Elizabeth Tucker Eddy

1922 - 2011
Elizabeth Toole Tucker Eddy of Sleepy Hollow, New York, died April 20, 2011 at Phelps Memorial Hospital after a brief illness. She was 89 and had lived in the Tarrytown area since 1971.
Mrs. Eddy was born on January 14, 1922 in Shanghai, China, the fifth of seven children of Dr. Augustine Washington Tucker, a missionary doctor, and Annie Webb Cheshire Tucker, who had worked as a missionary for the Episcopal Church. She returned to the United States as a young woman. She graduated from St. Mary's School (Raleigh, N.C.) in 1938 and from St. Mary's Junior College in 1940. She received a bachelor of science degree from Radcliffe College in 1944. Earlier she worked for Bendix Radio, making crystals for radios.
Mrs. Eddy enlisted in the U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or the WAVES, during World War II and worked as a code-breaker. She later took graduate courses in English at the University of Virginia and worked as an editor for the Diocesan Bulletin, the magazine of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.
In 1950, she married the Rev. William D. Eddy; the couple soon relocated to Japan, where they lived for the next 20 years as missionaries for the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Eddy taught English at Fuji Women's College in Sapporo, where her husband directed a student center at the University of Hokkaido. She raised their four children in Japan.
Mrs. Eddy was a beloved longtime member of Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown, where her husband served as rector from 1971 until his death in 1989. She remained an active member of the church until shortly before her death.
She also volunteered for decades in Tarrytown, at the Warner Library and at the Cherry Door, an antiques and curios shop operated to benefit Phelps Memorial Hospital.
Mrs. Eddy was predeceased by five of her six siblings. She is survived by her sister, Annie Cheshire Tucker Wise of Falls Church, Virginia.
Her daughter, Eleanor "Nell" Selden Eddy Meldahl of Truro, Mass., died in 1998. Mrs. Eddy leaves her other three children and their spouses: W. David Eddy, Jr. (and Dr. Allison Taylor) of White Plains, N.Y.; Nathaniel B.T. Eddy (and Christine G. Woodside) of Deep River, Conn.; the Rev. Canon Maria Washington Eddy Tjeltveit (and Dr. Alan Tjeltveit) of Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Nell's widower, Malcolm E. Meldahl of Truro, Mass.
She also leaves nine grandchildren: Geoffrey and Joseph Meldahl; Hannah, Rachel, and Sarah Eddy; Elizabeth and Annie Eddy; and William and Anna Maria Tjeltveit. Her late husband's sister, Margaret "Margot" Eddy Curtis, lives in Houston. Her late brother the Rev. Beverley Dandridge Tucker's widow, Jean Morris Tucker, lives in York, Maine.
Her burial service will take place July 30 at 2 p.m. at Meetinghouse Cemetery in Marlborough, New Hampshire. Her funeral was held on April 25 at Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown, New York.
Memorial donations may be sent to Christ Church, 43 South Broadway, Tarrytown, New York, 10591.