Obituary – Ellen Gale Green
Monday, September 28, 2015
Ellen Gale Green passed away July 20, 2015, at the age of 97 with her friends and family present in her home at Harbor Chase of Gainesville. Born in Kansas City, Mo., to Dr. and Mrs. Press C. Hopkins, she was the oldest of four children. She graduated from Greenwood High School in Springfield, Mo., and in 1937 attended and swam for Southwest Missouri State Teachers College (now known as Missouri State University).
Ellen Gale was one of Missouri’s premier swimmers, competing in the 1936 Olympic trials and in 1937 being named “Springfield’s Sportsman of the Year”. She married Elbert H. Green in 1939 and had seven children. She and her family raised and showed world class American Saddlebred horses. She served as secretary of the Missouri State Fair from 1975 to 1977.
She moved to Gainesville, Fla., in 1979 and helped raise her many grandchildren. Ellen Gale loved adventures even into her later years; snorkeling in the Cayman Islands at 85, snowmobiling in Tahoe at 86, parasailing at 92 and traveling to Ireland at 94.
She received the WIN Legend Award in 2009 recognizing outstanding women’s achievements and at the age of 92 was inducted into the Missouri State Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Ellen Gale is preceded in death by her husband E.H. Green and her daughter Anne Green. She is survived by her children Janet Green, John Green, Diana Green, James Green, Patty Green-Warner and Holly Blair as well as her nine grandchildren and her 11 great-grandchildren.
The funeral service was held August 1 at Sacred Heart Church in Springfield, Mo., followed by a graveside service at Hazelwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, her family requests donations be made to either Haven Hospice of Gainesville, Fla., or the Sacred Heart Church in Springfield, Mo.
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