A memorial service for Freddie Banks Nelson, 89, Lawrence, will be 10 am, Friday, June 2, 2017, at Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home. Inurnment will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery.
She died Friday, May 26, 2017, at Brandon Woods at Alvamar.
Freddie was born May 26, 1928, in Smithville, Tenn, the daughter of Clyde and Clara S. Cantrell Banks.
Because her hometown had no high school, Freddie walked several miles to a nearby town where she found a job as a live-in babysitter and then worked her way through high school. After graduating, she moved to Nashville where she worked first as a secretary and then as a statistician for the Tennessee State Department of Education. After marriage, she became a fan of Julia Child and specialized in cooking French cuisine as well as her native Southern dishes. She also studied oil painting.
She married Horace Lynnville Nelson on February 11, 1955, in Nashville, Tenn. As a couple, they enjoyed swing dance, travel, and bridge. He preceded her in death in 2004.
Survivors include a daughter Resa Nelson, Mass., brother Charles Banks, Tenn., and many nieces and nephews.
She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, and sisters Clydie Mangum and Ann Austin.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Alzheimer’s Association, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana St. Lawrence, KS 66044.
