Ella Stewart's Obituary
Ella Iris Greenwood was born on August 29, 1925. She moved on to her heavenly home on April 4, 2009 at the age of eighty-three years, seven months, and six days. She was born at her parents farm home, W.R. (Will) and Cozella Christy Greenwood between Macomb and Mansfield. She was reared in a Christian home, and had a very happy childhood. She lived with her parents and brother, Floyd, who walked two miles to Macomb School with her. She then attended Mansfield High School four years graduating in 1943. She married Everett K. Stewart, her childhood sweetheart, on November 3, 1943 at her parent’s home. They moved to the Stewart farm two miles south of Macomb and lived there nine months until he left for service in July of 1944, he left to serve in the Philippine Islands during World War II. Ella then moved back with her parents and Floyd until Everett’s return from the South Pacific in August of 1946. During that time she worked a few months in Wichita, Kansas in a defense factory until the war ended. She also worked off and on at the Macomb post office from 1949 to 1982, where she was officer-in-charge. In March of 1949 Everett and Ella moved to their farm half a mile north of where Ella was reared. They lived there almost forty years and reared their three sons, Rallace, Rollan, and Rilley Floyd. She helped her husband on the farm, milking cows, feeding calves, building fence, working in the field plowing, cultivating, mowing, raking and hauling in hay including driving the horse to the hay fork to pull loose hay up in the loft of the third story barn they had built. She worked a team of horses, then tractors starting out with an MT John Deere to the modern tractors. She did a lot of cooking for her family, hired help, and company. She always raised a large garden, picked fruit and berries, and canned and froze a lot until recent years when her health failed. She made her own soap, hominy, cottage cheese, yellow cheese, and whipped cream. She did a lot of sewing including making quilts for her children and grandchildren. She helped her father some with running a threshing machine and making sorghum in a sixteen foot evaporator. She canned over four thousand gallons of sorghum the fall of 1946. She helped her daddy with his hot bed, pulling thousands of sweet potato slips, bedding out tomatoes, cabbage, and peppers. She always liked to help with the sheep, cattle, hogs, and chickens. She helped her husband and sons show Guernsey cattle at fairs for many years. She loved working on the farm, and the closeness she felt toward God in the big outdoors. She was raised during the great depression of the 1930’s and learned to wash clothes on the board, and cook on a wood stove. She lived form the horse and buggy days, and Model T Ford to the modern days but liked the old time days the best. Until the last few years, she always made a birthday cake, usually a freezer of ice cream, and a birthday dinner for her parents, her three sons, daughter-in-laws and grandchildren. When they were little she made them an animal or tractor cake for their birthdays. She wrote a book of her childhood days for each sons and each grandchild. She also has made scrapbooks of happenings around Macomb and Mansfield, and things about her family since 1939. She lived all her life within three miles of where she was born, all four of her grandparents came here in a covered wagon, the Christy’s in 1903, and the Greenwood’s in 1917 and all remained here until their death. Everett and Ella moved on two acres one and a half mile east of Mansfield on February 18, 1988 for their retirement home. Ella was saved at the Macomb Church in September of 1938, being the first convert in a four week revival meeting when over fifty people were saved. She was baptized at the age of sixteen. She attended church at Macomb most of her life, in later years the Mansfield Nazarene. She taught children at church for several years. She loved the Lord and looked forward to this time. She belonged to the Macomb Sunshine Club since 1943 and the Mansfield American Legion Auxiliary for many years. She was preceded in death by her father on March 17, 1979, her mother on April 1, 1983, her brother, Floyd, on March 9, 2000 and her husband, Everett, on December 25, 2005. Ella is survived by three sons, Rallace Stewart, of Macomb, Missouri, Rollan Stewart, and his wife, Debbie, of Ava, Missouri, and Rilley Floyd and his wife, Giselle, of Macomb, Missouri; six grandchildren, Nichlas of Ava, Missouri, Stephen and his wife, Desiree, of Ava, Missouri, Jami, of Springfield, Missouri, Meranda, of Mountain Grove, Missouri, Aaron, of Macomb, Missouri and Austin, of Macomb, Missouri; and three great-grandchildren, Serena, Kage, and Jacob, all of Ava, Missouri. Services will be held at 1:00 pm on Wednesday April 8, 2009 at the Holman-Howe Funeral Home Mansfiled. Burial will be in the Mansfiled Cemetery. Visitation is Tuesday evening 6-7:00 pm under the direction of the Holman- Howe Funeral Home Mansfield, Missouri. Return to top
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