Nettie Jean Street of North Platte, Nebraska died on June 23, 2021 at Bryan Medical Center in Lincoln, Nebraska at the age of 90.
Nettie Jean was born in Fairmont, Nebraska to Velmont and Gladys Clark on January 1, 1931 and grew up in North Platte, Nebraska. She married Samie Street in the early 1960's and to this union her only child, Darr, was born. The couple later divorced.
At the age of 4, Nettie Jean's dance career began when she took an acrobatics class to improve her lungs. This led to tap and ballet classes, which she mastered, and eventually the student became the teacher. In 1947, when she was 16 years old, she opened Nettie Jean's Dance Studio in a one-car garage and years later it grew to a full-sized studio on East 5th Street in North Platte.
Nettie Jean went on to teach various types of dance and tumbling to thousands of children in the North Platte area for more than half a century. She conducted clinics in surrounding communities, and also helped choreograph high school musicals, shows at the Fox Theater, and the Frontier Revue. She strived to keep up with the times and changes in dance by attending workshops, conventions, and even traveled to Hawaii to learn native dances in the 1970's.
Many of Nettie Jean's former students have received awards at the local, regional and national level, and some have gone on to perform or work with prestigious dance companies from New York to California. Saying Nettie Jean loved dance and loved teaching dance would be an understatement; she brought out the best in her students and had the ability to teach anyone.
As the years went by, Nettie Jean felt she was the best teacher even though, "The chassis may be falling apart, the interior is great!" Along with teaching, Nettie Jean worked in the Lawn & Garden Department at Walmart for a number of years.
She was preceded in death by her parents, V.E. and Gladys Clark.
Nettie Jean was a beloved mother and a second mother to many. She is survived by her son, Darr (Victoria) Street; grandchildren, Magdalena Jean and Darr Samuel Clark Street; and special friend, Jeremy Epting, all of North Platte, Nebraska; as well as many other friends, family and those she helped.
Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 1, 2021 at Odean Colonial Chapel in North Platte. Burial will follow in the Wellfleet Cemetery, Wellfleet, Nebraska.
Visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 at Odean Colonial Chapel at C & Sycamore in North Platte, which is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be shared at odeanchapel.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials are to the family.