Nancy Kenaston
{{Short description|British journalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nancy Kenaston
| image = NancyKenaston1980.png
| alt = An older white woman with dark hair, wearing a plaid collared shirt.
| caption = Nancy Kenaston, from a 1980 newspaper.
| other_names =
| birth_name = Nancy Margaret Shields
| birth_date = 20 January 1920
| birth_place = Kent, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2012|08|11|1920|01|20|df=yes}}
| death_place = Fort Walton Beach, Florida, US
| occupation = Journalist, editor, public relations
| years_active =
| known_for = Court reporter at the Nuremberg trials after World War II
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
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
Nancy Shields was born in Kent, the daughter of Herbert Fredrick Henry Shields and Edith Muriel Walterman Shields.{{Cite news|date=14 August 2012|title=Nancy M. Kenaston|work=Northwest Florida Daily News|url=https://obits.nwfdailynews.com/obituaries/nwfdailynews/obituary.aspx?n=nancy-m-kenaston&pid=159164877|access-date=18 June 2020}} 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.
Career
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.{{Cite news|last=Doyle|first=Brian|date=27 October 1980|title=Nuremberg trials just another adventure|pages=2|work=Pensacola News Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53675500/nuremberg-trials-just-another/|access-date=18 June 2020|via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{Cite news|date=19 February 1975|title=Woman Honored by Wartime Military|pages=3|work=Pensacola News Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53676565/woman-honored-by-wartime-military/|access-date=18 June 2020|via=Newspapers.com}} She was assigned by the USAF as a court reporter at the Nuremberg trials. "When I arrived there for the trials, I saw streets filled with piles of debris three stories high," Kenaston recalled later.{{Cite web|last=Perrone|first=Jackie|date=26 October 2007|title=Nuremburg (sic) Trials haunt reporter|url=https://www.thecolumbiastar.com/articles/nuremburg-trials-haunt-reporter/|access-date=18 June 2020|website=Columbia Star}}
After the war, Kenaston was managing editor at a small local newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.{{Cite news|last=Kenaston|first=Nancy|date=6 April 1967|title=Supreme Court Rules on Bonds; Way is Cleared for New School|pages=1|work=Playground Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53675797/supreme-court-rules-on-bonds-way-is/|access-date=18 June 2020|via=Newspapers.com}} She was also director of public relations for the Okaloosa County School Board,{{Cite news|date=30 January 1970|title=Florida Leader in Coverage of School News|pages=3|work=Pensacola News Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53675730/florida-leader-in-coverage-of-school/|access-date=18 June 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=30 July 1970|title=School Board to Lose Mrs. Nancy Kenaston|pages=1|work=Playground Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53676419/school-board-to-lose-mrs-nancy-kenaston/|access-date=18 June 2020|via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Hall of Fame 1999|url=http://www.occsw.org/womens-hall-of-fame/hof-1999/|access-date=18 June 2020|website=Okaloosa County Commission on the Status of Women|language=en-US}}
Kenaston wrote two local histories, 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).{{Cite book|last=Kenaston, Nancy M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44697064|title=The rich heritage of Fort Walton Beach, Florida and the communities of the Emerald Coast|date=1999|publisher=Community Heritage Publications|isbn=0-9668277-0-8|oclc=44697064}} In 2009, she wrote a memoir, When Fate Steps In.{{Cite web|title=When destiny steps in / by Nancy M. Kenaston|url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib233494|access-date=18 June 2020|website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collections}} 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.
Personal life
References
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Category:People from Okaloosa County, Florida
Category:British women in World War II
Category:British women writers