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Renee Marie Gassner returned to the Father on November 25 in Albuquerque. She was born in Valmora, New Mexico, on July 31, 1918, to Dr. and Mrs. Houston L. Staring of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She graduated from University High School and attended Louisiana State University. She became a Registered Nurse after training at Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, where she worked as a public health nurse until moving to Alexandria, Louisiana, where she was in the radiology department at Charity Hospital, later going into private duty in Baton Rouge. She married Julius S. Gassner at Camp Stewart, Georgia on February 13, 1943. After World War II, the couple lived in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1947 to 1952, next in Lafayette, Louisiana, and moved to Albuquerque in 1957, where her husband was on the faculty of the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, later known as the University of Albuquerque. A few years later she served as part-time nurse in the new-born nursery at St. Joseph Hospital which her father had helped to establish many years earlier. She continued to work there until she retired. She was pre-deceased by her oldest son, Jules L. Gassner and is survived by her husband of fifty-five years, by four sons and one daughter, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; these are her daughters-in-law, Carol Ann Gassner and son J. Gregory of Garland, Texas; Stephen T. Gassner and son Matthew of Albuquerque; John C. Gassner and wife, Rosa and daughter Michelle and Elizabeth of Edinburg, Texas; Elizabeth Devine and husband Richard and daughters Megan, Erin and Suzanne of Rio Rancho; Martin and wife, Caroline of Corrales; Thomas of the family home, Corrales; grandson SPC Andrew Gassner, U.S. Army, and his wife Nita and their son; granddaughter Julie Chavez and her husband, Paul and their two children; and granddaughter, Trieste Gassner. She is also survived by her sister-in-law Mary Staring of Jackson, MS; by her nephew James Staring and wife Leslie of Jackson, MS; by her cousin Margaret Elizabeth Weaver and husband John of Houston, TX; and by her sister-in-law, Margaret G. Long of Wauwatosa, WI; and by numerous cousins. Renee lived life to the fullest. A life-long Catholic, she was a member of San Ysidro Catholic Parish in Corrales since 1967 and an active member of the former Catholic Daughters of America Chapter 1880. She was also a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 21 and of the Nature Conservancy. She was an enthusiastic traveller and had gone to Canada, Guatemala, Honduras and to virtually all of Mexico with her family over a period of a quarter of a century. In 1975 she and her husband visited Sicily, Southern Italy, Spain, France, Luxembourg and Iceland. She greatly enjoyed reading, especially history, biography, memoirs, literature and medical arts. She took an active interest in politics, government and public issues. Among her hobbies were genealogy and the study of Mayan archeology and culture. She was a skilled seamstress and an excellent cook and kept adding to her collection of cook books. She was very fond of her flower garden and her many plants and shrubs; she loved her household pets, but most of all she delighted in her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. She was a loving, devoted wife and dedicated mother, a truly beautiful woman for all seasons, and she will be sorely missed. Visitations will be Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. A rosary will be recited in the Chapel of Alameda Mortuary at 7:00 p.m. Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Monday at San Ysidro Catholic Church in Corrales at 10:00 a.m. Interment to follow at San Ysidro Catholic Cemetery. Pallbearers will be Stephen Gassner, John Gassner, Martin Gassner, Thomas Gassner, Paul Chavez and Richard Devine. Services entrusted to Alameda Mortuary, Norbert"Ray" Baldonado, FSI 715.
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