Obituary of Romaine Johns Ausman

Romaine J. Ausman, age 87, died peacefully during Holy Week at The Haven in Camp Verde, Arizona on Wednesday April 8, 2020 from breast cancer. She was born in Blackland, Macon County, Illinois on August 14, 1932. She graduated from Macon High School and received her bachelor’s degree in Home Economics from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She was a lifetime member of the Order of Eastern Star in Socorro, New Mexico, and actively participated in OES chapters in Macon, IL and Deming, NM. She was a member of the United Methodist Church since the late 1960’s, where she played the organ and piano, and a member of the International Organization of Women Pilots – the 99’s, the AOPA, and Friends of Rockhound Park in Deming, NM. Romaine touched many lives through her 65+ years as a designer-dressmaker of wedding dresses and couture fashions, and restorer of antique lace and parasols through her businesses ‘Fashions by Romaine’, and ‘Couture Classics’. She ran her own wedding dress shop on the south side of Chicago in the late 50’s and held a patent for one of her many clothing inventions, the ‘double dress’. She learned to fly while living in Boulder, Colorado, and piloted her Cessna 210 to all 49 states (including Homer Spit, Alaska) and completed the FAA Wings Proficiency training, logging more than 2000 hours. She designed and produced the costumes, images and musical score for the ‘Granny Moose and Her Red Caboose’ book written by Joan Arend Kickbush, published in 2003, while living in Carefree, Arizona. She was an excellent cook and known to always deliver a loaf of fresh bread to a new neighbor. She passed on her many skills and creativity to her family and many friends, whom she loved, and was loved by, in return. She is survived by her five children: Carol Ausman and Evan Ausman in Colorado, Jordan Ausman in Arizona, Edmund Ausman and Ellen Ausman Franklin in Alaska; and two grandchildren: granddaughter Jordan E. Ausman in Colorado, and grandson Roy P. Franklin in Alaska. Romaine was married for over 60 years and preceded in death by her equally adventurous husband Evan “John” Ausman in 2018, as well as her parents Benjamin Earl Johns and Olive Nickey Johns, and three brothers Darryl, Carroll and Earl Jr. “Comet”. Monetary donations are being accepted to purchase a new water filtration and ice dispenser for The Haven, Camp Verde, assisted living facility to P.O. Box 33, Sedona, AZ 96339. No services are planned at this time.