Obit: Stick, Ellen K (1911 - 2008)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Stick, Hansen, Young, Lorimer, Fields, Ashworth 
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) August 13, 2008 
 

Stick, Ellen K. (3 March 1911 - 6 August 2008)  
 

Ellen K. Stick, 97, formerly of Freeport, IL, died Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008, at Memorial Medical Center’s Health and Rehabilitation Center. 
 

Ellen was born to Peter and Lena Hansen march 3, 1911, on a farm near Granville in Putnam County, IL. Both her parents were Swedish immigrants. She never knew her father, who died of complications from gallbladder surgery when she was an infant.  Her mother and maternal grandparents, Andrew and Elna Hansen, raised Ellen and her sister Alice.  Her mother supported her daughters by working as a seamstress. 
 

Ellen attended school in Granville, graduating from high school in 1929.  She attended Augustine College for one semester before seeking employment.  She worked a number of jobs in the Chicago area, primarily as a bookkeeper. 
 

She met Ralph Rankin Stick of Cedar Rapids, IA, through his sister Vida (Stick) Young. They were married Aug. 4, 1932.  They had one child, Mary Ann, born July 7, 1933, in Chicago.  They moved to Freeport in 1935, where Ralph worked for Crum and Forsters Insurance as an underwriter.  
 

Ralph was outgoing and a mentor to the younger underwriters, and he and Ellen frequently entertained these young men and their wives at their home.  After Ralph lost his eyesight, Ellen became the wage earner.  She began working at Crum and Forsters in accounting in 1954.  Ralph passed away Feb. 28, 1969, of heart failure. 
 

She retired from Crum and Forsters in 1976. Ellen’s retirement years were full of social engagements and travel.  She was an avid Chicago Cubs fan.  She made her share of pilgrimages to Wrigley Field.  She also watched them at every opportunity on television.  Her granddaughters, Susan and Cathy, would visit Ellen frequently from their Chicago-area homes, as well as travel with her around the Midwest and beyond on sight-seeing ventures. 
 

Her hobbies included sewing, which she did on an old-fashioned Singer foot-pedal machine, collecting household wares with strawberry motifs, card games and crossword puzzles. 
 

She moved to Neillsville in August 2006, where her grandson David lives with his family.  By then, she had outlived most of her friends.  She had lived in Lincoln Retirement Center for the previous 10 years in Freeport. 
 

She was a longtime member of both the First Presbyterian Church of Freeport, which she joined in 1942, and the First Presbyterian Women’s Circle. 
 

She was preceded in death by her husband Ralph; her father and mother who died in 1912 and 1943, and her maternal grandparents, Andrew and Elna Hanson, who died in 1936 and 1926. 
 

She is survived by her younger sister, Alice Lorimer of Bloomington, MN; daughter, Mary Ann (Stick) Fields, and her husband Richard Fields of Boulder Junction; her granddaughters, Susan Fields of Tallahassee, FL, and Cathy (Fields) Ashworth of Houston, TX; her grandson, David Fields and his wife Corliss Fields of Neillsville; and four great-grandchildren, William Ashworth and Kimberly Ashworth, both of Houston, TX, and Sarah Fields and Benjamin Fields of Neillsville. 
 

Ellen was a positive and forthright person. She lived an extraordinarily full life.  She will be forever missed by those who knew and loved her. 
 

Funeral services were held Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008 at the Chapel of Peace, Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, in Freeport, IL, with burial following. 
 

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Ministry Home Care Hospice Services, 302 Upham Suite 200 Marshfield WI 54447