Elvira Real Downing

Elvira Real Downing was born on February 24, 1920, the second child of Ella and Benno Real, Sr., in rural Bexar County on the family farm near Converse. She attended the rural, one-room school in the area through the eighth grade, and then commuted to Brackenridge High School, graduating in 1938. She continued to live and work on the farm and at various jobs in town. In 1946, Elvira and her sister Lucille made the momentous decision to move from the farm and into San Antonio itself, initially living at the YWCA. She got a job as a bookkeeper at the San Antonio Express-News in 1945, and was eventually put in charge of the entire payroll, handing out paychecks to local media luminaries, such as Dan Cook and Paul Thompson. She met Kenneth Downing, an Air Force NCO from Wisconsin at a spring dance in 1954. They married on November 6 of that year. They soon bought a house in the brand-new subdivision of Highland Hills, at that time on the very edge of development in San Antonio. Their only child, Dwight, was born at the downtown Baptist Hospital on April 16, 1959. The Downings continued to live and work in San Antonio, with a short two-year stint in Amarillo, after which Kenneth retired from the military in 1968. The Downing family moved to Kirby in 1971, for Elvira to better care for her parents, who had sold the farm and "moved to town." The house in Kirby would be her home for the next thirty years. In that time she worked at maintaining her household, raising her son, being a good wife and daughter. She was involved with her church, Community United Church of Christ, attended Grange meetings, and was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Elvira and Kenneth wisely decided to downsize and moved to the Wedgwood Apartments in 2001. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary there. After Kenneth died in 2006, Elvira lived for several years in assisted living facilities. These last few years have been spent under the good and watchful care of the staff of the Chandler Estate nursing facility of Morningside Manor. More recently, the staff of Vitas Healthcare has also assisted. She died peacefully at Chandler Estate on December 6, 2017. She is preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Lee Downing, her parents, Ella Achterberg Real and Benno Real, Sr., her older sister, Bernice Anstice, and her only brother, Benno Real, Jr. She is survived by her younger sister Lucille England, her son Dwight Downing and his wife Debra Morrow, and her granddaughters, Sarah and Hannah Downing. Visitation will be held on Sunday December 10, 2017 at Sunset Funeral Home from 5-9 pm. Funeral Services will be held on Monday December 11, 2017 at Sunset Funeral Home at 12 noon. Interment will follow at Sunset Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Morningside Ministries in Mrs. Downing's name.