Elsie Ann Pollitz

Elsie Ann Pollitz was born September 30, 1928 at Halifax Hospital in the first year it was open. She thought she was Halifax baby #78 but this was never verified. “Elsie” was the Americanized version of the name of her mother, Elsa Beck Lysaght, who had come to the United States from Germany with Tiny’s Grandfather Beck before World War I. Tiny’s father was James Ray Lysaght, an Irishman from Cleveland, Ohio whose ancestors probably came to America in the 1850’s.

Tiny’s Irish grandmother was Annie and her German grandmother was Anna and so her christened name became Elsie Ann Lysaght. Sometime in her early childhood her father started calling her Tiny, a name by which she would always be known thereafter. Her brother, Jim, was born in 1926 and her sister Leonor was born in 1932. Another brother was stillborn in 1924.

Tiny grew up in the old Daytona Beach neighborhood along South Palmetto Avenue and attended South Ridgewood Elementary School (now known as the 747 Building). After elementary school she moved on to the original Mainland Jr/Sr High School between Bay Street and Third Avenue (where the justice center now stands). After American entry into World War II she moved with her family to Cleveland, Ohio where her father worked in a factory making navigation instruments for aircraft and her mother worked in another factory making parts for submarines. Walking to school in the Ohio winter was a less than ideal experience for a Florida girl but it was her part for the war effort. As she was approaching her senior year in high school, she became very insistent that she wanted to return to Daytona Beach to complete her final academic year at Mainland. Her father accepted her pleas, they moved back in mid-1945, and she became a member of the Mainland Class of 1946. She continued to attend occasional reunion luncheons with surviving classmates until covid-19 disrupted those get-togethers.

After high school, Tiny went to work for Ivey’s Department Store on Beach Street in Daytona Beach. Her father saw no reason for girls to go to college, but he did teach her and her sister how to drive, something her mother never learned. When she was 20, she took the train to Butte, Montana to spend the summer with relatives there while her sister covered for her at Ivey’s. She missed a connection on the way up and so was stranded in Chicago overnight, and she was not prepared for how cold Montana could be in July, but otherwise it was a good trip.

In 1950, Tiny left Ivey’s and went to work at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, where she retired after 29 years of service to the company. Interestingly, she had also applied to work for Bell Telephone but was turned away when it was noticed that she was filling out the application form with her left hand; in those days Bell only hired right hand dominant operators.

Tiny’s childhood friend Mary King (Brown) introduced her to Ted Pollitz who was sort of a legend among Mainland football fans in the 1940’s-1950’s. She found it fascinating when they would attend a Mainland game together and local boys would jump onto the running board of Ted’s car just to get up close to Ted Pollitz. (She was also fascinated that she sat alone in the fall breeze in the stands while Ted sat with the team on the bench, but she adapted.) Tiny and Ted got married on September 9, 1956 at First Christian Church in Daytona Beach and were married for 48 years until his passing on April 14, 2005. They started their married life at a residence on Center Street in Holly Hill and later moved to their house on Dorothy Avenue to live out their days. (Tiny had bought that house when it was new as her parents’ residence before she was married and at the time of her passing there she was the last original homeowner in the Clifton Park subdivision.)

Tiny and Ted had two sons, Jed in 1959 and Patrick in 1960.

Tiny was baptized and confirmed at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and while in her 20’s taught children’s Sunday school there. She later transferred to Holy Child Episcopal Church where she was a faithful parishioner and ECW member for many years. In their later years she and Ted resumed attendance at First Christian Church in Daytona Beach.

Sadly, starting in the late 1980’s, Tiny developed spinal stenosis, a painful condition that limited her activities and led to a course of surgery in the mid-1990’s and another in 2004. Beginning after the initial surgery she was never able to walk without a walker again but at least the pain was relieved. She spent most of her final two years bedridden due to peripheral motor neuropathy and ensuing dementia and, at the age of 94, succumbed to those complications. In the years before the stenosis she was active in church activities and numerous Sierra Club outings. In 2008, in spite of the walker, she was able to go on a small ship cruise to Costa Rica.

Tiny’s instructions were that there will be no visitation or funeral service. Even before covid-19 it was her desire to have only a simple graveside committal service, which she composed herself. She will be interred next to Ted at Volusia Memorial Park, 548 N. Nova Road, Ormond Beach on Monday, October 24, 2022 at 1PM.

In addition to Ted, Tiny was predeceased by her brother Jim, sister Leonor, niece Karen, nephew Kevin, and grandson Joshua. She is survived by her son Patrick and his wife Carol and their daughters Nicole and Christina, her son Jed and his wife Eden, her sister-in-law Mary, and her nephews and nieces Clint, Jennifer, Jim, and Mary Beth, and her blind Yorkshire terrier Brownie.

In lieu of flowers, please consider honoring Tiny with a donation to First Christian Church, 326 South Palmetto Avenue, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, or to Voices of Change Animal League, 6393 SW 52nd Street, Ocala, FL 34474 (the shelter Brownie was adopted from).

Elsie Ann “Tiny” Pollitz

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.volusiamemorialfunerals.com for the Pollitz family.