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Mary D. Nelson [Madame Nelson to us] was born Sept. 6, 1913, to David Phillip Thomas and Anna Davis in Samaria, Idaho.
After graduating from the Holy Cross Hospital, as a nurse, she married Howard Brim Nelson Sept. 20, 1936, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Howard was a pharmacist and in 1937 was commissioned in the U.S. Army. Life in the service made traveling around the world possible.
Their first tour of duty was Denver, Colo., where their son Howard Thomas was born. Then they moved to St. Louis, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, France and back to Virginia and in 1993 Mrs. Nelson came to Washington, where she built her home.
In France her love for the French language blossomed. Returning to Virginia, she received a bachelor's degree in French literature at George Washington University and taught high school French in Fairfax, Va.
She also received the diplome superieur from the Sorbonne, Paris, and a master's degree in foreign language methodology from Brigham Young University.
Mrs. Nelson had been asking her family and friends to pray her home. On May 6, 2010, at age 96, her prayers were answered and she is now with her beloved Howard Brim, her family and friends.
Mrs. Nelson loved, encouraged and enjoyed her 13 grandchildren, 52 great-grandchildren . . . and still counting. They are her posterity from her only son Howard and his wife Elna Austin Nelson.
The entire Nelson family wishes to thank church members and people in the community who made it possible for Mrs. Nelson to remain in her home as she planned.
A viewing will be held from 9-10:45 a.m. and the funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 22, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the Washington Ward chapel, 110 E. 14th St., in Washington.
In lieu of flowers memorials to Mrs. Nelson's foreign language scholarship fund, UVU Foundation, Inc., Howard B. and Mary D. Nelson Endowed Scholarship Fund, 800 W. University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058 are preferred.
Source: Ancestry.com via The Missourian
Friend, Grant Skabelund, delivered these remarks at Madame Nelson's funeral.
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William Neil "Bill" Witting (1969)
I may have been unique in having class with Madame Nelson 3 out of my 4 years at Ft. Hunt. She was a character. She taught French but a lot more. Taking her verb tests every week gave me an attention to detail that has served me well in everything I have done. Although she cultivated the aura of a witch and was hard on everyone including me, I have always treasured the memory of my time with her. One of a handful of teachers at Ft. Hunt who contributed a lot to making me who I am.
Karin Lindgren (1971)
Indeed Mme. Nelson taught us more than French! She showed us what it is to have a strong and steady faith. She never wavered, always trusted the Lord. She genuinely loved her students as if we were all family. Teachers such as Mme. Nelson are harder and harder to come by. She was a pearl.
Harriet Renee Campbell (1973)
My class with Madame Nelson provided many wonderul and funny memories. I was part of an accelerated series that taught Frinch using text books.a native French elementary child would use. She vowed to speak no English in class and would act out any French works that were not easily understood. I'll never for get her miming and chanting "je me brosse les dents. Tu te bross les dents....). We had graded exerises nearly every day and she would list the grades of each person on a separate piece of paper (her "billets doux) to be taken home and signed by a parent. .
She was a wonderful teacher and truly an original person. I'm glad she lived a long life and was surrounded by family. Thank you Madame Nelson!