Obituary of Henrietta Ammondson

Henrietta Natalie Niegelsky Ammondson Natalie Ammondson, a loving wife, mother, sister, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, friend, and volunteer died on the morning of October 15, 2009. She was a strong and creative woman who lived a long and full life. Natalie loved her family dearly, and was loved equally by her family. A celebration of her life and service to our country will be held Friday, October 23, 2009, 4-6 PM at Lambeth Troxler Funeral Home, 301 W Wendover Ave., Greensboro, NC. Military rites will commence at 5:45 P.M. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: The Children's Home Society of NC and the Macular Degeneration Foundation. She was born in Connecticut, and had lived in North Carolina since 1960. She was the beloved widow of Dr. Clayton John Ammondson. Natalie graduated from the Bridgeport, Connecticut Hospital School of Nursing and the University of Minnesota. She served as a field nurse from 1942 through 1945 in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps with the Bellevue, NY Hospital Unit, First General Hospital in the European theater during WWII, including service during the Battle of the Bulge. After her honorable discharge as First Lieutenant , she was a surgical nursing clinical instructor and assistant nursing officer at Hartford Hospital, CT; Stamford Hospital, CT; and a head nurse at Middlesex General Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ. She particularly enjoyed the surgical nursing specialty. During the 1940's Polio epidemic, Natalie worked with the American Red Cross in Minneapolis/St. Paul. She continued her service for more than 40 years as a volunteer nurse and donor for the American Red Cross Bloodmobile programs. Additionally, she volunteered as a nurse at Annie Penn Memorial Hospital of Reidsville and Wesley Long Hospital of Greensboro for over 25 years. Natalie contributed her time in many other ways to the community, working with children, adults, and those in need: an active Den Mother in Cub Scouts, a Sunday school teacher at the Unitarian Church of Greensboro, NC, a founding member of the Reidsville YMCA, Rockingham County Fine Arts Association, and of The League of Women Voters of Rockingham County. She was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Natalie had a strong work ethic in everything she did. She enjoyed ballroom dancing, landscape design and gardening, reading, opera, a wide variety of music, art, home making and cooking. Her love of cooking has been passed down through the family with her box of favorite recipes, which she creatively never made the same way twice. Most of all Natalie will be remembered for the love and care of her family: her daughter Dr. Ingrid Ammondson and husband, James Kellenberger of Half Moon Bay, CA, and Ingrid's son David Livingston and wife, Alex and their daughters, Hanna and Abbie of Atlanta GA ; her sons, Eric Ammondson and wife, Amy McElroy and their children John, Margaret Natalie, and Peter of Arlington, MA, and John Ammondson and wife, Molly and their children, Stanley, Kelsey, and Elise of Jamestown, NC; her brother Leon Niegelsky and wife Marjory of Colfax, NC, and their sons Robert Niegelsky and wife Karen and their children Mark and Beth of Greensboro, NC, Leon Niegelsky, Jr. and wife Sam and their daughter Sarah of Reidsville, NC, and their grandson, Christopher Fagge of Greensboro, NC; her sister in-law, Lillian Niegelsky of Seymour, CT, widow of her beloved brother Stanley, and their daughter Karen Spargo and husband Owen and their daughter Tai of Oxford CT. She was predeceased by her nieces Reneé Niegelsky and Leslie Niegelsky Fagge.