Elaine Kay Weller

She died painlessly and peacefully on Wednesday, June 24, with her hand gently held by Dick, her adoring husband of 62 years, and attended by her loving daughters, Lynn and Amy. Elaine was well known as a sensitive and astute marriage and family therapist, a skilled horsewoman, a wonderful wife and mother, and the best possible Nana for her 4 amazing grandkids, Luca, Noah, Wyatt, and Marlowe. Whenever their parents headed out the door, Elaine was known to lean over to her grandkids and whisper that it was time to get into a little trouble, a promise she always kept.

Elaine was born on July 12, 1938, to Ila Fern Champoir and Thomas Paul Hunsicker in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up in Southfield, Michigan. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1960 with a major in English and a minor in Education. Her first job was teaching English to seventh graders in Greenwich, Connecticut, where, on their very first day as beginning teachers, she met Dick. Elaine left after two years to complete an MA in English Literature at the University of Michigan, then went on to work in Personnel Management in New York City.

Elaine and Dick married on August 8, 1964, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he pursued a doctorate at Harvard and she taught high school English until their first daughter, Lynn, was born. The family then moved to Arlington, Massachusetts, where their son Stephen was born, and finally to Greensboro, NC, where Amy was born after Dick joined the faculty at UNC-Greensboro.

Then Elaine bought a horse, and everything changed. The young family soon moved to a small farm in Summerfield and named it Free Rein Farm, a place that would become the heart of the Weller family for nearly 40 years. It was a life closer to nature, filled with beloved horses, dogs, and barn cats. Elaine introduced her family to fox-hunting with the Sedgefield Hunt and the equestrian life became a source of adventure for them all. Over the years, Elaine loved many horses, but Butterscotch, a beautiful and spirited buckskin, held a special place in her heart.

Always curious and growth-oriented, Elaine participated in Re-evaluation Counseling, a peer-counseling program that she later taught and eventually organized for the entire Southeast. She then went on to earn a Master's degree in counseling and, in 1983, a PhD in Child Development and Family Relations from UNC-Greensboro. She trained as a Marriage and Family Therapist and built a private practice she loved. Elaine had a particular gift for working with couples, and she was deeply beloved by her clients.

The young family’s life was shattered in May 1990 when son Stephen, then 21 and a rising Senior at Appalachian State, was killed in a motorcycle accident. After a long period of grieving, Elaine committed herself to training and becoming a Grief Counselor for the remainder of her career. In retirement, Elaine and Dick turned their attention to the world. They traveled extensively for many years before selling Free Rein and moving to Well-Spring Retirement Community in 2016.

Elaine will be interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery beside her beloved son Stephen on Tuesday, June 30, 2026. A funeral and celebration of Elaine’s life will follow at 2:00 pm in the Chapel of Holy Trinity Church located at 607 N. Greene St., Greensboro, NC 27401. This will be followed by a reception in the Haywood Duke Room at the Church.

The family wishes to thank the staff and nurses at Well-Spring, as well as AuthoraCare Collective Hospice Care, for their expert and loving care for Elaine. In lieu of flowers, the Weller family requests that you consider a memorial contribution to the Stephen Richard Weller Memorial Scholarship for Anthropology at Appalachian State University, ASU Box 32014, Boone, NC 28608. Or visit: www.bit.ly/SRWScholarship. On the “Fund Choice” line, search for the Stephen Richard Weller Current Memorial Scholarship for Anthropology.