Nathal “Nat” Adelaide Riedler Weston passed away on March 9 at Harbor View Cottage in Newcastle.
She was born Oct. 20, 1913, in Renville, Minn., a small farming community not too far from the Minnesota and Iowa border. Her parents were Alvin and Sophia (Wulf) Riedler. She began taking organ lessons from the church organist when she was 12, for no charge because she also then played for any service where she was needed. She also taught private piano lessons after school. Friends of hers had taken a liking to her homemade molasses oatmeal bread, so for years she sold them a loaf every Saturday when she did the family’s baking.
She graduated high school as Valedictorian at only 16, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1934. She was a retired teacher of both Minnesota and Maine, totaling 30 years. She taught high school English, and had also taught secretarial subjects, French, and music. Because it was the Depression when she was at the University of Minnesota, each from the students had been advised to get as many different kinds of majors as they could to be more employable after they graduated. When she taught high school in Dixfield, she taught junior and senior English and French, and also began the girls’ glee club, directed the senior plays, and the prize speaking. In Dixfield, she also began a women’s chorus, the Schubert Chorus.
Wherever she went, she made friends and kept them. She wrote many letters weekly, to her sister, her mother, and those friends to keep in touch. In New Harbor, she founded a mixed choral group, the Occasional Chorale, which was successful for many years. She resigned at 90 because she thought she should. The group was then directed by someone else, and she happily went to another group in Boothbay Harbor, and sang with them for several years. She found that she missed the organ, so she substituted in the area churches as organist as recently as 10 years ago.
She directed a church choir in Cloquet, Minn., and one night she needed a ride after rehearsal. The volunteer was a handsome tenor, with a lovely voice and a New Hampshire accent. They were married on June 15, 1941, in Renville, and honeymooned driving to Maine where he’d been transferred for work. He was coming home, but she was leaving home.
They were happily married until November 1978, when William Henry Weston II died at only 66 in Bath’s hospital of complications from asthma.
She was also predeceased by their son who died at 14 in 1961; brother, Alvin Donald Riedler; and son-in-law, David Norman Atherton Sr.
She leaves her daughter, Sherrill Atherton Crow and husband Richard W. Crow Sr.; grandsons, David Atherton II and wife Victoria, and Andrew Atherton and wife Amy; step-grandson, Richard W. Crow Jr. and wife Debra; great-grandsons, David Atherton III, William Henry Atherton, Benjamin Andrew Atherton, Alexander Atherton, and Adrian Atherton; step-great-granddaughters, Marcia Crow Kingsland and husband Joseph, and Gabrielle Klobucar; step-great-grandsons, Jamie Crow and Richard, and William “Chip” Crow III; step-great-great-grandchildren, Collin and Callie Kingsland, and Megan McConnell; many good friends; sister, Phyllis Gianos of Edina, Minn., and her children, Stephanie, and Philip, each of whom has two children; niece and nephews of Minneapolis and California; and Stephanie’s grandchildren.
A memorial service for Nat will be held at 1 p.m., Sat., March 18 at the New Harbor United Methodist Church.
Condolences, and messages for the family, may be expressed by visiting www.StrongHancock.com.
Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta.