Eloise Lillian (Jolliffe) Glassman, 81, passed away June 19, 2007, after a long and courageous struggle with Parkinson's disease.
She was born Jan. 5, 1926, in Browerville to Raymond and Lillie (Nelson) Jolliffe. She was a member of the 1943 Hewitt High School graduation class. In January 1944, she left the Wadena area and moved to Seattle and became employed at the Boeing Aircraft Company where she worked until the end of World War II. For the next 30 years, she made her home at different locations in California and then returned to Seattle in 1976 where she established residence in a northern suburb of Seattle. In 1999, she returned to Minnesota and set up residence in Eden Prairie.
During many of those years, she was gainfully employed as a medical transcriptionist. She took great pride in her skill. She also had musical interests and was the church pianist at the age of 15. Later, while living in Sacramento, Calif., she gave piano lessons. In 1989, she joined a volunteer group and traveled to Africa where she helped dispense eyeglasses to needy people in a small village in Kenya.
She loved to reminisce. She would reflect on her youthful days at Boeing where she was provided with a scooter to deliver parts to different departments within the plant. This was more fun than work and she was paid a grand sum of one 1944 dollar per hour. She also had many fond memories of her carefree days while living in Los Angeles and later some great memories of her family life in Sacramento.
She also knew adversity and perhaps the most despairing hardship occurred in the last years of her life. The ravaging effects of the Parkinson's disease and the accompanying incremental loss of her personal independence was a difficult cross for her to bear. Still, she bore this with grace, dignity and hope. She continued to pursue life as though these limitations were not a factor. She has departed this world but memory of her indomitable spirit will continue to live on through the lives of those who loved and knew her.
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Funeral services were held Monday, June 25, at the Johnson Memorial Home in Wadena with Pastor Vernon Aarnes presiding. Interment was in the Emmanuel Episcopal Cemetery in Eagle Bend.
Survivors include her daughter, Sherri Gorham, of Seattle; brother and sister-in-law, Clinton and Edith Jolliffe, of Minneapolis; one niece and two nephews. Preceding her in death was husband, Ernest Glassman, in 1979, and her parents, Ray and Lillie Jolliffe.
