In Memory of

Nathal

"Nat"

Weston

Obituary for Nathal "Nat" Weston

Nathal "Nat" Adelaide Riedler Weston, passed away on March 9, 2017 at Harbor View Cottage in Newcastle. She graduated high school as Valedictorian at only 16, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1934. She was a retired teacher of both Minnesota and Maine, totaling thirty years. She taught high school English, and had also taught secretarial subjects, French, and music. Because it was the Depression when she was at the University of Minnesota, each of the students had been advised to get as many different kinds of majors as they could to be more employable after they graduated. When she taught high school in Dixfield, Maine, she taught junior and senior English and French, and also began the girls glee club, directed the senior plays, and the prize speaking. In Dixfield, she also began a women's chorus, the Schubert Chorus.

She was born October 20,1913, in Renville, Minnesota, a small farming community not too far from the Minnesota and Iowa border. Her parents were Alvin and Sophia (Wulf) Riedler. Her birth was followed by her sister's in 1921, and her brother's in 1929. Her father was a barber and also sold insurance, her mother was a homemaker. They lived in town, but there were many cousins outside of town on the several farms in the area. She began taking organ lessons from the church organist when she was 12, for no charge because she also then played for any service where she was needed. She was our church organist while I was growing up, and directed the choir too. She taught private piano lessons after school, and there was a recital each June in our large living room. Friends of hers had taken a liking to her homemade molasses oatmeal bread, so for years she sold them a loaf every Saturday when she did the family's baking.

Wherever she went, she made friends and kept them. She wrote many letters weekly, to her sister, her mother, and those friends to keep in touch. In New Harbor, she founded a mixed choral group, the Occasional Chorale, which was successful for many years. She resigned at 90 because she thought she should. The group was then directed by someone else, and she happily went to another group in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and sang with them for several years. She found that she missed the organ, so she substituted in the area churches as organist as recently as ten years ago.

She directed a church choir in Cloquet, Minnesota, and one night she needed a ride after rehearsal. The volunteer was a handsome tenor, with a lovely voice and a New Hampshire accent. They were married on June 15, 1941, in Renville, and honeymooned driving to Maine where he'd been transferred for work. He was coming home, but she was leaving home. They were happily married until November, 1978, when William Henry Weston, II died at only 66 in Bath's hospital of complications from asthma. She was also predeceased by their son who died at 14 in 1961; her brother, Alvin Donald Riedler; and her son in law, David Norman Atherton, Sr.

She leaves her daughter, Sherrill Atherton Crow and her husband, Richard W. Crow, Sr; David Atherton, II, a grandson, his wife Victoria, and three great grandsons David, III, William Henry, and Benjamin Andrew. Also remaining are Andrew Atherton, her grandson, his wife, Amy, and their two sons, great grandsons Alexander and Adrian. There is also a stepson, Richard W Crow, Jr, his wife Debra, and four children from their previous marriages, Marcia Crow Kingsland, great granddaughter and her husband Joseph and their two children, great, great grandchildren, Collin and Callie. Jamie Crow, and Richard William "Chip" Crow HI, great grandchildren, two step great grandchildren, Megan McConnell, and Debra's daughter, Gabrielle Klobucar. She also leaves many good friends. She leaves her sister, Phyllis Gianos of Edina, Minnesota, and her two children, Stephanie, and Philip, each of whom has two children, her niece and nephews of Minneapolis and California. Stephanie also has grandchildren.

A memorial service for Nat will be held at 1pm, on Saturday, March 18th at the New Harbor United Methodist Church. Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main Street, Damariscotta, ME 04543. Condolences, and messages for the family, may be expressed by visiting: www.StrongHancock.com.