Alpha Mae Watson Nance entered peacefully into eternal rest on October 30, 2014. Born December 2, 1918 in the Moneta community, she was the second of four children from the union of the late Edna Mae Burnette and James Kone Watson. For 64 years she was the loving and respectful wife of Elisha Ray Nance until his passing in 2009. In addition to her parents and husband, Alpha was predeceased by her sisters Martha Louise Leftwich and Jemima Leigh Collins and by her brother Linwood Addison Watson.
Alpha graduated with high academic honors from Moneta High School in 1936 and with financial assistance from her special aunt Mrs. Teresa B. Anderson, she entered into a three year course of nursing training at Jefferson Hospital in Roanoke. Later as graduation neared, she and most of her nursing school classmates volunteered for service in the war effort by joining the Army Nurse Corp. She was commissioned as an officer in the Army Nurse Corp and served for two years. In 1945 when the outcome of the war was assured, she left military service to marry the love of her life,