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Edith Elkins
Funeral Services Held Friday for Mrs. Edith Elkins.
Many
Friends and Most of Family Attend Last Rites at Mt. Zion Church.The
funeral of Mrs. Edith Elkins of Buncombe was held Friday, January 7,
instead of Thursday, as previously announced, due to delay in the
arrival of Mrs. Doris (Ransom) Elkins from her home in Houston, Tex.
She is the wife of Tech. Sgt. James P. Elkins, now with the U. S. forces
in the Southwest Pacific.
Services were in charge of Rev. Hobart Peterson of Dongola and Rev. E.
S. Dunn, pastor of the Mt. Zion church, with music by the Wilson trio of
Marion and pianist, Mrs. Ulva Marks. Floral tributes were carried by
women friends and neighbors, who were among the many people grieved at
the loss of this worthy and lovable woman.
The
following obituary was read by Rev. Peterson and is a tribute from the
surviving husband:
Edith Reece Elkins
These are simple lines. They are line devoted to a solemn service that
has bowed my head in sympathy so many times before. We talked of this
one day—the inevitable was near, we knew. No, I could not do the same
for her. She heard me say, someone else must write the lines. “Well,
maybe you can,” she answered. No clearer call ever came than this I
hear tonight, a familiar intimate voice. Let the sadness and the sorrow
give away (sic) for an hour. Yes, Edith, maybe I can. But I could not
say for our loved one anything more true, more worthy, than the friends
who loved her, too, might have said.
Edith Reece Elkins was born near Buncombe on October 13, 1886; departed this life from her home in Buncombe on January 3, 1944, at about 57 years of age.
She
was the only daughter born to the late James M. Stewart by his first
marriage, the mother Sallie (Reece) Stewart, dying when Edith was but
nine months of age.
She
was reared in the home of her grandparents at Mt. Zion, where she was
the idol of her long-deceased aunt, Martha Stewart.
She
became a teacher, but resigned before the end of her first term and was
married in 1907 to Samuel F. Elkins at Benton, Mo. Edith was a
remarkably beautiful girl. She took pride in her luxuriant long hair of
that style period. Seven children and six grandchildren completed our
family circle, to be the first time broken when the mother we loved so
dearly departed this life, after a lingering decline of about two
years.
She
is survived by the husband, three sons: Bon M. Elkins of Metropolis,
Colin H. Elkins of Evansville, Ind., and Sergeant James Preston Elkins
of the Army Air Corps in the Solomon Islands; four daughters: Maxine
McKenzie of Buncombe, Katherine Elkins of Hamilton, Ohio, Louise Parrish
of Pulley’s Mill, and Fayetta Elkins of Buncombe; the grandchildren,
Glenda Lou and Carma Sue Parrish, Katherine Ann and Edith Elaine
McKenzie, Virginia Coline Elkins and James Barry Elkins, and one sister,
Dovie (Stewart) Stout of Mt. Zion, by the father’s second marriage. It
can be truly said of her children that they worshiped their mother, just
as she was loyal to them.
The
burden of a great desire, toward the end, was to greet her young
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Doris Elkins, and James Barry, our only grandson,
of Houston, Texas, whom she had never seen.
Edith at various times, dealt with the public here and enjoyed a wide
acquaintance, at the same time giving to her family every needed
attention. It is not my purpose of recounting her qualities here. I do
not wish to make this a lengthy tribute—my heart is torn too much.
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