Ellen Sarah (Stone) Rhodes

Ellen Sarah (Stone) Rhodes of Battle Creek, MI

Ellen, age 91, died peacefully at Boschway AFC Home on Sunday, April 15, 2018, 10 days shy of her 92nd birthday. She was born in Shady Valley, TN on April 25, 1926, the daughter of Lee Roy Stone and Ada Bateman Stone. Ellen was married to Claude Stone in North Wilkesboro, NC in 1946 after he was discharged from the Navy when World War II ended. Claude died in an automobile accident in August, 1951, leaving her a widow at age 25, with three daughters, Patricia Ann, 4, Claudia Marie 2, and Linda Kay, 2 months old.

Ellen married William M. Rhodes on March 10,1954 and they had one son, Wiley M. "Buddy" Rhodes. She was widowed a second time when Bill died in 1996. Ellen worked as a nurse's aide at the Fort Custer State Home until it closed, and then transferred to the Coldwater State Home until her retirement.
Surviving is her daughter, Linda Behnke (John) of Galesburg; and son, Wiley Rhodes (Carol) of Delton; sister, Lillian Mahaffey of Benton Harbor; eight grandchildren; twenty-one great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandson.

Ellen was a widow for 22 years and was fiercely independent and lived on her own for 20 of those years. She loved to travel with her daughters on their springtime "girl's trips" and had many fond memories of visiting Williamsburg, VA; Washington, DC; Norfolk, VA; Charleston, SC, The Biltmore in Asheville, NC; North Wilkesboro, NC to visit family, and Gatlinburg, TN. She was preceded in death by her daughters, Patricia Ann Greene (Billy) of Paw Paw, and Claudia Marie Elliott (Larry) of Flint, MI, and siblings, James Fred Stone, Minnie M. Moore, Hattie M. Whitt, Iola M. Norris, R. Paul Stone, William Lester Stone, and Betty L. Owen.

The family would like to thank her caregivers and "family" at Boschway AFC Home for the loving care she was given for the past two years.

Visitation will be held on Friday, April 20th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., immediately followed by funeral service at Farley Estes Dowdle Funeral Home & Cremation Care, 105 Capital Avenue, NE, Battle Creek. Interment will follow at Floral Lawn Memorial Gardens, 1490 E. Michigan Avenue, Battle Creek. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Galesburg-Charleston Memorial Library, 188 E. Michigan Avenue, Galesburg, MI 49053 or the Michigan Ovarian Cancer Alliance, 5181 Pinnacle Ct., Ann Arbor, MI 48108, www.mioca.org – in honor of her daughter, Claudia Marie Elliott.