Obituaries

Frances Elam Neidhardt, prayerfully grateful for her "long and creative life," was born in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, April 30, 1928. For 59 years she was married to the late Dr. Carl Richard Neidhardt, an international artist and Austin College professor who served as a U.S. pilot in WWII. They lived in Sherman, Tx, from 1967 forward. Their children are Carl David Neidhardt and Margaret Evelyn (Eve) Neidhardt.

She began high school in Washington D.C., graduating in Pulaski, TN,. where she attended Martin College (now Martin Methodist College). She earned her B.A. in U. Chattanooga (now U. Tennessee-Chattanooga), M.A. at Hardin-Simmons U., and Ed.D at East Texas State U. (TAMU). She studied drawing in Amsterdam and conversational French in Aix-en-Provence. Then for several years she taught part-time literature at Brookhaven, East Texas State U, and Austin College, and instructed drawing and design at Grayson College.

A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, she was honored with a Summer Seminar to Yale under author RWB Lewis. She won Louisiana Literature's initial Prize for Poetry in 1987, the Mahan Prize, the President's prize, and others granted her by the Poetry Society of Texas and literary quarterlies. Her art-lit comparative essays appear in print. She chaired the Texoma Poetry Society, a branch of the Poetry Society of Texas, for several terms. Her book, THINGS SEEN AND SEEN AGAIN, was cited the first poetry book handled by the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Through grants awarded by the Natl. Endowment for Humanities and Grayson County's Historical Committee, Neidhardt directed two photo-oral history projects aided by Grayson County leaders and professors. The "Railroad in my Blood" product highlights memories of retired local steam railroaders and a few of their wives. a series of these was published by the Sherman Democrat.

Her "Quedlinburg Visited" taped product presents U.S. and German comments made on discovery of the WWII Texas soldier's having stolen and shipped home ancient religious treasures given by kings and princes to the St. Servatius Collegiate Church. Not until the late 1980's did a German attorney find the priceless items kept almost flawless by the then-deceased Whitewright, TX soldier and his family. On tape, The Rev. Friedmann Gosslau, by then pastor of the centuries-old church, explains the legal U.S.--German agreement that ensured the treasures' return there.

Copies of the Railroad interviews are kept by the Sherman Public Library and the Railroad Museum in Denison and are made available to readers. The original Quedlinburg interviews are maintained by the German church.

Frances was a member of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. She sang in the choir early on, then joined the visiting shepherds.

Frances is survived by her son, Carl David Neidhardt of Houston, TX, daughter Margaret Evelyn (Eve) Neidhardt of Sherman, TX, sister Emma Jo Elam Yount of Rockville and Gaithersburg MD, and her late husband, Robert S. Yount; sister-in-law Barbara Neidhardt Moore of ?Signal Mountains, TN and her late husband, Walter D. (Skip) Moore, and many cherished nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Carl Richard Neidhardt, of Sherman, TX, brother Edgar H. Elam Jr., and his wife Alix, of Leesburg, Virginia; and her parents, E. Howard Elam and Gertrude Loree Shipman of Nashville, TX and Gaithersburgh, MD.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Home Hospice of Grayson, Cooke and Fannin County. 505 W. Center St. Sherman, Texas 75090