Hazel T. Nimmo, longtime teacher, librarian, and first lady emerita at Camden’s 10th Street Baptist Church, has died at 98

Hazel T. Nimmo, 98, of Sicklerville, former English teacher at Hatch Middle School in Camden, longtime head librarian at Camden High School, first lady emerita at Camden’s 10th Street Baptist Church, and 80-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, died Monday, June 12, of failure to thrive at her home.

Mrs. Nimmo arrived in Camden from North Carolina in 1949 when her husband, the Rev. James Allen Nimmo Sr., became pastor at 10th Street Baptist Church. Over the next half-century, Mrs. Nimmo combined a lifelong love of learning and reading with her innate skills for outreach and organization to touch the lives of thousands of students, church members, neighbors, sorority sisters, and others.

“She was a beacon of light to all of us,” a friend said in a tribute. “She was a mentor and role model.” Another friend said she was “a wonderful first lady and educator but a better person.”

Mrs. Nimmo taught English at Hatch Middle School for a decade in the 1950s and ‘60s, ran the library at Camden High School for more than two decades in the 1970s and ‘80s, and helped her husband minister to the congregation at 10th Street Baptist for 50 years until his death in 1999.

She taught Sunday school and was a member of the religious education committee at 10th Street Baptist, and the congregation named its Sister Hazel T. Nimmo Spiritual Research and Resource Center in her honor in 2014. She helped organize the church’s annual tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and told the Courier-Post newspaper in 2002: “I hope [the attendees] walk away knowing every single individual has to make an effort to contribute to the dream. Dr. King wanted us to become better persons and thereby make a contribution.”

Alexis D. Combs, first lady at First Refuge Progressive Baptist Church in Camden and Berachah Baptist Church in Philadelphia, said Mrs. Nimmo offered invaluable advice when Combs first became a church leader. “She taught me how to be there for my church, my children, and my husband,” Combs said. “She wore many hats.”

Mrs. Nimmo served on the board of trustees at Camden County College from 1994 to 2014 and was chair of its committee on academic and student affairs. She joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority when she was in college in 1943 and helped found its Theta Pi Omega chapter in Blackwood in 1967.

She celebrated her 80th year of AKA membership in January. “She was a great inspiration to me,” said Minretta B. McFadden, president of Theta Pi Omega.

In 2008, Mrs. Nimmo was honored for her community involvement by the members of Women Two Thousand and One, an activist group in Camden. “She was a people person,” said her goddaughter Joan Langston. “She enjoyed being social. She liked to reach out to people, especially women, and show them they can make something of their life.”

Hazel Frances Taft was born May 28, 1925, in Greenville, N.C. She graduated from North Carolina College for Negroes, now North Carolina Central University, with a bachelor’s degree in English, and Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University, with a master’s degree in library science. She also earned a master’s degree in education at Rutgers University.

She was high school sweethearts with James Allen Nimmo, and they married in 1946. They moved to Camden in 1949 when he became pastor at 10th Street Baptist, and had sons James Jr. and Ronald.

She retired from her work at the Camden High School library in 1987 and moved to Sicklerville after her husband died. She liked to read, and friends called her “classy” and “graceful,” and remembered her smile and dignity.

A friend said on Facebook that she was “a beautiful pillar of our community.” Another said: “She was a beautiful lady inside and out.”

Her goddaughter said: “She loved to tell us that she had a good life, a blessed life.”

In addition to her sons, Mrs. Nimmo is survived by two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A brother and a great-grandchild died earlier.

A celebration of her life was held June 20.

Donations in her name may be made to 10th Street Baptist Church, 1860 S. 10th St., Camden, N.J. 08104.