Nancy D. Eastman

"The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has gone before." Nancy Gonzales Eastman, a longtime Charlotte resident, was one of a kind. She was humble and resourceful, and always had the courage to persevere and live life her way. She did exactly that. Right up until she passed away Oct. 7. Nancy would also tell you proudly that she walked alone her entire life. The fact that she came from a group of strong chingonas - or as Nancy liked to call them, "bad ass women" - gave her a big advantage. She was proud of where she came from and just as proud of where her life took her. The third of seven children, Nancy Diane Gonzales was born Feb. 3, 1959, on the South Side of Chicago to a young Mexican-American couple. Her mother, Marcella, ran the household and was an administrative assistant while her father, Joseph, worked at the steel mill in East Chicago, Indiana. Like so many raising families in the '50s and '60s, they worked hard to provide their children with more opportunities than they had growing up. Nancy's childhood was full of great memories. Ask her about her favorite one, and you quickly learned it was Christmas. This holiday for Nancy meant feasting on homemade tamales - savory pork tamales as well as sweet ones with raisins. It was a family delicacy enjoyed once a year on Christmas Eve. A few days before Christmas, the tamales were assembled, with all of the kids lined up in the kitchen, stuffing cornhusks with masa, adding fillings and passing the finished tamale to their mom for cooking. Nancy remembered this family tradition as a day full of joy and hard work. Christmas also meant hot cocoa made with Mexican chocolate and midnight mass. She was just as fond of her Christmas traditions in Charlotte. She spent Christmas Eve serving dinner to those less fortunate, first at St. Patrick Cathedral and most recently at St. Gabriel Catholic Church. The volunteers then sat down together to enjoy their own dinner of Price's chicken, compliments of one of the organizers. She looked forward to it every year. A graduate of Thornwood High School in South Holland, Illinois, Nancy enrolled at DePaul University for a year before she enlisted in the United States Air Force. She was stationed in South Korea and was one of the airmen with a high-level national security position. She worked in "the fishbowl" - the room you sometimes see on TV with a wall full of screens monitoring sensitive areas around the globe. After serving four years in the Air Force, she attended the University of South Carolina on the GI Bill. Upon graduation, she went in search of a new home. She scouted out several cities in the Southeast and landed in Charlotte, which became her beloved hometown for the next 28 years. Her talent for networking and her ability to connect people in the business world were admired by all who knew Nancy. In fact, networking was what she was known for in Charlotte. She was generous with her time and was always willing to make a call or arrange a meeting to help out. If you needed an introduction to someone, odds were good that Nancy had the connections to get it for you. Her official job was working in marketing as an event planner and fundraiser for many nonprofits. For about 15 years, Nancy's life was filled with meetings and events for the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party. That included many hours of volunteer work when the Democratic National Convention came to Charlotte in 2012. She was invaluable when it came to supporting local politicians. "Nancy held my hand and was there when she was needed," said Nancy Carter, who served six terms on the Charlotte City Council. "She was there with wisdom, patience and compassion. She was ‘Puckish' and had a wonderful sense of humor." The former councilwoman will always remember Nancy for her positivity and her righteous anger. "Both were key to her." But it was her smarts and can-do attitude that made her so memorable. "She was always willing to put in the footwork," Carter said. "She had high-level skills and knowledge, and was willing to show up and do what was necessary." Besides being passionate about politics, Chicago and Charlotte, Nancy was just as enthusiastic about the Cubs, Star Wars, Dr. Who and all things sci-fi. She was also a huge fan of Harry Potter, having read the books repeatedly. Then she watched the movies countless times on the Harry Potter channel. She also won more than one Halloween contest dressed up as Harry. During her final months, Nancy appreciated all the calls and texts from friends and family; the personal visits brought her great joy. Thank you to all who reached out. She also was incredibly grateful for the friends who helped take care of her when she was too sick to take care of herself. Thanks and gratitude go to Melody, Nicci and Kathy, along with Brian and Meghan. And she loved her final trips this summer to the mountains and the ocean. Thanks to Mel and Nicci for making that happen. Nancy is survived by four sisters, Dawn Zwick, Michelle Wagner, Elise Correa, Lynn Mangan; one brother, William Gonzales; and many wonderful nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and her oldest brother, Joseph Gonzales Jr. Nancy's life was not always an easy one, but it was a life well lived. She certainly wasn't afraid to go it alone. We hope to celebrate Nancy some time in 2021, once we can safely gather in Charlotte and share our memories of her.