In high school Emmy developed her lifelong passion for singing and gained the lead in the in Gilbert and Sullivan’s, The Mikado. She married Roy B. Eis in 1942, just before Roy deployed to India for three years during World War 2. It would be three years before they saw each other again and could begin their marriage in Idaho, where their first son, Kenneth, was born. Roy rejoined the military in the Air Force, during the Korean War, as a technician in mobile weather, a job that took the family through many and frequent moves, to Florida, Oklahoma, Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, Alaska, Morocco, and Germany, and California, where their second son, Steven, was born. Ken tells the story that he attended first grade in seix different schools. In many places, Emmy would often be on her own to run the household and when possible, to find a singing group she could join.
When Roy retired from the Air Force in 1963, the family settled in Boulder where the boys went to school. She was very active in Sweet Adelines there, and continued to correspond with friends from the group. Not many years later, the long-acquired itch to move sent Roy and Emmy to several more places: New Hampshire, Florida, New Mexico, and finally back to Fort Collins, Colorado, where Ken and his wife Jacalyn had settled after his own long military career. Still, even after Roy died in 1998, Emmy liked to change apartments and houses quite often – so often, her kids have lost count. During all these moves, she managed to join or create singing groups to feed her love of singing.
Her last move was to Brookdale North Assisted Living in Loveland, where she made many friends. She drove until she was 95, and spun through Brookdale in her electric wheelchair. She celebrated her 100th birthday during the COVID pandemic (exposed twice, but didn’t get sick) via a ZOOM meeting with many nephews and nieces, cracking jokes and keeping everyone entertained. Her mind was astonishingly clear up until her final month, when she began to struggle with conversations. She was always positive, happy to see people, and a joy to talk to and to know. She will be deeply missed.
One dream of Emmy’s was not fulfilled. Every time we’d take a drive through the mountains, she would comment on how she wished she had a little log cabin. Steve is fulfilling that dream by building a tiny log cabin around her cremation remains box.
She did not want a funeral service. Cremation has taken place through Allnutt Funeral Home in Fort Collins and interment will be scheduled at Roy’s gravesite at Logan National Cemetery at an undetermined date in the near future. A brief evening of remembrance will be held at the next Eis Family Reunion in 2022. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.allnuttftcollins.com for the Eis family.
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