Audrey Ferne Richmond

Audrey Richmond passed away from natural causes under the care of Hospice of the Red River Valley and Bethany on University skilled nursing in Fargo, ND, on Thursday, March 22, at the age of 86.

Audrey was predeceased by her son, Roy Richmond; parents, Henry and Myrtle Meyers; sister and brother-in-law, Elaine and Hubert Williams and niece, Claudia Williams; as well as by two aunts to whom she was very close, Margaret and Jessie Young of Toronto, Ontario. Most recently, she was predeceased by much loved in-laws, Jean and William Chope and Jack and Marilyn Richmond of Kalamazoo, MI.

Audrey is survived by her loving husband of 57 years, Thomas Richmond. They were married in Kalamazoo, MI, on July 30, 1960.

Audrey is lovingly remembered by her daughter, Lisa Richmond, also of Fargo, ND; by her nieces, Debra Hughes (Bill) and Nancie Closson (Dan) and their children, Jeannie Grashorn (Chris) and Deedee Closson; by her nephew, John Richmond (Patty) and their daughter, Libby; and by nephew, Paul Richmond (now deceased) and his surviving wife, Mary VandenBerg Richmond and their children—all of Kalamazoo, MI. She is also survived by her niece, Jenny Ward of Dearborn, MI, and her nephew, Daniel Williams of Kalamazoo, MI, along with his daughter, Maria Williams of Brooklyn, NY.

Audrey was born in Mendota, IL, on December 28, 1931, to parents who were originally Canadian citizens of Scots-Irish and German heritage. They relocated from Ontario first to Illinois and then to Michigan in the late 1920s, becoming U.S. citizens. Her father earned his master’s degree in education from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and worked as both a Michigan school superintendent and the proprietor of a general store. Audrey’s mother, Myrtle, was a pioneering school teacher in rural Canada, travelling alone as a young girl in the early twentieth century by train from Ontario to Manitoba, to take on her first country school house. Family lore holds it that when Myrtle’s train passed by the town where she was to start teaching, she literally had to leap from her train car into the snow with her luggage, as no scheduled stop was made.

Audrey’s family eventually relocated to Allegan, MI, where Audrey graduated from Allegan High School in 1949, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. She taught grade school in the mid-1950s and early 1960s in Parchment and Kalamazoo, MI. She moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area in 1967 with her husband and two children so that her husband, Thom, could accept a professorship in music theory at Concordia College of Moorhead, MN, which he held through retirement in 2000. Audrey earned her post-graduate certificate in Special Education from Moorhead State University in the 1980s, and spent fifteen years thereafter as a specialist with the Moorhead Public Schools, assessing and supporting children with learning disabilities.

Audrey’s family and close friends were aware of her passion for both popular movies and serious film from an early age. She had an encyclopedic memory of character actors from across decades of films, and even while at Bethany in a very weakened state this winter, she was able to come up immediately with the name of Nina Foch, an actress playing a minor role in the movie “American in Paris,” while watching it one afternoon with her daughter. Her family often called her “the movieologist.” She also had a love for gardening, especially for growing vegetables and lilies of various types---both at her former lake home at Broadwater Beach on Pelican Lake, and within gardens she developed at the home she lived in for many years with her family in Fargo’s Hawthorne neighborhood, at 1202 Sixth Street South. She was an active long-time member at the Fargo-Moorhead Unitarian-Universalist Church and was awarded an outstanding service award from the North Dakota Mental Health Association in 2003. She was a dedicated volunteer and/or participant over the years with the FM League of Women Voters, the Concordia Women’s Book Club, the “Round Robins”—her MSU college roommates who travelled together frequently, the Fargo Fine Arts Club, the Fargo Public Library, Meals on Wheels, and a local group of friends’ monthly “Lunch Bunch.” Finally, she was a generous donor to dozens of non-profit groups throughout Fargo-Moorhead and the United States.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fargo-Moorhead, the Southern Poverty Law Center, or to Churches United for the Homeless.