North Carolina couple killed by Helene honored with community service award

By Justin Berger, WLOS CNNWire logo
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
NC couple killed by Helene honored with community service award
An MLK Jr. candlelight service Sunday honored over a dozen people and organizations.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- The 44th Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative candlelight service on Sunday, Jan. 19, honored more than a dozen people and organizations with community service awards.

Among the honorees were Nola and Robert Ramsuer, a Swannanoa couple who died on the day that Hurricane Helene tore through Western North Carolina.

"It's so special," Elizabeth Jones, Nola's sister said. "They both contributed a lot the community. They worked hard."

Nola worked as a nurse and Robert worked in maintenance after serving in Vietnam.

"She was just genuine. There was never any ulterior motive or want or need from her - if she wanted to help you, she just wanted to help you," Shalana Jordan said of her mother, Nola. "She would go out of her way to do that for people and she was just kind."

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Jordan, who News 13 spoke with when her parents were missing, said that during that time, she learned a lot about her parents that she did not know beforehand.

"I literally received hundreds and hundreds of Facebook messages, text messages, phone calls (and) emails from people who worked with them, who were helped by them, had my mom bake a cake for their birthday," Jordan said. "So many people, so many things, so many people that they touched, helped and were involved in."

Jordan said it brings her peace knowing her parents were together at the end. She said she knows how much they would have appreciated the award.

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Leslie Anderson, the City of Asheville's first director of downtown development, was also honored posthumously.

Other honorees at this ceremony included:

Rev. Jim Abbott
Aisha Adams
Archdeacon Brenda Gilbert
Deputy Joseph Gorman
Deputy Josh Sims
Joe McGuire
Buncombe County Commissioner Martin Moore
Asheville Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley
Dr. John Parham
Dr. Fairley Patton
Reverend Dr. R. Scott White
Shirley Rhodes Young
Asheville Buncombe Institute of Parity Achievement
Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity
MANNA FoodBank