Gladstone, MI
Christine Ridings, age 86, loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and sister, passed away Sunday, March 10, 2013 at her daughter’s home in Holt, Michigan with her family around her, listening to her Irish music and her favorite poems.
Christine was born May 29, 1926 in Gladstone, the daughter of Sam and Minnie Dunsmore. She grew up in Gladstone, and married her high school sweetheart, Jack Ridings, who preceded her in death on February 4, 2012. Christine and Jack had one daughter, Ann Bakken.
Christine was very active in all the communities in which she lived, including volunteering as a docent at the Milwaukee Zoo, and the Minneapolis/St Paul Zoo and helping to create the docent program at Lansing’s Potter Park Zoo. She loved her job as director of the Campfire Girls in Sault Ste Marie and director of the summer camp in Shingleton, Michigan. She was instrumental in organizing the Gladstone Friends of the Library, and a member of the Gladstone Study Club and the Child Welfare Organization.
She attended several colleges during her 67-year marriage to Jack, including Lake Superior College in Sault Ste. Marie, and Alverno College in Milwaukee. In her last years, she loved being around her family, especially sitting on her daughter and son-in law’s front porch reading poems and watching birds and other wildlife.
In addition to her daughter and son-in-law, Ann and Marty Bakken of Holt, Christine leaves her:
Three grandsons: Benjamin (Rachel) Bakken of Dimondale, MI,
Kristoffer (Meghann) Bakken of Lansing, MI,
Aaron (Michelle) Bakken of Holt, MI.
Great Grandchildren: Logan Bakken, Clara Bakken, Jack Bakken , Rhys Bakken and a baby girl due in June.
Sisters: Mary Dunsmore of Milwaukee, WI and Alice (Tom) Davis of Gladstone, MI, and her brother in law: Jim (Carole) Ridings of Hacienda Heights CA and niece and nephews Lyndsay, Joshua, and James.
Christine was preceded in death by her parents: Sam and Minnie Dunsmore, her husband Jack and sister-in-law Cindy Ridings.
The family will receive friends on Saturday, April 20 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM at the Skradski Funeral Home in Gladstone. A memorial service to celebrate the life of Christine Ridings will follow at 2:00 PM at the funeral home with Rev. Fr. Ronald Timock officiating. The family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Gladstone Friends of the Library or the Alzheimers Association. Envelopes will be available at the Skradski Family Funeral Home in Gladstone, MI.