Laurie Coco Ranheim

Laurie Coco Ranheim

Laurie Coco Ranheim, daughter of Lysso and Daisy Coco, was born in her family's home in Mansura on October 21, 1931. She grew up in Mansura, the eldest in a family of five.

She was a strong-willed, spirited grandmother, wife, mother of three, sister, and aunt to 20 nieces and nephews. She was a Master Gardener, an expert in the art of candy-making, and a fierce competitor in any game of cards or letters. She was, in her husband's words, one of the smartest women he has ever known.

After Laurie graduated from high school in Mansura, her father gave her the choice of attending Grand Coteau of Dominican College in New Orleans, where a good Catholic girl would not be exposed to the real world. In her two years at Dominican ? which she disliked thoroughly ? Laurie learned to smoke, drink, play the horses, and cuss. So much for not learning about the outside world!

She earned a degree in Medical Technology at Loyola in New Orleans and worked as a Med Tech in various hospitals in the city, then as a research Med Tech for a professor of surgery at Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston.

In 1960, she met her future husband, a junior in Baylor's Medical School. Following his U.S. Air Force internship in the Seattle area, they were married on August 25 1962.

The couple lived in cities from San Antonio to Moscow during her husband's assignment with the Air Force. They spent two and a half years on the island of Okinawa, Japan where their two sons, Robert Overton "Beau" and Todd Staples, were born. Susan Vangen, their third child, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on September 10, 1969.

Laurie returned to Avoyelles Parish with her husband and has lived in Mansura since 1972. She was the center of a large and very close-knit family ? a clan of brothers, sisters, aunts and uncle, cousins, nieces, nephews and grandchildren she was deeply proud and protective of. She was an avid cook and a charter member of the local chapter of Master Gardeners.

Mrs. Ranheim is survived by her husband of 48 years, Richard O. Ranheim, M.D. and three children: "Beau", wife Jennifer and grandchildren Emma and Caitlyn of Brooklyn, New York; Todd, wife Janet and grandchildren, Jackson and Kirsten of Collegeville, Pennsylvania; Susan, husband Steve and grandchildren Sebastian and Dominic of New Orleans; three sisters Suzanne Madoc-Jones of Cape Cod and Mansura; Patricia Martin of Lafayette and Mansura; and Merrill Rush of Bar Harbor and Mansura; sister-in-law Bobbie Jean Coco (widow of Edward Coco) of Mansura.

Her family will receive relatives and friends on Friday, March 4, 2011 from 8:00am until 10:45am at Escud? Funeral Home of Mansura. Christian wake services and rosary will be recited at 10:00am. Funeral mass will be celebrated by Father Chad Partain at St. Paul's Catholic Church at 11:00am.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Master Gardner's Program Greenhouse Fund/ 8592 Hwy 1., Mansura, LA 71350.