“Nellie graduated from Pullman High School and attended Mountain State Business College. She was enrolled in secretarial course. She met Pat there; he was studying accounting.

They lived in Charleston until Pat joined the Air Force. She moved back to Ritchie County and lived with her parents until her husband returned 4 years later.

Pat and Nellie then purchased Blue Moon Restaurant in Ellenboro. Nell ran the restaurant; Pat had a pinball and juke box route from Smithville to Clarksburg. The restaurant served meals to glass factory workers, and they had a dance floor, juke boxes and a pinball room.

They acquired the Harry Lambert Mansion from Shel Cunningham in 1948. Initially they continued with Washington Inn, a tourist home. Then they added a nine-hole golf course on the grounds and put a country club in the basement.

In 1950, following a ruinous flood in Mid-Ohio valley which had destroyed most of the businesses along Pat’s pinball circuit, they decided the area needed a quality nursing home facility. In December 1954 Pat and Nell opened the Sheppard Nursing Home. They started with 8 residents; in 1997 they had 26 residents. They started with welfare recipients at first, then expanded to private tennants. Both became among the first licensed nursing home administrators in the state.

Sheppard Health Care, Inc. is a family run business. The current adminstrator is daughter Judy Terrell.

Pat and Nell set up a scholarship fund for Ritchie County High School students interested in health related careers.

Nell is a 50+ year member of Order of Eastern Star in Ravenswood. She is an active participant in Pullman High School Alumni events. In 1993 she was recognized as “First Citizen” by the Ellenboro Town Council.”766

Obituary:

Heaven rejoiced and welcomed, Nellie Jeanette Sheppard, age 98, of Ellenboro, WV, to her eternal home on Monday November 16, 2015 at the Worthington Manor Nursing and Rehab Center, Parkersburg, WV. She was born September 17, 1917 on Turtle Run, near Pullman, WV the daughter of the late Corday O. and Ruby Pritchard Grimm.

She met her husband, Paschal while attending Mountain State Business College, where they were both students, they were married for 58 years, they were co-owners and administrators of Sheppard Health Care, Ellenboro, WV. Nellie was a 50 plus year member of the O.E.S. Chapter # 15, Ravenswood, WV, a member of the West Virginia Health Care Association and a current member of the Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church, Ellenboro, WV.

Nellie is survived by three daughters, Lynda Rogers (Bruce), Vienna, WV, Judy Terrell (Ed), Pennsboro, WV and Peggy Jameson, Parkersburg, WV; Eight grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

In addition to her parents, Nellie was preceded in death by her husband, Paschal “Pat” Sheppard; son, Roger Sheppard and sister, Genevieve Campbell.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, November 21, 2015 at 1 PM from the McCullough Funeral Home, Pennsboro, WV with the Bishop Paul Cantrell officiating. Burial will follow in the Ellenboro Masonic Cemetery.

McCullough Funeral Home
Nov. 2015