Wilma Nadyne Nickle peacefully departed this life early on the morning of January 19 after more than eighty-four years of life well lived. She entered the world on September 19, 1933, the seventh daughter and last of nine children born to Daniel Earl Nickle and Lena Marie Augusta Dahlman Nickle. Her two brothers died before she was born, and she grew up with her six sisters in Springfield, Missouri. Her parents were converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Church was central in their lives.
"Being the only Mormon in my school in Missouri was difficult," she remembered, but she soon realized that "not fitting in with the group was okay." She received her patriarchal blessing at age 7, was endowed in the temple at age 17, and filled a mission in the Southern States.
When Nadyne moved to Salt Lake City at 17, she and three of her older sisters attended the temple twice a week. Temple workers began asking them to visit their wards to inspire others to do genealogy and temple work. By the time Nadyne was 19, she and her sisters had spoken in over 250 meetings in the area, and they were known as "The Nickle Sisters."
She studied at Southwest Missouri State College, Brigham Young University, and the University of Utah but credits her wonderful home life as most important in her education. She was a young Relief Society president in a student ward with 300 women members, half married and half single, and at the same time was in charge of a hometeaching district since the ward did not have enough priesthood.
Nadyne worked a couple of years as a model while going to school after graduating from the Ruth Tolman Modeling School in Salt Lake (a finishing school for models) prior to her mission. Nadyne was always interested in the entertainment field and majored in speech and drama while in school. As a result, it was exciting to her that she ended up in the radio and television business.
She worked for Bonneville International Corporation (Church-owned broadcasting business) for over 31 years, the last five years as the in-house trainer. She loved this business and was able to meet many celebrities who visited Salt Lake and traveled to many of the radio and television stations. She retired from Bonneville to care for her sisters, a brother-in-law, and a niece who lived, as she did, in the Canyon Road Ward.
She loved reading, theater, music, good movies, and traveling. Among the places she visited were Europe, Israel, Russia, China, Japan, the Caribbean, and Hawaii.
She spent much of her life doing family history and temple work. As the youngest of the seven Nickle sisters, and the last to pass away, she felt a particular responsibility to write the histories of her immediate family members. She was the family matriarch and archivist, helping to bind together her many nieces and nephews and keeping a remarkable cache of records that included correspondence among the seven sisters over decades.
She has now been reunited with her parents, her sisters, and the brothers she never knew in life. In addition to other family members, she leaves behind most of her 21 nieces and nephews and their spouses—whom she collectively called "my children"—as well their descendants and spouses, totaling 295 individuals. They made sure that during the last days of her life, she was never alone.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 27, at the Ensign Stake Center, 135 A Street, Salt Lake City. A viewing will be held from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at the same location, as well as on Friday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. South Temple.
