He was an avuncular, corner oracle for several generations of Queen Anne kids who hung out at his store, dispensing common-sense advice peppered with dry humor. To numerous Queen Anne residents, young and old, he was simply "Mr. Nelsen."
When Don Nelsen, 80, died April 12 after a long illness, a part of Queen Anne history died with him.
He owned and operated Nelsen's Grocery at 325 W. Galer, Queen Anne's longest-running, continuing, family business until his retirement in 2001. The Phinney Ridge resident, with his quiet, sometimes gruff exterior, wry outlook and natural kindness, touched numerous Queen Anne lives.
"He was a man of many sides," recalled Carol Nagy, a close friend who owned a neighboring business, Soft Coverings, which closed last fall. "A pretty complex soul for someone who spent his life running a corner grocery on top of Queen Anne Hill."
Indeed, Mr. Nelsen collected coins and stamps and was a railroad and maritime history buff with an encyclopedic knowledge of Queen Anne and Ballard history. His activities included the Bethany and Crown Lutheran churches, the Sons of Norway and several historical societies.
But it was his generosity, for Nagy, that stood out. "He'd give anybody the shirt off his back," she said, noting that Mr. Nelsen quietly extended credit to needy families while "not worrying about it. He fed many families on top of the Hill in the 1970s during the Boeing crash. He made sure people were fed."
The son of Norwegian immigrants, Mr. Nelsen was born Dec. 5, 1925, at the family home in Ballard. The young-est of Magnus J. and Mary (Skjolvs-vold) Nelsen's five children, he attended West Woodland grade school and Ballard High School. After graduating in 1944 he began his life's work at the family business founded by his parents in 1919, Nelsen's Quality Grocery Store. Mr. Nelsen and his brother Fred operated the business together.
Nelsen's was a busy place up until the 1960s when the larger grocery stores changed shopping habits. In its final dec-ades Nelsen's represented a throwback to an older era, which may have been what attracted the neighborhood kids.
There were creaky, wooden floors and dimly lit shelves packed with merchandise, including canned chickens, Queen Anne High School sports memorabilia and a picture frame filled with high-school photos of the kids who once frequented his store.
And a poker-faced Mr. Nelsen presiding at the cash register.
"At first it was a candy stop," remembered Ken Ito, who started visiting Mr. Nelsen's store as a Queen Anne Elementary School student more than 30 years ago. "He allowed us to have little tabs."
Ito and a group of friends continued to hang out at Mr. Nelsen's through the years.
"He liked to talk," Ito said. "He had stories about places on the Hill, how things used to be." Sometimes, when they acted up, Mr. Nelsen would bark, "Time to go!" Ito said.
"He was gruff on the outside," Ito allowed. "Once you cracked that exterior, he was a kind, caring man."
Remarkably, after Mr. Nelsen's 2001 retirement Ito and a group of his childhood friends would take Mr. Nelsen out to lunch once a week. They would catch up on news of the Hill and how their network of old friends was doing. Those lunches continued until Mr. Nelsen fell ill late last year.
Andy Larson, as a 10-year-old, first met Mr. Nelsen in 1977. Larson was one of those regular Mr. Nelsen lunch buddies and was at his bedside when he died.
Asked to describe his friend, Larson commented: "Dutiful, loyal, consistent, steadfast. It's kind of a Frank Capra-esque story. He inherited the family business and he had to run it. It became his life."
"I think the phrase is, bloom where you're planted," John Oversvee observed of his uncle's business career.
Oversvee said his family wasn't aware of the extent of his uncle's behind-the-scenes help for the less fortunate until the stories started coming out after his death. It was the sort of discreet kindness consistent with his uncle's favorite phrase: "Let's not make a big production out of it."
And it speaks volumes about his bedrock integrity.
"He liked his life on the corner," Carol Nagy said.
Mr. Nelsen is survived by his sister-in-law Elva Nelsen, numerous nieces and nephews and a group of close friends. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 20, at Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery, 11111 Aurora Ave. N. There also will be a memorial gathering at the Sons of Norway Hall, 2245 N.W. 57th St. on Friday, April 21, from 6 to 9 p.m.
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