Nancy E. Olson

Nancy Olson, 72, of Mt. Pleasant passed away Saturday, November 08, 2008, at home surrounded by her family. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church with Father Loren Kalinowski presiding. The family will receive friends on Monday from 2-5 and 7-9 at the Charles R. Lux Family Funeral Home, 2300 S. Lincoln Rd., with the Vigil beginning at 7:30 p.m. Visitation continues at the church on Tuesday from 10-11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to American Diabetes Association, Heart Association of Michigan, or American Arthritis Association. Envelopes are available at the funeral home. Nancy was born June 5, 1936, in Detroit, the daughter of Jack and Elaine (Murray) Dechmann. She attended three schools in Detroit before moving to Indian River in 1946. Her family moved to Flint in 1950 and she graduated from Bentley High School in 1954. She attended Central Michigan University for a year and worked as a purchasing agent assistant at Plymouth Industries in Cheboygan from 1955-1956. On May 12, 1956 she married George J. Wallace and they lived in Grand Rapids until 1965. While there she worked as an accountant for William Iselin from 1956-1957. She later worked for Spartan Store Inc. as an order puller in 1959 and in April of 1960 gave birth to her first daughter, Elaine. As her husband was transferred to northern Michigan, they moved back to Indian River. From 1966-1982 she worked at various places including Vivios as a pizza cook, Indian River Bakery, Indian River Catholic Shrine, and Alpine Regional Center. At night she attended college at Northern Michigan College in Petoskey. In 1967 she gave birth to her second daughter, Jacquelyne, and in that same year served as assistant leader of the Brownies. In 1969 she became interested in snowmobiling and served as the first treasurer of Indian River Snowmobile Club and also joined the Ladies Auxiliary Lions Club of Indian River. In 1975 her third daughter, Jo Anne was born. In 1982, after six years with Alpine Regional Center, she was laid off and transferred to the Mt. Pleasant Regional Medical Center where she remained until her retirement in 1997. She was a member of Sacred Heart Parish and belonged to Christian Formation serving funeral luncheons for parish families. Being divorced in 1979, she found there was a problem of alcoholism in the family and has been associated with Alanon ever since. Nancy is survived by her husband Gerald Olson whom she wed on Aug. 22, 1994; three daughters, Elaine (Steve) Casey of Indian River, Jacquelyne Wallace of Petoskey, and Jo Anne (William) Benchley of Oil City; two step-sons, Kevin (Yvette) Olson and Scott (Vickie) Gilmore, both of Illinois; a step-daughter, Dawn (Tony) Newman of Minnesota; 11 grandchildren, Rob Carter, Josh Ockert and Kyle Wallace, Leah and Relin House and Ben and Larz Benchley, Dillan and Landon Olson, and Skyler and Lilly Newman; her mother, Elaine Dechmann of Indian River, brother, Charles (Barb) Hoef of Indian River; sister, Anita (Dick) Sweeney of Indian River; two sisters-in-law, Linda Olson of Nevada and Dallys Olson of Wisconsin; and two brothers-in-law, Chuck (Dixie) Olson and Bill (Phyllis) Olson, both of Wisconsin. She was preceded in death by her father, Jack Dechmann.