Mrs. Eleanor J. Joy Booth

Eleanor Joy Booth passed away at age 93 on June 14, 2012, almost 60 years to the day after her marriage to the late Howard Booth. They met while singing in the choir at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church (WGPC), where Eleanor’s long life of faith, service, and friendship would find such abundant expression.

Eleanor was the youngest of five children born to Margaret Grace Shands and Edward Joy (of the family responsible for Webster Groves’ renowned Joy-Built Homes). Though she grew up in Golden City, Missouri, Eleanor was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to which her pregnant mother fled during the great flu pandemic of 1918.

Eleanor loved her Golden City days: quilts thrown across the grass for summer slumber parties; the rope swing over Muddy Creek; the candle-lit cedar tree and homemade gifts at Christmas; high times at the dance hall. Money was scarce, but her mother ensured that love and “making do” were in abundant supply. In her twenties, Eleanor moved to St. Louis to attend Miss Hickey’s Training School for Secretaries. She made lifelong friends wherever she worked, most memorably at Bemis Brothers Bag Company from 1941 to 1962, where she rose to executive secretary for the vice president.

When she married, Eleanor gained a beloved stepdaughter, the late Sarah Booth Lollar. Sarah and Robert Lollar gave Eleanor three now-married granddaughters: Julie (Tracy) Learner; Cindy (Greta McVey) Lollar; and Susan (Josh) Moore. Eleanor was also grandmother to Amanda Kinsley, daughter of Mary Kinsley, to whom Eleanor was a second mother. They and an extended clan of nieces, nephews, and friends have been blended together with a decades-long stream of eloquent letters, cards, and emails (the latter bravely adopted in her seventies) that will be missed almost as much as Eleanor herself.

It’s been said that service is about taking life personally – letting the lives that touch yours touch you. In this way Eleanor volunteered for life to a degree, and with an honest modesty, that few others ever manage. Shut-ins were her special concern and for decades she ministered to their needs through her church and with Webster Groves Meals-On-Wheels. She traveled many miles on many days until just weeks before her death, and always said she got more than she gave from the effort.

The church and its people were her calling and her bedrock. She served as elder, deacon, and Stephen Minister. She actively participated in Presbyterian Women and for 65 years sang in the choir. She also worked many years in the church’s membership office, doing her part to sustain for others the fellowship of faith that so sustained her. Her WGPC friendships were deep and precious. She loved gardens and all the arts, and was an avid reader with an open mind. She laughed easily, especially at herself.

She signed many of her letters “with special love” – and so she was.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 28, at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church, 45 W. Lockwood Ave, Webster Groves. In memory of Eleanor contributions may be made to the Webster Groves Presbyterian Church General Memorial Fund.