Vicki Lynn Nickerson

Vicki was born Saturday, September 29, 1951 in McAlester, Oklahoma to the late Bonnie (Thompson) Allen. Brought up in a Navy family, she and her brothers, Glenn and Gary Allen, lived an interesting life. They traveled and lived Oceanside in places like San Diego and Guam, before settling in Michigan in 1964. From then on, Vicki remained a permanent Midwesterner.

Vicki had a love and passion for teaching and shaping young minds. Her career path as a teacher was determined at a young age and she never once questioned her decision to become an educator. She loved working with children and she dedicated 45 years to teaching Kindergarten at Kingsley Elementary, where she shared her love of learning, curiosity and compassion with generations of students. Her patience, creativity and kindness instilled the foundations of lifelong values, and the impact of her words and touch would be impossible to calculate. With a career spanning five decades, she served as a mentor to many new teachers, and was proud to have the opportunity to teach the children, and even a few grandchildren, of her former students.

As a young Central Michigan University graduate, it was teaching that brought Vicki to Kingsley from St. Charles, MI, where she accepted her first, and only, teaching job in 1973. Shortly after beginning her career, she met her loving husband of 42 years, Pete Nickerson. She was the beloved mother of daughter Megan Nickerson (Grant Gould) of Harbor Springs, sons Cody of Kingsley, and Caleb (Abbey Wright) of Lansing and stepmother to Jason Nickerson (Jennifer Erickson), grandmother to Katelyn (Justin) Weaver and Delainey Nickerson and great-grandmother to Iris Weaver.

To know Vicki was to love her and she worked tirelessly to show others her compassion and love. Vicki served as a community advocate and volunteered for various local non-profit organizations including the Kingsley School Athletic Boosters and Kingsley Methodist Church. She loved serving as a volunteer for the Kingsley Friends of the Library, where she was able to share her love of reading and learning beyond the classroom. She worked tirelessly for the new Kingsley Branch Library as she believed providing educational, cultural and social programming to the residents of Kingsley was pivotal to the community.

In addition to teaching and community service, Vicki loved music, especially from the greats of the 60’s and 70’s, reading, the fine arts, creative projects and her friends. However, of all her loves and passions, her family was her greatest. She was a caring, inspiring and cherished wife, mother and grandmother.

Currently, services to honor Vicki are pending. A celebration of life will take place at a later date, once we are again able to gather. Plans will be announced, and a full notice of her service will follow.

If you would like to share a memory about Vicki, you are invited to visit her memorial page at www.covellkingsley.com for the Nickerson family.