Obituary of Ida Irene Fisher

Ida Irene Prell Fisher, 100, a child of the vast, wind-swept plains of Nebraska, passed away peacefully on May 21, 2016 in Morgantown, WV, in the arms of her adoring family, embraced by the mountains that she had come to love. Ida’s long, eventful life is an inspiration for all who knew her, boundlessly loved her, and now cherish her memory. Ida was born on Bunker Hill Farm, near Shelby, Nebraska, on August 19, 1915, the eighth of twelve children of Raymond Rose Prell and Fannie Johanna Mathilda Kiesselbach Prell. An indispensable partner for her over-worked mother, young Ida also worked side-by-side in the immense fields with her father and eight brothers, often driving the tractor, planting and harvesting crops of wheat, corn, oats and alfalfa. But life on the isolated farm involved more than just exacting physical labor, and the boisterous Prell family found adventure in all they did together, from ice skating on the family pond to breeding greyhounds to helping a beloved uncle, Dr. Theodore A. Kiesselbach (internationally renowned developer of hybrid corn), with his nearby plots of experimental crops. At harvest time, the family celebrated, improbably, with feasts of oysters purchased off the train that ran through Shelby. At Christmas, each child was given an orange, some homemade candy and a lovely book to be shared and treasured by the entire family. The Prell children were insatiably curious about life beyond the farm. There, under the big night sky, Ida and her siblings studied the sparkling, mysterious cosmos above. Pouring over the family’s treasured volumes of Ridpath’s History of the World, Ida developed a profound, life-long passion for science, art, literature, poetry and philosophy. At age 18, Ida passed the “normal” examination and qualified to be the teacher of her own one-room school, all the while continuing to help her parents with farm and family duties. Inspired by an early teacher who had left the farming community to study nursing, Ida finally fled the farm in her early 20s to enroll in the nursing program at Lincoln General Hospital, which was affiliated with the University of Nebraska. In 1941, Ida joined the war effort, enlisting in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, where she was first stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and specialized in psychiatric nursing. Later, she was transferred to Darnell General Hospital, in Danville, KY, which had been converted to military use. While she was on general night duty, one of Ida’s patients was a handsome, charming young sergeant, James Gratton Fisher, who was hospitalized for a minor malady. After a whirlwind war-time romance, Ida and Jimmy wed in a simple ceremony on September 2, 1944. As World War II wound down, the young couple settled in Williamson, Jimmy’s home town, where Ida adapted to life amidst the steep mountains of southern West Virginia. Later, the Fishers moved across the Tug River to Happy Valley, KY, where they raised their four children. Every summer, the family happily traveled west for rejuvenating visits with Ida’s mother and gregarious siblings. In 1964, Jimmy suffered a debilitating stroke and Ida launched into caring for her invalid husband, raising the kids and running the hillside household almost single-handedly. Once again, Ida made the most of an isolated lifestyle. Williamson boasted an impressive public library, and Ida would haul armloads of books home to be devoured by all the family. Ida was a member of the Williamson Wildwood Garden Club and began to experiment with her love of landscape painting. In 1971, Ida and Jimmy moved from Happy Valley to Roanoke, VA, for closer proximity to a Veterans Administration hospital. They read, enjoyed long drives through the gorgeous countryside of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and played “10,000 games of Scrabble.” Ida created numerous paintings, prized by her family. Then, in 1980, Jimmy suffered a second stroke and was a patient in the VA hospital until he died in 1986. In her seventies, Ida traveled extensively – all over the United States, several trips to Europe, and a stupendous trip to China. At home in Roanoke, she enjoyed countless philosophical discussions with fellow members of the Thomas Jefferson Chapter of the American Humanist Association. Then, at the age of 80 (in 1995), Ida decided it was again time to move on – this time to Morgantown, where she could be close to her daughter and many grandchildren. Thus began another wonderful chapter of Ida’s life at Colonial Park apartments, where she enjoyed the company of an array of lovely neighbors, as well as myriad friendships developed while walking miles at the mall, coliseum, rail trail and on the streets and byways of Suncrest. She continued to travel throughout her eighties and early nineties, which included a marvelous river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Russia. Ida enjoyed several trips to New York City, where she would be virtually indefatigable, thrilling to all the wonders of plays, parks, museums and people-watching. For twenty years, Ida immersed herself into life in Morgantown, enjoying as many cultural offerings as she could, including nearly every production of Morgantown Theatre Company, for which she had a special fondness. In her later years, Ida continued to read and re-read her personal library of the classics. She read and read and read. She was never, ever bored. She discovered that she loved to read play scripts and poems out loud to herself, well into her late nineties. Over her lifetime, Ida herself wrote almost 30 volumes of diaries, which her children and grandchildren have only now begun to explore. Ida was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Jimmy, her daughter-in-law Patricia Powers Fisher and 11 brothers and sisters. Ida is survived by her three sons, James G. Fisher II of Elkins, Martin P. Fisher (Bonnie) of Green Bay, WI, and Neal W. Fisher (Deborah) of Charlotte, NC, and her daughter, Johanna Fisher Stewart (Jim) of Morgantown. Ida adored her grandchildren with a passionate, protective zeal. She thrived on their accomplishments and easily realized one of her great ambitions: to live to see all of these children grow to adulthood. She is survived by ten grandchildren, Johanna Fisher Biola, M.D. (Scott) of Elkins, James G. Fisher III (Gina) of Pittsburgh, PA, Ashley Fisher Alford of Macon, GA, Derek Fisher (Whitney) of Mountain Home, ID, Hannah Fisher (James Nonarath) of Milwaukee, WI, Ida Stewart Creech, Ph.D. (Brian) of Haverford, PA, Donovan Stewart of Morgantown, Dylan Stewart (Lauren Groves) of Hopwood, PA, Caroline Fisher (Anthony Peele) of Wilmington, NC, and Gratton “Nate” Fisher of Chapel Hill, NC. She is also survived by six great-grandchildren: Julia and Seneca Biola, Daley Grace Alford, Huxley and Ciaran Fisher, and August Creech. (Two more great-grandchildren are due in 2016.) Throughout her lifetime, Ida always had an affinity for young friends, who gravitated to her empathy, warmth, pluck and verve. Special among these are Christopher Brooks of Lost Creek, Lauren Givhan of Louisville, KY, Kara Crabtree of Morgantown, Max Phillips-Hartley of Morgantown and Caitlin Parrucci of Ithaca, NY. When we remember Ida, we see her embarking on one of her long walks, or cracking into a thick book: happy, wide open, and hungry for deeper knowledge and new experiences. We will miss the Scrabble games, her homemade soup and runzas. We will miss showering her with books and treats. We will miss her quick laugh, disarming humor and brilliant mind. We will miss the long conversations, sharing the everyday adventures that she raised us to recognize and savor. Ida showed us how far we can travel when we press on, insatiably, deeper and deeper into all the world’s wonders. She will be interred beside her husband in Sherwood Memorial Park, Salem, VA, in late July, with a family celebration of her extraordinary life to follow. Condolences: hastingsfuneralhome@comcast.net