so the kids could feed them. Brooklyn was a little hesitant but quickly warmed up.
Nolan had no problem feeding the miniature horses and loved every minute of it.
Maddux was also a little hesitant but it didn't take him long to get over that.
The funeral was very nice and it was nice to see most of Connie's side of the family again. They held the service at the same funeral home as Pop Pop and then buried her right next to him in Glen Burnie, MD. After the funeral everyone headed to Cactus Willie's which is an all you can eat buffet right by the cemetery. It was a nice convenient location and the same place we ate at after Pop Pop's funeral. The food is so-so but the kids love the fact that they can pick whatever they want and eat as much of it as possible.
One the way back I decided to see if I could find Woodsboro, Maryland which is where my grandfather was born and raised. I figured that since I was so close I would stop and see. It was very easy to find and really a small town. The farm that my grandfather was raised on has since been sold and probably covered with condos or apartments.
Woodsboro, Maryland.
I then called my dad to tell him where I was and he told me about a Hall of Fame in Fredrick, MD that my Grandfather was in. Jennie called her Uncle Ken who knew exactly where it was and gave us directions to the front door. I got there with about 20 minutes to spare and was grateful to the young man who let me in. He basically opened the door, turned on the lights and said take as long as you need. It is a sports hall of fame for Fredrick County Maryland and has lots of displays with pictures and articles from those who have prospered in sports from that area. My grandfather was inducted in the second class back in 1978 and has some articles and a bat in their cases. It was very cool to see and I am glad that everything worked out and I was able to make it in.
This is his plaque hanging on the wall honoring him as an inductee.
Well now on to the good stuff. Uncle Chuck has a slot machine in this basement that I am sorry to say the kids are addicted to. I was joking around with Jennie that we could never take our kids to Las Vegas because they are addicted to those machines. I don't know if it is the sound the coins make or the fact that money falls out but Brooklyn just couldn't wait to show Maddux what was downstairs in Chuck's basement. Thanks to Chuck who cranked up the winning margin on the machine the kids are now probably under the impression that every time you put in money and pull the handle more money will come out. Probably didn't help the addiction. It was very cute to watch them play and I can only hope that this got it all out of their system (wishful thinking).
Maddux pulling the handle down. It was kind of funny because he would put three quarters in the play and then win 2 back. He thought it was the greatest thing and had no idea that he was actually losing money. He was just excited to be getting something back.
Nolan had his moments. He would play for awhile, then get bored and do something else, and then play some more. Overall I think he really enjoyed it and just liked being able to hang around and do the same thing as the older kids.
Uncle Chuck also has an old wooden Skittles game in the basement which the kids had a lot of fun. You wind some string around a top and then put it on the game board pulling the string to make the top spin around. The object is to knock down as many pins, which are set up, as you can and total up your score. It took a little while for the kids to get the timing of pulling the string but once they did they actually did quite well.
Uncle Chuck showing Maddux how to hold the top and then pull the string.
We had a lot of fun in Maryland and packed a lot of things into a couple of days. We were glad that we were able to celebrate Granny's life with so many family members and are happy that she is back with Pop Pop. She will be loved and missed by us all. We are thankful our family's hospitality and willingness to put us up while we were there.
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