Last Name Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

	Nellie (Smith) Bass Emerson, Iowa, USA Brick Section A - Row 4
Nellie Smith Bass Nellie May Smith Bass was born January 23, 1891 on a farm near David City, Nebraska, the youngest child of Rollin 0. Smith and the only child of his second wife, Artemicia Emelline Butler Smith. Nellie's siblings were from 11 to 16 years older than she, so she essentially grew up as a lone child, and developed the resourcefulness and initiative often expected in the single child. The family moved to a farm near Emerson, Iowa in 1898, and into Emerson four years later. There she lived through her high school years, graduating from Emerson High School in 1907. During the next five years she cared for her ailing mother, kept house for the family, and prepared household linens and her trousseau for her coming marriage. On June 19, 1912 she was married to Elmer A. Bass after an engagement of four years, exactly one week after his graduation from Iowa State College at Ames. After traveling by train to Fremont, Nebraska and honeymooning there, they established their home on a farm my grandfather had purchased in 1898. There both my brotherand I were born and lived to adulthood. In due time our respective families joined with Mother and Dad in forming a family corporation, and in 1948 Nellie and Elmer Bass were living in Red Oak, where they lived out their lives, Dad until 1965 and Mother until 1972. As I review the years I knew my mother from the vantage point of a daughter, several qualities made her a memorable person and a worthy example. She was versatile; she was able to adapt; she was dedicated to her family and home, to her Church and community, and to a few special friends. She was "on the spot" for neighbors and friends in need. She was punctual and unobtrusively organized. She was a doer more than a talker. She was what my father called "accurately intuitive" about people and about issues. She was a lover of nature and she was comfortable with who she was. She was many things to many people. She was recognized as an accomplished seamstress, as an artful quilt maker, as a master in embroidering and in crocheting. Her angel food cakes from "scratch", her special baked beans, her glistening array of canned fruits, vegetables, pickles, jellies and jams bespoke her skills in culinary areas. She presided over her cook stove, while the rest of her family gardened, gathered in the produce, helped with early process before the actual canning and preserving. She loved all kinds of flowers and house plants, especially African Violets from leaf cuttings, even from seed. Her "green thumb" was legend among her family and friends, and even among her fellow Garden Club members. Even during her early years living in Highland Acres (a retirement care facility) she lovingly nursed her most cherished violets. She spread her homemaking skills beyond her home into the particular community groups she believed to have real impact locally and in a larger area. Her sewing skills, and those of her service-minded friends were banded together in a busy organization aptly called "The Christian Home Aid Society". This group met in members homes for all-day meetings every month to produce clothing for children living in Council Bluffs' Christian Homes. Her homemaking, and her organizational and teaching skills brought real growth experiences to the many 4-H girls she served in the Garfield Go-Getters 4-H club she organized when I was ten years old. Eventually she served her turn on the Montgomery County 4-H Committee. She said she shook for an hour following her selection as it's chairman because she felt unequal to the responsibilities. But she served well. In the same era she participated in the Farm Bureau Women's Home Project activities. These same skills plus a deep, abiding faith were long shared in the Emerson Methodist Church where she worked in the Ladies Aid Society and in the Primary department of the Sunday School as a teacher and as it's superintendent. When she moved to Red Oak she gradually became one of the "Coffee Ladies" for Women's Society meetings and for Church wide dinners. Her Friendly Class in Sunday School associations brought her such joy and the afternoon monthly parties remained a high light as long as she was able to attend them. Not to be forgotten in our family was her part in making our summer two-week vacations from the early 1920s through the mid 1930s the high point of each year. We camped amid western Nebraska's sandhills, in selected small towns along favorite rivers, at Estes Park, at Grand Lake, at Colorado Springs and in Denver. That was before sleeping bags, but not before air pillows and canvas cots and folding camp stools. We ate eggs from home all the way, and her famous ginger cookies, plus fruits and vegetables as long as they lasted. She cooked on a two- burner Coleman camp stove while the rest of the family set the tent, got wood for our evening camp fire, inflated pillows, set up the cots, and brought that essential large pail of water all campers know about. We all knew our jobs for breaking camp the next morning, and we were not the last campers to leave! Though my mother always said she preferred to work "behind the scenes", I noted early on that she often seemed to wind up in a "front and center" position as soon as she had gained her confidence. In the ten year period when my father served the County as its Representative in the Iowa General Assembly, Mother accompanied him to Des Moines for the four-month session. For several terms she was a daily observer during the sessions at the State House. On the scheduled meeting days for the Legislative Ladies she happily joined them, and developed several lasting friendships through these associations. Came the day when my father's lovely and efficient secretary decided she must spend more time with her family. At the time my mother moved from being an alert and knowledge- able observer to becoming my father's clerk. She adapted readily into the routine of cutting and pasting for the daily Journal, taking notes, and typing and clerking some committee meetings. But she had to remove Legislative Ladies meetings from her agenda! Through out my years at home, I observed evidences that my mother was a person in her own right, a bit different than I observed in some of her contemporary neighbors and wives of family friends. Often when my brother or I approached our father on some matter before we approached Mother, we heard Dad say, "I'll have to talk it over with Mama". She long had her special account in a Red Oak bank, though the family considered the account in the Emerson bank as "ours". At the time I did not realize this fact was not the usual practice for the farm families nearby. The source of her account was of no concern to me. It just was. I now assume her extra "egg and cream" money may have been part of the source of that special account. Mother was free to drive the car to meetings when the dirt roads were dry. If they were muddy, she stayed home, or Dad put the chains on and drove. She lived as a cherished, important woman, and seemingly did not need to channel her energies into "great causes" calculated to produce societal change. Perhaps this is why I have long known I grew up as a liberated woman. I had observed my mother and grandmother, both of whom were never anything else. 12/28/94
Narrative Updated: 1/30/1995
Honored By:	Jane May Haahr