Mae (Reiff) Range

Mae H. Range, 84, formerly of Mount Carmel, died peacefully in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on August 23, 2026, after a brief illness. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, September 19, 2026, at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, 15353 Pacific St., Omaha, Nebraska. The family will receive friends at the church beginning at 9:30 a.m. Burial will take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, September 20, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Mount Carmel, Iowa. Mae Hildegaard was born November 2, 1941, in Carroll, Iowa to Edward and Florence (Wiederin) Reiff, the fifth of seven children – three boys and four girls. They grew up on the Wiederin family farm in Mount Carmel, playing in the cornfields and tending to chickens that Mae despised after one pecked her forehead, leaving both a scar and a distaste for poultry that remained all her days. After graduating from St. Edmonds Catholic High in Ft. Dodge, Mae attended the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota to study elementary education. After two years, she transferred to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa where she changed her major to Spanish. She didn’t particularly like her teacher and wasn’t entirely sure what she would do with a Spanish degree anyway, so she took a year off and went to work as a clerk in a law office. While working full-time, she continued taking night and summer classes, ultimately earning her degree in business administration. In 1968, Mae made history when she was hired by the FDIC as the first female bank examiner in her region of the Midwest. She traveled throughout Nebraska and Iowa conducting bank examinations at a time when few women held such positions. With little patience for fools or societal restrictions on women, Mae later recalled that some of her male colleagues refused to travel with her because their wives objected to the arrangement—a considerable complication when an examination could keep a team at the same bank for as long as three months. This prompted the hiring of additional women to the region, creating teams of female examiners who could travel together. After marrying and leaving the federal government, Mae returned to work at the Sioux City legal office for several years before moving to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1975 with two young children. Never one to remain idle for long, she began preparing taxes for clients from home, working full-time during tax season and part-time throughout the rest of the year while raising her growing family. Not long after the birth of her third child, Mae and her husband turned their considerable energy toward entrepreneurship. In 1984, they opened a popcorn and ice cream shop in downtown Omaha, followed three years later by a bakery at Westroads Mall. Mae enjoyed managing her stores and, especially, keeping the books. Even toward the end of her life, she would ask to tally the day’s receipts. But what she loved most about the stores were the people—her customers, her employees, and those in neighboring shops who became friends over the years. Mae worked hard and expected others to do the same, but there was always time to catch up with someone over a cup of coffee. Mae rarely took a day off, and vacations were rarer still. But when she could manage an escape, she retreated to her cottage in Fish Creek, tucked along the shores of Green Bay in Door County, Wisconsin—a place she cherished for its calling loons, quaking aspens, fish fries, and sailboats bobbing on the water while she ate Wilson’s ice cream on a park bench. Her version of Heaven most likely includes a little of that: a cottage near the water, pine trees overhead, endless coffee and chocolate, and a television permanently tuned to Nebraska football, The Golden Girls, HGTV, and Hallmark movies—especially the Christmas ones, even in the middle of summer. Mae will be deeply missed by her children and grandchildren, her siblings, extended family, and the many friends she made throughout her life. Mae was preceded in death by her parents, Edward and Florence, her brother, Billy, and her sister Charlotte. She is survived by her three children, David Range, Stacey (Joseph) Messina, and Mary Range (Yves Nignan); four grandchildren, Sophie and Josiah Messina, and Chelsea and Christian Nignan; and four siblings, Joan Ullsperger, Ralph Reiff, Janice (William) Brewster, and Richard (Gail) Reiff.

Mae (Reiff) Range

November 2, 1941 - August 23, 2026