V27-3 Farewell, Elston Elston

By Morry Matson

Anyone who ever met Elston Elston probably never knew that they were talking to a 90 year-old lady. Only when she reminded people that she used to teach art classes to convalescing soldiers after the Korean War would her age become abundantly apparent.

I became acquainted with Elston late in her life as a EHS board member, and during my work as the photo lab technician at the local corner drug store.

Elston was compiling a catalogue of her lifetime of artwork, and I helped scan and make reproductions of her many paintings, mosaics, murals, sculptures and drawings. I am probably one of the few people, other than Elston herself, who has seen every piece she created over the many decades of her career.

But there were also pictures of her giving flying lessons to Senn High School students and leading Senn’s motorcycle, ice skating, roller skating and horseback riding clubs. I wish I had been in every one of those clubs.

Elston was also an advocate for lakefront accessibility and was an avid supporter of Edgewater Beachwalk’s lakefront proposal. She procured the Anna Held Fountain space at EBA for our ice cream social fundraiser in June. We were lucky. Good-bye, genius.

Editors note: Morry met Elston when she was organizing her photos. Last year, when she was given the Living Treasure of Edgewater award, Morry introduced Elston at the reception at the Edgewater Branch Library.