CLARK, NINA (SCOTT) AND KEN

A little red-haired girl was born on

1943, at the hospital in Sutherland, Nebraska, to David and Zelma (Barnebey) Scott. David was the Methodist minister in nearby Paxton at the time. Nina Louise was named after her grandmother, Nina Florence (Garrett) Barnebey, who lived in Mullen. David was hoping for a son, since he had two daughters by his first wife before she died, Annabelle and Martha (married Wayne Osborne) . The telegram announcing Nina's birth to Grandpa and Grandma Barnebey said, “JUNIOR IS SEVEN POUND GIRL BORN FOUR PM SUNDAY BOTH FINE.''

Nina was about four months old at the time of her first visit to Mullen. During her childhood the family moved around the state where her father, David, served a number of Methodist churches, until settling in Mullen in 1958 following his retirement. David's relatives lived in Ireland, and the extended family on her mother Zelma's side were mostly located in the Sandhills, so vacation times were usually spent in Mullen. When she was about a year and a half old, Nina came down with the red measles while visiting at her grandparent's home. Dr. D.A. Walker, who was the physician in Mullen at the time, insisted that she remain in Mullen until she was well, so she and her mother got an extended visit. She always enjoyed playing in the Sandhills sand, and on many occasions there was a trunkload of it went home for the sandbox because there wasn't any finer could be obtained anywhere, as far as she was concerned.

Nina's grandfather, Charlie Barnebey, began to challenge her vocabulary at a very early age. He delighted in teaching her the botanical names of the flowers in his garden, because he thought it was so much fun to hear her say things like “salpiglossis.'' He also spent hours teaching Nina to carefully color inside the lines of her coloring book pages. During the years when Charlie was custodian at the Mullen grade school, Nina liked to go with him when he spent summer days doing repair work in the classrooms. It was great fun to “play school'' and write on the blackboards while Grandpa hummed his way through his work. Also during frequent visits to Mullen, and more often after the family moved to Mullen, Nina eagerly accompanied her favor-ite “Auntie'' Ruth Barnebey on many arrow-head hunts. It was always fun too, as a little girl, to go with Ruth to the courthouse and play “office'' while Auntie worked.

The Scotts moved their trailer house to Charlie Barnebey's yard in 1958, and Nina finished the last three years of high school in Mullen, graduating as class salutatorian in 1961. she had joined the Methodist Church at an early age, and was an active member during her years in Mullen. Having learned to play the piano as a child, she began playing organ when she entered high school, and she served as church organist and also accompa-nist for youth group meetings and children's Sunday school. She held offices in the Methodist Youth Fellowship and helped her Aunt Ruth with the preschool Sunday school class.

Nina attended two years of college at Nebraska Weslyan University in Lincoln. During the summer break, she returned to Mullen and worked as a dental assistant for Dr. Earl Walker. It was at this time that she was inspired to become a dental hygienist. She attended the University of Missouri at Kansas City Dental School, and at that time met her husband, Kenneth Clark, who was studying to become a minister at the St. Paul School of Theology, Methodist.

Nina remembers one trip she and Ken made to Mullen before they were married. The family was invited to the Roy and Iva McCully ranch where Ken (a native Califor-nian) could see what Sandhills country living was really like. McCully's suggested that Nina and Ken take a drive out to the top of a hill where there was a good look-out spot. Nina's dad, thinking these two unmarried young folks would surely need a chaperon, insisted on going along. As you might know, they got the car stuck in the sand, thus confirming in his mind that “Father knows best.''

Ken and Nina were married at the Method-ist Church in Mullen on December 20, 1964, with the bride's father, the Reverand David Scott, and local minister, the Reverand J.B. Choate, officiating. One of the most memo-rable wedding presents they received was a sack full of rags from Bessie Zachery. She said she didn't know what in the world a young couple just starting up housekeeping with all new things would do for rags, so she thought we could use some of hers. Following the completion of their educations in Kansas City, Nina and Ken have made their home in California with their two children, Timothy Allan and Janet Louise.