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.”
