You may not have known this Wichitan, but she most likely helped you a time or two

If you’ve ever delved into Wichita history or even had a passing interest in it — say, on the social media pages for Wichita history lovers — there’s a good chance Mary Nelson helped you with information even if you didn’t know it.

“We’ve all benefited from her extraordinary work,” said Jami Frazier Tracy, curator of collections at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.

Nelson, 62, who for three decades was with Wichita State University Libraries and its Special Collections and University Archives, died unexpectedly July 17 following a resurgence of cancer.

“I’m sure over the time she was there, she helped thousands of researchers find material,” Tracy said. “As an archivist, she really wanted to help people find answers.”

Jim Rhatigan, WSU’s former dean of students, said of the thousands of people he’s worked with through his decades at the school, Nelson was “one of the top one or two people.” He praised her as a joyous person and a conscientious colleague.

“Boy, she can find anything.”

In Rhatigan’s last conversation with Nelson recently, he needed help finding a particular pamphlet.

“Mary found the document and two more.”

He said she was skilled at finding even “a little parchment of material.”

Often, if it was a question about someone from WSU’s past, even dating back to when it was Fairmount College, Rhatigan said, “She wouldn’t even have to look that one up.”

Nelson came to library sciences by a circuitous route that involved another Wichitan who helped preserve history: physician Ed Tihen, who took notes from Wichita newspapers from 1872 to 1982 that are known as the Tihen Notes.

Before that, though, as she was a child growing up in Little River outside Hutchinson, Nelson — better known as Mary Ann back then — was more focused on athletics than anything history related.

Though she appeared as studious and serious as a librarian back then, lifelong friend Tony Peterson said she and he were pranksters.

“We were the ones who were the good kids no one suspected,” he said.

They pulled stunts such as stealing bulletin boards from school walls and repainting the town’s benches orange in the middle of the night.

“Everybody wondered who did it. We never told.”

Nelson’s principal, Perry McCabe, apparently didn’t know about her antics.

“She was not one of them that spent much time in my office.”

He was her basketball coach, too, for a time and remembered Nelson as “not quite a perfectionist but getting that way.”

Nelson’s sister, Anna Uhlig, said Nelson went to the University of Kansas for journalism and geography and spent her early working years at map companies.

Then something a bit unorthodox, at least by career standards, happened that convinced Uhlig she needed to connect Tihen, her uncle by marriage, with her sister to help curate his collection.

“It’s kind of silly, but I actually remember dreaming about it.”

Uhlig said she knew her sister’s “detailed mind and her meticulousness” would be of use.

Tihen hired her, and when he donated his collection to a few museums, he donated Nelson’s help, too.

The historical museum was one of those places, and Jami Frazier Tracy ended up working with Nelson for almost a year identifying photos, postcards and ephemera.

“I was thrilled to have someone who was as knowledgeable as Mary to help me process this huge collection.”

In between sharing wry remarks and displaying an unflappable style, Nelson also taught or reinforced important lessons for Tracy, including not rushing work or trusting anything as gospel. She stressed the importance of numerous sources.

WSU then hired Nelson, which is where she had what Tracy called one of her greatest achievements: spearheading the digitization and maintenance of the Wichita Photo Archives.

“It’s taken for granted now, but 20 years ago, this was very innovative,” Tracy said.

The repository of images from the 1870s to 2000s gives anyone easy and inexpensive, or in some cases free, access to all kinds of Wichita photographs.

The idea hadn’t been Nelson’s, but Tracy — who was one of several people who thought of it — said, “She was really the brains behind the Wichita Photo Archives.”

Similarly, Tracy said Nelson may not have held the top title in her department during her time at WSU, but, “Mary was really the one who is in charge of Special Collections, and everyone knew it.”

“Hatman” Jack Kellogg, an amateur historian and the owner of Hatman Jack’s Wichita Hat Works, agreed that Nelson ran the show but didn’t act like it.

“She was kind as they come to historians, whether amateur or professional.”

He said she never simply pointed to shelves and sent people on their way.

“She would reach deep into . . . the archives of her mind to flush out a story,” Kellogg said. “It never seemed about her. It was always about the story, the craft.”

When Mickey Sheaks was courting his future wife, Nelson showed no interest until he cleverly lured her with a potentially historical find in Sleepy Hollow.

Suddenly, there was “immediate interest,” he said, and she consented to go out after even though the find was a bust.

Sheaks said his wife had well-known skills, such as rattling off what row, shelf and box someone needed to check for information in Special Collections, and some lesser-known ones as well.

The first director who hired her, Mike Kelly, would reach into the library’s candy bowl and then throw an M&M in Nelson’s direction as she turned a cartwheel and caught it in her mouth.

In addition to her day job, Nelson did a lot of unpaid historical work, such as cataloging a major amount of donations at a historical library in Little River.

“We didn’t know she was coming,” library volunteer Carolyn Lundstrom said. “She just came on her own. . . . She was community minded.”

Lundstrom knew Nelson since Nelson was a little girl and said she remained sweet through the years, also voluntarily taking over compilation of the town’s reunion book because “nobody wanted to keep it up.”

Rhatigan said that was Nelson’s nature.

“The people that you treasure are people like Mary: selfless.”

There is a gathering at 5:30 Wednesday at Botanica for what the family is calling Mary Memories.

Tracy, who maintained her friendship with Nelson after their time working together, continued to admire her devotion to doing things right and preserving and sharing history.

“I’m not sure that that can be replaced.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2024 at 4:04 AM with the headline "You may not have known this Wichitan, but she most likely helped you a time or two."