Elsie Merilee Lanoue

Elsie (“Penny”) Merilee Lanoue of Grand Junction, CO passed away peacefully on March 3, 2026. Penny was born July 26, 1927, in Hotchkiss, CO to Melvin Herbert and Myrtle Fern Penfield (née Southard), the second youngest of their five children.

Following the death of her mother in 1931 Penny’s father raised the five children with help of his mother Amma on the family’s Hansen Mesa farm. Friends and neighbors offered to adopt the children, but her father was determined to raise them himself. After graduating from high school with honors at the close of WW2 Penny, then 18, and two friends traveled to Washington, DC to work in a governmental steno pool. In one of her many free-form poems she wrote of the buildings, glamourous women, shops everywhere, street cars, escalators and being deeply homesick:

“…The cows would never go unmilked, the pigs would be well-fed. And I’d do the chores all by myself tho’ it’d leave me almost dead. And remember all the chickens that I cursed with every breath? Well, I’d love each one so hard that I’d choke them clear to death.….”

After returning to Colorado, she went to work in Denver where she met Norman Edward Lanoue, then recently discharged from the Navy. They married in 1950 and had two children: Paula and Renee. Penny worked as a secretary and office manager until she and Norman retired. The mountains called to them and after a short relocation to St. George, UT they built a home in Grand Lake, CO where they lived until moving to Grand Junction. Norman passed away in 2018.

In addition to being a poet, Penny was a passionate and talented custom knitter. Sweaters of course, but with her Brother Electronic Knitting Machine she also designed and fabricated dresses, pant suits, vests, skirts, handbags, booties, pillows, hats and all sorts of knitted do-dads. Penny also painted and had a keen eye for photography. Norman and Penny were never without a dog (or two) and sometimes a cat. They were both fierce animal welfare advocates.

In addition to all of the talents that made her a great office manager, Penny was incredibly kind, articulate and funny.

We miss her and thank her friends and the staff at the Gran Villa for their companionship and support during her eight-year residence there. We are also deeply grateful for the nursing, friendship and support that Penny received from HopeWest.

Penny is survived by her brother Ernest (Marie) Penfield of San Angelo, TX, grandson Nathan (Emily) Gerlick of Rapid City, SD, granddaughter Cara Gerlick of Havre, MT and three great-grandchildren.