This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: O'CONNER, VANDERKLIPP, HUNT Classification: obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.michigan.counties.kent/8169/mb.ashx Message Board Post: O'CONNER, Nona Rae Teacher, Army Wife and good Arlington citizen. Nona O'Connor, 86, who taught Kindergarten and trained many teacher's aides at Ft. Myer Elementary School and Barrett Elementary School in Arlington, VA died at the Virginia Hospital Center on January 4, 2007 after surgery. Nona was born in Kalamazoo in 1920. In 1924, she and her family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan where she graduated from South High in 1938, attended Grand Rapids Community College and met her future husband, Don. She graduated from Eastern Michigan in 1942. She has maintained friendships with her high school classmates, their siblings and people all over the country. Nona married Don O'Connor in 1943 and was the quintessential Army wife and mother who followed Don all over the globe setting up home and raising a family in over 20 different location in such far distant places as Japan and Alaska. Don was transferred to the Pentagon in 1964 and she has been in Arlington ever since. She has maintained a second! home with her sister at Gull Lake, near Kalamazoo, MI, where she spent all of her summers; traveled to Florida with her sister every winter and traveled the world with friend, Mary Louise McDaid. Always an active member of the Retired Teachers Association and local civic associations such as Lyon Park and Lee Senior Center, Nona will be missed by her many students, fellow teachers, and close friends. She has two sons, Craig and Michael, also of Grand Rapids and both Army Veterans; seven grandchildren, Wendy, Heather, Cassie, Shannon, Jackie, Kent and Jesse; and 11 great-grandchildren. Nona is also survived by her sister, Carlene Vander Klipp of Orchard Lake, Michigan; and her cousin, Alice Hunt of Wall Lake, Michigan; There will be a viewing at Arlington Funeral Home from 6 to 8 PM, 11 January 2007 and a service at the Old Post Chapel on Ft Myer at 3 PM, 25 January 2007; followed by her burial at Arlington National Cemetery with her beloved husband, Don, who passed away in! 1985. Published in the Kalamazoo Gazette on 1/9/2007. (Posted by a VOLUNTEER-NO family connection)