Roxie Millicent Ellis
1914-2003
Born on August 2, 1914, in New Brunswick. Died peacefully with her family at her side after a short illness December 29, 2003, in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Comox, B.C. Mrs. Ellis was predeceased by her husband, Stanley Rutherford (“Doc”) Ellis. She is survived by her two children, Kybor Tylor (Norah)‚ and Marjorie Romyn (Mike)‚ and by her grandchildren Melanie Swanson (Scott), Matthew Romyn, Martin Romyn, and Koraley Tylor; also by her great-granddaughter Natalie Roxanne Swanson. Born and raised in New Brunswick, Roxie Ellis lived her life loving, playing and surrounded by classical and popular music. She showed early talent at the piano and in singing, and taught music from the age of seventeen until she was almost eighty. In her youth, she played at garden society recitals and in her twenties began singing on the radio, a career she left to marry Stanley ‘Doc’ Ellis in 1937. In 1951, she packed her husband and three-year-old son into a 1930 Desoto and set out for Vancouver Island, settling in Courtenay. People waved to them as they drove up Fifth St. for the first time, and she always said she “felt as though she’d discovered Paradise”.Daughter Marjorie was born in 1953, and her love and support for her children was always a major theme in her life story, from their beginning to the end. She was always “there for us” when the chips were down. The small family was devastated by the accidental drowning of her husband ‘Doc’ in November, 1959. Rallying, Roxie raised her kids alone, learning to drive, teaching piano ‘on the road’, and cleaning houses for a living. Raising her son and daughter, teaching piano to generations of young and older students, she found time to be President of the PTA at Courtenay Elementary, and Akela of the Cub Scouts for some years.She played the organ for St. John’s Anglican church and conducted the choir. Later, she played the organ for many years for St. Peter’s church in Comox, and occasionally at Holy Trinity Anglican church in Cumberland.She also acted as musician at countless weddings and funerals, and was a tireless accompanist at ballet lessons for many of the Comox Valley’s young dancers and for many school choirs. Roxie was a founding member of the Co-Val Choristers, and later played piano for the Evergreen Singers for a time. She was a member of the Canadian Daughters’ League, Lodge #6, and while playing piano for their marching ceremonies, worked to raise money for bursaries for deserving young students. After working in the kitchen at St. Joseph’s hospital for a number of years, she took early retirement in 1974 and turned to piano teaching at home, and spent many years enjoying her gardens and feeding and observing birds, and travelling around Vancouver Island, (she loved to go for a drive and a walk)‚ and continued playing her beloved baby grand piano for hours daily until she entered hospital, Dec. 24, 2003. Roxie Millicent Ellis is very sadly missed, and will be lovingly rememberedby her family and a great many friends. A service in celebration of her life will be held at Piercy’s Funeral Home at 2 p.m. January 10, 2004. Private interment beside her husband in the Courtenay Community Cemetary on Mission Hill.
“This world is not conclusion,
A sequel stands beyondInvisible as music,
butPositive, as sound.”