Eleanor Zientara Graham

1922 - 2023

Eleanor Zientara Graham
June 6, 1922 - April 8, 2023
Columbia, South Carolina - Eleanor Zientara Graham, 100, slipped peacefully into Heaven on April 8, 2023. She was one of God's loveliest and brightest lights. Her leaving has made this world dimmer. But Heaven brighter.
She was born to Frances and Frank Zientara on June 6, 1922, in Rochester, NY. She graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School, where she was Class Secretary, president of the YWCA, member of the Honor Society, Yearbook Staff, and the A Capella Chorus. She graduated from the University of Rochester School of Nursing and served as a Navy nurse at Sampson Naval Base in Canandaigua, NY.
There she met Dr. Bothwell Graham III, a Navy doctor just returned from serving as a battalion surgeon with the Marines at the Battle of Guadalcanal. They married and celebrated 59 anniversaries. Deeply loving parents, they raised four children: their daughter, Eleanor (Jones), and sons Bothwell, Kenneth, and Frank.
In Rochester, NY, she was a parishioner at St. Stanislaus Church. In Columbia, SC, she was a founder and charter member of St. Martin's in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, where she was active in the Altar Guild and St. Hilda's Guild.
She was a member of the Navy Nurse Corps Association, Palmetto Chapter Navy Nurse Corps Association, American Legion Post 6, and the World War II Memorial Association. She was made an Honorary Marine by the Marine Corps's 5th and 14th Defense Battalions, and she flew on the SC Honor Flight to see the World War II Memorial in Washington.
A longtime member of the Columbia Medical Society's Women's Auxiliary and Forest Lake Club, she was also president of the Lilac Garden Club and a statewide flower show judge. She helped start the Columbia Health Food Club and Columbia Historical Society.
A true force of nature, she was also a woman of elegance and disarming graciousness. She loved seeing her children thrive; she loved being a Homeroom Mother, Cub Scout Den Mother, PTA member. She loved nursing, and her inexhaustible kindness and gentleness touched countless patients, the many people she knew, and the many strangers she met in her long journey.
She loved Classical and popular music (from such musicals as "South Pacific," and "The Sound of Music." She loved dancing, singing, laughing, making wry observations accompanied by her whimsical facial expressions. She loved flying (she had her pilot's license). She loved to travel. She spoke Polish and was proud of her Polish heritage. A lifelong avid reader, she never stopped being curious. She was fascinated by American history (favorite sites: Gettysburg, Colonial Williamsburg, and Monticello).
She loved all people and all God's creatures: dogs, cats, birds, butterflies, and the tiniest mite on her kitchen floor. She always appreciated the beauty in nature, and to her last months, she looked with undiminished childlike wonder at blue skies, clouds, flowers, sunshine, breezes ruffling the branches.
She was predeceased by her husband and by her beloved daughter, Eleanor. She is survived by her three sons and daughter-in-law, Linda, Bothwell's wife. Also by many nephews, nieces, grandsons, great- and great-great grandchilren.
She will have a graveside service at Greenlawn Memorial Park on Wednesday, April 12 at 12 pm. Her nephew, Reverend William Wade, and Reverend Caitlyn Keith will officiate. The SC Nurses Honor Guard will perform their Nightingale Ceremony. Dunbar Funeral Home on Devine is in charge of arrangements.
Eleanor Zientara Graham was a gift and a grace to all who knew her-one of God's loveliest and sweetest lights.
Memories may be shared at www.dunbarfunerals.com.