Mary E. Ellison

Mary Elizabeth Ellison, ne Thorpe, died on July 20, 2014, at the age of 91 at her home in Asheville, North Carolina. Known to her friends and family all her life as Barrie, she was born in Concord, Massachusetts, the only child of Miriam and Henry Thorpe. She graduated from Concord Academy in 1940, and from Radcliffe College in 1943 (as a member of the class of 1944). In 1945 she married John W. Ellison, a newly ordained Episcopal clergyman. Together they performed the duties of Rector and Rector's wife at Episcopal parishes in Winchester, Massachusetts, El Paso, Texas, Bakersfield and Sacramento, California, before retiring and eventually moving to the Asheville area. In both El Paso and Bakersfield Barrie started the first Meals-on-Wheels programs to provide hot meals to shut-ins. A life-long lover of the ocean and seashore, Barrie also spent many months on Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester, Massachusetts as well other seaside locations in North Carolina, California, and Mexico. She lived by a code of graciousness, always thinking of others before herself. She is survived by her children, Paula Olivares of Valencia, California, Peter Ellison of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Wendy Mullen of Seattle, Washington, and eight grandchildren, Paula Stroud, Gaspar Olivares, Victoria Olivares, Daniel Olivares, Samuel Ellison, Silas Ellison, Darcy Mullen, and Cassandra Mullen. Her ashes will be placed in the family plot in Concord along with her husband, parents, and grandparents.