Ella Dawn Tusa

A native of rural El Paso County, Ella Dawn was born on Februry 3, 1930, the youngest child and only daughter of Harvey S. Hilley and Myrtle Cornelia Hilley (née McDonald). She graduated second in her class from Ysleta High School in 1947 and attended Baylor University in Waco, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. In Waco she met and subsequently married Joseph C. Tusa, Jr. She worked alongside her husband for nearly fifty years at their family owned and operated grocery stores in Waco. Together they had four children. Following retirement, the couple moved first to Lake Charles, Louisiana and later to Austin, where they lived with their youngest daughter and her son.

Having grown up on a farm, Ella Dawn was an avid gardener and animal lover throughout her life. A talented percussionist in her youth and in college, she also had a profound love of music, holding a particularly soft spot in her heart for the timpani part in Brahms’s first symphony. In later years she delighted in acquiring and repairing old clocks and lamps. As a mother she saw to it that her children appreciated the value of education and had the opportunities to develop their interests and abilities as far as they wished.

Ella Dawn follows her husband Joseph into the peace of death by twelve years; she is survived by her four children (Michael Charles Tusa of Austin, Sarah Dawn Tusa of Beaumont, Mary Kathleen Tusa of San Jose, California, and Elisabeth Gay Tusa of Austin) and three grandchildren.