Ellen B Spiller

Lou Ellen Brubaker was born in San Marcos July 17, 1932, to George Nunley Brubaker and Lou Greathouse Brubaker.

Her father had been county attorney in Llano and was city attorney in San Marcos when he died of a heart attack at the age of 39. Although Ellen was only 5 years old when he died, she always remembered him fondly, admired him greatly, and tried to live so that he would have been proud of her.

She is descended from early American and Texan families and was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Ellen and her sister, Mary Ann, attended schools in San Marcos until 1947 when the family moved to Austin. Ellen graduated from Austin High School.

She worked full time while a college student. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin. While there she worked on The Daily Texan, received a T.R. Larsen scholarship, and was a member of Theta Sigma Phi, honorary journalism fraternity for women, now Women in Communication. Later she received a master's degree in English from the University of Houston downtown school and a MA degree in college teaching from the University of Houston at Clear Lake City. She had the hours necessary for an MA in history but did not write the thesis.

She married Sam Spiller in 1954.

While living in Austin she wrote articles for Texas Highways and edited the Texas Future Farmer magazine for two years.

After the family moved to Houston, she edited the house organs for Texas Children's and St. Luke's hospitals (then jointly administered).

Her two daughters, Katherine Quesney Spiller and Georgianne Spiller were born in 1957 and 1958.

She taught English for two years at Aldine Junior High School and for four years at Waltrip High School, where she also sponsored the Creative Writing Program.

The family moved to Baytown where she taught English, journalism, and speech for 29 years at Lee College. She received the Exxon Excellence in Education award.

Lee College had an extension program with the Texas Department of Corrections. In addition to teaching her regular courses on campus, she taught at TDC in various units for several years.

She is included in several Who's Who volumes. For several years she wrote feature articles for local newspapers.

She took early retirement from Lee College in 1994, but she never did really retire. The family moved to Marble Falls in 1994 where she was part of the adjunct faculty at Central Texas College from 1995 until the present, teaching English in Llano, Lampasas, Burnet and Marble Falls.

For several years she also co-edited the Lady's Day Out books and wrote feature articles for the local papers. She won local writing awards and a national award in Writer's Digest. Some of her works are included in magazines and anthologies.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Sam Spiller; daughters Katherine Waddingham and Samantha Spiller; and sister and brother-in-law, Mary Ann and Web Witter.

She leaves behind daughter Georgianne Dyment; and grandchildren - the Dyments, Alexis Eileen, Garret Samuel, Nicholas Christopher, Sophie Katherine, Ethan James; and the Waddinghams - Matthew Christopher and Thomas More; and great grandchildren Allyn Matthew Russell and Jonathan David Russell.