Rosa Marie Sech

Graveside Services: 10 A.M. Saturday, August 16, 2003, at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Moorcroft, Wyoming

Rosa Marie Sech, age 82, died Monday, August 11, 2003, at her home in Northridge, Calif., after a brief illness.

A graveside service will be at 10 A.M. Saturday, August 16, 2003, at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Moorcroft, Wyoming, with Reverend Robert Smoot officiating.

Rosa Marie was the daughter of John Truman and Rosa (Storm) Vesser, longtime owners of the Rangeland Court in Moorcroft. Rosa Marie was born May 12, 1921, in Newcastle, Wyoming and grew up in Moorcroft. A graduate of Moorcroft High School, she attended Black Hills State Teachers College. Rosa Marie taught school for two years at Oshoto and Moorcroft before boarding a Greyhound bus in the spring of 1942 for San Diego, Calif. As she told the story, she left the San Diego bus station with her suitcase in tow and began to cross a street when a police officers whistle stopped her in her tracks. "What's wrong with you? Haven't you ever seen a stoplight?" he shouted. "As a Moorcroft girl, I hadn't," she confessed, laughing.

With her rapid typing skills, Rosa Marie quickly rose through the typing pool at a largeaircraft company to become an executive secretary. Here she met Robert B. Sech, and theywere married in 1942. The couple was later transferred to New Orleans, La. In 1946, soonafter the birth of their first daughter, Rochelle Marie, the Sech's moved to Moorcroft wherethey helped Rosa Marie's parents operate the Rangeland Court plus a downtown barber shop,pool hall and soda fountain. In 1948, they moved to the San Fernando Valley, where Bobentered the construction industry. In 1956, Rosa Marie gave birth to their second daughter,Constance Jean, and in 1958, the family moved to Lompoc, Calif.

A homemaker, Rosa Marie helped Bob in his construction business and with their apartmentrentals. In Lompoc, she was noted for her award-winning flower arrangements, earning acupboard full of silver trophies for her work. After Bob's death in 1999, Rosa Marie moved to The Wellington in Laguna Hills, Calif., where she lived for two years. In 2002, she relocated to Brighton Gardens in Northridge to be closer to daughter Connie, who resides nearby and devotedly oversaw her care.

Rosa Marie is survived by daughter Rochelle Reed Smith and grandchildren Evan and Lainey Smith, all of San Luis Obispo, Calif., and by daughter and son-in-law Connie Sech and Mark Fledderjohann of Northridge, Calif., and step- granddaughter Jasmine Fledderjohann of Anchorage, Alaska.

Her family and friends will forever miss her quick, wry wit and gracious sense of Wyominghospitality.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations made to Lompoc, California Public Library in memory of Rosa Marie.

Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.stevensonandsons.com.