Eleanor Faith “Ellie” Green
Eleanor Faith “Ellie” Green (nee Chumard) of Knoxville died at home Wednesday, Sept. 16, just three weeks shy of her 95th birthday.
Born in State College, Pennsylvania, to Frank and Reba (Bartleson) Chumard, Ellie grew up on a dairy farm in the Poconos during the Great Depression. Her father’s huckster route, along with an extensive garden and orchard, helped sustain the family during those difficult years.
Raised in the Methodist church, Ellie later married in her home church in Hamlin, Pennsylvania, which she had helped rebuild as a teenager after it burned. She was an active member of Memorial United Methodist Church in Clinton for nearly 50 years, where she sang in the church choir.
In her later years, while experiencing memory loss, she sang with the Hearts Sing Chorus in Knoxville, a music program of Alzheimer’s Tennessee.
After losing her father as a teenager and her mother entering a nursing home, Ellie chose to attend nursing school in Scranton, Pennsylvania, with assistance from her older half-sister. After graduating as a registered nurse from Moses Taylor Nursing School, Ellie embarked on an adventurous life that initially included nursing in New York City and San Francisco. She reached San Francisco on an early 1950s cross-country camping road trip with a carload of her nursing school friends, with whom she remained lifelong friends.
While nursing in Connecticut, she was asked to dance by a dapper Navy man from East Tennessee. Yes, she “met a man from Tennessee and he was headed for … Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie,” as the old song goes.
Ellie and Charles Green, of Madisonville, married and settled in Dayton, Ohio, where Charles then joined the Air Force. Many Green family members had resettled in Dayton, including Charles’ two daughters from his first marriage, so they were happily surrounded by family.
Adventurous Air Force relocations to Guam and Okinawa followed, and the couple took advantage of space-available travel on military cargo planes to see the world. Ellie always worked, and her nursing training came in handy while living on remote Pacific islands and experiencing unique and diverse cultures.
After Ellie and Charles had grown their family to include daughters Tess and Kelli, they adopted their beloved son, James, from Korea when he was 4 years old.
A relocation to Bordentown, New Jersey, followed, allowing Ellie to be close to her own family in the Poconos for the first time, all of whom she outlived. Winter Park, Florida, came next as the family cheerfully moved back to a land of sunshine and beaches.
Ellie and Charles’ next relocation, to Clinton in 1977 after Charles took a job in Oak Ridge, would begin the final chapter of their lives. Ellie began her long career as a public health nurse in the Clinton office, surrounded by wonderful colleagues and neighbors.
About this time, with their children grown, her nursing school friends from Moses Taylor began taking annual trips together to destinations around the East Coast, rooming together again, reconnecting and supporting one another.
Ellie was famous among her children for her ability to make a fabulous hot dinner out of leftovers. She did not cook on Sundays because it was the day of rest. She instilled in her children a strong sense of hard work, independence and public service, as well as a love of books, gardening and animals.
Perhaps one of her greatest joys was that two of her granddaughters and a beloved niece followed her into nursing, all working to become nurse practitioners.
Ellie and Charles moved into a townhouse in West Knoxville as retirement loomed, finally freed from endless yardwork while keeping a small garden. Their love of traveling continued with frequent road trips to see Tess and her family in British Columbia; Kelli and her family in Iowa and points west; and Jim and his family in San Diego, Hawaii and eventually Japan.
Time spent with family and friends, along with road trips, were among their favorite things.
Ellie was a kind, thoughtful and joyous person to be around, almost childlike in her curiosity and wonder at the world around her. She was always in charge of fireworks at the annual Green family Fourth of July picnic in Madisonville, often recruiting younger nieces and nephews to help.
She talked to people and made friends wherever she went. A fiery redhead, Ellie was all heart, and she kept going on heart alone long after her body might otherwise have quit. Her family will miss her terribly but will continue on the foundations she so ably set for them.
Ellie was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Green; parents, Frank and Reba (Bartleson) Chumard; siblings and their spouses, Lt. Col. Bob Chumard and wife, Terry Rees, who was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing; Ted Chumard and wife, Emma; Phyllis Nash and husband, Dick; Isobel Patterson and husband, Joe, all of Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania; and Geary Chumard and wife, Marjorie, of Middletown, New York. She was also preceded in death by all of her nursing school friends and in-laws Roseman Kilcrease of New Carlisle, Ohio; and Alfred Green, Jerry Michael Green and Helen Green of Madisonville.
She will be deeply missed by her son, James Green and wife, Sonomi, of Tokyo; daughters, Dr. Kelli Green and husband, Dr. Glenn Gholston, of Knoxville, and Tess Green and husband, Dr. Alan Barnard, of British Columbia, Canada; stepdaughters, Alegra Spille and husband, Dave, of Florence, Kentucky, and Alicia Fugitt and husband, Bob, of Sweetwater; grandchildren, Kaito Green, William Gholston-Green, Sofia Gholston-Green, Wyatt Barnard, Ashley Spille and Allison Rex; six great-grandchildren; brothers-in-law, Roy Green and wife, Alphea, and Lewis “Buddy” Green and wife, Joan, of Madisonville, and Bob Kilcrease of New Carlisle, Ohio; Belva Green of Dayton, Ohio; 23 adored nieces and nephews; and many great-nieces and great-nephews, whom she regarded as her own.
The family gratefully thanks Ellie’s caregivers, especially Miss Vicki and Miss Sarah, among many others, and Smoky Mountain Hospice for their loving care of their mother; WellPark and NHC Farragut for their exceptional care and dedication; Hearts Sing for its wonderful work; and the neighbors, friends and family members who enriched Ellie’s life in so many ways.
Those wishing to make a donation in Ellie’s memory may consider Memorial United Methodist Church in Clinton, the Mountain Hope Good Shepherd Clinic in Gatlinburg, or the Arbor Day Foundation., or simply plant a tree.
Ellie made a recording for StoryCorps, which can be accessed at https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/kelli-green-and-ellie-green/#participant-5e35b9bb14d4846fc0a2d8b00e237b3d..
A celebration of life for Ellie will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, at Holley-Gamble Funeral Home in Clinton. Visitation will be from 3-5 p.m., with the service beginning at 5 p.m.
“None deserve a gentler crossing over the great divide.”
Holley-Gamble Funeral Home is proud to serve the Green family.
holleygamble.com
