Dorothy Eleanor Sanders, 84, died Dec. 29, 2016

Dorothy Eleanor Sanders, 84, passed away Dec. 29, 2016. She was born July 31, 1932, to Hugh Walter and Dorothy Newsom Sanders.

The family resided in Forrest City, Arkansas, but she was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the closest birthing hospital at the time.

Eleanor, as she was known her entire life, attended school in Forrest City and graduated as salutatorian of her class. She continued her education in Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, until her family relocated to Austin. There, she enrolled in the University of Texas and graduated with a degree in education.

Eleanor then pursed a master’s in Christian education at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. After graduation, she served Presbyterian churches as director of Christian education in Little Rock, Arkansas; York, South Carolina; Kilgore, Texas; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Jonesboro, Arkansas.

After working about 20 years, Eleanor entered Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and successfully earned her third degree: a Master of Divinity. She served in Anderson, Indiana, and Charleston, South Carolina, then was called home to care for her mother.

After her mother’s death, she served in various positions at several churches in the Austin area needing help and also as a hospice chaplain in the Texas Hill Country. Not being willing to completely retire, she took a position with the Internal Revenue Service. She also allowed herself to engage in one of her many loves: traveling to across the United States as well as around the world.  She enjoyed her journeys to Ireland, Scotland, France, Italy, and Mexico. She traveled to China and taught English to students in its school system and followed the Apostle Paul’s journeys as he spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and established churches in what are now Syria, Turkey, and Greece.

A big part of Eleanor’s teen years was spent as a camper and counselor at the Girl Scouts camp at Tex-Lake. Her love of Tex-Lake became a tradition carried on in her name through the third generation of Sanders girls. She was a woman ahead of her time who decided on a career of Christian service when few women were welcomed and recognized for their leadership abilities.  She traveled as a woman alone in areas of the world where independence and freedom were denied to women.

Eleanor loved the Hill Country and the Federated Church in Sunrise Beach, Texas, that her father helped establish. She loved nature, being with her family, and her Lord Jesus Christ.

Eleanor recognized the beginning signs of Alzheimer’s herself and chose to leave the Austin area to be close to family in Commerce, Texas. As the disease progressed, she chose to move again as her family moved from Commerce back to the Hill Country and the Windchime in Kingsland.

She leaves her brother, Walter Sanders and his wife, Sharon, as well as numerous nieces and nephews who will always be in awe of her courage, determination, faith, and love.

The family plans a private burial with a memorial service at a later date. Those wishing to honor her may send memorials to the Sanders Family Scholarship Fund at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary or the Federated Church of Sunrise Beach.

Arrangements by Putnam Funeral Home, 145 Texas Ave. in Kingsland, (325) 388-0008. Go to putnamcares.com to sign an online guest register.