Audrey Ellingwood, age 82, of Lincoln, California, went to be with the Lord March 1, 2015, after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Born August 19, 1932, in Cass, she was a daughter of the late Pearl and Minnie Kesler. She was the second youngest and last survivor of six brothers and sisters.
Audrey graduated from Green Bank High School in 1951. She attended Glenville State College and Davis & Elkins College and taught elementary school in Green Bank and Baltimore, Maryland, from 1953 to 1957.
She married Herbert Ellingwood in April 1957, while living in Baltimore, Maryland. They moved to California and she attended San Jose State College and Hayward State College. During that time, she taught at Fremont Elementary School from 1957 to 1963 in Fremont, California; and Sunrise Christian School from 1979 to 1981 in Roseville, California.
Herb and Audrey were very active in politics. Herb served as Governor Ronald Reagan’s Legal Affairs Secretary in Sacramento, California. Audrey and Herb lived in Washington, D.C., during the Reagan Presidency, at which time Audrey served as a volunteer at the White House from 1982 to 1988.
After returning to California she resided in Sacramento and Lincoln Hills in Lincoln, California.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Herbert Ellingwood; brothers, Ralph, Harold, Gene and Paul; and a sister, Alleene.
She is survived by her sons, Tom Ellingwood, and wife, Emily, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Bruce Ellingwood, of Rocklin, California; grandchildren, Lexy and Megan, of Atlanta, Georgia; sisters-in-law, Florence Kesler and Alice Kesler, both of Cass; a nephew, David Marsh, and wife, Patricia, of Aptos, California; and many other nieces and nephews across the country.
A graveside service will be held Thursday, June 11, at 11 a.m. in the Wanless Cemetery on Back Mountain Road with Rev. Jeff Ferguson, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, officiating.
