Nancy Louise Anderson passed away peacefully on Monday, December 2, at Mercy Medical Center, Dubuque. Visitation will be held from 3:00 to 6:00 PM Friday December 27th at Egelhof, Siegert and Casper Funeral Home and Crematory, 2659 John F Kennedy Rd. and from 9:30 to 10:30 AM Saturday, December 28 at Hope Church where services will follow at 10:30 AM

Nancy was born on January 24, 1928, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, daughter of Ethel (Wagster) Emery and Clyde Emery. They moved to Chicago shortly thereafter as her father sought work as a machinist during the Depression. When she was ten years old, she accepted Christ as her personal savior at First Baptist Church in south Chicago, and she later became active in the youth group at Bethel Evangelical Free Church on the South East side.  In high school, she studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Chicago and later attended John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. She married her childhood sweetheart, Wilford Robert Anderson, at Bethel on June 14, 1947 who had joined her at John Brown after he returned from the Coast Guard following World War II.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music (piano and organ) in 1949 and was chosen to be the pianist for the college choir.

In 1952, Nancy and Wil moved to Venezuela to be missionaries under the Evangelical Free Church. Her primary ministry was music – giving piano lessons, organizing church choirs, writing worship songs, assisting in various radio music ministries, teaching music at a Bible institute and a seminary. In 1988, her church choir from Dios Admirable in Caracas was asked to perform a Christmas concert which was televised on national TV.

In 1989, Nancy and Wil retired to Miramar, Florida. They continued their ministry though the Miramar Evangelical Free Church. Nancy led several bilingual women’s Bible study and prayer groups, gave piano lessons, and assisted with Sunday morning worship. She took great pleasure in having a house full of her children and grandchildren and feeding them between their frequent trips to the beach and soccer games (as long as the Marlins were not playing on TV).

In 2007, Nancy and Wil moved to Dubuque, Iowa to be closer to family, now adding great grandchildren to their frequent family gatherings. She continued to serve God in this season of life through the Women’s Missionary Society at Hope Evangelical Free Church and New Beginnings ministry for new mothers. Nancy and Wil celebrated their 75^th anniversary in 2022. Later that year, they moved to Luther Manor where Nancy organized what was to become her last women’s prayer group.

Nancy passed away peacefully; she was surrounded by her family singing songs she had composed to worship her Jesus who had now come to take her to her eternal home.

Nancy is survived by her husband, Wilford Robert Anderson and her four children, Keith (Judy) Anderson of Palatine, IL, Kurt (Peggy) Anderson of Trevor, Wisconsin, Kent (Ann) Anderson of Dubuque, and Karin Anderson of Dubuque, nine grandsons and their wives, and fifteen great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, Clyde and Ethel Emery, her brother Richard Emery, and her sister Marlene (Emery) Hawkins.