Nettie was born on December 8, 1932, in her grandfather's small house in Seneca, a small farming community in northeastern New Mexico. She spent her childhood and teen years living on a farm in the area with her parents, Justin and Grace Freeburg, and siblings Bob and Rowena. After graduating high school in Clayton, New Mexico, she left New Mexico for college in Fort Collins, Colorado. In Fort Collins she met Russ Holmberg whom she would marry.
After both their graduations, Nettie and Russ moved to Ridgecrest, California, where they worked for the Department of Defense at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. Their daughter Susan was born in California in 1959.
In 1962 they moved to Boulder which they made their home. Their son Jim was born in Boulder in 1963. Both Nettie and Russ worked for the Bureau of Standards for a time. Russ soon left the government and went to work for IBM. Nettie stayed with the government and had a very successful career eventually becoming Division Chief of Computer Services for NOAA's Geophysical Data Center. Nettie subsequently retired from the government in 1990 after 34 years of service.
After nearly 30 years of marriage Russ and Nettie separated. Nettie remarried, marrying MD Bunch who was also a long time Boulder resident. Nettie and MD lived in Boulder, Lafayette, and Gunbarrel until MD'S passing in December 2016. Despite losing her husband as well as her siblings and a few close friends, Nettie was not alone. She moved to Longmont where she resided with and was taken care of by her grandson Justin with whom she shared a remarkable bond. Her son, Jim, still lived in Boulder, and she had long time friends in the area.
Nettie celebrated her 90th birthday on December 8, 2022. She died in her home in Longmont on December 10th in the presence of her daughter, Susan, and grandson, Justin, with her son, Jim, having visited her just hours before.
We would like to thank Nettie for being a loving, compassionate, and funny mother, grandmother, aunt, friend, boss, and co-worker. We all have had the privilege of knowing Nettie and having her in our lives.
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