Nelda Lindsay was born in Cortez and spent nearly all of her 77 years there until a stroke ended her life in a Grand Junction hospital Thursday.
Born on Jan. 31, 1929, she was one of George Augustus and Rhoda Mary Gawith Meistrell’s five daughters.
She attended what was then known as Cortez High School, though the building housed students from elementary on up.
“First to 12th – we started on the east side of the building and went out the west end when we graduated,” said June Head, who graduated with Lindsay in the class of 1947.
Cortez was a tiny town then. Most of the 500 to 600 students at Cortez High lived on farms and ranches surrounding the town.
Because the old stone schoolhouse had three stories separating different classes, students more than a year apart often didn’t know those who were younger or older. Dick Lindsay didn’t know Nelda Meistrell before leaving school in his junior year to serve in World War II, but she certainly caught his eye when he returned in 1946 to finish his senior year.
He began dating his future wife, a cheerleader who “was very sports-minded,” Dick Lindsay recalled. The two married in 1948.
By then, Cortez had two schools – the Lindsays’ alma mater and a new high school completed a year after they graduated. By 1953, when Nelda Lindsay gave birth to her first son, Southwest Memorial Hospital had replaced the modest Johnson Hospital, where she was born.
With a burgeoning population fueled by the oil-shale boom in nearby Aneth, Utah, Cortez was already outgrowing its old boundaries.
The Lindsays spent their retirement years in social circles that echoed their school days. Though Nelda Lindsay no longer tap-danced or cut a figure performing to the big-band tunes as she had in high school, she enjoyed dances at the Lions Club and other local fraternal organizations.
“We made a habit of going out at least once a week, generally to the Elks Club on Fridays,” Dick Lindsay said. “Most of us old poots sorta gather at the Elks Club and have a big visit. And what did she do for fun? … She liked to go to the casino. We’ve got two here. That’s what she got a really big bang out of.”
Besides her husband, survivors include sons Kent Lindsay and Grant Lindsay, both of Cortez; sister Leona McCabe of Cortez; and five grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Ertel Memorial Chapel, 42 N. Market St., Cortez.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
