Norma L. McNally

Norma McNally, age 99, of Ridgeway, died April 1, 2025, at Valley View Healthcare and Rehabilitation (Houston, MN) where she had resided since a car accident November 11, 2020.

Norma Lorraine Tainter was born January 23, 1926, the second oldest of five daughters to Hilda (Stensland) and Lyle Tainter of Winona, MN. She grew up on a farm on Pleasant Ridge. She was baptized by Pastor Wein in the “old” Norwegian Lutheran church, now the Central Lutheran congregation. Norma helped on the farm – feeding and milking the cows, cultivating corn with either horses or the tractor, and harvesting. She also helped her mother with the younger children and fed the threshing crew, picked blackberries, and other garden produce. 4-H activities were important to her.

She attended the Pleasant Ridge rural school for 8 years, near the farm where she grew up (it was the same school her mother had taught and that is how Hilda and Lyle met). She attended and graduated from Winona Senior High School. Since there were no school buses in the rural areas, she and her older sister rode with a neighbor who worked in Winona. After high school graduation she attended Winona Teacher’s College, obtaining her teacher’s certificate. She taught for 2 years at the Pleasant Ridge School (where both her mother and older sister taught).

She married Robert J. McNally August 3, 1946 at the old Central Lutheran Church (on Center Street) in Winona. They drove their pickup truck west to visit McNally relatives in Idaho for their honeymoon. Norma said they had the truck bed loaded with food as they camped along the way. On their return, they lived in Cedar Valley. Norma taught at the Upper Cedar Valley School. She tells about the muddy roads, and sometimes Bob had to drive her to school with the tractor. They enjoyed the valley and might be found skiing down the hills in the wintertime or fishing in the creek in the summer. In 1951, the Lower Cedar Valley School needed a teacher, so she signed that contract for a year.

In 1952, Norma and Bob moved to Ridgeway after buying the former Cooper farm – it had been an old stagecoach stop and was the first farm homesteaded in Pleasant Hill township. Norma helped on the farm and when their children were older, she taught at the New Hartford School. During that time, the small rural schools were consolidating. She and Bob were involved in building the “new” Ridgeway School (now Ridgeway Community School). She also did substitute teaching at that school and was a frequent speaker to the students, telling them about her teaching in rural schools.

Norma was a member of the Pickwick Order of the Eastern Star for over 75 years, Cedar Valley Lutheran Church, the Ridgettes Homemakers Club, and the Winona County Old Settlers. She and Bob enjoyed bowling, golfing, and watching softball games. She and Bob traveled in later years, several on bus trips. She had many part-time jobs over the years, including food demonstrations at local grocery stores, selling Amway products, making buttons at Express-A-Button, and cooking at the old Nodine Truck Stop. She also volunteered at many organizations throughout the years.

Norma was a giving person, always thinking of others, and never saying a bad word to anyone. She lived a full and happy life.

Survivors are her children – Dr. Diane (Bryan) McNally Forsyth and Richard (Nancy) McNally, both of Ridgeway; her grandson- Brad (Alison) McNally; and great grandchildren – Hector, Jasmine, Eli, Jameil, Maya, and Violet McNally; and several great-great grandchildren. She is further survived by her sister – Gloria Ties and many nieces and nephews. She is pre-deceased by her husband Bob in 1999; her sisters Doris (Ben) Laska, Joanne (James) Mucha and Louise (Ray) Freund and brother-in-law Eldor (Jim) Ties, her parents, and in-laws Rob and Emma McNally.

Visitation will be held from 4 PM until 7 PM on Thursday, April 10, 2025, at the Watkowski-Mulyck Funeral Home, 376 E. Sarnia St., Winona, and again at the funeral home on Friday, April 11, 2025, from 1 PM until the funeral service at 2 PM. Pastor Jeff Franko will officiate.

Thank you to Valley View Healthcare and Rehab for their care of Norma over the past 4 ½ years, and lately to St. Croix Hospice. Memorials are suggested for Cedar Valley Lutheran Church or Ridgeway Community School.

Online condolences or memories may be left for Norma’s family at www.watkowski-mulyck.com.