I've noticed some abridged versions of my mom's obituary online. Here's the full version for those who want to read more......
Geraldine Mary McGirl (Cootie) Snee , 69, of Duluth, Minn.,
and Lake Wales, Fla., died peacefully and unexpectedly in her sleep at her home
on Sunday, May 5.
A funeral Mass will be held on Friday, May 10 at 9 a.m. at
St. Matthew Catholic Church, 1991 Overlook Dr., Winter Haven, Fla.
She was born Nov. 13, 1943 in St. Mary’s Hospital in Duluth,
Minn., to Thomas and Marjorie Miller McGirl. She was educated at Holy Rosary
School, graduated from the former Stanbrook Hall High School in 1961 and
attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She was a member of St. Michael’s Catholic
parish in Duluth and St. Matthew in Winter Haven, Fla.
She married John Russell Snee of Wadena, Minn., on Oct. 3,
1963, and they did pretty much everything together for the rest of her life,
showing by example how a successful marriage works for their two sons, Thomas,
now 47, and Michael, 44. She worked at Bridgeman’s restaurant, the downtown
Sear’s store and Norwest Bank before retiring as credit manager from Advanstar
Communications in 2000.
She never took to the snow and cold and long dark winters of
Duluth. From November to March, she mostly cocooned in the house, bundled up in
a comforter reading novels and spy thrillers and ventured outside only when
necessary—for work, Mass, shopping, and to spend Christmas Eve with her
extended family. Before retiring, she started taking annual spring vacations in
Florida—Sanibel Island was her favorite—until finally, in 2005, she could
endure Minnesota winters no longer and she moved to Florida to spend her final
seven years basking in the sun and heat she loved.
She still spent her summers in Duluth, the lake-cooled
weather providing the same kind of relief from the torrid Florida summer that
Florida provided from a Minnesota winter. And since Duluth is where she was
from, she could not cut the cord permanently. The lake, the hills, the woods
drew her back, along with her many friends who still lived there, and it’s
where she wished to have her final resting place.
