Eleanor Joyce Rhodes

March 12, 1918 - January 14, 2010

Rhodes, Eleanor Joyce, a 55-year resident of the South Bay, passed away on Thursday, January 14, 2010 in Los Angeles. Born in Los Angeles. California, Eleanor was 91 when she died.

Eleanor Joyce McConnell Rhodes was the oldest of seven children by her parents Dorothy Potts McConnell and Marvin Jesse McConnell. She graduated from Antelope Valley Joint Union High School in Lancaster, California.

In 1935, she married Charles "Chuck" Rhodes, a carpenter and musician. They had two children, Dorothy Marie, born in 1936, and Barbara Ann, born in 1938. They built their own home south of Palmdale on eight acres and raised chickens and rabbits commercially and grew all their own vegetables along with many fruit and nut trees. Eleanor was an active member of the Native Daughters of the Golden West, an organization of California-born women. In 1951, the family moved to Trona, where her husband was employed by American Potash and Chemical Corporation.

The family moved south to Los Angeles in 1955 and Eleanor worked at Betty Brooks in Maywood as a seamstress for many years. Later, after moving to Inglewood, California, she worked at JC Penny in Inglewood. Eleanor and Chuck moved to a house in Lawndale in 1974 and Eleanor continued to work for JC Penny until her retirement.

Eleanor was able to enjoy lots of travel, as her two daughters were both flight attendants for commercial airlines. She enjoyed her first trip to Italy and Switzerland in 1962 with several more trips over the years to Italy, France, and England with one daughter or the other. One very special trip was in 1983 when the entire family, including both daughters and husbands, and her two grandchildren made a trip to Egypt. Later there was another family trip to Hawaii and many trips to New Hampshire and Puerto Rico to visit her daughter Dorothy and her family, and trips to San Francisco to visit her daughter Barbara and her husband.

Eleanor always enjoyed spending time with her family, especially during holidays and birthdays. She loved the family get-togethers that included singing and music and even at the age of 90, was quick to jump up and start dancing to one of her favorite songs, "San Antonio Rose."

Her favorite hobby was gardening. She spent countless hours tending her large gardens at the home she and Chuck shared in Lawndale and even continued to have a small garden for the last several years where she lived in Los Angeles with her granddaughter Leslie and family (including her two great grandsons). She felt very special for being cared for and "waited on" by Leslie and her family.

Eleanor kept her mind sharp by working crossword and jigsaw puzzles. She also loved baseball and as a diehard Los Angeles Angels fan, she watched nearly every Angels game on television, and was thrilled to see them win their first World Series championship in 2002.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Dorothy and Marvin McConnell, her brother Bob, sisters Barbara and Dorothy, and her husband of 53 years, Charles "Chuck" Rhodes.

Eleanor is survived by her brother Tom McConnell and her sister Pat Smith, her two daughters Dorothy Marie Doran (husband William Doran) of Redondo Beach and Barbara Ann Kridler (husband Charles Kridler) of San Francisco, her two grandchildren Leslie Ferrera Ruelas (husband Gabriel Ruelas) of Los Angeles and Andrei Ferrera (wife Jennifer Herman) of San Francisco and her two great-grandsons Diego Ferrera Ruelas and Rodrigo Ferrera Ruelas of Los Angeles.