Born in ’67, She Remains a County Resident

COURT HOUSE – While the Cape May County Herald was being expanded and renamed, the Lord family was expanding as well, with the birth of their second child, Nancy, on March 14, 1967, at Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital.
As she shares a birth year with the Herald, country music artists Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, rockers Kurt Cobain and Dave Matthews, comedian Will Ferrell, and actresses Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, Nancy Lord — now Nancy Zimmerman — recalls coming home for dinner “when Mom rang the cow bell” and being able to ride bikes all around her childhood home.
“My Mom still lives there,” Zimmerman said about her childhood home. Her mother, Joan, grew up in Camden and Goshen, and eventually married John (who went by his middle name Bob), who grew up in Cape May County and had a construction business with his brothers.
Zimmerman has an older brother, who is married and lives in Green Creek with his family, and a younger sister who lives in Del Haven with her husband. Her father died nine years ago.
“We pretty much stayed around here,” she said. Her parents were each one of six children, so she added that she has “lots of cousins and aunts and uncles all around” as well.
Zimmerman graduated from Middle Township High School and went on to study math at Richard Stockton College.
Although she planned to be an actuary and had received a job offer, she opted instead to get married and “is glad” she did.
“We were a little older when we got married,” she noted. Her husband, Ken, was 33, and she was 27 at the time. “He was already established in his career at the hospital, and we decided to stay here.”
Her husband works at the same hospital where Zimmerman was born, now known as Cape Regional Medical Center, where he performs CAT scans.
Noting how the county has developed over the years, Zimmerman and her husband still have their home in a rural area where they have 18 ducks, parakeets, and cockatoos.
They sell duck eggs, and her husband is a “good” gardener. “I’ve had to learn how to can and preserve, he’s such a good gardener,” she added.
While she currently works for two Christian radio stations getting business sponsors, Zimmerman also likes to take advantage of the natural beauty around the county.
“I really enjoy photography,” she said, “and especially like to take photos of nature and wildlife. I love going to the parks around here and photographing birds, too.
“We could have lived anywhere, but we chose to live here,” she added.