Gertrude Blanchard Nelson

Published 7:47 pm Monday, April 20, 2015

Gertrude Blanchard Nelson

Aug. 31, 1920 – April 18, 2015

Mrs. Gertrude (Trudy) Nelson, age 94, a resident of 119 West 11th Street, Washington, North Carolina, died Saturday April 18, 2015.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday April 21, 2015 at 11:00 A.M. at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church the Rev. Jim Horten will officiate. Burial will follow at Oakdale Cemetery. The following will serve as pallbearers: Swanson Graves, Lex Mann, Walker Lynch, Bill Mac Alligood, Fred Scales and Mayhew Cox. Honorary pallbearers are: David Howdy, James Skillen, Lee Latham, William Cochran III and Tom Payne.

Trudy was born in Great Falls, Montana, August 31, 1920. She was the daughter of the late Harold Eugene and Gertrude Underwood Blanchard. She was a graduate of Council Grove High School in Council Grove, Kansas. After graduation she served as the secretary to the Camp Cooke commander in California, where she met Captain Leonard Dorsey Nelson. They were married March 10, 1946 and moved to Washington, N.C. While raising 4 children, Trudy worked at John Cotton Tayloe Elementary School, at the Washington Housing Authority and for lawyers John Wilkinson and Judge Hallet Ward. Until retirement Trudy served as Deputy Clerk of Court at the Beaufort County Courthouse.

Trudy was an active member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church for over 50 years and a leader of the Episcopal Church Women. She was a dedicated volunteer with the Beaufort Chapter of the American Red Cross. She also gave her time at the Beaufort County Humane Society.

Trudy received the Abeyounis Memorial Award as volunteer of the year at Beaufort County Hospital in 1997. She was recognized by the governor as Volunteer of the Year for the state of North Carolina in 2013 at the age of 92.

Trudy was preceded in death by her husband Leonard Dorsey Nelson Sr., parents, Harold E. and Gertrude U. Blanchard, brothers: Harold Blanchard, Donald S. Blanchard and Robert D. Blanchard. She is survived by a sister: Virginia Hunter of Council Grove, Kansas, four children: Suzanne Nelson Moody and husband Jim of Redmond, OR, Mary Chapman Nelson Hines and husband Bill of LaGrange, GA, Leonard Dorsey Nelson and wife Sharon of Raleigh, NC and Thomas Blanchard Nelson and wife Patty of Williamsburg, VA. She has 13 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, with 3 more on the way.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Peter’s Building Fund, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 985, Washington, N.C. 27889 or the Lights of Love, Vidant Beaufort Hospital, 628 East 12th Street, Washington, N.C. 27889.

Condolences may be offered to the family by visiting www.paulfuneralhome.com.

Paul Funeral Home & Crematory of Washington is honored to serve the Nelson family.