Nelly Greisen

Nelly (Ward) Greisen (born December 11, 1955) is a former member of the Jesus music and contemporary Christian music trio 2nd Chapter of Acts. She joined her older sister, Annie Herring, and younger brother, Matthew Ward, to form the group which began singing together in 1970 and disbanded in 1988. Greisen then turned her attention to being a full-time mother to her two sons, and to supporting her husband, Steve Greisen, in his film business.

Nelly was born in North Dakota, the eighth of nine children born to Walter and Kathrine “Elizabeth” Ward. Because of her mother’s deteriorating health, Nelly's family moved to Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento, California, when she was 7, to be closer to relatives and to obtain better medical care for her mother. Her mother died in 1968 as the result of an operation on a benign brain tumor. Her father died in 1970 of leukemia. Nelly was then 14 years old.

When she was orphaned, Nelly and her younger brother, 12-year-old Matthew, went to live with their older sister, Annie Herring, and her new husband, disc jockey and audio engineer Buck Herring. Buck and Annie had been praying for her younger siblings for quite a while, so for the two children to come live with the couple was “a foregone conclusion." There was some conflict as the two families tried to merge.

Soon after Nelly and Matthew came to live with the Herrings, the three siblings began singing together. Annie usually sang lead, Matthew harmonized, and Nelly's rich alto voice found the missing notes between the two. Although she rarely sang lead, Greisen's harmonies tended to be more complicated than her brother’s. From time to time, Nelly would also add to the lyrics of the songs that Annie wrote. The three continued in these roles throughout their career as a music group, although they each also took a turn at singing lead during concerts. Some of the group’s best loved songs, including"Something Tells Me", “Mountain Tops”, "Which Way The Wind Blows", “Make My Life a Prayer to You”, "Sing Over Me", "Takin The Easy Way", "My Jesus I Love Thee" were performed with Greisen singing lead. Nelly was also featured as a background singer on dozens of recordings during the '70,'80 and '90's.

One of Greisen's special roles in the group was to speak out during a concert when she sensed that the Lord was healing a certain type of illness, or that He was touching people in a certain way. Sometimes people would approach her after a concert and tell her that the Lord had healed them. Sometimes no one would testify to the fact that they had been healed, although they might tell her about it years after their healing.

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