Nelles, Marianne

NELLES, BONHOTE, ANDERSON

Posted By: carol (email)
Date: 7/10/2006 at 11:09:03

MAQUOKETA — Marianne Nelles, 84, of Maquoketa, died Sunday at Mercy Medical Center, Dubuque.

Cremation rites will be accorded. Burial will be at a later date.

She was born Dec. 4, 1921, in Zurich, Switzerland, to Edouard Keller and Emilie Marie Bonhote. She married Jakob “Jake” Nelles on Nov. 6, 1954, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He died in 2005.

She was educated and later graduated from a private boarding school for boys where her father was a teacher in 1940. She attended secretarial college.

In 1943, she joined the Administrative Department of the Swiss Army and worked in information centers and refugee camps. From 1948 to 1951, she lived in Cambridge, England, to improve her English. In 1952, she went to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to work with a French Canadian radio station.

After spending five years in Canada, she and her family moved to Wisconsin. In 1965, they moved to Maquoketa where she was a homemaker. The family also owned and operated Nelles Cheese and Equipment Co., manufacturing cheese-making equipment until 1991 when they sold the rights to DEC International based out of Madison, Wis.

She was a member of First United Methodist Church, Maquoketa, where she was active in children’s church and church choir. She was a former member of the Tuesday Club of the Federated Club. She delivered Meals On Wheels for many years.

Survivors include her children, Catherine (Roger) Anderson of Eveleth, Minn., John (Kate) Nelles of Toronto, Canada, and Peter (Kelly) Nelles of Blue Mounds, Wis.; and three grandchildren.

A Marianne Nelles Memorial Fund has been established.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband and two sisters.

Source: Clinton Herald; Clinton, Iowa
Death date: July 2, 2006