Ramona L. Fietsam

Ramona Lee Fietsam, 56 Oakwood Dr., Petaluma CA, 94954, lost a long battle to heart disease when she passed away on July 21, 2014 at the Petaluma Valley Hospital. Born in Willow Hill, Illinois on Sept. 11, 1934, she graduated from Belleville Township High School and was promptly swept off her feet by Richard Fietsam. They tied the knot on August 31, 1952 after they drove to Arkansas to be witnesses for another couple’s wedding. Upon arrival, their friends got cold feet; Richard and Ramona spontaneously decided to go for it. They would have been married 62 years this August.

Ramona, a member of the Jaycee-ettes in the 1950s, was a loving and uncommonly selfless wife, mother and grandmother whose passions included waterskiing (that was her on the top of the five-person pyramid), gardening, knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, genealogy, collecting Florida sea shells in the very early hours, painting and glazing decorative pottery, baking the world’s best seven-layer bars and searching for four-leaf clovers with her then-young daughter, whom she drove to and from figure skating practice, often twice a day, for a decade.

She is survived by her husband, Richard Fietsam, her daughter, Gina Raith, her granddaughters, Lauren (age 15), Lucia (13) and Tessa (11) Raith, her extended, very close family including brothers and sisters-in-law: Miriam Fietsam, Ron Fietsam, Shirley Fietsam, David Fietsam, Patsy Fietsam, Ethel Longsworth, David Longsworth, Dale Fietsam and Marty Fietsam and a treasure trove of nieces, nephews and dear friends.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 30th, 2014 at the Lake View Funeral Home, 5000 North Illinois St., Fairview Heights, IL 62208. To leave a condolence for the family, please visit www.keatonsredwoodchapel.com. In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that memorial donations be made to the American Heart Association in loving memory of Ramona Fietsam at www.donate.heart.org.

Arrangements entrusted to Keaton’s Redwood Chapel of Marin.