Estelle House

Estelle R. House 98 died June 16, 2015. Estelle was born on a farm outside the small town of Newark, Arkansas to Norman E. and Nora Roussel. She grew up on the farm and in the town, sometimes riding horses to school and playing on the girls’ basketball team in high school. In 1933 she married A.J. House, also of Newark. After an especially bad year for crops during the depression, they sold the farm team and everything they had, except their clothing, to come to Phoenix with 11 other family members in two cars. They arrived in January 1936. Estelle soon enrolled at Weaver’s Beauty School in the Luhr’s hotel building. She bought her first beauty salon in 1938 at 7th Ave. and McKinley, the Seventh Avenue Beauty Shop. In 1939 she bought a nearby home and moved her family, and salon, there. In 1947 she bought Mitchell’s Beauty Salon in a new medical building at 7th St. and McDowell. She had four other beauticians working with her at this salon for the 30 years she owned it. The people she worked with and her customers became some of her closest friends.

Estelle was always creative. Her many crafts and hobbies included copper work, leather tooling, a variety of hand and machine sewing, decoupage, and painting. Her home and those of her friends and family were decorated with her paintings of Arizona and other scenes. She loved Arizona’s sun and maintained a desert landscape yard. After her husband died in 1988, she began car trips around the west and south with friends and took her first plane rides to the East Coast, Hawaii and Alaska. Her family was always her main interest. Estelle started researching her family history after she retired, discovering, and becoming friends with, several previously unknown cousins. She enjoyed reading; and in the last 15 years listened to thousands of audio books on virtually every subject. Estelle was very social and she took much pleasure in visiting with family and friends.

Estelle was a strong woman, in every sense of the word; she worked hard, sacrificed, and started saving for their college education when her children were born so they would have advantages she did not. Fiercely independent, she insisted on living alone and doing her own cooking and housekeeping and managing all her affairs until the end of her life. Estelle cared deeply for her family and friends and she was loved and respected by them. She is survived by her daughter Sharon of Washington DC, sons Ed (Cathy) of Phoenix, Charles (Candy) of Glendale, and grandsons Derek, Brent, and Jimmy as well as great grandson, London. One brother, Bill Roussel of Arkansas survives, as do several nephews, nieces and close friends. She was very appreciative of the nursing care she received in her final weeks at Thunderbird Palliative Care and at Glencroft, saying of them, “I’ve met the nicest people since I started this journey.”

A celebration of her life will be held 9:00 a.m. July 18, 2015 at Phoenix Memorial Park and Mortuary chapel, 200 W. Beardsley Rd. Phoenix. Photos are available at www.phoenixmemorialmortuary.com