Elouise Huff

Elouise Harrell Huff passed peacefully from this life on February 21, 2015. She leaves an enduring legacy of love, strength, and tireless devotion to family and faith.The oldest of five children, Elouise blessed William Hanson and Florea Mayo Harrell with her arrival on September 30, 1921, in rural Washington County, Georgia. She graduated as valedictorian of her Wrightsville High School class in 1938 and despite limited higher education opportunities for women at that time, she attended the Athens Georgia Business College.

World War II changed her life. Lawrence Huff, her husband-to-be, courted her through a series of letters while he served as a soldier in the war's European Theatre. Elouise would later chuckle and tell their grandchildren that when Lawrence first suggested marriage, "I thought he was just lonely." Yet romance won out, and they married on November 22, 1945, a few weeks after Lawrence returned home victoriously from the war. Their nearly 70 years of marriage would become a model and aspiration for future generations of their family.

Elouise worked with the USDA Farm Security Administration until 1948, when she decided to become a full-time mother and homemaker to her daughters Celia and Catherine. She was always happy with more projects to manage, and she was also deeply devoted to her church and its community; so in 1963, she became Secretary and Office Manager of Pittman Park United Methodist Church in Statesboro, Georgia. She helped guide the church in that capacity for more than 20 years, until retirement in 1983.
In 1989, she and Lawrence relocated to Kerrville, Texas, to be near their daughter, the late Celia Huff Pound, and her family. Though she and Lawrence would occasionally travel in retirement, she came to love Kerrville and considered it home.

She was a member of the GA Chapter of PEO, and the Keystone Sunday School Class of First United Methodist Church, Kerrville, Texas.

In retirement, Elouise particularly enjoyed knitting, crochet, and needlepoint. For several years, she volunteered at the Peterson Regional Medical Center Auxiliary and sewed teddy bears for children in the hospital's emergency room. She also designed and created cloth pockets for the walkers of hospital patients recovering from hip or knee surgery. Though retired, she had no patience for idleness; she devoted 14,482 hours to these projects, and took pleasure in doing all she could to help others.

Elouise is preceded in death by her daughter, Celia Huff Pound; her granddaughter, Dr. Shannon Houghton; her parents; and her siblings, Fred and William Harrell and Beulah Newsome.

She is survived by her faithful and loving husband, Dr. Lawrence Huff; brother Rabun Harrell and his wife Sandra of Bainbridge, Georgia; daughter Catherine Black of Broomfield, Colorado; son-in-law Dr. Mat Pound, of Ingram, Texas; grandson Sean Neville, his wife Pamela and daughter Caitlyn of Lexington, Massachusetts; granddaughter Heather Warwick and her husband Todd and children Kylie and Justin of Katy, Texas; granddaughter Dr. Carrie Black and her husband Dr. Clayton Mazoue and his son Cameron of New Orleans, Louisiana; grandson Dr. Marty Black, his wife Melissa and children Ethan, Isaac, and Lydia of Concord, New Hampshire; and grandson-in-law, Dr. McGarry Houghton of Seattle, Washington.

A Visitation will be held on Thursday February 26, 2015 at Kerrville Funeral Home from 6-8 PM.

A Memorial Service for Mrs. Huff will be held at the First United Methodist Church, Kerrville, Texas, on Friday, February 27, 2015, 2 pm with the Reverends Ryan Barnett and Donna Magee officiating and a reception to follow.

To honor Elouise, memorial checks may be made payable to her favorite charity: "Shannon Neville Houghton Scholarship Fund" at the University of Texas at Austin, P.O. Box 7458, Austin, Texas, 78713-7458.

Arrangements are under the direction and personal care of the professionals at Kerrville Funeral Home. (830) 895-5111

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