Mrs. Elaine Stone Hildemann

Elaine S. Hildemann was born Sarah Elaine Stone on March 28, 1927 in Key Alabama, to Eugene and Liller Stone (known to most everyone as Granny Stone). She grew up on their 100-acre cotton farm, and quickly learned by the age of 11 that she would rather cook for her family of 10 than chop cotton, thus earning her culinary stripes early. (This would be a skill she would develop and pass on, and use to bless many, many people, often whom didn’t even quite know what they were eating)! She was the seventh out of eight children; and for 12 years was the baby in the family, until her brother Shelton Arben Stone, was born. They were close for their entire lives; vacationing together and making sure their children grew up knowing each other. Elaine died on October 30, 2020, the last of the Stone kids to leave us.

Elaine graduated from high school a year early, in 1944; she wanted to leave the farm and “wear dresses and patent leather shoes”--which amounted to living in town. She did just that, and lived in Rome Georgia and on an Army base in Texas before settling in Atlanta as secretary/assistant/accountant for the Adams-Cates Building; a company that served doctors in billing and records. She lived in boarding houses with friends and served in the YMCA during and after the war years. She dated widely, and from the pictures that remain, it appears that she had one heckuva good time until she decided it was time to settle down. She met the man who would prove to be her match, and subsequently married John T. Hildemann on January 20, 1961. John T. was a Yankee, she a Southerner, but she left the South with her new husband and moved to New York City. Within a year’s time, they settled in New Jersey, where they raised 3 children. As a homemaker and mom, she honed her cooking skills some more, taking classes in a variety of styles of cooking, and pursued sewing as a hobby as well. She took an interest in nutrition that would continue throughout her life, and served her well. (Her grandchildren, once having had to eat pancakes made with Barleygreen, a chlorophyll powder, might disagree.) During this time, she had a hunger for deeper things and pursued a relationship with God. After John T. died in 1982, she remained in and cared for the home they had loved for 14 more years, but eventually, it became too much, and she moved to Texas, where she lived the rest of her life. She attended and graduated from Bible college at the age of 73 with a straight A average! She went on several missions trips; visiting Israel and even smuggled Bibles into China. She loved attending Christian seminars and church, and even sang in the choir for the Billy Graham Crusade in Irving, Texas in 2002. She was a generous giver, helping neighbors, local churches and even the Bible college she attended, Christ For The Nations. She lived on campus there for 17 years, remaining in her apartment after she graduated. She began a series of events at Grace Community Church that culminated in the church being integrally involved in the ministry of Operation Christmas Child, still ongoing to this day.

After so many years of independence, and helping others, Mom began to need some help herself. Friends and neighbors there began to reach out to her family in concern, and in 2014, Elaine moved to Parkwood Assisted Living, where she froze up the air conditioning, walked grandly into other people’s apartments, and initiated other escapades that made her quite famous over there. Mary’s family took her in to live with them. After a year there, where her family ran to keep up with her, she moved into memory care for 4 years, where she kept those people running as well. In September of 2019 she moved back into her daughter’s home, where she was cared for by Mary and her whole family, as well as some of the kindest caregivers on the planet, who loved Mom well, and whom she (eventually!) loved back. As much as Alzheimer’s had stolen from her, it did not take her fundamental joy in being outside in the sunshine, interacting with pets, singing along to music, and enjoying a good meal and cup of coffee. She truly enjoyed her last year at home, and was ready to go to heaven.

Elaine is was preceded in death by her parents, Eugene and Liller Mae McAbee Stone, her husband, John T. Hildemann, all of her siblings (and their respective spouses): Hazel Bobo, Alvis Vann, Wilson Stone, Houston Stone, Helen Henson, Coullon Stone and her favorite, Shelton. She is survived by all of her children: Mary Elaine and her husband Peter, and their four children, Sarah, Joshua, Hannah, and John William, and by her son John Stone Hildemann, and his two daughters with Penny Hildemann: Melissa Mormile, who with her husband Chris, has two of Elaine’s great-grandchildren—Thomas and Joey, and Alexis Hildemann, who gave Elaine her first great grandchild—Adam. Alexis has another on the way, due on Elaine’s birthday 2021. Finally, her daughter Beth Anne has 3 children, with her husband Richard Drason: Luke, Cole and Morgan. That’s 3 children, 9 grandchildren, 2 ½ great-grandchildren, a host of nieces and nephews and many, many neighbors and church folks who thought she was the bomb.She was!