Lillian E. Eller

MASON CITY Lillian Eveline Eller, 97, of Fort Worth, formally of Mason City, died Tuesday, May 17, 2011, at the Green Valley Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, in Fort Worth, TX. Graveside services will be held 11:00 AM on Monday, May 23, 2011, at Memorial Park Cemetery, with Pastor Kathy Graves of Trinity Lutheran Church, officiating. Memorials may be directed to the Lillian E. Eller Memorial Fund.

Lillian Eveline Eller was born July 9th, 1913, in Clermont, Iowa. She was the only child of Roy Henry Meyer and Clara Josephine Larsen Meyer. She was baptized and confirmed in West Clermont Lutheran Church, Clermont, Iowa. Lillian was married May 22, 1939, in West Clermont Lutheran Church, to Arthur Raymond Eller of Oelwein, Iowa. They lived in Oelwein until 1943, when they moved to Mason City where her husband was employed by Standard Oil Company. They had two children: Donald Eller and Kristine Eller Randles. In 1959, Lillian enrolled in Mason City Junior College, graduating in 1961. In the fall of 1961, she began teaching 3rd grade at Garfield Elementary School, where she taught for sixteen years. She received her B.A. degree in Education from Drake University in 1966. When Garfield School closed in 1977, she taught on year at Hoover School, returning in June 1978. Since moving to Mason City in 1943, Lillian was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church for 62 years. She was active in Circles and the Womens Missionary Federation. She was a member of Retired School Personnel, and served on the State Care Review Board of Good Shepherd Care Center. Her hobbies were poetry, books and travel. She was interested in the Monarch Butterfly. In the 1960s and 1970s, she banded butterflies for a Professor of the University of Toronto, Canada, to help determine the fly-ways and wintering area of the Monarch Butterfly. In August of 2005, because of age and health, she moved to North Richland Hills, Texas, to be closer to her daughter, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She joined the Peach Lutheran Church in 2006.

Lillian is survived by her son, Don Eller and wife, Lynda, of Lanett, Alabama; her daughter, Kristine Randles and Husband, Stephen, of North Richland Hills, Texas; two grandsons, Kurt Jeffrey and wife, Heather, and Eric Jeffrey and wife, Melissa; one granddaughter, Shannon Jeffrey; five great grandchildren, McKenzie, Hannah, Eli, Kayden, Lilly Jeffrey.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, who died in 1980.

Memorials:
Memorials may be directed to the Lillian E. Eller Memorial Fund.

Cemetery:
Memorial Park Cemetery

Service:
Graveside services will be held 11:00 AM on Monday, May 23, 2011, at Memorial Park Cemetery, with Pastor Kathy Graves of Trinity Lutheran Church, officiating.