Bernice Mary Bentley was born in Morton, Illinois on April 7, 1927.She graduated from Mackinaw High School in June 1944. Like most Americans of her generation, her youth was marked by the challenges of living through the Great Depression and the Second World War.
She met L.D. Elwell, Jr. at a YWCA dance on May 18, 1946. They married on June 20, 1948, following L.D.’s service in the U.S. Army, stationed in the Philippines, and his freshman year at the University of Illinois, from which he graduated in 1950.
L.D.’s jobs took the family from farming communities in the Peoria, Illinois community to agricultural management in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and ultimately to beginning a career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmer’s Home Administration (FHA) in Urbana and Champaign, Illinois, and ultimately to Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to the Rural Housing Division in FHA. While it was a big leap to move their family of 4 children away from their Illinois roots, L.D. and Bernice welcomed the adventure of moving to the Washington, D.C. area in November 1966. Shortly after their move, they discovered Grace Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Virginia, and the family made it their church home no later than the spring of 1967.
Bernice was a wonderful mother, homemaker, neighbor, and hostess. When her sons were young, she was a Cub Scout Den Mother for 9 consecutive years. She was fully engaged in all aspects of her husband’s and children’s lives. She was known for her baking, cooking, and friendliness in her neighborhood. Bernice was a talented seamstress, making her own clothes from a young age, including her wedding gown. She had an artistic eye, loved dressing up for any social occasion, and enjoyed decorating her home for every holiday observed by Hallmark. She also loved to travel, in the U.S. with L.D. and internationally during her widowhood.
Bernice became a volunteer in the Office of Presidential Correspondence at the White House following President Reagan’s inauguration in January 1981 and continued through President Obama’s second term, leaving in December 2012. She really enjoyed the many friends that she made in her volunteer job. She had the opportunity to meet all the First Ladies, and see the Queen of England twice, President Hussain of Jordan, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and other statesmen during her volunteer years.
Bernice served on Grace Church’s Congregational Care Committee for 30 years, sang in the choir for many years, and served as an Elder after L.D.’s passing, She loved working with Cramer Gilmore on the Pastoral Outreach Committee for a number of years.
Bernice was known for her warmth, friendliness, poise, graciousness, the many cards she wrote, and, of course, her hats. She was dearly loved by her husband, her children, her grandchildren, great grandsons, her fellow church congregants, her many, many friends, old and new. She left the world a better place because of her love for her fellow man.
Preceded in death by her husband (L.D. Elwell, Jr.), father (Amos Bentley) and mother (Margaret Bentley) of Morton, Illinois, Alvin Bentley, brother, of Morton, Illinois, and Roy R. Bentley of Chandler, Arizona.
