Alta M. Elwood

Alta Marie Adamson, the only child of Frank Arthur and Susan Erma (Gardner) Adamson was born September 22, 1916, at Brunswick, Nebraska and passed away at Gordon, Nebraska, July 28, 2012, at the age of 95 years and 10 months.

When Alta was a young girl, the family loaded all their belongings on the train including livestock, farm implements and their Model T Ford and came to Sheridan County. It was 1926, and she remembered looking north up a muddy main street of Gordon, Nebraska, where there wasn’t a single tree in sight.

They settled north of Gordon, where she graduated from high school in 1933. After graduation, she taught in rural schools around the county until she married Francis Sumner Elwood on May 27, 1938, at the Rushville Methodist Parsonage with Reverend A.L. Embree officiating. She became a busy full time homemaker raising their four sons, Alan Troy, Pat Ira, Ray Dale and Ross Francis. When her family was mostly grown, she began working outside the home as a clerk for JC Penney Co, desk clerk at the Sheridan Hotel, receptionist for E. W. Hollstein, and bookkeeper at Frontier International Inc.

After several moves, Alta and Francis settled in Rushville, Nebraska, where her passion for creative needle work bloomed. Through the years, her collection of beautiful stitched works of art grew into a gallery. She excelled in embroidery, crewel, needlepoint, counted cross-stitch and tailoring. She also enjoyed square dancing and meeting new friends on various bus tours. She was a member of the United Methodist Church in Gordon, Nebraska.

They moved to Scottsbluff, Nebraska in 1991 where they became active card players, belonging to several card clubs, and continued to enjoy retirement.

Alta moved back to Rushville to Parkview Lodge Assisted Living in February 2009, where she was always busy working jigsaw puzzles and word search puzzles, reading the daily newspaper and reading one book right after the other. After a fall in April 2012, she moved to Gordon Countryside Care.

Survivors include her sons and their wives, Alan and LoAnn of Gordon, Pat, Ray and Marge of Scottsbluff, Neb., and Ross and Linda of Rushville, granddaughter Susan Elwood of Gordon, grandson Pete and wife Joni of Gordon, great grandchildren Emilee and Jake Elwood, step grandchildren, step great grandchildren and step great-great grandchildren, three sisters-in-law and many nieces, nephews and friends.

She was preceded in death by her husband Francis, father Frank, mother Susie, daughter-in-law Rose and three brothers-in-law.

Memorial services were held Wednesday, August 1, 2012, at the United Methodist Church in Gordon with Pastor Abigail Eltzroth officiating. Inurnment was held in the Gordon Cemetery.

Chamberlain-Pier Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

A memorial has been established for the Parkview Lodge Assisted Living and donations may be sent in care of Chamberlain-Pier Funeral Home PO Box 366, Gordon, NE 69343.

On-line condolences can be made at www.chamberlainchapel.com.