Ulla-Riitta LaGrone Obituary (2021) – Alexandria, AL
Ulla-Riitta Maria Kärkkäinen LaGrone died immediately at dawn on 23 November 2021 while fighting the recurrence of breast cancer. He was 71 years old. Ulla was born in 1950 on the outskirts of Helsinki to parents who fled the footsteps of the war against the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Her parents Nikolai Kärkkäinen and Maila Alice Nikkainen left more than 250,000 Finnish waves from Vyborg, Karelia, which the council had to leave their homes. They settled in Pasila, Helsinki, where Nikolai continued to work as a firefighter for the city, and they had Ulla and then his sister Eve. Maila died when Ulla was two years old and Nikolai married Anna’s stepmother Anna. Ulla grew up with Eeva in Pasila and was strongly involved in the Finnish Scouting. He earned the U.S. Eagle Scout and Wood Badge as an adult director. He considered a career in journalism before starting his nursing career and graduated from the Helsinki Deaconess School of Local Nursing in 1973. Ulla’s class was a graduate of the 95th school and is known as the K95 siblings. She worked at the Helsinki School of Nursing from 1976 to 1977 and began her career as an on-call nurse. Ulla soon moved from Helsinki to Saudi Arabia to Khamis Mushait and took up the position of international staff at a local military hospital. There, he met Ron LaGrone, a U.S. Army officer who trained the Royal Saudi Army. They moved to the United States and married at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel, Fort Bragg, NC, on October 27, 1979. The following year, his son Samuel Robert LaGrone was born in Fort Bragg, followed by Daniel Ware LaGrone in early 1982. In Seoul, Republic of Korea. During the rest of Ron’s army, Ulla, Sam, and Dan moved across the country from Fort Bragg to Fort McClellan, Alabama, Kansas, Virginia, Washington, and around the world to Thailand, South Korea, Okinawa, Japan. , and in Tartu, Estonia for both military and diplomatic missions. He had to relocate his family and household 15 times in 25 years. In 1989, he became a U.S. citizen. Ulla was an avid volunteer. In 1992, he was elected to the U.S. Army as the Okinawan Volunteer of the Year and received the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service, Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1996. In Tartu, he and two other practitioners have been teaching medical English to local personnel since 1999. by 2002, creating lifelong relationships. After returning to Alexandria in 2002, she volunteered at the Etowah Free Community Clinic, a girls scout camp at Camp Cottaquilla, transporting cancer patients to appointments, “babysitting” at Anniston Regional Medical Center and supporting Calhoun County Amateur Radio Association during the Cheaha Challenge and many other events, including . He was also a very active member of the Breast Cancer Support Group “Bosom Buddies” for over 10 years. After Roni retired from the military, she worked as an emergency nurse at the Gadsden Regional Medical Center for 10 years before retiring in 2012. Ulla was a member of the Finnish Lutheran Church and the American Evangelical Lutheran Church all her life. Ulla and Ron attended Union United Methodist Church in Wellington, Alabama, where she regularly taught Sunday School. He was left with Ron, Sam and Dan, his sister Eve Repo and grandson Henry. The memorial service will be held at the KL Brown Memory Chapel in Golden Springs on Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 3 p.m. The family will receive friends and relatives an hour before the service. Ulla will be buried at Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo on Monday, December 13, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. Instead of flowers, you should consider supporting the charity Finn Spark, which is close to Ulla’s heart. (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=Htf6-hexnIiqhsPERjMQXf6kPR1fWPmKjOfUzF9-N6z-jyUQIK3cnw3zrvZslSKYhh2s0vfff.). Condolences to relatives can be submitted online at www.klbrownmemorychapel.com. KL Brown Memory Chapel 620 Golden Springs Road Anniston, AL 36207 (256) 231-2334
Published by The Anniston Star on December 10, 2021