Avis Nelson dies in Chadron

Ed Nelson always gave his wife much of the credit for his success. He once told a reporter from the Omaha World-Herald that if it hadn’t been for her “I wouldn’t be worth the price of a bale of hay.”

She had urged him to attend college and become a teacher after he returned from serving in World War II. Nearly 40 years later, while he was president of Chadron State, she advised him to fly to Lincoln to attempt to convince the state senators to override Gov. Bob Kerrey’s veto of the appropriations bill for the physical activity center that the college was seeking. Accompanied by the late Keith Kemper of Alliance, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nebraska State Colleges, the strategy worked. The $4.7 million building opened in 1987 and was named for the Nelsons in 1996.

Mrs. Nelson also collected homespun jokes for her husband to use in the dozens of speeches that he gave while he was president of Chadron State and afterwards when he was recognized as “Nebraska’s No. 1 cheerleader” and directed leadership and community revitalization seminars throughout the state.

In return for her assistance, he collected dolls for her during his travels. They eventually had at least 6,000 and purchased a small house near their home to help store the collection.

He died in September 2000 at age 78.

Avis Hedrix was born April 27, 1921 in Brookfield, Minn. The family moved to Kearney when she was 4. She graduated from Kearney State College and began teaching in Newport, Neb., in Rock County in September 1941, when she met Ed Nelson, who was working in his uncle’s grocery store. They married two months later.

The couple was living in Omaha, when he was drafted into the Army in 1943. She worked at the Grand Island Munitions Depot while he served in the infantry in Europe.

After the war ended, he was working for Safeway Stores in Ravenna, Neb., when his wife pointed out that there was a shortage of teachers. He took an examination, acquired an emergency certificate and began teaching in Naponee, Neb., in the fall of 1947 and also began taking correspondence courses from Kearney State College. He never was a full-time student while earning any of his three degrees.

Survivors include a daughter, Judy Nelson of Clarkdale, Ariz.; a son Roger Nelson and his wife Nancy of Chadron; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.