Nancy Wells

Nancy Eileen Wells

May 27, 1919 ~ March 9, 2021

Nancy Eileen Wells passed away peacefully, just shy of her 102nd birthday. She was born May 27, 1919 in Oakland, Alameda, California. Her mother died when she was about four years old. She then was raised in Oakland by her maternal grandparents, who were traveling ministers that preached from a converted railroad car. She attended elementary and junior high school in Oakland, California. She graduated at age 17 from high school in San Francisco.

Nancy met and married John Joseph Carter at age 18. Before turning 20 she had a son, John Joseph, Junior and a daughter, Dorothy Virginia Carter. After eight years this marriage ended in divorce, which also included the children as John Junior went to live with his father in Colorado.

In 1945 she was working as an airplane riveter, better known on the billboards as Rosie the Riveter. This was at McDonnell Douglas Aircraft where she met and later married Ray Junior Wells in 1946. They lived most of their lives in California with a few years in Page, Arizona and then Las Vegas, Nevada. She was an executive secretary for the Naval Shipyard and the Bureau of Reclamation. She spent 30 years as a legal secretary, before becoming a paralegal in Richmond, California. Ray and Nancy were married for 58 years when Ray passed away in 2004.

Nancy became acquainted with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when her daughter in 1959 married Walter Gary Cox, Sr. Because of an extremely strict upbringing by her minister grandfather, she was never interested in any religion. Due to her daughter’s marriage, she acquired a large descendancy who love her very much.

She lived independently in Oroville, California until age 101. During those later years she was watched after by her nieces, Judy Rhoades, and Darcy van Valkenburgh. She loved them a great deal. Later, five months before her death she lived with her granddaughter, Valisa Mickelson and the last three weeks of her life she was cared for by Rocky Mountain Care, Heber City, UT. The family would like to thank them for their kind and dedicated care of Nancy.

She was a spunky and feisty lady that kept the nurses laughing until the day she passed.

Nancy is survived by her daughter, Dorothy V. (Gary, Sr.) Cox; granddaughters, Melanie (Jim) Wysong and their three children; Tami Reynolds-Call (Vaughn Call) and their eight children; Valisa (Brian) Mickelson and their three children; grandsons, Gary, Jr. (Kari) Cox and their two children; David (Anne) Cox and their four children; and her three nieces, Judy Rhoades, Theresa Bickford and Darcy van Valkenburgh. Nancy’s total great-grandchildren are 20; great-great-grandchildren total 12. Those that have preceded her in death are her husband, Ray Jr. Wells; son, John Carter Jr. and great-grandson, Jeremy Clark Mickelson.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, March 27, 2021, at 9 a.m. at West Point 18th Ward Chapel, 2865 West 800 North, West Point, UT. Services entrusted to Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary.