Rosabelle Nelson, 94, died Saturday, March 17,2018, at Springdale Village nursing facility in Mesa, Arizona. Rosabelle was born Nov. 20, 1923, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and grew up at varying times in Colorado and Oregon, graduating in 1940 from Durango High School, Colorado. She met Arthur Nelson of St. James, Minnesota, at a USO dance in Chandler, Arizona, in early 1942, while Arthur was stationed at Williams Field army base. After a brief engagement, Art and Rosabelle were married June 12,1942, in Mesa, Arizona, and were together only until November, 1942, before Art was shipped overseas in World War ll. They had no contact other than many heavily censored letters until Art was discharged at the end of the war in Europe.
Rosabelle was a homemaker all her adult life, as she and Art moved around quite frequently in the first 14 years after the war, living at various times in Phoenix, AZ; San Diego, CA; El Cajon, CA; Billings, MT; Rochester, MN; and Keizer, OR before settling down for good in Mesa in June,1959. Their son, Larry, was born in Phoenix in 1947, and daughter Cathy was born in Salem, OR, in 1954. While Art was employed in the sheet metal trade, he and Rosabelle would take as many automobile vacations as time and money allowed, establishing a practice that would only mushroom after Art's retirement in 1981. They then proceeded to crisscross the United States and Canada, first in a cab-over camper and later and more often in a fifth-wheel RV. These retirement trips were their favorite pastimes, as they took them annually for the next 20 years, often spending much of the summer for the first ten of those years at their daughter and son-in-law's farm outside St. James, MN, helping out around the place, and mostly helping spoil two of their grandchildren. When they weren't traveling, they were dancing, doing the polka the waltz, and other ballroom dances as often as two or three times a week at various venues around the East Valley. They formed many lifetime friendships at these events.
Rosabelle is survived by her loving husband of 75 years, Arthur, the anniversary of this union having been celebrated in June 2017 with family and friends surrounding them. She is also survived by son Larry (Marilyn) and daughter Cathy Noren (Dwayne);four grandchildren, Jennifer Nelson, Melanie Nelson (Warren Hedley), Sean Noren (Kerry), and Dareth Noren Herman (Nick); and seven great-grandchildren, Alannah andZara Hedley, Mason, Ava Rose (Rosabelle's namesake), and Noah Noren, and Brayden and Camden Herman.
Rosabelle and Art have been members of First Evangelical Lutheran Church since 1959
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