1917-2017
Jessie (Baldwin) Fine, 99, was born on November 27, 1917, in rural Nodaway County, Missouri, and died May 8, 2017. She was the sixth of eight children of Bert and Delia (King) Baldwin.

She attended White Cloud Grade School and graduated from Hopkins High School in 1934 at the age of sixteen. She attended Northwest Missouri State Teachers College for one year and then taught school in rural Nodaway Country until May, 1939, when she married Ellis Fine at Wall Lake, Iowa. They farmed in the Hopkins area and Jessie returned to teaching when all of her children were in school.

She taught in several rural schools in Nodaway County, and North Nodaway Jr. High School in Pickering, and finally at North Nodaway High School in Hopkins where she taught mathematics until her retirement. While working as a teacher, Jessie attended college on Saturdays and in the summers to obtain her three college degrees: a Bachelor's Degree in elementary Education, a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Education with an English major, and a Master's Degree in Mathematics Education from Northwest Missouri State University. She loved teaching school and received several awards throughout her teaching career including "Outstanding Educator Award" from Northwest District Missouri State Teachers Association, Outstanding Service to Mathematics Education from Northwest Missouri Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Women of Distinction Award from Missouri State Division of American Association of University Women, and Master Teacher recognition from North Nodaway R-VI School District.

She was a member of the Wray Memorial United Methodist Church of Hopkins and was an adult Sunday School teacher for seventy years. Jessie was also a member of Chapter K P.E.O., Retired Teachers' Association of Nodaway County, Missouri State Teachers' Association, Delta, and American Association of University Women.

Left to cherish her memory are her children Marvin Fine and his wife, Frances, of St. Joseph, Missouri; Bob Fine and his wife, Leslie, of Estherville, Iowa; and Elaine Walker and her husband, Bill, of Trenton, Missouri. She is survived by one sister, Louise Inman of Maryville. Also surviving are grandchildren Chris Fine, Andrea Leonard, Clinton Fine, Susan Birchem, Todd Fine, Jayla Walker, and Jessica Pepper, along with seventeen great-grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Ellis Fine, and by brothers Ted Baldwin and his wife, Sarah; Harold Baldwin and his wife Almeda; and sisters Sylvia Rice and her husband, Champ; Ruby Colville and her husband, Vernon; Lorena Clayton and her husband, Eldon; Helen Allison and her husband, Erville; brother-in-law Calvin Inman; and sisters-in-law Ruth Fine; Lola Steeve and her husbands, Clarence Stewart and Hugo Steeve; and Mary Arnold and her husbands Charles Arnold and Earl Mallory.

Funeral Services for Jessie Fine of Maryville, Missouri, formerly of Hopkins, will be held at Wray Memorial United Methodist Church, Hopkins, at 11:00 AM, Saturday, May 13, 2017, preceded by a visitation from 10:00-11:00 AM. Burial will follow the service at Hopkins Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to Wray United Methodist Church, Hopkins.