The white tornado

The following article ran in the Tulsa World in Nov. of 1990

No sitting and holding hands for "white tornado" By JOE ROBERTSON
11/27/1990

When the sorority house door opened, the two coeds on the inside stopped and stared at the unexpected cold rain recently pelting the front walk. They hardly seemed to notice the quick, silver-haired woman toting the bag of groceries who came in with the autumn wind.

Smiling, Nadine Yerton did not have time to wait as the students re-evaluated their decision to go to class. The 63-year-old woman had another 14 sacks of groceries to deliver. Plus three bags of ice and a box of canned pear halves. Mrs. Yerton makes her deliveries to three University of Tulsa sororities every day, Monday through Friday, with a postman's disregard for the weather. "Oh, it's been icy . . . it's rained . . . (but) I get out and do it every day," says Yerton, who delivers the groceries for Perry's Food Store, 1005 S. Lewis Ave.

Store operator Perry Isom says it is one of several duties Mrs. Yerton performs after she starts her work day at 8:30 a.m., blowing into work "like a white tornado." Yerton, who worked as a checker for many years at the store, returned to work with vigor a couple months after her husband died in August 1986, Isom says. To continue receiving her Social Security benefits, she has to limit her income. "The main problem we have with her," Isom says, "is watching to make sure she doesn't work too much." She would work more, if she could. "I just love to work," Mrs. Yerton says, while straigtening the produce section. "I can't stand to sit and hold my hands. If the day comes I can't (work), I don't know what I'll do. I guess you'll have to call the men in the little white jackets."

Mrs. Yerton, a 1944 graduate of Will Rogers High School, with three sons, one daughter and 13 grandchildren, had been married to policeman Tom Yerton for 40 years when he died after an extended illness. She knew she wanted to return to work, and she says she believes her husband would want her back on the job as well. "You can't relive the past - that's our memories," she says. "You have to breathe a little deeper, stand a little taller and go on."

She and her husband used to travel a lot, she says, and she still gets around. The van she drives is four years old and has traveled more than 45,000 miles. "If someone says `Go,' I get my purse and take off," Mrs. Yerton says. She enjoys visiting family, traveling to arts and crafts shows and seeing the country. She says she's been through all of the 48 Continental United States except Minnesota and Wisconsin. She also covers three miles on foot most every morning before she goes to work or to the local senior citizen's center. To anyone who is physically able, Mrs. Yerton recommends taking on a job. "I hope I live each day to its fullest," she says. "For my good and everybody else's."