Alice Wainio

Alice was born at home in Oma Township on April 25, 19 25 to George and

Selma Ketola (nee Hendrickson). George was a lumberman and owned a grocery store in Van Buskirk.

She attended Oma State Graded School and graduated from J.E. Murphy High School in 1943. She also graduated from Gogebic Junior College in 1944.

She married Tauno Wainio, son of Oscar and Katri Wainio, on June 24, 19 44.

During World War II she worked at Abbott Laboratories in Waukegan , Illinois . They returned to live in Oma after the war. She had two children, Anita and Dennis. She was active in the community, she served on the school board and also as a town clerk, a position that had also been held by her father. She was a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Ironwood, Michigan , the church of which her grandfather, Jacob Ketola, had been a founding member.

They lived in Oma until 1963, when the iron mines closed. They then moved to Kenosha , where Tauno worked for American Motors. A year later they moved to Milwaukee .

In Milwaukee Alice worked in several office jobs, including with Unit Crane and Shovel, Harley Davidson, and the 16th Street Tenants Union . They moved back to Hurley in 1976 when Tauno retired. Alice worked as the Hurley librarian for almost eight years, until she retired in 1987.

She enjoyed traveling a great deal, had taken several bus tours and had been to Washington , D.C. , and Hawaii . In 2005, her family treated her to a trip to Hollywood for her 80th birthday, a dream of hers, since she was a life long fan of the movies. She also loved to read and to play Scrabble with her children and grandchildren.

Alice moved to Woodbury , Minnesota in 2007. Her health was fading and she wanted to be near her son and grandchildren.

She died of pneumonia on January 6, 2010 , at the age 84. A memorial will be held in Ironwood at Zion Lutheran Church at a later date.

She and Tauno had been married for 50 years when he died on October 16, 1994 . She had one brother, Robert, nine years her senior, who also died before her. She is survived by her children: Anita Severson (John) from Inverness , California , and Dennis Wainio (Long) from Cottage Grove , Minnesota ; as well as five grandchildren: Karen, Tommy, Aaron, Christopher, David; and five great-grandchildren: Alexandra, Anna, Carson , Ethan and Camden . She is also survived by an aunt, Nora Erickson; two nieces Phyllis D’Antonio and Margo McCullough; a sister-in-law, Helen Lundquist, and several cousins.

Her niece, Margo, says of her “She was humble, caring and a wonderful person.”