Wynelle Eason Hughes

That quote from a Sam Walter Foss poem was perhaps Nel’s unspoken motto. A dedicated teacher and devoted spouse, parent and friend, she was active until the end. In late spring, she was pleased to have been able to visit with family and friends at niece Ann Singer’s pond outside Surrency and worship again with friends at Surrency Baptist Church. Nel had hopes of fishing, camping, and taking a train trip later this summer.

Nel was the fourth of six children born to Alice Virginia Collins Eason and W.A. Payne Eason, in Surrency, Ga. Her siblings, Monteen Eason Williams, Molton Eason, Willie Eason Dyal, Peachy Eason Aspinwall, and Bryan Eason, all preceded her in death, as did their spouses, Charlotte Eason, Clem Eason, L.G. Aspinwall, Mickey Dyal, and C.D. Williams.

The Surrency High School valedictorian at 17, at 20 Nel taught elementary school with Bessie Miles in nearby K’ville. During WWII she worked in Washington, D.C. Soon after the war, while working in Savannah, Ga., she met merchant marine Roland J. Hughes. Nine years later they were married in Fernandina Beach, Fla., where Nel was teaching high school. Nel and Rollie lived first in his hometown, Madison, Wis., then in Moline, Ill., rural LaPorte County and New Carlisle, Ind., before making their home on Waverly Road in LaPorte, Ind., in 1961.

Nel worked part-time in Rollie’s business, County Plat and Directory, until 1965, when she took a position as a fifth grade teacher at Rolling Prairie Elementary School. In 1967, she moved to New Prairie High School, where she taught business education, sponsored the National Honor Society, and served as union representative. When she retired from NPHS in 1986, her students threw her an off -campus surprise party.

For many years after retiring, Nel volunteered as a tutor with the Literacy Coalition and helped to run the resale shop of her church. She also helped to care for two of her sisters when they became incapacitated by stroke.

Rollie and her best friend, Harriet Lehner of LaPorte, also preceded her in death. She is survived by the couple’s daughters, Ronda Hughes of South Bend and Monte Main of Jacksonville, Fla.; granddaughter Ginger Main of Miami, Fla.; nieces Susan Eason O’Quinn and Ann Eason Singer of Baxley and Ginger Aspinwall Adams of St. Simons, and nephews Payne Eason of Baxley and Graham Eason of Washington, Ga., and their families; and her daughters’ extended families in Jacksonville, Los Angeles, and northern Illinois.

Nel was a member of First Baptist Church of LaPorte, AAUW, Delta Kappa Gamma, Business Girls Club, and LaPorte County Democratic Women. She was a graduate of Georgia Teachers College (now Georgia Southern) and Indiana University (M.A.). She enjoyed family, neighbors, and friends, a good book, a good meal, doing yard work, and traveling with her husband, her sisters, her students and, in later years, her daughters.

A memorial service for Wynelle Eason Hughes was held July 21 at the First Baptist Church in LaPorte, Ind. You are invited to sign the online register book at www.cutlerfuneral.com. Her ashes will be buried beside her husband’s, at a graveside service later this year at Bethel Cemetery, outside Surrency. Notice of the service will appear at that time.