Nancy Kenaston
Nancy Kenaston | |
|---|---|
 Nancy Kenaston, from a 1980 newspaper. | |
| Born | Nancy Margaret Shields 20 January 1920 Kent, England |
| Died | 11 August 2012 (aged 92) Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, editor, public relations |
| Known for | Court reporter at the Nuremberg trials after World War II |
Nancy Margaret Shields Kenaston (20 January 1920 – 11 August 2012) was a British journalist, and a court reporter at the Nuremberg trials after World War II. In her later years in the United States, she spoke to school and community groups about the trials.
Early life[edit]
Nancy Shields was born in Kent, the daughter of Herbert Fredrick Henry Shields and Edith Muriel Walterman Shields.[1] Her parents were involved in politics, and knew Winston Churchill. In the 1930s she took courses in shorthand and trained as a typist and bookkeeper in London. She began courses in journalism before the war.[1]
Career[edit]
During World War II, Shields was a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, trained to identify German aircraft; she manned an anti-aircraft battery on the Thames for three years.[2] She also worked as a reporter for the Bath Chronicle newspaper, and was a British civilian volunteer with the United States Air Force (USAF) after 1941.[3] She was assigned by the USAF as a court reporter at the Nuremberg trials.[1] "When I arrived there for the trials, I saw streets filled with piles of debris three stories high," Kenaston recalled later.[4]
After the war, Kenaston was managing editor at a small local newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.[5] She was also director of public relations for the Okaloosa County School Board,[6][7] a boating safety instructor with the US Coast Guard, and legislative aide to state representative Jerry Melvin. She was president of the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society and a member of the Okaloosa County Planning Commission. She was inducted into the Okaloosa County Women's Hall of Fame in 1999.[8]
Kenaston wrote two local histories,[8] From Cabin to Campus: A History of the Okaloosa County School System (1977) and The Rich Heritage of Fort Walton Beach and the Communities of the Emerald Coast (1999).[9] In 2009, she wrote a memoir, When Fate Steps In.[10] She spoke to community groups about her memories of World War II and its aftermath. "I feel very deeply that it is important to remember what happened there," she explained.[4]
Personal life[edit]
Nancy Shields married USAF colonel Hampton Ray Kenaston Jr., a widower with three children, in 1946. They lived in Florida. She was widowed when Kenaston died in 1969, and she died at Fort Walton Beach, in 2012, aged 92 years.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d "Nancy M. Kenaston". Northwest Florida Daily News. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
- ^ Doyle, Brian (27 October 1980). "Nuremberg trials just another adventure". Pensacola News Journal. p. 2. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Woman Honored by Wartime Military". Pensacola News Journal. 19 February 1975. p. 3. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Perrone, Jackie (26 October 2007). "Nuremburg (sic) Trials haunt reporter". Columbia Star. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
- ^ Kenaston, Nancy (6 April 1967). "Supreme Court Rules on Bonds; Way is Cleared for New School". Playground Daily News. p. 1. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Florida Leader in Coverage of School News". Pensacola News Journal. 30 January 1970. p. 3. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "School Board to Lose Mrs. Nancy Kenaston". Playground Daily News. 30 July 1970. p. 1. Retrieved 18 June 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Hall of Fame 1999". Okaloosa County Commission on the Status of Women. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
- ^ Kenaston, Nancy M. (1999). The rich heritage of Fort Walton Beach, Florida and the communities of the Emerald Coast. Community Heritage Publications. ISBN 0-9668277-0-8. OCLC 44697064.
- ^ "When destiny steps in / by Nancy M. Kenaston". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collections. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
