Nancy Barber
Terrell was a loving, caring uncle and will be missed greatly by our family. He was always so good to my Mother especially after her husband died. The world has lost a very good man.
Birth date: Jan 15, 1920 Death date: May 25, 2010
He is survived by his companion, Tassie Schiffhouer and her children, and grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews, other relatives, and a host of friends. He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy Horton Elam; sister, Jewel Read Obituary
Terrell was a loving, caring uncle and will be missed greatly by our family. He was always so good to my Mother especially after her husband died. The world has lost a very good man.
I first met T W through my mother, she knew Dorothy and T W, she called him Elam. He loved to tease her. Then he met me and he started teasing me, I met Dorothy at a Christmas party at the plant,we all worked at the same place, he would tease me endlessly I would tell him I was going to tell Dorothy he would laugh his hearty laugh and say go ahead. My nickname was meaness. A friend of mind told him I was in a nursing home and he wanted to know if it was for my meaness.I have always missed T W. He was a very good man. (T W when you see mom up in heaven tell her hello and I love her don't tease her enough to get kicked out.)
I was introduced to "Preacher" when I started dating Bryce Penland in 1976. Bryce and his family lived across the street from Dorothy and Preacher and had been friends for years. I married Bryce in 1979 and for a wedding gift Dorothy and Preacher presented us with a brand new washer and dryer. I was thrilled and eternally grateful. I was always treated as a daughter and I will never forget their kindness. Bryce passed on not long after Dorothy but Preacher never failed to call and check on me. He was a dear man with a wonderful sense of humor, a pure soul and a huge heart. I'm sad that he's gone but happy that he is at peace. He was one in a million and he will always be loved.
I can hear that cheerful voice now, "Hello Janis, This is your favorite Uncle." Of course, he was my only Uncle, but he certainly made me feel special. I loved his stories from Trickum, the community where he and my mother were raised. I learned so many lessons from this gracious man: hospitality, inclusiveness,loyalty, generosity, caring, acceptance, and most of all how to have fun even when circumstance weren't fun. I have a little stool that he repaired for mother and it is still in use most every day. "It won't break, he said," and it hasn't. Neither has his word been broken. How the world needs skilled,strong, real men like Terrell (Preacher) Elam.