Eleanor Kay Kiefer

Educator, Historian & Author Eleanor Kay Kiefer RIP Eleanor Kay Kiefer, historian, author and educator, died November 5, 2021, at age 85. She was a mother of three, grandmother of three, and friend to many. She is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Jack, who passed away in 1994. Kay was born in Rock Island, Illinois, to Don Oder, son and employee of Claude and Stella Oder, owners of a successful large dairy and milk bottling company in Danville, Illinois, and Maxine Elliot, business school graduate and the revered only child of Sarah Elizabeth Jewell and Charles Elliot of Lewiston, Illinois. Kay was born during the Depression, the middle child in a household of five children, two older female siblings, and a younger brother and sister, until the death of her own mother at the tender age of 8. Her father was a Navy chef during WWII and was gone from the household during this time for four years. Her mother's untimely death set off the traumatic separation and dispersal of the children to other family members. Luckily, Kay was placed with her maternal grandmother for the remainder of her childhood, a time that set the stage for her lifelong love of education and history. Her grandmother was a music teacher, Shakespeare scholar, witness to the Lincoln/Douglas debates as a child, sister to a longtime Illinois senator and judge, and daughter of a literate and cultured extended family in the Springfield, Illinois area. The Jewells and the Elliots proudly traced their lineages back to the beginnings of this country with the second ship of English settlers to the Boston area (Braintree)in 1632. Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution, the Jewell family were early pioneers of Indiana and Illinois, and fought for the Union in the Civil War. None of this was lost on Eleanor Kay Kiefer and she became known for her pioneer spirit. She was an advocate for the needy and underprivileged, worked against injustice her entire life, and believed that education was the key underpinning to a fully realized life and essential for the citizens of a healthy country. Following the death of her husband, Jack, she completed her PhD in history from Southern Illinois University in 2003 on the subject of the transformation of American medicine in the 20th century. She also completed a manuscript on the Great Ohio Flood of 1937. Her interest and research in history evolved over time, including co-writing (with Paul Fellows) Hobnail Boots and Khaki Suits (1983), a book about the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roosevelt New Deal as well as mounting local exhibitions and lectures about vintage 20th century clothing that focused on the Depression Era. She was a lifelong collector of clothing and ephemera from this period. Never without a book in her hand, she continued to remain active and alert to her dying day. She was most proud of her three children, all with advanced degrees. She walked nearly every day of her life over a three mile wooded trail on her family property and fought to preserve the old hardwood trees and natural habitat of the area. She is survived by her three children: Kerry Echo Kiefer of San Diego, California, Lisa Katovich of Berkeley, California, and Jack Christopher Kiefer of Marion, Illinois. Her grandchildren are Kiefer Katovich, a data scientist based in Portland, Oregon, and Scout Katovich, a New York attorney residing in Brooklyn, NY, children of Lisa Katovich. Madeline Kiefer, daughter of Jack C. Kiefer, is currently a sophomore at Southern Illinois University. She is survived by two sisters, Margery Frevert of Nashville, Tennessee, and Rosemary Branham of Lecanto, Florida. The family will be honoring Kay privately. Any personal recollections, photographs, messages, or anecdotes would be appreciated by the family either directly or through the Bailey Funeral Home website. In lieu of flowers and in memory of Eleanor Kay Kiefer's love of nature, donations can be made to The Arbor Day Foundation, 211 North 12th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68508 or online at www.arborday.org

Eleanor Kay Kiefer

September 7, 1936 - November 5, 2021