Ina Rouse - Obituary

NA SEARS ROUSE, 97, a resident of Ginger Cove, died on July 30, 2012. Ina was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, on April 13, 1915, to the late Joseph and Mary Elizabeth Monson Sears. After graduating from Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine in 1934, Ina lived in Saco and worked for the Saco-Lowell Shops. During WWII she won from that company the Army-Navy Production Award for excellence in war production. After WWII Ina joined the military as an early member of the Women in the Air Force (WAF). She was a weather observer in the 1st Weather Squadron. She was honorably discharged in 1952. Because of the skills she learned as a WAF, she was hired as an analyst by the National Weather Bureau in Suitland, Maryland. One of her co-workers was Francis Rouse whom she married on April 27, 1961. In 1972 they purchased a home in the Riverwood Community of Davidsonville where they lived until 2004. They sailed their boat in the waters around Annapolis and were involved with senior groups including The Young at Heart. Of all her interests, Ina was especially known as a superior correspondent, writing nearly a hundred lengthy letters and cards a month; her mailbox was the repository of news, photos, and artwork of family and friends near and far, a kind of Facebook page before Facebook existed. Ina was predeceased by her husband Francis and all of her six siblings. Survivors include fourteen nieces and nephews. Services and burial are private. Arrangements are by the Kalas Funeral Home in Edgewater.