Idaho State Journal, 06/02/05

BLOOMINGTON, Idaho - Nadine Dunford Nelson, 81, loving wife, mother and grandmother, passed away Monday, May 30, 2005, at Bear Lake Memorial Hospital in Montpelier, Idaho. She was born on December 8, 1923, in Bloomington, Idaho, the second of eight children born to Thomas Jefferson and Ruth Dora Hulme Dunford. She was married to Thomas Jay Nelson on August 29, 1951, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. 

She attended elementary school in Bloomington, Fielding High School in Paris for two years, and graduated from Montpelier High School with the class of 1941 as valedictorian.

After receiving training at the LDS Business College in Salt Lake City, she was employed by the Beneficial Life Insurance Company. Later she graduated from Utah State Agricultural College (now USU) with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. She did postgraduate study at the University of Idaho, Moscow. She was a teacher for six years and taught in the elementary school in Willard, Utah; Rigby High School, Rigby, Idaho; and Fielding High School, Paris, Idaho.

She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many different capacities in the ward and stake auxiliary organizations. 

She and her husband served in the Canada/Winnipeg Mission, 1984-85. They also served together as stake missionaries, guides at the Paris Stake Tabernacle and specialists in the Family History Center.

She worked with various community and service organizations and committees, including Farm Bureau, Parent-Teacher Association, American Cancer Society, Bear Lake Education Foundation, (committees for the Bear Lake County Centennial, America Bicentennial, and Paris Tabernacle Centennial), and with the Bloomington City Planning and Zoning Commission, later serving as city clerk-treasurer. She was a member of Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the Fine Arts Literary Club. 

She loved music and participated with various choirs and singing groups and enjoyed playing her electric Hawaiian guitar and organ. She spent much time reading and writing, and keeping family, personal and historical records, and scrapbooks. She served as a stake history specialist and as county historian for Daughters of Utah Pioneers. She was a speaker at many funerals and other occasions and wrote scripts for programs. She enjoyed homemaking and gardening and was a sports fan.

Nadine is survived by her husband, T. Jay of Bloomington, Idaho; four daughters, a son and foster daughter and their spouses, Ruth and Marc T. Baker, American Fork, Utah, Julia and Brian T. Rowland, Ovid, Idaho; Joyce and Rick L. Ellertson, Farmington, Utah, Gay and Kyle J. Hyde, Logan, Utah, Reed J. and Debra L. Nelson, Charlestown, West Va., Cheryl and Leon Hansen, Parker, Ariz.; 19 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren; brothers, J. Hulme Dunford, Thomas J. (Joan) Dunford and Joseph W. (Leah) Dunford; sisters, Leah (Gerald C.) Christensen, Ann Marie (Ned C.) Budge; sisters-in-law, Carol Dunford and Nola Dunford; and brother-in-law, Lewis C. Elison (Dona). She was preceded in death by her parents, brother, Robert M. Dunford; sister, Elaine D. Elison; sister-in-law, Vera H. Dunford; and brothers-in-law, Edwin F. Rogers and Paul C. Parkinson.

Funeral services will be Saturday, June 4, 2005, at 1 p.m. at the LDS Paris Idaho Stake Center under the direction of the Bloomington Ward. Interment will be in the Bloomington, Idaho, cemetery.