ZANESVILLE, Ohio: Nancye Jean (Wilson) Lake passed away March 12, 2015 just days before her 91st birthday.
Nancye was born March 31, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois, and spent her childhood in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
She adored her childhood family and developed a strong lifelong friendship with her neighbor, "Betty" (Gruber) Conrad.
She and Betty attended Ripon College in Ripon, WI, during the years of World War II.
Nancye worked as a "Rosie the Riveter" job to help pay for college and eventually graduated from Ripon with a BA degree in English and a minor in music.
At Ripon, she became engaged to Homer Hall, nephew of James Norman Hall who co-authored "Mutiny on the Bounty."
Homer went off to war while Nancye waited for him to return. After college, she again lived with her family who had moved to North Hollywood, CA.
However, Homer never returned from a battlefield in France and, after several years, was presumed killed in action.
While living in North Hollywood, she eventually met Sgt. James Grant Lake who was a flight engineer on bombers in the US Air Force. He was stationed at Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards AFB) in southern CA. Muroc AFB was a flight testing center where James's B-29 bomber was used to drop launch the Bell X-1 when Cpt. "Chuck" Yeager first broke the sound barrier. On their first date, they discovered that they both loved traveling.
Nancye developed her love of traveling as a child when she went on family trips to visit her grandparents in Hannibal, MO.
James developed his love of traveling when he served in north Africa and in India ("flying the hump" into China and Burma) during WWII. They married on August 6, 1949 in Little Brown Church, Studio City, CA.
Next, they lived briefly on Muroc AFB until James left the Air Force in June 1950.
After a short honeymoon through Yellowstone National Park, they moved to Ohio and bought a farm near James's boyhood home north of Norwich, Ohio. (Muskingum County)
From a very modest beginning, they lived, worked, and raised their children on that family farm for 26 years. For the first five years, they lived in a one-room garage with a central wood-burning stove, until James completed building a three bedroom house.
Nancye did lots of cooking and canning of homegrown produce and supported her children in scouting, 4-H, sports, band, arts and crafts.
She was also a 2nd grade school teacher for 12 years as well as running their farm.
In the early 1960s, they bought an Airstream trailer for family outings.
During that time, they took lengthy family vacations throughout the US and Canada whenever they could.
After selling their farm in 1976, they continued their love of traveling for seven years in their Airstream, worked in Yellowstone National Park
James passed away November 20, 1983, at the age of 61, after 34 years of marriage.
Nancye continued trailering solo in the US and Mexico, worked in Yellowstone, went to Airstream rallies, and toured Scotland and England before she retired to an apartment in Zanesville.
Her lifetime interests were in her family, traveling, music, genealogy, history, weaving, reading and her Christian Science Society.
She was also preceded in death by her parents, George Oliver Wilson and Imogene (Conner) Wilson; two brothers, John and George "Buzz" Wilson; and one sister, Imogene "Jean" (Wilson) Hughes.
We will always remember her smile, her kind and caring nature, and her fun-loving and adventurous spirit.
.
Published in the Times Recorder on Mar. 31, 2015