LEO, Rose Nell (Nix) - b. April 30, 1894 - d. July 4, 2002

[genealogynut]

Saturday, July 06, 2002
Taken from the Winfield Daily Courier

Rose Nell Leo, 108, of Howard, died July 4, 2002 at Howard Twilight Manor.

Services will be 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Howard United Methodist Church.  Burial will be at 2:30 in Piedmont cemetery.

Memorials have been established with the Howard United Methodist Church, Carter-Rader Post 149 American Legion Auxiliary and the Howard Senior Center.  Contributions may be made through Zimmerman Funeral Home.

Leo was born in Cleveland County, near Norman, Okla. on April 30, 1894 to Mary Elizabeth "Liz" (Pace) and John Thomas "Tom" Nix.  After her parents died, she came to Kansas with her younger brother, Tom, in 1902.  They lived with their Aunt Sarah Nix Woodall in Elk County.

On June 30, 1920, she married John Leo.  He died in 1967.  She remained on the farm until 1969 when she moved to her home in Howard.  She lived there alone until she entered the hospital on March 12, 1999.  In 1972, at the age of 78, she earned her General Equivalency Degree.  She was a Red Cross volunteer at Howard Twilight Manor for 15 years.

Leo said she had three careers: school teaching, farming, and writing.  She taught six terms in country schools and taught Sunday school for many years.  Almost all her life she lived on various farms in and near Elk County.  She had a garden until she entered Howard Twilight Manor in 1999 at the age of 105.  She also collected soil from every state in the United States and many foreign countries.

She began writing news for the Elk County paper when she was 17.  Over the years she wrote a number of columns, "From the Farm," "Howard Happenings," and others.  In 1977 she began writing 'Rose's Last Scrap," which she continued to write until 1999.  She also wrote a monthly column "Country Living" for Tallgrass Country magazine and wrote monthy for the Methodist Church Circuit Rider.

In 1990 she wrote a book, "Rose's Last Scrap," which she published.  Through the years she was interviewed often by the reporters for newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV.  In the spring of 1998 the Associated Press published an article on her nationwide.

She received many awards and citations for her writing and volunteer service, but she was proudest of the William Allen White Award she received on Dec. 4, 1998.  For 41 years she wrote a Christmas letter.  In 1998, 610 relatives and friends received her greetings.

In 1916 she joined the Methodist Church and continued to attend church even after she could not hear a word spoken from the pulpit, she said.  She was also a member of United Methodist Women and the circle.

In 1918 she became a member of the American Legion Auxiliary.  She was also a member of the Jolly Janes Club and the Howard Senior Center.

Her older son, Chios Nix Leio, died in 1953.

Survivors include a son, Frank James Leo. and a daughter, Anita Jewel Powers, both of Wichita; seven grandchildren, 17 great-granchildren, and 16 great-great-grand-children.

[Teresa]

I live in Rose Leo's little house at the south end of Wabash.
You know, when I first stepped into it even before I fixed it all up and put all my Native American and spiritual things in there, it had a peaceful and calm energy.
That house is now and always has been my "safe haven".
I thank Rose for being the kind and gentle person that she was and for leaving the same kind of energy in my house.