Adene A. Nelson

Adene Nelson, age 89, died on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002, at her home in Mount Horeb.   Born in Mount Horeb to Adena (Gesme) and Alfred Nelson, on April 20, 1912, she was one of triplets.  One, infant, died at birth.  One, Irene, lived five months.  Her mother died while giving birth.  Her father was killed in a train accident in 1916 in Montana when he was a railroad employee.  Adene's maternal grandparents, Inger and James Gesme of Mount Horeb, adopted her. 

A 1930 graduate of Mount Horeb High School, she attended St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., for two years and then transferred to National College of Education, Evanston, Ill., where she received her B.E. degree in 1934.  Adene taught grade school in Argyle, Oshkosh and Kenosha, but spent the majority of her 44-year career teaching mainly kindergarten at Sherman School in Madison, until her retirement in 1978.  Many of her former students remember Adene fondly to this day as a wonderful and well-loved teacher.

Adene's cousins told us she adored this house and that her wish to live out her life here had been fulfilled.  People have told us she would be very happy to see the house being moved and cared for.  Indeed, could it be her ghost watching over us which has already both played a few pranks and left us wonderful surprises?