Mary Ramsey, age 93, passed away on Saturday, June 14, 2014, at the Manning Plaza Nursing Home in Manning, Iowa.

Graveside funeral services will be held at 1:30 PM, Saturday, June 21, 2014, at the Manning Cemetery in Manning. Pastor Angie Loomis of the United Methodist Church in Manning will officiate.

Mary Lucile, daughter of Charles H. and Bessie (Johnson) Ramsey, was born on November 16, 1920, at home near Botna, Iowa. The ninth of ten children, Mary attended Iowa No. 8 country school near her home, completing the eighth grade. She then attended high school in Manning through the tenth grade. Mary moved to Chicago where she became a live-in companion for Mrs. Haue. Mary accompanied her on shopping trips to Marshall Fields, to church on Sundays, to the opera and to interesting places around the city.

After working in Chicago, Mary was encouraged by friends to work with them at the Rome Hotel in Omaha. It was there that she met her future husband Sam Santi. After the war, Mary went to California where she and Sam were married in 1947. The couple moved back to Omaha where Mary worked as a cocktail waitress. Sam passed away in 1957.

Mary then returned to Manning and worked at Saunders Café and then back to Omaha to work at Ben Simon's bar and later at a Salvation Army store. Mary then worked at Twilight Acres in Wall Lake, the Manilla Manor and the Manning Plaza before retiring in 1982. She lived at Elm Crest Apartments in Manning for many years and then moved to Terrace Apartments in 2003. In 2011, Mary moved to the Manning Plaza.

Throughout her life, Mary enjoyed dancing, reading, playing Bingo, watching Westerns, having coffee at the MRHC snack bar, and especially keeping up with news of her many nieces and nephews and their families. Mary is famous for a recipe of Italian spaghetti and meatballs that she brought from the Santi family. Over the years she taught this recipe to many of her nieces and nephews.

Mary is survived by her brother Orren Ramsey of Manning; a sister-in-law Mildred Ramsey of Carroll and by many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; eight sisters and brothers: Juanita Boeck and husband Hugo; Edna Peters and husband Orlo; Edward Ramsey and wife Delores; Mayburn Ramsey and wife Phyllis; Ralph Ramsey; Bernice Laverty and husband Charles; Thelma Hodne and husband Arlo; and Jack Ramsey and wife Edna; a sister-in-law Fern Ramsey; nephews: Jim Ramsey, Don Hodne, LaRue Hodne and William Boeck and a niece Marlene Ramsey.

The Johnson & Woodhouse Funeral Home in Manning is in charge of arrangements.