Home for Girls founder Nevels dies
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Lucy Nevels started a home for girls in 1971.
Nevels, who was in her 80s, was working at the Women in Community Service Home for Girls when she fell recently. She died Tuesday without regaining consciousness.
The residential treatment center for teenage girls with behavior problems and chemical dependency captured her heart from the beginning, her friends said.
“She was very proud of her family, her children and their accomplishments,” Charlotte Jackson said. “But next to her family, WICS was it. She was always so proud of the girls and what they accomplished.”
Jackson, 90, said she met her longtime friend while Nevels was attending the University of Nebraska. Nevels had moved from St. Louis to attend school in Lincoln and earned a bachelor’s degree, she said.
“They didn’t let black people stay in sororities at that time, and they didn’t have the dorms like they do now. My mother was cooking on campus at an international house for girls; Lucy stayed there.”
One day, she said, her mother brought Nevels home, and the girls became fast friends. They remained so until Nevels died.
“Lucy doesn’t let age get out. She was probably around 88 or so,” Jackson said. “For her last birthday, we got her a card and everyone signed it. She said, ‘Thank you, and don’t ask me my age.’”
Early on, Jackson said, she predicted Nevels would do big things.
“She was very dedicated and a type of social worker, she always wanted to help others, and was very deep in her Christian faith.”
Some remembered her work during the Civil Rights Movement as the real beginning of community leadership.
Leola Bullock met Nevels in the early 1960s through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Lincoln.
“The first march we had in Lincoln was in 1963. She and I were both a part of that,” Bullock said. “She was very active in these things until she became involved in WICS.”
Bullock said Nevels’ involvement with a national organization that sought to help young, black women was in part behind her founding WICS.
Nevels served as executive director of the home for more than 35 years, and Jackson said the girls were never far from her thoughts.
Nevels and her late husband, Fred, had five children together. Being named Nebraska Mother of the Year was one of many honors she earned during her lifetime.
“I admired the fact that she never let anything stop her from doing what she was determined to do,” said Lela Shanks, a friend and volunteer at WICS. “Even though she was in the latter part of her life, she continued to work. She had a great amount of determination to live. Not just to live, but to ‘die living.’”
Said Bullock: “She was a vivacious person. I always felt she knew exactly what she was doing at all times.”
A funeral Mass for Nevels will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1420 K St.
Reach Lisa Munger at lmunger@journalstar.com.
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GMP wrote on June 29, 2008 4:32 pm:
Lois wrote on July 1, 2008 8:20 am:
God Bless. "