Ellen Jones Henderson Broderick was born in 1921 in Greenville, Mississippi and was raised in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas as the family followed her father’s work opportunities during the Depression. She attended Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas on a scholarship through her church, graduating in 1943 with a bachelor’s degree in history and teaching certification.
Ellen’s first teaching job was at the Japanese internment center in Jerome, Arkansas, helping her young students through the aftermath of being uprooted from their west coast homes. Two other teachers, both Japanese-Americans, remained lifelong friends.
When the internment center in Jerome closed in 1944, Ellen moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the War Relocation Authority. There, during wartime in the Capitol, Ellen met her Marine, Walter Broderick and worked hard to lose her southern accent.
Ellen married Walter Broderick on March 25, 1947 and lived for several years in New York City and upstate New York, where two daughters, Frances and Marion, were born. She went back to work in 1956 and worked with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then speechwriter for New York’s Governor Averill Harriman.
In 1961, the family moved to Washington, D.C., at the start of the Kennedy Administration. At an inaugural ball, Ellen connected with former Governor Harriman who pulled Pat Moynihan over to suggest that he hire her. (The future-Senator Pat Moynihan had joined the Kennedy Administration in the Department of Labor.) Thus continued Ellen and Walter’s love for Washington, only enhanced by the Kennedys’ “Camelot” years.
Ellen retired from the federal government in 1982, allowing time for camping and sailing trips with Walter and plenty of time to spend with her grandchildren.
In 2003, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri to live with a daughter and son-in-law. She joined Country Club United Methodist Church in Kansas City and was welcomed into a warm and loving church community.
Ellen was preceded in death by her parents, her sister Mineva Webb and her husband, Walter Broderick. Surviving family:
• Frances and Angus Phillips, Annapolis, Maryland (daughter and son-in-law)
• Marion Broderick and Robert Barrientos, Kansas City, Missouri (daughter and son-in-law)
• Elizabeth and Christian Rebufat, Long Beach, California (granddaughter and husband)
• Madeleine Phillips, Baltimore, Maryland (granddaughter)
• Will and Katie Phillips and their children, Ellen Marais and Angus William, Baltimore, Maryland (grandson and wife and great-grandchildren)
• Paul Eugene Webb, Jr., Clinton, Arkansas (nephew)
A Memorial Service will take place on Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 11:00 AM at Country Club United Methodist Church, 400 West 57th Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
Ellen will be interred in the Garden of Remembrance at Country Club United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri.
