Nadine C. Myers
TRUMAN - Nadine Carol (Paul) Myers, 83, of Truman, Minn., formerly of Ceylon, Minn., and Ames, Iowa, died Tuesday, September 16, 2008, at Fairmont (Minnesota) Community Hospital.
Born March 23, 1925, in Rockwell City, Iowa, daughter of Marie C. (Eibey) Paul and Ariel Paul. She graduated from Ames High School in 1943, and married Wendell Myers, also of Ames, on February 4, 1945.
She was the mainstay in running their household and raising their five children, particularly during the years her husband was a traveling insurance salesman. She also worked outside of the home much of her married life, including helping run a family-operated DX service station, a taxi service, and a bus line that served central Iowa cattle dealers traveling to Chicago stockyards. She held numerous clerical positions, including in the division of the top-secret, WWII Manhattan Project at Iowa State University, Ames, that was tasked with refining plutonium, and she recalled meeting J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi in that context. And she was once baby-sat by Paul Tibbets, later pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Other employment included work at a bank in Ames, at a farm chemicals company in Welcome, Minn., as a Fuller Brush representative, and at a law firm and a carpeting company, both in Fairmont. She ended her working years with positions in the Ceylon school system, working 1974-1989 driving school bus, serving as substitute school secretary, and serving as Ceylon's first Community Education Director. She was responsible for a weekly radio program outlining Ceylon community events.
She was soft-spoken and devoted to her family, encouraging her children in all their interests, and faithfully attending their musical performances, sporting events and plays. She helped organize a crew of young people, including several family members, which walked beans for several summers. She enjoyed family fishing vacations in northern Minnesota (though steadfastly refused to clean fish), and other travel, including trips around the U.S. and to Vancouver, Mexico City and Acapulco. She also enjoyed involvement in bowling leagues and in the Rebekkah Lodge, sang with a Sweet Adelines group, and was a member of the DAR.
She is survived by her five children: David Myers of Vancouver, Canada, and his partner Bill Houghton; Teri Sue Myers of Winton, Minn., and her children Jason Vigdal, Margaret Matthes (daughter Madelyn), and Sarah Matthes (daughter Lita Mae); Dan Myers of Ceylon; Don Myers of St. Peter, Minn., and his wife Joni (Anderson) Myers and their children Iris and Dalton; and Kaycee Hintz of Truman and her husband Larry Hintz and their children Nichole Klug (husband Kevin), Michael (fiance Chelsea Bitter), and Rebecca. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 62 years, Wendell.
Funeral services: September 27, 10:30 a.m., St. Peter Lutheran Church, Ceylon, with visitation at the church September 26, 4-7 p.m. and one hour before the services. Interment at Lake Belt Cemetery, west of Ceylon, follows the funeral. Arrangements by Zaharia Family Funeral & Cremation Service of Truman.
