[9] She was friend of Indianapolis clubwoman Louise Terry Batties from their teens,[10] and was a bridesmaid at the Terry-Batties wedding in 1937.

[14][15][16] In 1939 she attended the annual convention of the Association of Music Teachers at Negro Schools, held at Fisk University.

[18][19] Nerissa Brokenburr married fellow educator William Homer Stickney Jr. (1902-1982) in 1940.

They lived in Prairie View, Texas,[20] and had three children together, Janice, William, and Roberta.

[7] She died after a heart attack in 1960, aged 47 years, at a hospital in Houston, Texas.