Martha L. Ellis

Services for Martha Caroline Lathrop Ellis, 96, will be held in Aiken, SC and Martin, SC on Monday, September 9, 2002. Visitation will be from 10 a.m.?11 a.m. on Monday at George Funeral Homes, Historic Downtown Chapel in Aiken, SC. The funeral service will be conducted by Pastor Billy Mew in the Lower Three Runs Baptist Church at 2:00 p.m. in Martin, SC., with burial to follow in the church cemetery.

Mrs. Ellis died Thursday, September 5, in Heartland Nursing Home in West Columbia, SC. Born July 6, 1906, in Orangeburg, SC, she was the daughter of Howard Webster Lathrop and Ina Pinkerton Lathrop.

Mrs. Ellis was a 1928 graduate of Winthrop College in Rock Hill, SC, and moved to Aiken in 1944. She was a teacher and principal at Aiken Elementary School and the wife of the late Lee Duncan Ellis of Aiken, SC.

A former member of First Baptist Church of Aiken, Mrs. Ellis attended Saluda River Baptist Church in West Columbia. Mrs. Ellis was a member of the Pilot International Club and served a term as Governor of District 5 in 1961. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma Society. After retirement, Mrs. Ellis traveled in Europe, Asia, Australia and throughout North America. She was an avid bridge player. After Aiken Elementary was converted into the Aiken County Library, the Martha Ellis Reading Room was named in her honor.

Mrs. Ellis is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law; Howard Lathrop Ellis and Anne Hart Ellis of Bluffton, SC, Richard Calder Ellis and Barbara Bishop Ellis of Spring Hope, NC, great-niece and nephew-in-law; Deborah Ann Bootle Wright and George W. Wright of Lexington, SC, seven grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her son Lt. Col. Lee Duncan Ellis Jr., US Army, Ret., of Boonton, NJ.

Memorials may be made to the Oak Grove Elementary Library at 479 Oak Drive, Lexington, SC 29073, Hilton Head Preparatory School Media Center, #8 Fox Grape Rd., Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 or to Lower Three Runs Baptist Church Building Fund, Augusta Highway, Martin, SC 29836.