Norine Brane Age - 94 - Los Alamos Lindblom

Norine Brane Lindblom, 94, passed away at home in Los Alamos after a brief illness Tuesday September 18th, 2012. Norine was born in Beggs, Oklahoma, February 12, 1918 to Noel Owen Brane and Paola Vick Brane. A few years later they moved to Clayton, New Mexico where she grew up. With her sisters Janice and Marjory, they endured the Dustbowl and the Great Depression. Norine loved the prairie and people of north eastern New Mexico.\r\n Norine was a talented artist from a young age. She was sent to Taos one summer to study painting with Emil Bisttram who said to her, "You paint like a man." After high school she attended Colorado Women's College where she received an Associate Degree in Art. She has left behind many remarkable paintings, drawings and ceramics and encouraged creativity in all young people around her.\r\n In 1944, she met Norman Lindblom in Pueblo, Colorado where he was stationed with the Army Air Force. They married in July of 1945. After the war, they moved to Oak Ridge Tennessee. In 1951 they returned to New Mexico and lived in Los Alamos the rest of their lives. Norman (Gus) worked at the lab as a photographer. They were loving parents. Norman preceded her in death in 2007.\r\n Somewhere during the last decade or so of Norine's life her sense of humor took a mysterious turn not always entirely understood by those around her. But she was surely in on it and marveled us all with her deep, rich laugh. She had a little trouble walking toward the end but when company or caregivers were with her she enjoyed life and tried as best she could to run her home. She was fiercely independent. She loved her children and felt very attached to all those around her throughout her life. Her sympathies were always with the oppressed and she was skeptical of authority. She loved to cook and garden and was interested in almost everything. Her conversations were peppered by the many non-fiction and art books she was always reading.\r\n She is survived by: son David Lindblom and his wife Sandy Krolick; son Todd Lindblom; sister Marjorie Belew; niece Susan Blinzler and husband Dick Blinzler; niece Gretchen Saunders and husband Tom Saunders; niece Noel Marie Colangelo; niece Joanne Kurtwright and husband Joe Kurtwright. Her surviving in-laws are: brother-in-law, Ed Lindblom; niece Susan Friedman and husband Dan Friedman, nephew Steve Lindblom and wife True Kelley; nephew Eric Lindblom and wife Kate Bauer; niece Diane Franks and nephew Phillip Lewis; and all the amazing grand and great-grand nieces and nephews. Norine truly enjoyed the company of her wonderful neighbors: the Bunkers, Flezners, Thompsons, Ladachs and Johnsons.\r\n If you knew her you were often in her thoughts…and likely in her laughter.\r\n Services will be at the Santa Fe National Cemetery at 2:15 on Tuesday, October 2, 2012. Sometime in mid-October there will be a memorial for Norine at her White Rock home. The family of Norine Brane Lindblom has entrusted the care of their loved one to DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Española Valley. 505-747-7477

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