Nomie Kitterling
2026 Corn Mother Honoree
BIO
I was born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1953. My family included my sister Elaine Joyce, who was five, and my brother Ray Bernard Jr., who was three months older than I was.
Bringing us together as a family were our adoptive mother and father, Doris and Ray Wells. They lived and worked in the U.S. Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. government. They wanted to be parents and adopted us. Three children under five were a handful, since we had some special needs. Elaine was five and tiny and only 4’11” as an adult. Ray was underweight and small and needed special prenatal nutrition. I presented some challenges (sometimes difficult to soothe).
When I was about two, we relocated to California, where my parents continued to work for the U.S. government. In 1960, my grandmother’s health declined, and Doris went to help. We then moved to our grandparents’ house (where Doris grew up) in Park City, Montana. It was a small farm in a very small town, with a small public school.
There was a lot of work to do, but we loved the animals and learning about farming from our grandpa. I’m so grateful that he and our grandma opened their house to my siblings and me.
Having left California, we needed boots, coats, and winter hats. I had never seen snow. Doris worked and raised us as a single mother because after they divorced, Ray lived in Virginia. My grandparents were true pioneers of the area and well known. This helped us to be accepted, because differences like skin color could be harshly judged, especially for people like my darker-skinned brother. It also helped that I liked school. I excelled and was conforming and wanted to please.
Ray and Doris arranged for our green cards, which they submitted each year to prove we could live and work permanently in the U.S. When I was in the eighth grade, we became naturalized citizens. It is a memory I will never forget.
We were supported in so many ways. I felt totally at home. We felt national pride and patriotism. My father and brother were military veterans. I am proud of my family’s patriotism.
Years later, after Doris and Ray’s love and support helped me obtain a BS in Sociology at Montana State University, I married Mike Ketterling, an MSU graduate in civil engineering who grew up in Billings, Montana. We moved to Colorado. I received my master’s at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley in 1985.
The care, support, and opportunities Doris and Ray gave us prepared me in my journey to become educated and taught us to contribute to the community in many ways that I’ve been honored to do.
nomie'S
LIFE QUOTE
When I remember my late brother Ray, I think of this saying that he was fond of, which I have always tried to fulfill, both in my personal life and in my efforts to help others.
“Do as much as you can, as long as you can, any way that you can, wherever you can, for anyone that you can, until you no longer can.”
— John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, to which my brother belonged
PHILOSOPHY
After finishing my education, I focused on helping underserved youth by advocating for community resources to serve them. I worked at various jobs and for many causes, including counseling inmates at a local jail and promoting good parenting for children in my community.
My philosophy has always been to do as much as I can to help people in my community. With Doris and Ray’s example of community involvement and their encouragement and support, I’ve been able to do this. I’m proud to have worked for 42 years in programs and projects that have contributed to my community, including funding scholarships that helped recipients pursue their dreams, become self-sufficient, find good careers, and contribute to their community.
I have had the privilege of guiding and mentoring young women. I was the lead counselor at Partners Mentoring Youth. I was Coordinator for Weld County Prevention Partners at North Range Behavioral Health, where we provided drug and alcohol prevention programs.
I have always been a champion to youth and families in Greeley/Weld County by building coalitions and doing volunteer management, non-profit agency development and administration, grant writing, and special events.
My Corn Mother, Doris Wells
My Corn Mother is my mother, Doris Wells. I am the result of two identities: my beautiful Costa Rican culture and my rearing in Montana by this extraordinary woman.
After many prayers and much searching, she and Ray came to San Jose and adopted us. She was in love with the rhythms of Latin America — the gorgeous, friendly people, the lilting language, the colorful textiles, and the beauty of nature. They took us to Panama City, where they nurtured us, fed us, and loved us.
We lived with them there for two years, and later, in Montana, in our permanent home. There, we kids had to adapt to a community with lots of western/pioneer tradition, which was totally new to us. Doris (and Ray) helped us immensely. I’ve always felt great gratitude for this, and for how they encouraged me to believe in myself and count my blessings. Their care inspired my gratitude and my commitment to helping people at every stage of life.
It was this WOMAN (this Corn Mother), born and raised on a Montana dryland wheat and barley ranch, who took us to the historic farm where we grew up. Living with Doris and her parents, in the same hundred-year-old house where she was raised, gave me treasures, such as the stories that were part of her family legacy. It gave me a feeling of safety and of belonging to the community. It grounded me.
Doris was gritty, adventurous, and generous, with high expectations and values, which we learned by example. She was kind to everyone, from the waitress or cashier to my school friends. She was probably 15 years older than most of my friends’ parents, but they liked her and wanted to hang out with this cool MOM. She gave us good advice, set limits and expectations, and drew from her own experiences with the stories she shared.
She worked hard, driving 40 miles each way to her job. Though we seemed to never go without anything, I believe she did. She borrowed money to pay tuition, and to get us special uniforms for cheerleading or sports, and musical instruments, and sporting equipment. She always put us first.
Life was sometimes easy and sometimes hard. I remain grateful for Ray and Doris’s care and for their encouragement to believe in myself and count my blessings.
In adopting us, Doris became the mother she so much longed to be. She made us feel safe, loved, and capable. She was talented, smart, and a high achiever. Born to a Montana homesteader and a country schoolteacher in 1915, she excelled in high school, played tennis and violin, and went to college before WWII. She worked for the U.S. government and retired after years of overseas travel and adventure. I loved hearing about what she had done and having her example and encouragement to use in my own life.
Doris helped us adapt to our Western U.S. life. And her father, Finch Brown, was sort of a “Corn Grandfather” to me. Knowing that he was as old then as I am now, I’m amazed that he would agree to such an arrangement, but he did! Through him, and through our parents, we learned the “western feeling” that surrounds everyone who grows up in Montana with cows, crops, and chickens, along with pride and love of the land!
Grandpa told us stories about his western cowboy way of life, his Native American friends, and his love for his family and community. And Doris helped transmit these traits to me. I am so grateful that we were raised with him, and with Doris and Ray. They taught us how to work hard, be confident with animals, care about people, and take pride in the land and skills for farming and LIFE!
In her career, Doris devoted herself to helping people access services and resources they were entitled to. She was a community volunteer and social activist for those in need, giving financial resources when she could. She was nurturing and hardworking, did much of the farm work, and patiently taught us kids what to do. She was accepting, an active community volunteer, and a “class act” in everything she did, such as caring for her aging parents and us and working with organizations like the ACLU and with children in need. This was a wonderful model for my own life, in which I try to work hard and be committed to helping those in need.
The opportunities she gave my siblings and me have contributed to so many of my own successes! These included going to Montana State University and getting work experience in the summer at the Federal Building in Billings, where she worked. We never went without anything, but I’m sure she did, to help us. She encouraged us to excel, to do better, and to help others. I try to do this as a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a wife, a godmother, a mentor, and a friend!
Even after I married, I called her for advice and wrote weekly to share with her my life with my husband Mike. She passed away in 1987 after years of living with a debilitating diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
In Montana, I developed wonderful friendships. Even more importantly, with Doris’s encouragement, I did things I never thought I could. I was involved in school clubs and was our class’s Salutatorian, as well as a cheerleader and Homecoming Queen. Through 4-H, I worked with animals and participated in leadership development, as I did in church.
I’m grateful that through our farm chores and through 4-H, which Doris suggested I join, and her encouragement, I learned the values that would carry me through college, marriage (49 years so far, my proudest accomplishment), a career in working with youth and families, and engaging in community efforts through volunteerism. Some of these benefit Hispanics, which reminds me of my Costa Rican roots.
Living my adult, married life in Northern Colorado wasn’t my plan at first, but with Doris’s example and encouragement, I’ve found that it is an incredible place where, with my amazing husband Mike, as a team, we have given our support and energy to a number of efforts and have been rewarded greatly! We have been blessed with a rich life and made our own home, with all the things money cannot buy!
I know that my mother and father would be proud of me for how we’ve lived and what we’ve accomplished, and of the educational and charitable causes that I’ve devoted myself to. One precious example is that in 1983 we met Eric Galaviz, a ten-year-old boy who needed us, just as my siblings and I had needed Doris and Ray. We volunteered to spend time with him through an organization called the Partner’s Program. Eric was our God-sent “son.” Now 42 years later, he and his wife Lisa and their twins Zoe and Zaviar are also a BIG part of our family. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity for this relationship that has, along with many others, made my life so full!
My Other Corn Mothers
There are other Corn Mothers for me, wonderful women who have befriended and mentored me, and cared about me along the way. I’m grateful for Mae Martinez Hendershot, Jeannine Truswell, Diana Vasquez, Gail Shatz, Tina Garcia Pollock, Shirley Marx (my mother-in-law), Eleanor Heckman, and of course, Doris Mae Brown, my MOTHER and #1 Corn Mother!
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