Ellen Burch

ELLEN FRAZER BURCH Waynesville-Ellen Frazer Burch, age 85, of Bedford, Texas (formerly of Waynesville, NC and Henderson, NC), died peacefully on Friday, August 6, 2004 at the Hearthstone Assisted Living facility in Bedford, Texas where she had resided since July of 1999. Ellen was born on August 31, 1918 to Charles Edward and Bertha Dravis Frazer of Rockwood, Illinois. She attended the Randolph County schools through elementary and middle school, then went on to the Gorham Community High School where she graduated in 1929. She moved then to Granite City, Illinois where she pursued a career in nursing, entering nursing school at the St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing run by the Sisters of Divine Charity. She graduated with her coveted R.N. degree in 1940 and moved to nearby Highland, Illinois where she practiced nursing until the outbreak of World War II. Ellen then took the bold and patriotic step, along with two friends, Elinor and Barbara Cullum, of enlisting in the United States Army Corps of Nurses, and on March 28, 1942 she received her appointment as a Red Cross Surgical Nurse. She served out her duty in the European theater, spending time in England, France, and finally Germany. After the war was over, Ellen returned to Illinois, and taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, went back to school, studying philosophy and psychology for a liberal arts degree. Meanwhile, vacationing in Chicago with friends in the fall of 1948, she was set up with a blind date with a handsome young man from Canton, NC, Roy Burch, who had served his country as a Navy Seabee during the War and was now also pursuing an education through the G.I. Bill. They quickly fell in love and their long distance romance became a marriage on June 4, 1949. She then helped Roy finish his degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In 1951 she returned with him to the Asheville area in North Carolina where Roy soon went to work for Carolina Power and Light, a job which took them all over the state of North Carolina, ending finally with Roy achieving the position of District Manager in Henderson, N.C. Upon his retirement in 1978, they moved back to their beloved mountains, settling in Waynesville, N.C. where they remained until moving to Texas in 1999. Ellen's life was one of love and service, first to her country in World War II, second to her family, standing proudly at Roy's side as his career flourished and as John, Joan, and David grew, and finally and most importantly, she was devoted to her Lord in prayer, in fellowship and service, and in the study and practice of His Word. It was this devotion which fed all the rest and which bore such lasting fruit in her always gentle manner, her tireless diligence in the service of others, and the profound and peaceful humility with which she lived every day. "The Lord is my strength and my song." Mrs. Burch is survived by one brother, Arthur Frazer of Caseyville, Illinois and a sister Wilma and brother-in-law Glen Stewart of Chester, Illinois as well as by two sons John Frazer Burch of Ft. Pierce, Florida and David Gillespie Burch and wife Cathy of Beaufort, North Carolina and a daughter Joan Patricia Burch Pruit and husband Thomas of Grapevine, Texas. Also surviving are ten beautiful grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 in the Waynesville chapel of Wells Funeral Homes & Cremation Services. Pastor Nick Honerkamp of New Covenant Church in Clyde will officiate. Burial will follow at Bon-A-Venture Cemetery, on Old Clyde Road, where she will come to rest beside her beloved Roy Albert Burch, her husband of 52 years. The family will receive friends from 10:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, prior to the services, at the funeral home.

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