A memorial service for Hope Elizabeth (Wetherby) Eddy, 87, of Lincoln will be Friday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m. at Roper & Sons, 4300 O St., following private entombment at Lincoln Memorial.
Hope, a former dance teacher, tap danced through the pearly gates Jan. 10, 2012, into the waiting arms of Caleb, her husband of 66 years, who died Dec. 12, 2011.
Hope is survived by two sons, Bob (Tammy), of Bradenton, Fla., and Bill (Arlys), of Lincoln; a daughter, Beverly Kellison, of Lincoln; eight grandchildren (U.S. Army Maj. Quinn Eddy, Nepal; Sam Eddy, Bradenton, Fla.; Bryan Eddy, Albany, Calif.; Allyson Eddy Bravmann, San Francisco; Nate Kellison, Lincoln; Lucas Kellison, Lincoln; Kandi Heida, Wichita, Kan.; Kendra Nielson, Omaha; 10 great- grandchildren; nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, Dr. Moses and Jennetta Wetherby of Oshkosh; three brothers; three sisters; and son-in-law Ralph Kellison.
Hope was born Sept. 12, 1924, in Oshkosh, Neb., the youngest of seven children. Music was important in her early life; tunes from the piano and the phonograph’s cylinder records competed with the noisy drill from her father’s dental practice, which was in the family home.
As a teenager, she studied music, including dance, singing, piano and baton twirling. At Garden County High School, a first-year teacher named David Mickey directed her girls trio. Hope, and later Caleb, would become lifelong friends with Dr. Mickey, now professor emeritus and historian of Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Hope and Caleb met while working at Sioux Ordnance Depot near Sidney, were married June 30, 1945, in Sidney, and climbed Harney Peak in South Dakota for their honeymoon. Hope reared three children, worked as secretary for a Dalton insurance agent, then as a legal secretary for attorneys in Sidney, Kearney and Grand Island.
For several years she also taught dancing – tap, ballet and ballroom – plus piano and baton to children and young people in Dalton and nearby towns. Recitals were staged at schools and social halls, but many of her students – including her own children — also appeared on a weekly, live talent show on a Cheyenne, Wyo., television station.
Hope and Caleb loved music and theater, whether a Broadway musical, a Community Playhouse production or their grandsons’ No Better Cause a capella performances. Hope played piano for family singalongs until her last few months and still tap danced and sang for Clark Jeary Retirement’s talent shows in 2010 and 2011.
Hope was active in the Presbyterian Church, including Eastridge in Lincoln, where she was a deacon and a member of Mariners and Friends. She served on the Nebraska Commission on the Status of Women and was president of the Grand Island legal secretaries group.
As the youngest in her family, she loved to host and attend family gatherings, helped keep the family’s “round-robin” letter going for many years, and traveled to siblings’ far-flung homes for celebrations.
Memorials can be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association, Great Plains Chapter, 1500 S. 70th St., Suite 201, Lincoln NE 68506.