Nora was the fourth child of 14 children born to Hans Christian Andersen and Minnie Helmina Davidsen Paulsen Andersen.

She married Forrest Glenn Bair on June 18, 1913, and they would become the parents of six children; Albert Sylvester, Lauretta M, Marian G, Auris Vincent, Ada May, and Marjory Aleene. But the Bair's separated shortly after the birth of their sixth child, Marjory in 1926. They were divorced sometime before 1930.

Nora remarried on September, 14, 1943 when she was 50, to a younger man who was 40, named Karl Oppenhuisen; an immigrant from Holland. Their newlywed happiness was marred by the death of Nora's youngest child, 17-year-old Marjory, in December of that same year.

The Oppenhuisen's were married for 31 years when Nora died and the early article in the paper just said she was slain at home and the police were seeking her killer. She was 81 and Karl was 71.

First, I will tell you the story the way I heard it from a cousin and an aunt who remembered it happening. They said that Nora was quite the complainer and could be a pain at times. She also seemed to just never quit nagging and on the 13th of November, 1974, she had started in on Karl just one too many times. He picked up a pillow and put it over her face and held it there until she was dead! Then he calmly called the police and told them he had killed her. Family members said it was really weird seeing Nora on the TV news as a domestic murder victim.

But then, a fellow F.A.G. member (Cemetery P.I.) surprised me by going to the Kalamazoo library and looking Nora's story up. Thank you so much!

Now, as you can see by the article on the right, the above story was somewhat, but not exactly right. In actuality, Karl choked her to death and then tried to fake it like some intruder did it and robbed her too! His story must have been really weak because the police were on to him right away and not looking for anyone else.

Family says, that a daughter said, that Karl had said that he was out buying cigarettes when the intruder came in and killed Nora and robbed her. The daughter had to remind Karl that he hadn't smoked for years, so the family was suspicious right away as well.

The family report on Karl said that he resided in the Kalamazoo Psychiatric Hospital starting in 1975, which would fit this situation. Perhaps there were extenuating circumstances or the officials might have just decided that he was too old to put in prison, and since he had acted nutty, they put him in the psychiatric hospital.

Public records say he died in Plainwell, Michigan. Plainwell is 15 miles from Kalamazoo. He didn't die until he was 86 in 1989, so he got 15 years of peace away from Nora, if that is what he was seeking. (See Karl's memorial for the rest of the story.)

Cemetery P.I. also discovered that Karl remarried when he was 76 to a woman who was only 32 years old! The marriage license listed them both as living at the same address in Kalamazoo, but family says that Karl met her in the halfway house that they were both in, so that explains the dual address; it must have been the halfway house. I wonder what she did to get herself in trouble? The address was 4144 South 12th Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Karl certainly didn't spend much time incarcerated or hospitalized for Nora's murder and I would really like to know why. And I am also curious as to what situation would prompt a 32-year-old woman to marry a 76-year-old convicted wife murderer? Even if they were in the halfway house together, she was 32. How devastatingly attractive could a 76-year-old man be to a 32-year-old? There just must be more to this story.

After reading just what is in the articles that I have so far, I am more than surprised that Karl spent so very little time locked up. The articles said that he made an effort to make it look like an intruder did it but he was obviously really bad at his lie. But why did he spend so little time in jail or treatment?

Karl was 71 when he murdered Nora and 76 when he remarried. You don't hear about too many 71-year-old murderers. Very odd story, but as in everything, there are two sides to every story. I would love to know this story from a different point of view.

Is it that Karl was determined by the jury to be out of his head when he murdered Nora and hospitalization corrected his mental issues?

Or perhaps the couple planned her death together due to illness? Elderly folks do that sometimes out of love for the other, but family lore says that Nora enjoyed carping at Karl and death would have taken that away so she didn't want to die. I don't know the answer at this time, but the short incarceration would seem to indicate that this was not a malicious murder. Hopefully I will eventually find out.

Karl is sometimes listed as Karel Oppenhuisen, but most records refer to him as Karl, except for the 1930 Census where he is listed as Carl when he was living with his brother Frederik and sister-in-law, Tetje and a few city directories where he is listed as Carl as well. Karel is a Dutch name, (pronounced Karl), so he was Karel in Holland and he Americanized his name to Karl when he came to the United States.

Funny side notes: His nephew-in-law, Howard Nickelson, always called Karl "Uppinsqueezins". Also, once Nora's nieces, Edna and Agnes were in the backseat of the car and Karl and Nora were in the front seat. They came upon a railroad track and Karl crept up on it and crossed it slowly. Then with his heavy Dutch accent, he looked back at the nieces and said, "Safe-uh-tee first!". The girls cracked up!

Picture One: Nora and Forrest Bair's wedding photo.

Picture Two: Murder notice in the newspaper.

Picture Three: Nora's headstone.

Picture Four: Young Nora Mae Andersen.

Picture Five: Nora's Obituary.

Picture Six: Karl arrested newspaper article.

Picture Seven: Karl's trial date is set newspaper article.

Note: Clicking on the pictures enlarges them.