Janet Ramsey

Janet Louise Ramsey, 105, died Wednesday night, May 16, 2012, in Corpus Christi, after a brief illness. Janet was born September 5, 1906 in Ida Grove, Iowa... the first child of Charles J. McDonnell and Katherine Veronica McDonnell. She was joined ten years later by a sister, Rosemary (Scales), late of Kingsville, Texas. Janet attended primary and secondary schools in Ida Grove, graduating from high school in 1923. She went on to study piano while in attendance at the MacPhail School of Music, in Minneapolis, Minnesota - and later studied accounting. In the late 1920's, she was first employed by the L. S. Donaldson department store in Minneapolis, and liked to recall that her wages were thirty-five cents an hour - later reduced to twenty-five cents during the depths of the depression in the early ‘30's. At about the same time, she purchased the first of her three Harley Davidson motorcycles, and blazed a path for the female riders of today (she would ride yet again, last fall, on the occasion of her 105th birthday). Similarly, in the pre-war years, she learned to fly a single-engine Aeronca airplane, and obtained a pilot's license. Janet would work as a bookkeeper and accountant for a number of mostly-manufacturing concerns during the WWII and postwar years, later moving to Sarasota, Florida, and retiring, there, in 1968. She welcomed a son, Thomas, in 1957 - and at that time was credited with being the oldest person to give birth in that Sarasota hospital. She followed her son to Corpus Christi in 1983. During her retirement she enjoyed gardening, traveling, reading the New Yorker and other publications, monitoring developments at the family's farm, and cheering-on the Chicago Cubs, Dallas Cowboys, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. From the era immediately following the Wright Brothers' first flights through the retirement of the Space Shuttle, from World War 1 through the unconventional attacks on 9/11/01, Janet saw it all. Her mother carried her alongside the family's first car most places it went - both of them refusing to ride in the temperamental thing - later she would cheerfully, and by her choice, give-up the keys to her Jeep Grand Cherokee on the occasion of her 90th birthday. The family would like to thank the staff at the Esplanade for their indulgence, patience, kindness, and care during the past two-and-a-half years; the nurses, therapists, and doctors of the Nurses On Wheels organization; Janet's attendants in her final weeks, Monica and Brittney; the Spohn ICU staff; and Dr. Maurice Grossman for nearly thirty years' of, obviously, inspired medical care. Janet was preceded in death by her Mother and Father, and sister - and is survived by her son, Thomas (and his wife, Margaret "Candy"), of Corpus Christi, and numerous cousins. No local services are planned. She will be cremated and her ashes interred in the family plot in Ida Grove; a private grave-side ceremony is contemplated sometime this summer. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a contribution to a charity of one's choosing - and suggests the recalling of a fond moment or two shared with Janet sometime during her life. 105 years... she had a good, long, ride.