Rhonda Nelson

Rhonda Nelson, 73, of Palestine, IL, and formerly of Courtland, KS, passed away on December 2, 2025, at Crawford Memorial Hospital in Robinson, IL. She was born on July 11, 1952, in Concordia, KS, and grew up on a farm outside of town where life was simple, sometimes rough around the edges, and full of the kind of stories that get told again and again. One of those stories involved her brother Kenny (who gave her more than a few scrapes), with Rhonda eventually leveling the score with a well-aimed tree limb!

Even as a girl, Rhonda had a clear sense of what she wanted her life to be. After graduating from Courtland High School in 1970, she stepped immediately toward the dream she had carried for as long as she could remember. She enrolled at North Central Kansas Technical College, earned her LPN, and began a career that would span forty-two years. She started in OB in Beloit, KS, but soon found her home at Republic County Hospital in Long Term Care. Nearly her entire nursing career unfolded there. She knew her residents well, cared deeply for them, and gave herself fully to the quiet, steady work of tending to people who depended on her. Caregiving shaped her whole life. It was the way she honored others, the way she loved, and the way she understood herself.

Outside of work, Rhonda built a life around the things that brought her joy. She was a regular at Bingo halls in Belleville and Concordia, and anywhere else someone was calling numbers. She won big a few times, enough to keep her grinning for days. She also carried her mother's gift for baking and became known for the treats that seemed to appear wherever she went, whether it was cinnamon rolls, fudge, or oatmeal raisin cookies. If you mowed her yard, cookies were your payment. If you worked in the hospital or a doctor's office, she would show up with something warm from her kitchen. No one ever went hungry around her.

The farm girl in her never faded either. Rhonda loved to garden and could can or preserve almost anything. Though she found peace and fulfillment in tending to the soil outside, many afternoons found her in her living room watching Gunsmoke on Grit Television. She never missed her soap operas, especially The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful. In all of this, there was a rhythm to life that felt familiar and right to her, a pattern of simple pleasures she never needed to complicate.

Rhonda also had a gift for creating warmth with her hands. She crocheted with remarkable skill, making afghans for her nieces and, eventually, their children. Each one was her way of saying "I love you", stitched slowly and patiently into patterns meant to last. She never had children of her own, but she poured so much of herself into her nieces and nephews. They were the lights of her life, and she loved being their aunt. Part of how they will always remember her is the way she carried herself, especially those perfectly done nails. No matter how she felt or what season of life she was in, her nails were always immaculate. She did not fuss with jewelry or clothes, but those polished nails were her signature. That, and the way she cared.

Rhonda was a caregiver at heart long before she ever became a nurse, and that part of her only deepened with time. She cared for her parents in the twilight years of their lives, tending to them with the same steadiness and devotion she had shown to so many others. And after they were gone, she chose a new chapter. Her health had begun to shift, and the world around her in Kansas had grown quieter. So she moved to Palestine, a place she had always loved visiting, to be near the family who could surround her with the same love and care she had offered so freely throughout her life.

Now, they hold that same love and care as a lasting legacy. It is the thread that runs through every memory of her, as steady as the rhythm of her crochet hook, as dependable as the sweetness she shared from her own oven, as familiar as the sound of her voice. Her life was made of simple things that became sacred because she offered them so freely. And those who loved her will carry the warmth she created for the rest of their days.

She is survived by her brother & sister-in-law, Kenny & Cinda Nelson; by her nieces, Brandi Yargus and Kristin & husband Matt Noblitt; her great nieces and nephews, Luke Tingley & fiancée Paige Dill, Natalie Yargus, Reese Noblitt, Brock Noblitt, and Beau Noblitt; as well as many cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, Rudolph Eugene "Dude" & Alice Mae (Clark) Nelson; by her dear cousin, Betty; as well as several aunts and uncles.

A time of visitation will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Monday, December 8th, at the Goodwine Funeral Home in Palestine. A funeral service will follow, with Celebrant Curt Goodwine officiating. For those unable to attend in person, a live stream of the service will be available at www.goodwinefuneralhomes.com/live-stream/live-stream. Burial will be in the Palestine Cemetery.