Ellie Wynell Petersen 12/6/1916 - 11/5/2016

Ellie Wynell Petersen 12/6/1916 - 11/5/2016

A gentle woman, quiet and kind, tough as a bag of nails when necessary.  Grew up in  Johnson's corner Georgia during the depression.
 A big garden and a milk cow brought them through the hard times.  Her best memories, walking hand in hand with her father out through the pine wood behind the house, calling the cow home for the evening. Georgia crowders simmered in fresh milk, hot cornbread with hand churned butter makes a fine dinner. 

She went way out west to college.  Boys used to jostle for a seat at her table in the dining hall just to listen to that good looking red head with the Georgia accent. She took her pick, the skinny kid named Harvey from an island in Puget Sound country. Gonna be a preacher just like her daddy.

Junior and senior year Harvey had a Sunday gig preaching at a little church ten miles from campus.  Sunday service became a forbidden moment together, dorm rules only allowed girls to go to church on Sunday mornings, no dates. They married the afternoon of graduation day, hopped the train for the southland to meet the family.

Lots of stories between then and now.  Impossible to separate her career from Harvey's.  Congregations hire the family as much as the man. Hard for a guy to get much further in that profession than his wife can take him. Harvey ended up doing better than most.

At her eightieth birthday celebration, the family crowded around a big table at the Chuckanut Manor over in Blanchard, she made an announcement.  I may be eighty but don't count me out.  I intend to be around for a long time yet.

Good to her word two decades later we say our final goodbyes.