Eleanor McCleary Sellstrom passed away peacefully on Friday, June 24, 2022. Having recently received visits from all four of her children, she now rejoins her late husband, Albert Donald Sellstrom, who died in 2018. Eleanor was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on March 14, 1930. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended Sequoyah Elementary School and Tyson Junior High before leaving home for Fairfax Hall in Waynesboro, Virginia. She received her B.A. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1952, followed by an M.A. in French from Middlebury College in 1956, a course of study that included one year in Paris.
Eleanor was working as a secretary in the Department of Romance Languages at Princeton University when she met Donald, who had just completed his Ph.D. in French and was an instructor there. They were married three months later on January 31, 1958, and moved to Austin not long after, when Donald accepted a position as Professor of French at the University of Texas. Eleanor stayed home to raise their children, enthusiastically sharing with them her interests in reading, creative projects, and swimming. When the children were older, Eleanor volunteered twenty hours a week as a reader at Recording for the Blind (now Learning Ally). She also taught English and French at the Perry School and enjoyed many trips to Tennessee and France with her family. A natural writer, Eleanor chronicled her long life through journals, letters, photos, and family histories. She also passed along many old songs, which frequently burst forth from her in the middle of conversation.
Eleanor was preceded in death by her husband, Donald; her brothers, Dick and Oren McCleary; and her sister, Janet Cosson. She is survived by her children Peter, Eric (Sandra), Margaret, and Oren Sellstrom (David Muniz), along with seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and a number of nieces and nephews whose letters, calls, and visits she always looked forward to and greatly appreciated.
There will be a private graveside service and interment on August 6, 2022, in New Sweden Cemetery, where Donald’s grandparents settled after emigrating from Sweden in the 1870s. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Donald and Eleanor Sellstrom Fund for Excellence in French and Italian, University of Texas. Information about the Fund and how to give can be found by visiting
http://links.utexas.edu/cdgbsc or by calling (512) 471-8861.
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