Terry H. Nelson

Terry Nelson, mother, grandmother, great-, great-great grandmother, and widow of Tank Nelson of Morro Bay and San Pedro, California, died on Thursday night, 22 Jan 2026, a month shy of her 95th birthday, surrounded by her children in Athens, Georgia. She was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin on 22 Feb 1931, to Barbro and Rueben E. Hagen. She grew up in Atlanta and graduated from Northside High School in 1949. She married Arthur Crowe Jr. in 1959, and stitched a family together with his children Peggy, Laurie, Curtis and Rhett, who ranged in age from seven years to nine months, after the suicide of their young mother, Annie Laurie Thomas Crowe. Terry fearlessly and enthusiastically took on the challenge, as she did every challenge she encountered for the rest of her life. Terry and Arthur had Katherine in 1961. She kissed our boo-boos, celebrated our smallest wins, forgave us our worst errors and found laughter everywhere.

In Marietta, GA, Terry was mother, homemaker, Garden Club member, Girl Scout leader and tennis player. She sewed our clothes, cooked, did all the housework, mowed the grass and landscaped the 8-acre yard on Colston Road. She gave large, lavish dinner parties, and despite hating to cook, made marvelous meals. Every year she made each of us our choice of birthday cake, some only days apart as four of us were born in June. She and our father took us to Jekyll Island, GA, for the month of August every summer, and allowed each of us to bring a friend. She fed and entertained all ten of us and the constant stream of adults who dropped in and out.

Everyone was welcome in our home and family, from stray souls and the people who helped us around the house, to folks we met along the way. The house became a magnet, and the family became the family all our friends wanted to be a part of; it became the family that our spouses married us for. It became the family that even welcomed our divorced spouses for Christmas. The out-laws, as we called them, remained family.

Terry moved to Redondo Beach, CA in the early 1970s shortly after divorcing Arthur, to make a new life for herself. After moving to San Pedro, CA, she met and married Tank Nelson, a longshoreman, toy inventor, film enthusiast and critic, talk-radio personality, columnist for the San Pedro Daily Breeze and author. If you were to draw a cartoon character named Tank Nelson, it would look exactly like Tank Nelson. Tall and wide, with a booming laugh, wonderful senses of humor, adventure and fun, he blended in beautifully with the family. We left at 7 AM for lunch trips up the California coast to leave time for breakfast along the way. We are forever grateful to his four children for sharing him with us. Terry retired in 1998, and after an East African safari with Katherine, she and Tank retired to Morro Bay, CA in 2000. They enjoyed a happy, adventurous life until Tank died in 2011. He is and will always be missed by all who knew him.

In 2014, she moved to Athens, GA to be closer to her children. Soon everyone in the neighborhood knew and loved her, and even if they didn’t realize it, become her family, too. As did the staff of St. Mary’s Highland Hills Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care units in Watkinsville, GA. Their loving care of her over the last years was exemplary; they shared funny stories with us as she lay dying that exemplified her often-irreverent sense of humor and her joy of life right up to her last week, despite advanced dementia. We will miss them as new members of our family, almost as much as her.

She died surrounded by the love of her five children, our darling sister-in-law Kathleen Ragan Crowe who lovingly cared for her, and Morgan Middleton, her youngest grandson. All five of us contributed to her care and managed her affairs as a cohesive team the last few years, which brought us even closer. Even after all these years, the family she cobbled together remains intact, and we still welcome stray souls and ex-spouses to our holiday parties.

She is survived by Peggy Crowe of Asheville, NC; Laurie Crowe Middleton of Marietta, GA; Curtis Crowe (Kathleen) of Arnoldsville, GA; Rhett Crowe of Athens, GA; and Katherine Crowe (Charlie Reeves) of Lena, MS; her niece Eleanor Porter (Tony) of Trego, MT; nine grandchildren, nine great grandchildren and one great great grandson. She will also be missed by Tank’s children, Sally Johnson of Taylorsville, UT; Polly Nelson (Dan Moser) of Sandy, UT; Kelly Nelson (Susan) of Lindon, UT, and Peggy Nelson (Dan Bunner) of West Jordan, UT; their children and grandchildren. She is also survived by the children of her brother, Rudy Hagen of Ft. Walton Beach, FL.

Help us celebrate her life at Curtis and Kathleen’s home near Athens, GA, on Saturday, 21 Feb 2026, a day before what would have been her 95th birthday. It will be an open house, so come by anytime from noon to 9 PM. We’ll Hip, Hip Hooray! her one last time. In lieu of flowers, please live every day as if it were your last, forgive yourself for everything in real time, welcome people into your home and heart, and as Tank always said, Laugh Lots!