Nancy Rhea was born Nancy Sue Stricklett in Martinsville, Illinois on May 27th, 1934. She lived 83 years passing away January 11th, 2019 in San Jose, California after living over half of her life in her beloved Palo Alto, California.
She would often tell stories of her youth growing up in a small farming community in Southern Illinois with loving parents William and Lona Stricklett who dedicated their lives to helping people, farming and owning the towns only full service hardware store. Nancy had one older brother who served in WWII, Lowell “Bud” Stricklett, a soybean and wheat farmer who raised three girls, Sally, Wendy and Amy in Martinsville.
In her youth, she perfected many skills including horseback riding, baking, cooking and dress making winning several blue ribbons in her local community fair. Nancy had the honor of being selected as a youth delegate to attend National 4-H Congress in Chicago, Illinois following her long list of accomplishments and awards in 4-H Club.
After graduation from Martinsville High School where she loved reading books, riding and caring for her horses and playing the Alto Saxophone, she moved 90 miles east to Terre Haute, Indiana to attend college. To help her live on campus and pay for college tuition, Nancy worked for the Dean of Education while completing her BA in Education with a teaching certificate from Indiana State University. She was a sister in the women’s campus sorority Zeta Tau Alpha. While she never went on to teach Home Economics, she could hold her own in the kitchen creating a variety of dishes including candies and confections like chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, lemon squares and peach cobbler that was enjoyed by many.
After College, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to work in a manufacturing facility owned by the Ford Motor Company. It’s these early years after college where she displayed her business proficiencies at taking shorthand, filing and typing 55 words per minute - error free.
In March of 1958, she met Chuck Rhea, a traveling salesmen for the McCulloch Corporation who lived in the same Indianapolis apartment building. Their first date was to see the movie musical South Pacific and after that “enchanted evening” Nancy and Charles Rhea went on to be married later that year in a small ceremony at her childhood home in Martinsville, Illinois.
In 1960 and 1963 she have birth to Brian and Bill Rhea in Gary, Indiana during which time the family lived on Hermits Lake in Crown Point, Indiana. As a stay at home mom raising boys, this family of 4 would criss cross the country taking car trips in the families Volkswagen Beetles.
Over the years, Nancy packed and unpacked several moving boxes from Crown Point, Indiana to Danbury, Connecticut to Westchester and Palos Verdes, California to Bay Village, Ohio, and Elmhurst, Illinois settling in Palo Alto, California in 1975. Nancy and Chuck owned Rhea’s Schwinn Cyclery a family bicycle and moped retail store in Downtown Palo Alto near the entrance to Stanford University.
Nancy helped to usher in the the sport of Bicycle Motocross sponsoring competing BMX riders. Custom balloon tire cruisers were also an early market that Nancy helped pioneer showcasing her abilities to both sell and assemble new bicycles. She had many customers for kids bikes including Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard. Nancy would say that the bike business brought her back to California - a move in the mid ‘70’s that she was very grateful for trading the snow and icy cold of the Midwest for a new life in the soon to be Silicon Valley.
By the 1983, Nancy and Chuck closed the bike shop and Nancy went to work for Southwall Technologies in the Marketing Department. She learned technical marketing for a manufacturing company with a thin films patent for making energy efficient windows. Her world of construction specifiers and architectural firms, trade shows, brochures and many hours on the phone selling “Heat Mirror” consumed most of her adult work life while supporting her ailing husband Chuck Rhea who passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s, July 17th, 1991.
Chuck and Nancy Rhea were married 33 years.
Nancy retired from Southwall in 2003 to pursue her many passions. She believed in making several small donations to various charities and had deep faith in God. She had a quest for knowledge and attended numerous Stanford lectures and special Celebrity Forum speaker series through Foothill College. She shared her season tickets to the San Francisco Symphony and enjoyed attending Opera, local Jazz concerts, baseball, football and world travel.
She was a doting Grandmother who poured out her love for life touring several museums including the DeYoung and Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. She rode bikes, hiked and always enjoyed seeing the horses at the Grand National Rodeo at the San Francisco Cow Palace. She was a dedicated member of public television and would always get a medal for her age group walking the San Francisco Hill Stride.
Nancy is survived by her son Brian Rhea, father to her three Granddaughters, Kristen, Breanna and Elyssa Rhea. Son William Rhea of San Francisco who fathered her two Grandsons Jackie and Nicolas. She also loved her two step-daughters, Marsha Loewenson of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Carol Meyer of Las Vegas, Nevada. Nieces Sally Stricklett and Amy Bailey of Houston, Texas and Wendy Harway of Martinsville, Illinois.
Nancy will be laid to rest Thursday, January 24th at 1pm at the Alta Mesa Cemetery, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, California. Following a time of life celebration and reflection in the chapel, there will be a private family graveside interment.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Activity Center of San Jose, California in memory of Nancy Sue Rhea.
Source: Alta Mesa Funeral Home
She would often tell stories of her youth growing up in a small farming community in Southern Illinois with loving parents William and Lona Stricklett who dedicated their lives to helping people, farming and owning the towns only full service hardware store. Nancy had one older brother who served in WWII, Lowell “Bud” Stricklett, a soybean and wheat farmer who raised three girls, Sally, Wendy and Amy in Martinsville.
In her youth, she perfected many skills including horseback riding, baking, cooking and dress making winning several blue ribbons in her local community fair. Nancy had the honor of being selected as a youth delegate to attend National 4-H Congress in Chicago, Illinois following her long list of accomplishments and awards in 4-H Club.
After graduation from Martinsville High School where she loved reading books, riding and caring for her horses and playing the Alto Saxophone, she moved 90 miles east to Terre Haute, Indiana to attend college. To help her live on campus and pay for college tuition, Nancy worked for the Dean of Education while completing her BA in Education with a teaching certificate from Indiana State University. She was a sister in the women’s campus sorority Zeta Tau Alpha. While she never went on to teach Home Economics, she could hold her own in the kitchen creating a variety of dishes including candies and confections like chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, lemon squares and peach cobbler that was enjoyed by many.
After College, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to work in a manufacturing facility owned by the Ford Motor Company. It’s these early years after college where she displayed her business proficiencies at taking shorthand, filing and typing 55 words per minute - error free.
In March of 1958, she met Chuck Rhea, a traveling salesmen for the McCulloch Corporation who lived in the same Indianapolis apartment building. Their first date was to see the movie musical South Pacific and after that “enchanted evening” Nancy and Charles Rhea went on to be married later that year in a small ceremony at her childhood home in Martinsville, Illinois.
In 1960 and 1963 she have birth to Brian and Bill Rhea in Gary, Indiana during which time the family lived on Hermits Lake in Crown Point, Indiana. As a stay at home mom raising boys, this family of 4 would criss cross the country taking car trips in the families Volkswagen Beetles.
Over the years, Nancy packed and unpacked several moving boxes from Crown Point, Indiana to Danbury, Connecticut to Westchester and Palos Verdes, California to Bay Village, Ohio, and Elmhurst, Illinois settling in Palo Alto, California in 1975. Nancy and Chuck owned Rhea’s Schwinn Cyclery a family bicycle and moped retail store in Downtown Palo Alto near the entrance to Stanford University.
Nancy helped to usher in the the sport of Bicycle Motocross sponsoring competing BMX riders. Custom balloon tire cruisers were also an early market that Nancy helped pioneer showcasing her abilities to both sell and assemble new bicycles. She had many customers for kids bikes including Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard. Nancy would say that the bike business brought her back to California - a move in the mid ‘70’s that she was very grateful for trading the snow and icy cold of the Midwest for a new life in the soon to be Silicon Valley.
By the 1983, Nancy and Chuck closed the bike shop and Nancy went to work for Southwall Technologies in the Marketing Department. She learned technical marketing for a manufacturing company with a thin films patent for making energy efficient windows. Her world of construction specifiers and architectural firms, trade shows, brochures and many hours on the phone selling “Heat Mirror” consumed most of her adult work life while supporting her ailing husband Chuck Rhea who passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s, July 17th, 1991.
Chuck and Nancy Rhea were married 33 years.
Nancy retired from Southwall in 2003 to pursue her many passions. She believed in making several small donations to various charities and had deep faith in God. She had a quest for knowledge and attended numerous Stanford lectures and special Celebrity Forum speaker series through Foothill College. She shared her season tickets to the San Francisco Symphony and enjoyed attending Opera, local Jazz concerts, baseball, football and world travel.
She was a doting Grandmother who poured out her love for life touring several museums including the DeYoung and Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. She rode bikes, hiked and always enjoyed seeing the horses at the Grand National Rodeo at the San Francisco Cow Palace. She was a dedicated member of public television and would always get a medal for her age group walking the San Francisco Hill Stride.
Nancy is survived by her son Brian Rhea, father to her three Granddaughters, Kristen, Breanna and Elyssa Rhea. Son William Rhea of San Francisco who fathered her two Grandsons Jackie and Nicolas. She also loved her two step-daughters, Marsha Loewenson of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Carol Meyer of Las Vegas, Nevada. Nieces Sally Stricklett and Amy Bailey of Houston, Texas and Wendy Harway of Martinsville, Illinois.
Nancy will be laid to rest Thursday, January 24th at 1pm at the Alta Mesa Cemetery, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, California. Following a time of life celebration and reflection in the chapel, there will be a private family graveside interment.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Activity Center of San Jose, California in memory of Nancy Sue Rhea.
Source: Alta Mesa Funeral Home
Nancy Rhea was born Nancy Sue Stricklett in Martinsville, Illinois on May 27th, 1934. She lived 83 years passing away January 11th, 2019 in San Jose, California after living over half of her life in her beloved Palo Alto, California.
She would often tell stories of her youth growing up in a small farming community in Southern Illinois with loving parents William and Lona Stricklett who dedicated their lives to helping people, farming and owning the towns only full service hardware store. Nancy had one older brother who served in WWII, Lowell “Bud” Stricklett, a soybean and wheat farmer who raised three girls, Sally, Wendy and Amy in Martinsville.
In her youth, she perfected many skills including horseback riding, baking, cooking and dress making winning several blue ribbons in her local community fair. Nancy had the honor of being selected as a youth delegate to attend National 4-H Congress in Chicago, Illinois following her long list of accomplishments and awards in 4-H Club.
After graduation from Martinsville High School where she loved reading books, riding and caring for her horses and playing the Alto Saxophone, she moved 90 miles east to Terre Haute, Indiana to attend college. To help her live on campus and pay for college tuition, Nancy worked for the Dean of Education while completing her BA in Education with a teaching certificate from Indiana State University. She was a sister in the women’s campus sorority Zeta Tau Alpha. While she never went on to teach Home Economics, she could hold her own in the kitchen creating a variety of dishes including candies and confections like chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, lemon squares and peach cobbler that was enjoyed by many.
After College, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to work in a manufacturing facility owned by the Ford Motor Company. It’s these early years after college where she displayed her business proficiencies at taking shorthand, filing and typing 55 words per minute - error free.
In March of 1958, she met Chuck Rhea, a traveling salesmen for the McCulloch Corporation who lived in the same Indianapolis apartment building. Their first date was to see the movie musical South Pacific and after that “enchanted evening” Nancy and Charles Rhea went on to be married later that year in a small ceremony at her childhood home in Martinsville, Illinois.
In 1960 and 1963 she have birth to Brian and Bill Rhea in Gary, Indiana during which time the family lived on Hermits Lake in Crown Point, Indiana. As a stay at home mom raising boys, this family of 4 would criss cross the country taking car trips in the families Volkswagen Beetles.
Over the years, Nancy packed and unpacked several moving boxes from Crown Point, Indiana to Danbury, Connecticut to Westchester and Palos Verdes, California to Bay Village, Ohio, and Elmhurst, Illinois settling in Palo Alto, California in 1975. Nancy and Chuck owned Rhea’s Schwinn Cyclery a family bicycle and moped retail store in Downtown Palo Alto near the entrance to Stanford University.
Nancy helped to usher in the the sport of Bicycle Motocross sponsoring competing BMX riders. Custom balloon tire cruisers were also an early market that Nancy helped pioneer showcasing her abilities to both sell and assemble new bicycles. She had many customers for kids bikes including Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard. Nancy would say that the bike business brought her back to California - a move in the mid ‘70’s that she was very grateful for trading the snow and icy cold of the Midwest for a new life in the soon to be Silicon Valley.
By the 1983, Nancy and Chuck closed the bike shop and Nancy went to work for Southwall Technologies in the Marketing Department. She learned technical marketing for a manufacturing company with a thin films patent for making energy efficient windows. Her world of construction specifiers and architectural firms, trade shows, brochures and many hours on the phone selling “Heat Mirror” consumed most of her adult work life while supporting her ailing husband Chuck Rhea who passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s, July 17th, 1991.
Chuck and Nancy Rhea were married 33 years.
Nancy retired from Southwall in 2003 to pursue her many passions. She believed in making several small donations to various charities and had deep faith in God. She had a quest for knowledge and attended numerous Stanford lectures and special Celebrity Forum speaker series through Foothill College. She shared her season tickets to the San Francisco Symphony and enjoyed attending Opera, local Jazz concerts, baseball, football and world travel.
She was a doting Grandmother who poured out her love for life touring several museums including the DeYoung and Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. She rode bikes, hiked and always enjoyed seeing the horses at the Grand National Rodeo at the San Francisco Cow Palace. She was a dedicated member of public television and would always get a medal for her age group walking the San Francisco Hill Stride.
Nancy is survived by her son Brian Rhea, father to her three Granddaughters, Kristen, Breanna and Elyssa Rhea. Son William Rhea of San Francisco who fathered her two Grandsons Jackie and Nicolas. She also loved her two step-daughters, Marsha Loewenson of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Carol Meyer of Las Vegas, Nevada. Nieces Sally Stricklett and Amy Bailey of Houston, Texas and Wendy Harway of Martinsville, Illinois.
Nancy will be laid to rest Thursday, January 24th at 1pm at the Alta Mesa Cemetery, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, California. Following a time of life celebration and reflection in the chapel, there will be a private family graveside interment.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Activity Center of San Jose, California in memory of Nancy Sue Rhea.
Source: Alta Mesa Funeral Home
She would often tell stories of her youth growing up in a small farming community in Southern Illinois with loving parents William and Lona Stricklett who dedicated their lives to helping people, farming and owning the towns only full service hardware store. Nancy had one older brother who served in WWII, Lowell “Bud” Stricklett, a soybean and wheat farmer who raised three girls, Sally, Wendy and Amy in Martinsville.
In her youth, she perfected many skills including horseback riding, baking, cooking and dress making winning several blue ribbons in her local community fair. Nancy had the honor of being selected as a youth delegate to attend National 4-H Congress in Chicago, Illinois following her long list of accomplishments and awards in 4-H Club.
After graduation from Martinsville High School where she loved reading books, riding and caring for her horses and playing the Alto Saxophone, she moved 90 miles east to Terre Haute, Indiana to attend college. To help her live on campus and pay for college tuition, Nancy worked for the Dean of Education while completing her BA in Education with a teaching certificate from Indiana State University. She was a sister in the women’s campus sorority Zeta Tau Alpha. While she never went on to teach Home Economics, she could hold her own in the kitchen creating a variety of dishes including candies and confections like chocolate fudge, peanut brittle, lemon squares and peach cobbler that was enjoyed by many.
After College, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to work in a manufacturing facility owned by the Ford Motor Company. It’s these early years after college where she displayed her business proficiencies at taking shorthand, filing and typing 55 words per minute - error free.
In March of 1958, she met Chuck Rhea, a traveling salesmen for the McCulloch Corporation who lived in the same Indianapolis apartment building. Their first date was to see the movie musical South Pacific and after that “enchanted evening” Nancy and Charles Rhea went on to be married later that year in a small ceremony at her childhood home in Martinsville, Illinois.
In 1960 and 1963 she have birth to Brian and Bill Rhea in Gary, Indiana during which time the family lived on Hermits Lake in Crown Point, Indiana. As a stay at home mom raising boys, this family of 4 would criss cross the country taking car trips in the families Volkswagen Beetles.
Over the years, Nancy packed and unpacked several moving boxes from Crown Point, Indiana to Danbury, Connecticut to Westchester and Palos Verdes, California to Bay Village, Ohio, and Elmhurst, Illinois settling in Palo Alto, California in 1975. Nancy and Chuck owned Rhea’s Schwinn Cyclery a family bicycle and moped retail store in Downtown Palo Alto near the entrance to Stanford University.
Nancy helped to usher in the the sport of Bicycle Motocross sponsoring competing BMX riders. Custom balloon tire cruisers were also an early market that Nancy helped pioneer showcasing her abilities to both sell and assemble new bicycles. She had many customers for kids bikes including Bill Hewlett of Hewlett-Packard. Nancy would say that the bike business brought her back to California - a move in the mid ‘70’s that she was very grateful for trading the snow and icy cold of the Midwest for a new life in the soon to be Silicon Valley.
By the 1983, Nancy and Chuck closed the bike shop and Nancy went to work for Southwall Technologies in the Marketing Department. She learned technical marketing for a manufacturing company with a thin films patent for making energy efficient windows. Her world of construction specifiers and architectural firms, trade shows, brochures and many hours on the phone selling “Heat Mirror” consumed most of her adult work life while supporting her ailing husband Chuck Rhea who passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s, July 17th, 1991.
Chuck and Nancy Rhea were married 33 years.
Nancy retired from Southwall in 2003 to pursue her many passions. She believed in making several small donations to various charities and had deep faith in God. She had a quest for knowledge and attended numerous Stanford lectures and special Celebrity Forum speaker series through Foothill College. She shared her season tickets to the San Francisco Symphony and enjoyed attending Opera, local Jazz concerts, baseball, football and world travel.
She was a doting Grandmother who poured out her love for life touring several museums including the DeYoung and Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. She rode bikes, hiked and always enjoyed seeing the horses at the Grand National Rodeo at the San Francisco Cow Palace. She was a dedicated member of public television and would always get a medal for her age group walking the San Francisco Hill Stride.
Nancy is survived by her son Brian Rhea, father to her three Granddaughters, Kristen, Breanna and Elyssa Rhea. Son William Rhea of San Francisco who fathered her two Grandsons Jackie and Nicolas. She also loved her two step-daughters, Marsha Loewenson of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Carol Meyer of Las Vegas, Nevada. Nieces Sally Stricklett and Amy Bailey of Houston, Texas and Wendy Harway of Martinsville, Illinois.
Nancy will be laid to rest Thursday, January 24th at 1pm at the Alta Mesa Cemetery, 695 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto, California. Following a time of life celebration and reflection in the chapel, there will be a private family graveside interment.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Activity Center of San Jose, California in memory of Nancy Sue Rhea.
Source: Alta Mesa Funeral Home
Family Members
Siblings
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
See more Rhea or Stricklett memorials in:
- Alta Mesa Memorial Park Rhea or Stricklett
- Palo Alto Rhea or Stricklett
- Santa Clara County Rhea or Stricklett
- California Rhea or Stricklett
- USA Rhea or Stricklett
- Find a Grave Rhea or Stricklett
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
