Dorothy Ellis, Reliance

Dorothy Ellis, 92, Reliance, died Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2012, at Sanford Care Center in Chamberlain.

She was born April 12, 1920.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Reliance United Methodist Church with burial in the Kennebec Cemetery. Visitation will be at 1 p.m. today, with a prayer service at 7 p.m., at the Hickey Funeral Chapel in Chamberlain.

Dorothy Faye Mills was born on the ranch near Kennebec to Harry and Edith (Smith) Mills. She attended country school and then high school in Kennebec. After the death of Dorothy’s father, the family was forced off the farm during the height of the Great Depression. The family moved to Kennebec, where Dorothy helped her mother with her five siblings, earning what money she could by giving perms and curling hair for the ladies in Kennebec.

Dorothy met the love of her life, Dale Ellis, and on March 17, 1937, they were united in marriage. Together they made their home south of Lyman until they bought a ranch in the early 1940s near Bull Creek south of Reliance. They farmed at Bull Creek, where Dorothy raised five children, Laura, Marlin, LeRoy, Merrill and Dorothy Faye. Dale and Dorothy purchased another ranch/farm in 1958, and in 1959 Marlin and LeRoy moved there. In 1963, Dale and Dorothy moved to a ranch/farm northeast of Reliance; in 1972, they moved to a farm north of Reliance; and finally, in 1976, they moved into Reliance.

Even though they lived in Reliance, they always retained the land at Bull Creek and north of Reliance. In 1982, Dale passed away from cancer, and Dorothy remained at her home until August of 2007, when she became a resident of the Sanford Care Center in Chamberlain.

Gratefully sharing in her life are her children Laura Fletcher and husband Don, of Reliance, LeRoy Ellis and wife Sharon, of Reliance, and Merrill Ellis and wife Myrena, of Chamberlain; a daughter-in-law, Delaine Ellis, of Watertown; a son-inlaw, Jim Guest, of Chamberlain; 13 grandchildren; 25 great grandchildren; five great-great grandchildren; and two sisters, Majorie Anderson, of Murdo, and Wynona Cerveny, of Sacramento, Calif.

Preceding her in death were her parents; her husband; daughter Dorothy Faye Guest; son Marlin Ellis; an infant sister, Carmen; two sisters, Mildred Murphy and Winifred DuVall; and two brothers, Vernard and Burton Mills.

Tags: obituaries, reliance

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