O'BRIEN, NELLIE AND JIM

by Lou Long

Entry F318 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Claude and Inez O'Brien. 1918

Jim and Nellie O'Brien. April 6, 1912.

James Issac O Brien and Nellie Leona
Morrow were married April 6, 1912 at
Eclipse, the home of her sister, Mrs. Placer
Tucker. Jim had proved up on a Homestead
just east of Eclipse. This was their home for
3 years. Their daughter, Inez Marie, was born
in 1913. Jim and his brother John ranched
together in Hooker County. They moved
their cattle to McPherson County the fall of
1913 to feed hay on Brown Lake. They lost
their entire cattle herd when the blizzard hit
and the cattle drifted into the lake. Nellie and
Jim moved to the Tom Woods Place on the
Dismal River. Their son, Claude Raymond,
was born January 9, 1915. They ranched on
the Dismal River until the early 1930's. They
moved to the Ben Kemp Ranch southwest of
Mullen. Jim and Claude bought the Mays
Place. Claude joined the Air Force in Novem-
ber 1941. Jim and Nellie sold all of their cows
and kept the heifers to start a new herd later.
They moved to the John Buchfinck Ranch
and helped with the buchfinck cattle and
cared for their own at the Mays. In 1946 Inez
married Joe Kay in Los Angeles, California.
Claude, Lou and baby daughter returned to
the Sandhills in July 1945. Jim and Nellie had
bought the St. Onge Place and moved there
in the spring of 1945. November 9, 1946 Jim
passed away when a blood clot reached his
heart. He was buried at Eclipse. Nellie
continued to live at the Ranch. She enjoyed
seeing her grandchildren growing up and
enjoyed all of her friends. While returning
from a visit on April 21, 1958 at Inez's home
in California, she was one of 48 victims of a
Nevada air crash. The eastbound airliner
collided with a Air Force training plane. She
was buried beside her husband at Eclipse.