Eleanor M. McElree, 81, of Marion and formerly of Vinton and Fayette, died Saturday, April 5, 2014, at the Good Neighbor Home in Manchester.
Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, April 8, 2014, at Becker-Milnes Funeral Home in Fayette with Pastor Jim Rinehart officiating. Interment will follow at Grandview Cemetery in Fayette. Friends may call from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., Monday, April 7 2014, at the funeral home and for one hour prior to the services on Tuesday.
Eleanor Marilyn, daughter of John and Frieda Vaupel Epperson, was born August 31, 1932, at Vinton, Iowa. She attended country school and graduated from Lincoln High School in Vinton in 1950. Later in life she attended Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids and studied religion. On December 20, 1952, she was united in marriage with Glen McElree at Waterloo. They lived in the Fayette and Vinton areas prior to moving to Marion in 1959. Eleanor had worked at Rockwell Collins and took a break from work to raise her family. She returned to work at Rockwell in 1965, and remained there until retiring in 1994. She remained a resident of Marion until entering the Good Neighbor Home in Manchester in August of 2010.
She is survived by three sons, William (Sandra) McElree of Cedar Rapids, Michael McElree of Marion, and John (Kim) McElree of Atkins; Three daughters, Renee (Michael) Morris of Axton, Virginia, Janene (Jack) Jantz of Hemet, California, and Angela (Corey) Timmerman of Edgewood; eleven grandchildren; eight great grandchildren; one brother, Gerald Epperson of Cedar Rapids; and two sisters, Helen Kopecky of Cedar Rapids and Elizabeth Boltz of Waterloo.
Eleanor was preceded in death by her husband, who died October 9, 1986; her parents; and a daughter, Peggy.