Elvis Freda Harrell

Elvis was born on Tuesday, September 24, 1935, in Silesia, Maryland, to Annie and Thomas Shipp, the second of their seven children. Known as “Boots” to her family and friends, she grew up in Silesia and Accokeek and graduated from Gwynn Park High School in 1953. She worked as a candy striper at Providence Hospital and at the Navy OSI. She met Linwood Harrell, a North Carolina transplant, in Silesia at a friend’s house. He called to ask her to the movies, and they were a couple from then on. They got married on March 16, 1957, and Lin and Boots raised four daughters: Helen Ann, Teresa Marie, Judy Lynn, and Brenda Irene. Their family started in an apartment in Suitland, and from there they moved to Accokeek where their family was completed. The Harrells moved to Oxon Hill in 1967 and finished raising their family on Cooper Drive. Fifty years of Christmases, Easters, birthdays, and Thanksgivings were celebrated in that house, and in between there the grandchildren were welcomed – Bailee, Callie, Tyler, Jacob and Aubrey.

Boots lost her beloved husband Linwood suddenly on January 20, 2000. Widowed at the age of 64, she never stopped missing him. She continued to enjoy her daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren, two of which were born after Lin’s passing. She also enjoyed attending monthly dinner meetings with her friends from Gwynn Park’s Class of 1953.

Elvis was predeceased by her beloved husband of nearly 43 years, Linwood Harrell; her longtime friend J.B. Tayman; her mother, Annie Frances Roach Shipp; her father, Thomas Aubrey Shipp; her brothers, Thomas, Robert, and Ronald Shipp; and her sisters, Edith Frazier and Joyce Roland.

She is survived and deeply missed by her daughters, Helen (Richard) Barfield, Teresa (Millard) Swingle, Judy (Jeffrey) Wallenfelt, and Brenda Harrell; and her grandchildren, Bailee Barfield, Callie Swingle, Tyler Barfield, Jacob Wallenfelt, and Aubrey Harrell. She is also survived by her sister, Gladys Archer.

Memorial contributions may be made in her name to the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, or The Parkinson’s Foundation.