Nancy Curtis

Nancy Eileen Sullivan was born October 15, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri and passed on September 24, 2018, just a few weeks shy of her 80th birthday. Nancy was preceded in death by her daughter, Rhonda Lynn Curtis, in 2017 and is survived by her son, Randy (Bethany) Curtis, and granddaughters Jane and Cate Curtis. Nancy grew up at 7320 Goff Avenue in Richmond Heights, Missouri, the only child of John Milton Sullivan and Florence Ida Mary (Seeburger) Sullivan. Nancy attended East Richmond Elementary School a few blocks from her home (her 5th grade teacher taught both of Nancy’s children a quarter century later at Hudson Elementary School). Nancy graduated from Maplewood–Richmond Heights High School in 1956 and from the UCC’s Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois in 1960, earning a degree in elementary education and retaining several life-long friends from both schools. She began teaching that fall: 5th grade at McGrath Elementary School in the Brentwood School District in 1960–61. Having married the brother of her college suite-mate on her mother’s birthday in 1960, a year later she gave birth to Rhonda, followed by Randy in 1963. They moved into 1219 Kenyon Court in Rock Hill, Missouri the following winter, what would be her permanent residence for the rest of her life. Her world focused on her kids for the next two decades. Following her divorce, Nancy became a teacher’s aide at Lockwood Elementary School (the same grade school her mother attended) in Webster Groves in spring 1970. Her first full year as a teacher was in 1971–72 and she team-taught there for two years; these fellow teachers would remain among her dearest friends. After the Webster Groves School District closed the Lockwood School (along with six other schools following peak enrollment in 1968), Nancy made the move to Bristol Elementary School in 1975. She would teach 3rd and 4th grades at Bristol through the spring of 2000. While teaching, she was active in the Webster Groves chapter of the Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA), serving as President and Vice President. In retirement, she served as the Vice President and President of the Webster Groves chapter of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association (MRTA). In the spring of 1971, a friend asked Nancy to join her in going to the St. Louis Blues hockey games and to share a pair of season tickets that she had been given. Thus began her decades-long affection for hockey and the St. Louis Blues! She would retain her seat in Section 232, row B, Seat 8 (and later Row A) for the next 22 seasons, until the team shuttered the Arena and moved to the Kiel Center in 1994. Like many season ticket holders at the Arena, she chose not to renew her seats as she would no longer be seated next to her friends of the past couple decades. However, she remained active in the Blueliners, the St. Louis Blues fan booster club that supports amateur and junior hockey in the area. Members of this group would become some of her closest friends, especially after she began to travel to the national conventions of the NHL booster club (NHLBC) in 1987 and continuing on for the next 2½ decades. Nancy joined the international philanthropic and educational P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1985 as a member of the GP chapter, eventually serving as Corresponding Secretary, Guard, Vice President, and President. Nancy earned her master’s degree in teaching at Maryville University in 1988, studying at night and over weekends for two years with a couple of her Bristol colleagues. The mid-1980s also marked a general shift in her pastimes; as the responsibility of getting both her kids through college and employed was fulfilled, she now had the freedom to realize many of her delayed dreams, primarily travel. Her trip to Tahiti over the summer of 1986 was followed by cruises to multiple countries and Alaska, and trips throughout all 50 states (except Hawaii). Buying a t-shirt or sweatshirt from each new location gave her the luxury of a nonrepeating wardrobe for 4½ months if she so chose. Nancy was also a big fan and supporter of Ragtime or Dixieland music and belonged to the St. Louis Jazz Club, the St. Louis Ragtimers, and the Friends of Scott Joplin. She loved the festivals aboard the Golden Rod Showboat and numerous other locations around town and in the region. For years, she was a regular “groupie” with her friends at the Columbia City Saloon’s Monday afternoon concerts to listen to the talented Pat Joyce. A lifelong bookworm, Nancy loved mysteries above all other genres and had over a hundred and fifty linear feet of books in her personal library at home—yes, we measured! Reading was her passion; the in-classroom library of “Mrs. Curtis” arguably rivaled the in-grade collection of the main Bristol Library (having scavenged the collections of the closing WGSD schools in the 1970s). To say the least, Nancy was beyond thrilled when asked to join the Rock Hill Public Library Board of Trustees in 2012. Nancy was known to boast that in the last 1½ decades, her happiest moments came from time spent with her granddaughters, Jane and Cate. Whether babies, toddlers, or peevish preteens, “Nana” relished her time with them and encouraged their parents to go out so that she could do so more often! During the last five years, weekly granddaughter visits were not just a blessing to Nancy but gifts to them as well—they will always remember her big easy smile and how she made them feel loved and treasured—which is really how she treated all her friends. Last for Nancy, the knowledge that she would help provide for her grandchildren’s future college education through inheritance—like her mother did for her children—truly delighted her. By her example, may all who knew her endeavor to live a life bursting with laughter and friendship.

Nancy Curtis

October 15, 1938 - September 23, 2018