
{"id":1285,"date":"2007-11-14T15:28:08","date_gmt":"2007-11-14T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/11\/14\/obituary-marty-ravellette\/"},"modified":"2007-11-14T15:28:08","modified_gmt":"2007-11-14T23:28:08","slug":"obituary-marty-ravellette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/11\/14\/obituary-marty-ravellette\/","title":{"rendered":"Obituary &#8211; Marty Ravellette"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marty Ravellette of Carrboro passed away early Monday November 12, 2007 at UNC Hospital. He was 67.<\/p>\n<p>The son of the late Ernest D. Ravellette and Laurene Frohreich, Mr. Ravellette was preceded in death by his son Marcus Ravellette.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ravellette is survived by his wife, Maree Ravellette; a daughter, Nancy Jo Neilsen of Florida; three grandchildren, Marcus Neilsen, Aaron Neilsen and Ayanna Wade; brother, Robert Ravellette; sisters, Edith Stellmaker, Barbara Furry.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Born in Goodland, IN, Mr. Ravellette lived in eight states before moving to Chapel Hill in 1991 and starting his own landscaping business. Born with no arms and trained to use his feet by nurses at the Good Shepherd Home, Marty became well-known and admired for his passion for life and commitment to the community, never letting his disability slow him down. He drove his van, drank coffee, and ate meals with his feet. Friends would see Marty mowing lawns, raking leaves, planting flowers and even chopping down trees with a chain saw.<\/p>\n<p>In 1998, Marty gained instant fame when he and his wife Maree saved a woman from a burning car on Route 15-501. Marty bust through a window with his feet, and Maree pulled the woman from the car. Ravellette appeared on national television and became a local celebrity. In 2004, filmmaker Bill Hayes made a documentary about him called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u009dNo Arms Needed: A Hero Among Us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which aired on the Discovery Channel.<\/p>\n<p>Marty never shied away from talking about his disability; he used it as a way to bring awareness to the idea that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all different, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all human. Inspired by his beliefs as a member of the Baha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122i Faith, which he joined in 1967, Marty often gave motivational talks to UNC students on equality, justice, and the unity of mankind. He would often quote one of his favorite lines from the Baha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122i Sacred Writings: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Noble have I created thee; why hast thou abased thyself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The Baha\u00e2\u20ac\u2122is of the Triangle are saddened for Marty\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dear wife Maree and his family.<br \/>\nA memorial service is being scheduled for Thursday night 7:15 p.m. at University Presbyterian Church at 209 E Franklin St. Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n<p>Graveside services will be held at Maplewood Cemetery Thursday November 15, at 2:00 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marty Ravellette of Carrboro passed away early Monday November 12, 2007 at UNC Hospital. He was 67. The son of the late Ernest D. Ravellette and Laurene Frohreich, Mr. Ravellette was preceded in death by his son Marcus Ravellette. Mr. Ravellette is survived by his wife, Maree Ravellette; a daughter, Nancy Jo Neilsen of Florida;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}