Theresa “Ruby” Veronica Vermont was born in Labyrinth, St. Mary, Jamaica on March 1931. She attended St. Georges Preparatory School. Her early life was spent with her Mother Elizabeth “Mary” Hyatt and her sister Joyce.
Theresa worked as a seamstress who owned her own dressmaking shop in Kingston. She was an active member of Coke Methodist Church before migrating to the United States in 1963. She settled in New York City and made her home in the Bronx. Theresa began bringing Norman, Paulette and her mother Elizabeth to join her in 1976. In New York she belonged to St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in the Bronx.
Theresa worked as a nurse's-aid for more than 20-years at Prospect Hospital and then for 10-years at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital. She often held additional jobs to support her children through school and she continued to do seamstress work throughout her life. Some of Theresa’s best dress making was for her family’s special events. She made beautiful dresses for her mother, Paulette’s wedding and bridal party gowns as well as christening gowns and amazing Halloween costumes for her grandchildren.
Theresa loved to travel. She visited her children and grandchildren as they moved around the U.S. and Europe. In 1997, after retiring from Our Lady of Mercy, she moved to Miami near where her nephew Clive lived. And, she often planned her year around extended visits with her children and grandchildren. From her Miami port she toured Disney World with the grandchildren and cruised much of the Caribbean. She is known to have traveled to Germany, England, The Netherlands, Spain, Alaska and Panama. She returned to Jamaica many times with family and friends and at 80-yrs-old, climbed Dunn’s River Falls one more time.
Theresa lived a spiritually rewarding life in Miami where she attended Cornerstone United Methodist Church. Her home allowed her to garden year-round where she grew mango, sweet sap, sour sap, coconut, ackee, glorious hibiscus and poinsettias. A gifted crafter, she taught herself to crochet and knit and led a quilting circle at Cornerstone. She also took an upholstering class and took in reupholstering jobs. She proudly volunteered for Barack Obama’s first and second election campaigns.
Hurricane Irma in 2017 lead Theresa to move to Houston and live near family. She found new friends at Oak Park Retirement Resort and a worship family at Grand Lake Presbyterian Church. She died on October 5, 2019 in the care of Vantage Hospice at VibraLife of Katy after suffering a stroke.
She is survived by two children, Norman Rennalls (Spouse Monesa) and Paulette Rennalls Dodson (Spouse James); five grandchildren, Nicole (Minneapolis), Nathaniel (Houston), Sarah (Portland, OR), Alexandra (Evanston, IL) and Julius (Evanston, IL); three nephews Clive (Lake Worth, FL), Calvert (Miami) and Clayton (Palmer, AK).
Burial will be in Forest Park Westheimer Funeral Home and Cemetery, 10 am, Tuesday, October 8, 2019. A Memorial Service will be 10 am, Saturday, November 9, Katy Funeral Home, 23350 Kingsland Blvd, Katy, TX.
The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to Turning Point, 8324 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL. 60077. Phone: 847-933-0051. www.tpoint.org.
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