Former council member remains active in community

She’s alive and the building is still standing.

The “she” is Sally Nelsen of Owatonna, and the “building” is the city hall in the administration building of West Hills and it’s better than ever.

Nelsen broke the glass ceiling in Owatonna in the 1970s when she was elected to the City Council as its first woman to hold the office. She was re-elected twice, serving three terms. She was on the Council when Owatonna approved a bond issue to buy what is now called West Hills from the State of Minnesota. The price in 1974 was $200,000.

During those early days of ownership, a member of the Council suggested (or declared) that the administration building should just be torn down.

“Over my dead body will you do that,” said Nelsen, recalling the conversation. She said she said it loudly and that ended the public discussion of the possibility.

She and her husband, Richard, moved to Owatonna in 1960. Rich was a commercial artist and had been hired at the Owatonna Manufacturing Company as its advertising manager, a position he held until the company closed. They raised two daughters – Jenny and Delana. Nelsen has been a widow since 2002.

Nelsen grew up in Heyman, Ohio, a small town as she described it, with parents who were very active in the community. It was expected that she would go to and graduate from college. She did that from Ohio Wesleyan as a business and clothing (fashion) major. She met her husband in college. He had just finished serving in Korea and was driving home and stopped in Ohio.

Politics wasn’t something new to Nelsen when she decided to run for the City Council. Her father-in-law, Anchor Nelsen, served in the state senate and then as the U.S. Congressman from the Minnesota Second District.

She and Rich were active in the Republican Party and the Young Republicans. They campaigned for Al Quie and served as chairs for Harold LeVander and Harold Stassen and she was the county chair in the Goldwater campaign.

Door-to-door canvassing was what was done in those days.

“I must have knocked on every door in Owatonna,” she said. So, when she decided to run for the council position, that’s what she did.

“People weren’t always accepting. I was running against an incumbent, Ted Ringhofer, for the First Ward seat,” Nelson said. She didn’t consider herself brave. “I’m glad I did it. I wanted the job,”

After her third term was completed in 1976, she served on the Planning Commission before their new family home (in the country) was completed.

She has been a life-long learner, saying that she took all the community education classes that interested her.

“I didn’t expect to be an expert, but I learned to appreciate art, clay, stained glass, and any number of things,” she said. She played Mary in “Mary, Mary” in the second season of Little Theatre of Owatonna. She is a member of PEO Chapter FC, the Woman’s Club of Owatonna, and is a Friend of the Owatonna Arts Center. This summer she went to the Folk School, a Danish program near Door County, Wis. She is an accomplished seamstress and says sewing is her favorite thing.

Now 86, she recently moved from her home on Barney to Morehouse Place, downsizing and settling in. She still enjoys her lake cabin and spending time with her family, four grandchildren (one male, three female), and great-grandchildren (five girls under five).

Her daughter, Jenny, lives in Hopkins, and her daughter, Delana lives in a boat and is now in Trinidad. Her granddaughter, Katie Johnson, played Rugby for the U.S. in the Olympics and continues to work in Rugby.

Her advice about downsizing?

“Don’t let your kids get rid of everything,” Nelsen said.