December 01, 2015
MAYETTA – Mamie Wahwassuck Rupnicki, Zaoshee, 76, of Mayetta, died Tuesday, December 1, 2015 at the F.W. Huston Senior Care in Winchester.
She was born May 21, 1939 on the Potawatomi Common Land at Mayetta, the daughter of John and Josette Nahgonbe Wahwassuck.
Mamie married Joe Rupnicki in January of 1956 in Topeka. He survives.
She received a Master’s Degree in Business from Baker University.
Mamie and Joe had operated a ranch in Arizona. Upon her return to the common land, in seeking to improve the Prairie Band Potawatomi Tribe, she served as Chair of the Gaming Commission and then served as Tribal Chairperson.
She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, Doc Wahwassuck, Twila “Charlie” Lee, Raphael “Bugger” Wahwassuck, Florence “Gumpy” Ross, Henry Wahwassuck, and Jewette “Swede” Wahwassuck.
Other survivors include her children, Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick and wife LeAnne, Delia, Royetta Rodewald, Hoyt, John Rupnicki, Sr., Mayetta, Rachel Wamego, Las Vegas, NV, and Jesse Rupnicki, Soldier; siblings, James Wahwassuck, Mayetta, Pete Wahwassuck, in Washington state, Merrill “Meatball” Wahwassuck, Mayetta, and Nancy Wahwassuck Conboy, Mayetta, twenty-one grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
Drum services will be Friday evening, December 4th at the Dance Ground, west of Mayetta. Burial will be Saturday afternoon in the Wahwaksum Cemetery. Mamie will lie in state Thursday at the Chapel Oaks Funeral Home in Hoyt, where family and friends will meet from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.