Obituaries - Feb. 18, 1997

Longtime Ventura County resident Dee Ellis died last week at St. John’s Regional Medical Center after a brief illness. She was 93.

Ellis was born Oct. 15, 1903, in Indianola, Okla. As a young woman, she moved to Ventura County with her husband, Silas, arriving by train on Jan. 1, 1925.

A mother and homemaker, Ellis spent the next 72 years in Ventura County, first in Camarillo and later in Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Ventura.

“She lived a nice, long, full life,” said son Jackie Ellis of Camarillo. “She was a wife and mother and she was a stepmother for quite a few children over the years.”

Ellis had three children but also took in friends or young people in need of a stable home, her son said.

“We had a two-bedroom house while growing up that always seemed full,” Jackie Ellis said. “She was just a great woman that way.”

Ellis enjoyed crocheting as well as spending time with her family.

In addition to Jackie Ellis, she is survived by son Teddy Ellis of Ventura; daughter Hazel Eskridge Crump of Ventura; and foster daughter Nell Hatcher of Bakersfield.

Ellis is also survived by 14 grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband in 1958 and her son, Ernest, in 1986.

Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, with the Rev. Jim Wells officiating.

Arrangements are under the direction of Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.