Martha Moore

Martha Moore was bom in her home on Elmwood Avenue on March 22, 1915. She died at EvergreenManor on the morning of March, 222010, her 95th birthday. The daughter of Charles and MargretWilliams, she attended the Training School of the Oshkosh State Teachers College and Oshkosh HighSchool. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College with a degree in English literature andfull of plans to travel the world as an archaeologist.Instead, faced with unpaid student loans, she began her career as an English teacher in New York atthe Rye Country Day School, earning education credits at NYU on weekends. During her first summerbreak, she and a friend toured Europe on bicycles, sleeping in hostels when they could find them andhaystacks when they couldnt. During the second, she returned to Wisconsin to take summer classes atUW-Madison. That summer she met John Moore, a recent Harvard Law School graduate, whom shemarried the following September 3, 1939.As a young wife and mother, she was surprised to find herself expected to assist her husband in hispolitical campaigns, await his return from the Pacific during World War II, and breed and raise Pointerpuppies. Hunting dogs were just the beginning. Johns dream was to be a gentleman farmer, and until hefound a farm, their house on Algoma Boulevard would serve as a sanctuary for his growing menagerie. Itwas in the attic of that house that he hatched sixty chickens. In 1957, she became chatelaine of a farmwhere John could have all the animals he had ever dreamed of owning: game chickens, shorthorn cattle,Arabian horses, and a long string of cats and dogs.A natural nurturer, in addition to her own brood of four, she mothered exchange students, nieces andnephews, grandchildren, and stray friends other children who came to stay. When her youngest childwas nine, Martha returned to professional life, serving in classrooms at South Park, Oshkosh High Schooland Oshkosh North High School. After retirement she traveled, painted, and spent time with friends inPEO, Study Class, and Leisure Arts, exercise classes, and the writers groups who helped her to edit thepoetry in which she reflected on her life. These she collected in two books, To Dance Down Winterand Chickens in the Attic.Survivors include her children Anne and Terry Wesenberg and Sarah and Ted Lenz of Oshkosh, JohnAdams (Adam) Moore and Karen Ehrenberg Moore of Yakima, Washington; her grandchildren Lisa andTed Wesenberg, Jud, Clark, Vicky and Luke Moore, Cherste Johnson Eidman, Christine Johnson, andDanny Nelson, Abby, John, Emma and Peter Lenz; her great grandchildren Martha, Sophie, and SpencerEidman; her sister. Charlotte Mundy, and numerous nieces and nephews around the world. She waspreceded in death by her husband John Moore, her siblings Elizabeth McNamara, Stella Reyer, andRussell Williams; her daughter Nance Nelson, and her grandson Andrew Wesenberg.The family would like to recognize the staffs of both Heartland Hospice Care and Creek View Sixhousehold at Evergreen Manor for the extraordinary blend of tenderness, compassion and respect theybrought Martha in the last five years of her life.A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March27, 2010. Friends may call at 10:00 a.m. until the service at the church. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established.

First Congregational Church



137 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh
WI
54901

Saturday, March 27, 2010
10 am until service



First Congregational Church



137 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh
WI
54901

Saturday, March 27, 2010
11 a.m.



Lake View Memorial Park



2786 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh
WI
54901