When Nedra Moudy Krider was born on July 25, 1910, the Boy Scouts of America had just formed in Chicago, Tel Aviv was one month old, Chicago celebrated the opening of its new ball stadium, Comiskey Park, and the U.S. Congress established Glacier National Park in Montana.
Friday, July 25, Nedra will celebrate her 98th birthday.
Decked out in her favorite color – pink – with lots of pink jewelry and accessories, Nedra is seen in the hallways every day, greeting other residents and each staff member with a smile and a “hello” or “how are you?”
Always an attractive woman – impeccably dressed and decked out in bright colors and her trademark earrings and heels – not much has changed, even though she is nearing 100 years of age.
Nedra makes sure she applies her makeup and styles her hair every morning before she leaves her room. Once a week she goes to the hairdresser. Her daughter, Jera Kessler, regular
ly provides transportation so Nedra can get her nails manicured and painted.
“If you look good, you feel good,” Nedra once said when complimented on her good looks at the age of 89.
Finding her soul mate
Nedra was born to Alta and Marvin Smith in a house on East Whitley Street in Churubusco. She would later take the last name of her stepfather – Moudy – as her surname.
Nedra Moudy graduated from Churubusco High School in 1929. An attractive young woman, she dressed in the style of her day – closely cropped and carefully waved hair, loose, flapper-style dresses and long strands of beads – which is evident in her senior portrait.
In the early 1930’s, in order to complete their teaching degrees, teachers traveled in groups and attended summer classes. Nedra completed her studies at Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin and Manchester College.
Nedra grew up and was friends with a boy who was born in a farmhouse on S.R. 205 West in rural Churubusco. She once said she fell in love with Jerome Krider when she was 14 years old.
She became Mrs. Krider on Christmas Day, 1932, at the age of 22.
For fifty years, until Jerome’s death, Nedra said she lived a charmed life with a husband who was good looking, successful and
just a “nice man.”
They had two children, Rick and Jera. Rick and his wife, Connie, live in Churubusco, as does Jera and her husband, Frank Kessler. Nedra has three grandchildren, two step grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and six step great-grandchildren.
The only time she was ever away from Jerome for any extended period of time was once when she visited her birth father in California in 1933, and stayed to take six weeks of classes at UCLA.
A lifelong teacher
Nedra taught first, second, third and fourth grades at at Blue River School near Churubusco, and later taught second grade at Churubusco Schools for 25 years.
She taught full-time for 35 years and was a substitute teacher for years after that. The last day she taught as a substitute, she was 80 years old.
Nedra said a few years when she was teaching, the school administration eliminated the phonics curriculum, but she taught it anyway. The school
may have objected – had they found out – but the parents certainly didn’t mind.
“I was asked by a number of parents to tutor their children, especially if they had reading problems,” Nedra said.
Nedra’s energy was boundless. She was raising two children, helping her husband with his business – Krider’s Funeral Home – and teaching full time. Always an outgoing person, she served as the Welcome Wagon host for Churubusco for years, knocking on the doors of residents new to the area, handing them gift baskets and filling them in on the news of the community.
Nedra somehow found time for a new, time-consuming, but highly rewarding hobby – pen pals. At one time she had 50 pen pals in various foreign countries. Later, after retirement, Nedra and Jerome visited Switzerland, Spain, Italy and Hawaii where she was delighted to meet some of the people she had corresponded with over the years.
Living life to the fullest
Age did little to slow Nedra down. When she was in her eighties, she began writing a weekly column for a local newspaper entitled “Nostalgia by Nedra.” She loved poetry and often wrote poems. Several of her works became published.
She is a 50-plus year member of the Eastern Star and a lifelong member of the Churubusco Methodist Church. She was a longtime member of the choir and often sang at church events and weddings. She and Jera
attended the church’s Mother’s Day Tea giving Nedra a chance to socialize – one of her favorite things to do.
Trained by her mother, who was trained by Nedra’s grandmother , who was trained by Nedra’s great-grandmother, Nedra carried on the tradition of preparing the sacraments of communion for the church. Four generations of women in the family embroidered the special white altar cloths and laundered and ironed them after each service.
Nedra’s great-grandmother, Emma Miller, even raised her own grapes and strained them through a cloth to make juice for communion.
Ever the socializer
At her current home, at the age of 98, Nedra is still busy socializing on a daily basis.
She likes to work puzzles, especially word searches and still loves to read. What does she like to read?
“Romance,” she said quickly, with a smile and a glint in her eye.
She also enjoys going to church services – “I like the music,” she said – and making jewelry. She shows off two pink bracelets that dangle from her arm. “I just made these,” Nedra said proudly.
Nedra said her memory is not what it used to be. “I forget a lot of things,” she said. “Some of the memories are just gone. There’s a lot of good memories that are no longer there.”
But there’s one thing she’s very sure of – she has had, and continues to have, a wonderful life.
“I had a wonderful husband for 50 years,” she said. “And my children and grandchildren are so good to me. “I am a very, very happy person.”
“I’ve had a good life,” Nedra says with a smile. “God’s been very good to me.”
Send cards to Nedra at Kingston Care Center, 1010 W. Washington Center Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46825.
Excerpts from Nostalgia by Nedra, July 18, 2001:
Well, I’ve had some more excitement from my mail, enough to last me a few days.
I received a letter from the Famous Poets of Indiana informing me that the executive committee of their distinguished board of directors had chosen my poem “What a Difference” for presentation at the Seventh Annual Poetry convention in Reno, Nev.
Now I only have to send $500 for my hotel room and $250 if I bring a guest! Well, it was fun to be invited, wasn’t it?
Under notable events on my Oscar (flash) cards about past events in Churubusco: the 1905 bank robbery and the 1944 Central Building fire.
My (college) roommate, Ruth Cherry, from Indiana Central was visiting me and I took her up in the Central Building to see where the fire had been.
There, I found my father’s (Marvin Smith) partially burned adoption papers that I later sent to him in California, where he was living at the time. Now, wasn’t that a very strange thing to happen?
The next card is the 1981 tornado in Churubusco.
I vaguely remember being uptown visiting Joy Barnhart, and having to drive through people’s yards down South Main to get home.
R.J. (Jerome) was in the bathroom with the fan and music on and had not even heard the huge balls of hail hitting the house …
This poem Nedra authored was published in the World Treasury of Great Poems:
Just for Today
Just for today,
let me recall;
a time with a friend,
when we had a ball.
Then take the time
to write a letter,
to cheer a friend,
make her day better.
And just for today,
let me say a prayer,
for one who is sad,
and needs help somewhere.
And Lord, as I go,
along life’s way;
May I do some good
for someone each day.
-Nedra Krider
(Photos contributed; article by Viv Sade for Buscovoice.com)
