Nell Catherine (Curtis) Peters
Funeral services for Nell Catherine (Curtis) Peters, 91, West Plains, Missouri, will be held at 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2023, with visitation beginning at 1:00 p.m., at First United Methodist Church of West Plains, under the direction of Robertson-Drago Funeral Home. Rick Rutledge, pastor of First Christian Church in West Plains, will officiate.
Mrs. Peters passed away peacefully on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, at her residence, with her family by her side. Nell was currently living at Cedarhurst Assisted Living of West Plains.
Nell was born in Springfield, Missouri, on September 11, 1931, to parents C. Dan Curtis and Margaret Paynter Curtis. Camille, Nell’s only sibling, came along nine years later. She attended McDaniel Elementary School, Greenwood Lab School and graduated from Springfield Senior High School in 1949. She was a naturally social person and was involved in many clubs and activities, including cheerleading and dramatics. Nell then attended Drury College, studying toward a degree in elementary education. She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority while at Drury. It was while at Drury that Nell met and fell in love with her future husband, James C. Peters, a star member of the college’s basketball team. The couple married on June 10, 1951. The birth of their children, Jim and Sherry, completed the family. As Jim pursued a career in education and coaching, he and Nell lived in several towns, including Halfway, Missouri and Mountain Home, Arkansas before settling in West Plains, their permanent home. Nell was the perfect coach’s wife, enthusiastically cheering from the sidelines and raising their two young children. Later, when Jim became a successful State Farm Insurance agent, she continued to support him in every way she could. She was active in the community and made many lifelong friends who were very dear to her. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in West Plains, Chapter CM of the P.E.O. Sisterhood, and was always a strong supporter of her children’s schools. She was also an occasional substitute teacher in local elementary schools. Nell had an outgoing, colorful personality and an infectious laugh. She was an avid bridge player and was a wonderful cook; her homemade chocolate pies always brought top dollar at charitable fundraisers. Nell enjoyed time spent at the family’s cabin on the Norfork River at Dawt. In her later years, she especially enjoyed watching professional tennis and other sports on television and reading good books. She was lovingly assisted by her friend, Joyce Coppedge, who was her helpful companion for 12 years.
Nell and Jim enjoyed 57 years together before his passing in 2008. She was also preceded in death by her parents and a granddaughter, Brittany Hogue.
She is survived by her sister, Camille Ricketts and husband, Bill of Springfield; son, Jim Peters and wife, Beth, of West Plains; daughter, Sherry Underwood of Springfield.; three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren whom she adored, Andrew Peters, wife Emily and daughters Ava Jane, Anna Beth and Mary Nell, of Cassville, Julie Peters Gower, husband Jeffrey and their children, Ella Grace and William Gower of Olathe, Kansas and Courtney Booher and husband Bryce, and Courtney’s children, Audrey and Hunter Jensen, all of Springfield.
Burial will be in Oak Lawn Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Jim and Nell Peters Endowed Scholarship with Missouri State University-West Plains and may be left at or mailed to Robertson-Drago Funeral Home, 211 West Main, West Plains, MO 65775.
