Nina Shelden
June 27, 2022
Nina’s soul passed from this earth on June 27, 2022 at the age of 95. It’s not easy to summarize a person’s life in a few paragraphs but here are a few remembrances to paint a picture of who she was.
Born in Plainview, Nebraska to 2nd generation Swedish and German immigrants, Wilhelmine Kathryn Ike largely grew up in Lincoln. Her beautiful singing voice led to a bachelor’s degree in music from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a year as a Fulbright scholar studying opera in post-war Rome and Perugia, Italy.
She followed her dreams to New York City in the early 1950s performing under the stage name Nina Lester. She lived for a time in a one-room tenement on Mulberry Street in the heart of Little Italy, where the bathtub was in the kitchen. She said she always felt safe in that neighborhood despite not being a New Yorker or of Italian heritage – the neighbors took care of their own.
She met her husband Russ working at United Airlines’ Manhattan ticket counter. They enjoyed a 53-year marriage until his death in 2007, and raised three boys in New York, Ohio, Washington and Hawaii as Russ’ teaching career progressed. Once the boys were all in school in the early 1970s, Nina went back to college and earned an associate’s degree in library science, leading to a 20+ year career as a library aide for the Lake Washington School District.
She was a wonderful cook, making food the center of a thriving family and passing her skills on to her sons. But above all she was a master baker of pies – her crusts were the flaky stuff of legend. Russ said he knew “she was the one” after he pronounced her cherry pie superb.
Along the way, she developed a huge orbit of family and friends, always accepting and never judging anyone who came into her life. Many who lost connection with others in the family over the years stayed close with Nina. She was a rock for anyone fortunate enough to have her in their life.
Nina is survived by her sons, Clark and David of Redmond, WA and Matt (Kim) of Kenmore, WA, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She was the loving matriarch of an adoring family who will miss her tremendously, and who aspire to live lives even half as generous as hers.