Nelle McNichols (1875-1965)

MCNICHOLS

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:14

From Nevada Journal December 14, 1965 (page 1)

Longtime Newswoman Dies Here At The Age of 90

Miss Nelle McNichols, a lifelong resident of Nevada and possibly its best-known woman, died at the Story County Hospital at 3 p.m. Monday after several years of failing health.

Miss McNichols official age was not know. She was thought to be about 90.

Miss McNichols graduated from the Nevada High School at, at the age of 17, began teaching. Later she became assistant county superintendent of schools in an era when horse and buggy transportation bridged the gap between the scores of rural schools that dotted Story County.

She began her teaching career in Richland Township in 1891 and accepted a teaching position in Nevada in 1893. From 1914 to 1922 she was in the office of Maude Wakefield, Co. superintendent. In all, she spent 24 years in the education profession.

To Newspaper

For a time she was clerk for a cheese company that was in operation in Nevada. Later she accepted a job with the Ames Tribune and then with the Nevada Representative. She was also employed for a time by Iowa Electric. When the Tri-weekly Journal became a daily in June of 1929 she became part of the staff.

Newspaper work was a field she loved for 31 years. She took over the society page of the Journal and, at times, edited the entire paper. She was the main source of news in the paper at times --- writing the personal items, social affairs, courthouse news and items of city affairs.

Miss McNichol's devotion to duty was legend at the Journal. She took pride in being the first to arrive in the morning and the last to lock the door at night. She was absent from the job only one time that the staff could remember -- and that came when she was past 70 years of age and waded hip-deep snow to report World War II bomber crash that happened near Collins. She contracted pneumonia and had to be carried from her desk in her chair.

When Nevada celebrated its Centennial the tireless work of Miss McNichols helped produce the major portion of facts that became the Centennial Edition.

She was known by everyone and her Saturday column "Around the Town With Nelle" was a part of Nevada life. In 1946 the town held a Nelle McNichols Day. The governor of the state came to the banquet and spoke and the honoree was sent away on an expense paid trip to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

In 1960, shortly before her retirement, she was given the Jane Arden Award by the Iowa Prss Womens Association.

A deeply religious woman and a devout Catholic, Miss McNichols was the best in everyone. She disliked writing news of community troubles or crime.

Miss McNichols was the last of her family, having been preceded by her two sister. Survivors include only a few nieces and nephews.

Funeral services are expected to be held Thursday at the Catholic Church in Nevada. Burial will be in the family plot by the side of her sisters and parents.

From Nevada Journal December 20, 1965 (page 1)

QUOTES ...AND UNQUOTES
(a column written by owner/editor Wit Ledbetter)

Only a handful of Nelle McNichols' old friends turned out for her funeral last Thursday. Nelle, at 90, had outlived most of her friends and nearly all of her contemporaries.

It's hard for those of us who knew Nelle intimately to realize there are two or three recent generations who grew up -- or moved here -- without knowing the Journal's 85 year old society editor

***

Enough has been said, in all probability, about Miss McNichols' good qualities. She was an extraordinary woman -- but quite human. Her few frailties were magnified by their scarcity and were made slightly humorous by Miss McNichols age.

The purpose of this column is to reveal some of the little know idiosyncrasies of "Our Nelle." It is done in a spirit of love and reverence. She would flay me with her tongue if she were alive -- for Nelle hated any sort of personal publicity that leaned toward the compliment. She would have preferred to have had her name in the paper as a victim of an assault as to have seen her attributes listed in print.

***

The truth was...

Nelle never revealed her age...not to anyone. She took pride in being able to do the things she die at her age and she was careful about the way she looked...but never so mush as whispered her age.

And the funny thing about it was that the plan backfired. People thought she was older than she really was.

When she died last week the County Supt. of Schools went back in the record and found when Nelle was hired to teach. She was 17 at the time and the years add up to 90 at the time of her death. But many people in Nevada guessed her age as 95 or 96.

***

Nelle was competitive as all get-out. First of all, she couldn't stand to be "beaten" on a story. If another paper got there first or if someone asked Nelle to "hold up on the story" it would make her scowl and bring on a loud "Oh, shoot!"...her strongest form of profanity.

Being the first to work in the morning was one form of competition Nelle enjoyed. The Journal staff has traditionally come to work at 7 a. m. but Nelle always showed up about 10 minutes early and was at her desk to greet her fellow workers. The sports editor and I once teamed up to beat her...so we came earlier each morning. It irritated Nelle in a good-natured way but she began to come earlier too and we finally gave up when Nelle was getting on the job at 6:30.

She was the same way in the evening, coming back regularly after supper to write -- even on the worst evenings in winter when she walked the two blocks home in snow or ice.

***

But writing wasn't the only thing Nelle did at the Journal in the evening. She practiced a secret vice there too -- she smoked a cigarette.

It took years to discover that Nelle smoked. Some eagle-eye noticed a single burnt match on the corner of a certain filing cabinet near the ladies room every morning. We finally discovered Nelle enjoyed a nightly cigarette -- but went into the powder room to smoke it, even though she was there alone.

And once, when she had a bad cold and I dropped by to see her at home, Nelle bent over and a pack of Kools fell out of the bosom of her dress. I acted as though I didn't see and Nells quickly scooped them up and returned the pack to its hiding place.

***

Once I offered Nelle a cigarette. We were enroute to Des Moines and the annual Donnelley party she enjoyed so much. "I know you smoke," I told her, "So why not smoke around those who know you"

"It's because I never learned how to do it properly," Nelle said. "I smoke like a beginner and I'm clumsy."

He nieces later laughed at this story and said she was right --- that she pinched the cigarette palm-outward and flicked the ashed off with her little finger.

***

The Donnelley party was her "blast" and she missed it only the last two or three years she lived. I always warned her about having too much to drink --- a private joke in which I recounted horrible stories about her conduct at the part last year, how she had too many "Pink Ladies" and danced on the piano. Nelle was about 85 at his time and laughingly promised she would conduct herself in a more ladylike fashion this time.

She was friend of the Donnelley Corporation. Its president David Harrington went to school to her and executives of the company all knew Nelle. Her name was always called at the party and Nells stood and applauded.

***

Nelle would never allow her picture to be taken. We tried tricks here at the Journal to get one at various time, but Nelle was too smart for us. She could sense a camera coming and turned toward the wall or headed for the ladies room. We attempted to get one when she received the Jane Arden award shortly before she retired --- and even that wasn't successful.

***

In 1946 Nevada businessman held a "Nelle McNichols Day." The governor of the state spoke at the banquet and Nelle was sent away to New Orleans for a two week free vacation.

And 20 years later, when she died, only a handful of people came to her funeral.

But that's the way Nelle would have wanted it. If the stores had closed and there had been a community memorial service, it would have embarrassed Nelle.

"Aw, shoot!" she would have said.
..."WIT"