Mitsy Laurel Rae

The shelf life for Mitsy Laurel Rae of Danbury, Nebraska, expired on Aug 30th, 2025. She was forthwith removed from the Earth Shelf and sent on to her next “adventure in Eternity” after 89 years and 296 days on the Earth Shelf.

Mitsy entered her earthly life on November 8, 1935 in Fort Worth, Texas as the youngest of three girls. Her parents were Ruth Marie Daniel Jackson and Sherwood Mitchell Jackson. Mitsy's father was a skilled carpenter, who, along with his father, Sherwood Wordell Jackson, also of Fort Worth, built their home on Market Street on the North Side in 1920-21—a home which still stands today, after more than a hundred years-- with lumber salvaged from the Van Zant mansion that was torn down to make way for Peter Smith Hospital. However, in 1935, the very middle of the Great Depression, there were no home building jobs available so he took whatever work he could find to support his family, as did thousands of other men. In his case, that work was as a custodian in a federal building in downtown Fort Worth. Mitsy's mother found work as a seamstress for Dickie Clothing, doing piece work on men’s work clothing sewing the zipper in the flies of men's bib overalls. Dickie Clothing, established in Fort Worth in 1922 is still in existence, still producing quality work clothing, albeit probably off shore today. After America entered World War II both her parents found better paying work at the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in Fort Worth, building the airplanes, specifically the B-17 Liberator bombers, used on bombing missions. Mitsy's mother had become a Rosie the Riveter. It was then that the family acquired their first refrigerator, their first washing machine, their first electric iron and a telephone. Previous to this, the family had an ice box, a household item familiar to the farm families of Nebraska as well as many city dwellers of that time. A wringer washer replaced the scrub board Mitsy's mother had used previously and an electric iron replaced the sad irons her mother heated on the stove when she had ironing to do. Their first telephone was a party line of four people. Mitsy and her sister often played on the telephone when their parents weren't looking which was, of course, against their parents strict orders.

Mitsy's father died in 1943, leaving her mother to care for their three school age daughters. As fate would have it, Mitsy's mother found love again and in 1947 she married Clyde Fletcher, who was an automobile mechanic for an oil refinery located on a (then) remote and distant island in the Caribbean Sea--an island now familiar to most as a tourist destination--Aruba--but at that time unknown to most people. Clyde Fletcher took his new wife and her two youngest daughters, ages 11 and 13, to live in this distant and exotic part of the world. (The oldest daughter had married and become a mother by this time.) This was Mitsy's first trip out of Texas and here she was leaving not only the state of Texas, she was leaving the entire country. A three day train journey to New York that terminated in Grand Central Station in New York City--a magnificent building that is today on the National Register of Historic Places--was followed by a two week stay at a hotel in New York City as the new family awaited an oil tanker that would take them to the faraway island of Aruba. While awaiting their transport to Aruba, Mitsy's new step-father took his new family to visit the sights of New York City, including a trip to the top of the Empire State Building which, at that time, was the tallest building in the world, and Radio City Music Hall, where the entertainment included both a movie and a performance by the world famous dance troupe, The Rockettes. Mitsy always described this trip from Texas to Aruba in 1947 as "the greatest adventure of her life" regardless of any other trip she took throughout her long life. The ocean voyage to Aruba on an oil tanker took them through rough seas in the Atlantic that left Mitsy and her sister sea sick for three days, until the ship entered the calmer waters off the coast of Florida, where their ship encountered a large pod of migrating whales in the mid Atlantic. Their straight up breaches out of the water and geyser-like spouts of water were something even experienced seamen seldom see. After their ship entered the still warmer waters of the Caribbean Sea, Mitsy saw something her classmates back in Texas had never seen before--flying fish!! And phosphoresce in the nighttime water that glowed.

In Aruba, Mitsy lived in the ex-patriot company town known then as "Lago Colony" for the second half of her childhood until her graduation from high school in 1954. The community consisted primarily of American families but also British and Dutch families. After graduating from high school she entered college in the fall of 1954 at the University of Texas in Austin, transferring one year later to the nursing program in Galveston. Mitsy graduated from the University of Texas, School of Nursing in 1958 with a B.S in nursing and that same year married James Neal Rae, who had been born in Aruba in 1934. Mitsy and Neal had been classmates in Aruba and both graduated in 1954. Neal was in the Army at the time of their marriage and they were married in an Army chapel at Fort Rucker in Dothan Alabama. Later, after his discharge, Neal and Mitsy moved to Southern California. Their first child, William Scott Rae, now of Fort Worth, Texas, was born in 1962 in Sierra Madre, California and their second, Carl Brian Rae, of Danbury, Nebraska, followed in 1965. Mitsy spent most of her nursing career as a dialysis nurse until her retirement in 2001, having entered the field in 1971 when dialysis was new to everyone. Mitsy always had a spirit of adventure and in 1992, at the age of 56 she took a job as head nurse of a dialysis unit in Saudi Arabia saying she "wanted some real adventure in my life before I get any older." Her first assignment in Saudi Arabia was in the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea and her second assignment was in the capitol city of Riyadh in the middle of the country. She returned to California in 1994.

When she decided to leave California in 1996 she went first to Wyoming because "that’s where the grandchildren were" and followed them to Nebraska two years later. She retired to Danbury in 2001, again because "that's where the grandchildren were". In addition to being a grandma, Mitsy enjoyed yard work and gardening--both vegetable and flowers. Mitsy lived on Highway 89 in Danbury and anyone driving along that highway could easily spot her house by its well kept yard and colorful flower garden that covered all four sides of the house.

Mitsy had traveled to Aruba several times over the years and attended many Aruba reunions stateside as well, for the friendships forged during her childhood years in Aruba lasted a lifetime--for her parent's generation as well as her own. She continued her travel adventures even after her retirement in 2001, traveling again to visit Aruba, as well as Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, the New England states, Alaska, Hawaii and the eastern Caribbean islands. Except for the distance been Aramco, Saudi Arabia and Madras, India, Mitsy liked to say she "had been around the world--just not all at once."

Mitsy is survived by her two sons, Scott Rae of Fort Worth, Texas and Carl Rae of Danbury, Nebraska, her daughters-in-law, Marina Rae of Fort Worth and Tina Rae of Danbury, her grandchildren, Tai-Lynn Weaver of McCook, Autumn Saenz of Grand Island, James David Rae and Brianna Rae, both of Danbury, seven great-grandchildren, plus numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, siblings, most of her cousins and a long line of beloved pets that included dogs, cats and one mean, old Amazon parrot.

Mitsy has requested that no services be held to note her passing and has also requested cremation with her ashes to be scattered in the lagoon in Aruba where she spent thousands of happy hours as a teenager swimming in the warm, clear, beautiful, turquoise waters of a tropical lagoon.

(Addendum from Scott…this quote seems to sum up moms view on life)

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, wine in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!" Author unknown