Ngaire Margaret-Lee Hepner

TRAVERSE CITY - Ngaire Margaret-Lee- Hepner, 71, was born May 27, 1945 in Melbourne Australia and died March 23rd 2017 in Traverse City, Michigan, a victim of ALS. Her name is pronounced Ni’-Ree and comes from the indigenous New Zealand Maori language meaning Silver Fern. It’s often mispronounced. Ngaire was born to Myra Armstrong of Melbourne and U.S. Army medic Sgt. Harold Lee of Gaylord Michigan and she was brought to Gaylord by her father two years later in 1947. Ngaire’s dad, Harold, had worked for a couple of years in the Medical Health/Nutrition field with her grandfather in Australia, Lawrence Armstrong, a nationally known author and practitioner in that field and originally from New Zealand. It’s no surprise that Ngaire practiced and had significant knowledge in the same field. She attended Gaylord Public School from kindergarten thru high school with the same kids in a relatively small class who became a very close family group, brothers and sisters. Ngaire loved: skiing, hiking, walking, the outdoors, adventure, flowers, plants, baking, reading, movies, murder mysteries, Jeopardy, games, family and friends always, her kids, grandkids, her husband and his very large family, flying with him all over the country, trips to France, England, Israel, and Australia, taking pictures even from his aircraft with the door off up the Hudson River in New York City, she also had a student pilot license. In high school she worked at the Pendleton Shop in Gaylord and modeled. She worked at the Gaylord Library for 12 years as an assistant to the librarian stacking books, checking them in and out, researching, most notably she was the ‘Story Hour Lady’, reading and story boarding to children from pre-school thru 3rd or 4th grade. She is still asked about today, 22 years after her retirement. She didn’t smoke or drink. Ngaire is survived by her two sons Mark Kassuba and his wife Melanie and family Bethany, Zackary, Zoe, Hanna, Abbie, Carley, and Mark’s brother Kevin Kassuba plus ‘rellies’ in Australia affectionately called her ‘Sibs’ namely Susan Parker, Karen Armstrong, Beryl Armstrong and Warwick Armstrong, husband Leo ‘Lee’ Raymond Hepner and all of his kids, all of whom Ngaire loved as her own and they her, and the remainder of Gaylord Class of ’63. She is predeceased by her youngest son Brian Kassuba, April 19, 2010, and her mother and father. Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories…..and that beautiful soul was Ngaire. There will be a Memorial Service on Monday, April 17th 2017, 11AM at the Reynolds Jonkhoff Funeral Home on 6th Street in Traverse City, Michigan. In lieu of flowers, please make any donations to ALS research in the name of Ngaire M. Hepner to :The Lieber Institute 855 N. Wolfe St. Suite 300 Baltimore, MD 21205. The family is being cared for by the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home and Cremation Services.

Ngaire Margaret-Lee Hepner

May 27, 1945 - March 23, 2017