Ellen Davis
Ellen Davis, age 93, of Sullivan, MO, passed away peacefully, surrounded by love, on Wednesday, January 19, 2022, of heart failure. She loved so much her entire life that she wore her heart out.
Ellen was born Lula Ellen Rushton on June 22, 1928 in Hurricane Mills, TN to Robert James and Kitty Mae (Willhite) Rushton. She graduated from Bakerville High School, Class of 1944. Ellen moved to Nashville and graduated from Nashville Business School in 1945. She worked in the office of Davis Cabinet Company, in Nashville, until 1946. At 18 years old, Ellen got a job offer from Western Union in Detroit, MI where she stayed until 1948 when she moved to San Francisco to work for ADT. That’s where she met and worked with Robert William Davis of Sullivan, MO. They fell in love and were united in marriage on March 29, 1949 in San Francisco. Together, Ellen and Robert had three children: Barbara, Michael and Susan. They moved from San Francisco to Sullivan in 1951, when Barbara was just one-year-old. Ellen was married to Robert for 62 years until his death in 2011.
Ellen was born into a large, loving family of five sisters and two brothers, and knew nothing but love for everyone as a way of life. She made beautiful crafts and was an accomplished carpenter. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do, and do well. She taught ceramics in her ceramics shop and could paint patchwork miniatures with detail so small that she had to wear reading glasses to do it. She was a Master Seamstress. Her Newborn Thumbelina doll clothes were her delight, and she sewed constantly and sold them on eBay for her last 21 years, sewing the very last month of her life. Ellen had her first sewing lesson at three years old, sitting on her sister’s lap, who pumped the pedal. She was also the go-to person for birthday and wedding cakes for many folks in Sullivan for years.
Ellen and Robert bought the Montgomery Ward store in Sullivan in 1967 and they ran it together until they opened Ellen’s Ceramics in 1976. She was a cook at Missouri Baptist for ten years until her retirement in 1997, saying it was the best job ever because she could sleep late and start work at 11:00 a.m. Ellen loved to go to the casino. Her email was gambler. She was known as the Best Cook Ever by her son. She was always on the go, all the way to the end.
Ellen did too many things in 93 years to ever fully explain the loving, care-taking, smart, talented, skillful, funny, witty, amazing beautiful woman she was and shared with all of us. How lucky we were.
Ellen is survived by her son, Michael, of the family home in Sullivan, MO; her daughter, Susan Davis, of Las Vegas, NV; special grandchildren, Steven Heinle and wife Sherri & daughter Amber Heinle, of Imperial, MO; special nieces & nephews: Marsha Roberts of Knoxville, TN, Barry Roberts and wife Lisa & son Josh of Woodstock, GA, Franklin D. Rice of Birmingham, AL and Larry Taylor of Texas; son-in-law, Robert Heinle and grandsons, Jim and Bill Heinle & families of Sullivan; as well as many other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert William Davis; her daughter, Barbara Heinle; great-grandson, Joshua Hauss Heinle; her parents, Robert and Kitty Rushton; five sisters: Lois Roberts, Mary LeManquais, Martha Taylor, Dorothy Germann and June Rice; two brothers, Dock and Bill Rushton; and a niece, Angela Roberts.
Private Services will be held and Ellen’s cremated remains will be buried next to her husband Robert in I.O.O.F. Cemetery in Sullivan.
Online condolences may be shared with Ellen’s family at www.eatonfuneralhome.com.
All arrangements are under the care of the Eaton Funeral Home and Cremation Center of Sullivan.