Dining Room Memory

I remember Eleanor teaching my Sunday school class, and singing in the church choir, and cooking meals, and working in the yard, and serving Thanksgiving dinner. Our families spent a lot of time together, and I have a richness of images and experiences to draw on when I think of her. My favorite memory, though, my most out-of-character memory of Eleanor, is a scene from our dining room when I was about 4 or 5 years old.

Uncle Al had come to visit, and all the adults were sitting around the table after dinner while Al told stories. Even without benefit of adult beverages, everyone was having a great time. After running through a variety of jokes and tales, he told a story about a prank that he had played back in high school.

Al had worked in a pharmacy, and one night the pharmacist left him to lock up. Before leaving, he replaced all the ceiling light bulbs with flash bulbs. He went home, got a little sleep, and was hiding close by early in the morning when the pharmacist opened the door and turned on the lights. That's the story, but that's not the bare-bones way that Al told it.

Seems like Eleanor had heard the story before. She started laughing about halfway through, and she kept laughing harder and harder.

She laughed so hard she fell off her chair. Really. In our dining room. My Aunt Eleanor.

-- Gordon

Memories from Betty Muirhead

When we lived on Morgan Street, we could walk half a block to a city park with a sand-pile. We always took our shoes off when we got there.

I remember one time when I put an earthworm in Eleanor's shoe. She didn't realize it was there until after she put her foot in. Pretty squishy!

-- Betty

Obituary - Chicago Suburban Daily Herald -11/16/10

Eleanor Lord Spears Yurs.

A memorial service for Eleanor Yurs, 95, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, at the Cornerstone Church, Russell and Muirhead Roads, Plato Center. Cremation arrangements were made by the Yurs Funeral Home, St. Charles. Born in Peoria, Ill., Aug. 16, 1915, the daughter of Locke Harmon Spears and Minnie Lord, she passed away Nov. 9, 2010, in Elgin. Eleanor was the eldest of six children. She earned her B.S. at Bradley University during a time when it was unusual for women to go to college, 1933 - 1937. She took great pride in her sorority, Sigma Chi Gamma, and was an active member all four years. Her first teaching job was at Plato Center High School, where she taught Home Economics and science classes from 1937 - 1941. While teaching, she met the brother of one of her students, Charles Yurs, who farmed with his father on Crawford Road in Plato. Charles and Eleanor married on June 21, 1941. While raising their children, she was active in the Plato Center Methodist Church, teaching Sunday School and singing in the choir. She was a longtime member of the Kane County Home Bureau and served as a judge of Home Economics entries at the Kane County Fair. When her girls were in school, she was employed as a substitute teacher in the Burlington-Plato Central High School. She was an accomplished gardener, seamstress and all-around helpmate on the farm. She encouraged her girls to be active in the local 4-H club and enter competitions in the Kane County Fair. Widowed in 1994, she continued living in Plato for 10 years, and then moved to The Greens of Elgin six years ago. Her hobbies included fine quilting and sewing, knitting, crocheting 100s of snowflakes, baking, canning, jigsaw and crossword puzzles. She was the mother of three married daughters, Cathy (Alan Olson), Martha (Jerry Weinstein) and Jean (Frank Cook), and six grandchildren, Nels Olson, Ben Cook, Elliot Cook (Remila), Anna Cook Abt (Chris), Elizabeth Weinstein Bellostas (Olivier) and Mike Weinstein (Elisabeth), all of whom survive. She is also survived by two sisters, Betty Muirhead (Plato Center) and Frances Robinson (Peoria) and many nieces and nephews around the country. Memorial donations may be made to your local Hospice.

Online condolences can be found at www.YursFuneralHomes.com.