Mary Carroll Nelson

On Sunday, September 11, 2022, the Lord took the most gentle soul home, Mary Carroll Nelson, to her final resting place. 

After 64 years of marriage Ed Nelson passed in 2014, and almost 8 years of being apart from her beloved one, they will be reunited once again at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

She is survived by her daughter Patricia and husband Stephen A. Hall, son Blake (E.B. Nelson) and wife Debra, grandson Grey Burchfield Park and wife Katie, granddaughters Norah, Raleigh, Maeve and Hazel, and Clare Fisher and husband Ben. 

Mary Carroll Nelson, nee Mary Ellen Carroll was born on April 24, 1929, the second of three children to James Vincent Carroll and Mary Langton Carroll. Her father was an army officer, graduate of West Point, class of November 1918. While he was stationed at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, she met the love of her life, Edwin B. Nelson, a cadet, class of 1948, home on leave. They were married there in 1950, following her graduation from Barnard College. Their daughter, Patricia was born in Nurnberg, Germany; Edwin B. Nelson Jr. Was born in Ft. Hood, TX. For the first 21 years of their marriage, the Nelsons moved frequently before settling in Albuquerque, NM in 1971, where they had lived on Sandia Base from 1961 to 1963, Mary earned an MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico in 1963. She taught first grade and art in the States and Germany while Ed was on active duty. Ending with 12 years Sunset Mesa school after he retired. 

Mary was both an artist and a writer of many articles, books reviews for magazines and journals, and over a dozen books dealing with art, Native American biographies for young readers, and metaphysics, while contributing to anthologies. Among her titles are: The Legendary Artist of Taos, Beyond Fear, The teachings of Don Miguel Ruiz, Crop Circles, An Art of Our time. Her art expressed her deep interests in images from space, the phenomenon of crop circles, spirituality, and the beauty of nature. Much of her later work was done in luminous ink stippled on Plexiglas. IN 1982, she founded the society of Layerists in Multi-Media, a network for artists who express a holistic perspective. SLMM was inaugurated by the Albuquerque Museum in the summer of 1985 and hosted again on its 25th anniversary in 2007. Layered art has been exhibited in shows across the United States, Mexico, England, and France. 

Mary will be laid to rest with Edwin on Friday, December 30, 2022 at 11:00 am at the Santa Fe National Cemetery located at 5011 N Guadalupe St Santa Fe, NM 87501. 

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