Visitation is planned for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2026, with a meeting for worship service to follow at 2:00 p.m. at the Salem-Upper Springfield Meeting House, 350 Sixth St., Salem, OH 44460.

In the rolling hills of Southeastern Ohio, in the midst of the Great Depression and cold, winter weather, a red-haired baby girl was born at home on February 6, 1935, within a close-knit community of Conservative Friends (known as Quakers) near Harrisville, Ohio. Her parents, the young couple of Alfred and Harriet (Stanley) Thomas gave her the name Elvina Mary Thomas in loving memory of her mother’s elder sister who had died of illness four years earlier. Her birth was announced to her paternal grandmother, Martha Binns Thomas, who lived 1.5 miles away by a simple postcard.

Elvina was the ninth generation of the Stanley family of American Quakers, her direct ancestors having first arrived from England to our Virginia shores in the 1660’s. She was to become the eldest of four siblings, Eva Mae, Edith Marlene and Walter Arthur. All were happily raised as Conservative Friends, speaking the Plain Language and being part of a larger family of grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and Meeting folk. Their particular Meeting was known as Shortcreek Monthly Meeting, part of the larger Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative), which would play a huge roll in their upbringing and support system.

Elvina received her guarded Friends secondary education at the Olney Friends School (then known as The Friends Boarding School) near Barnesville, Ohio; thus, becoming the third generation to make lifelong friends and to marry her spouse from the other Quaker attendees. Her two children, Debora Elizabeth and Suzanne Jeanette, would later follow in these footsteps of tradition.

She graduated from Olney in 1953 and attended Earlham College in Richmond, IN. Her marriage to Bruce Krekler two years later in 1955 took her to live in other parts of Ohio amongst other less conservative Friends communities than she had ever known.  Two little girls, the delight of her life, were born to them within the next two years. They lived at first a nursery near Akron and later a grain farm in southern Preble County.  While in southwestern Ohio, she commuted to Miami University, receiving her teaching degree in elementary education. But in 1967, after twelve taxing years of increasing marital stress, volatility and abuse due to her husband’s progressively worsening mental disorder, she and her girls bravely returned to her origins in the larger Conservative Friends community amongst the hills of Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson and Columbiana counties. They began, with the support of her parents, to live with them in the big family home, attending Meeting once again. Raising her girls, teaching school, and jumping whole heartedly back into Ohio Yearly Meeting activities, her life began to find safety, normality and peace. She became active in the local 4-H teaching sewing, taking tailoring classes herself, making beautiful and serviceable clothing, including many men’s suits. Her days were filled with meaning and pleasantness once again.

Her Papa’s sudden death in 1973 at the age of 63 shattered their close-knit lives, but her Mama, his helpmate and best friend, bravely and with time, rose above her heavy grief, continuing to serve her family whenever there was need.  Elvina and Harriet became even closer during the next twelve years as they continued to share the old 1909 farmhouse where her father Alfred was born. Together, mother and daughter, sewing, cutting quilt blocks, canning and freezing garden produce, fruit and pickles, and always making applesauce, mostly from their own trees, which accompanied every meal. 

Around the time of her mother’s illness and death in 1986, Elvina retired from teaching school. Following her mother’s example, she was devoted to serving her family and those around her with a modest and gentle demeanor, always exhibiting thankfulness and quiet faith.

Elvina was a reader and collector of books. A great interest of hers was family history and genealogy. She often recited, as her parents before her did, favorite “pieces” (as her family called memorized poems). Her favorites were handed down through by family members and those from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson which was read and reread in her childhood. Like her mother before, her, she often quoted many of them for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren as they shelled peas, peeled apples, pitted cherries or did other lap work. Her most favored book was Heidi by Johanna Spyri, which as a young girl she read 12 times! During April of this year Debbie read it to her again. Having thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to each chapter with relish, she stated, “Well, I guess I have probably read that story enough now, but it was a good one!”

 She loved reading stories to children, especially.  She often read too and shared stories with young folks and adults, from her beloved A Hive of Busy Bees by Effie M. Williams with stories of virtue and character. And also from The Friendly Story Caravan: A Compilation of Quakers and True Life Experiences Concerning Faith and Morality, and more recently, the Obadiah children’s books depicting early Quakers on Nantucket.  Her days continued on the home place near Harrisville, now with more service on Yearly Meeting committees and meetings, sewing and mending for family and friends, working with her flowers, and faithfully caring for her grandchildren. She worked many years with Junior Yearly Meeting and Christian Education Camp, held on the Olney campus, and was active in the local First Friends Church’s Women’s Missionary Society. Elvina remained a dedicated member of the Shortcreek Friends Meeting, erected in 1862, which she helped to lay down in 2018 when there remained only two regular, loyal attendees, although they continued to meet together for worship each First Day morning in each other’s homes.

 She, as was her custom, began everyday with thoughtful devotions, Bible reading and prayer, deepening her faith and Christian walk. Often Elvina reflected on God’s goodness and mercy that had followed her (and led her) all the days of her life. She loved visiting with people and writing many letters and cards to others, keeping track of her well-worn Birthday Book, a gift from her father on her 12th birthday. Her compassion for others prompted her to set aside a large portion of her monthly retirement check by living simply and donating to many charities, especially those serving children.

In 2019, after two years of sorting through the four floors of her four-generation home, she moved to Salem, Ohio, to be neighbors with her daughter Debbie and closer to extended family. She transferred her membership to Salem Upper Springfield Monthly Meeting and became an active member. The next seven years saw several falls and broken bones and heart valve replacement, but her spirit abated never! Each time she was raring to recover and rehabilitate again. She was often pleased to ask complete strangers, “And how old are you?” Then replying with great happiness, “I am 91, and I have 21 great-grandchildren!”

In April 2026, Debbie began staying with her to be there round the clock. In May, Suzanne came from Illinois for a week to assist in her care. Elvina enjoyed their time together immensely, even though punctuated with yet another hospital stay.  By June, she moved once again, this time with Hospice to Bob and Debbie’s house. Her last week of life as we know it, saw a revival of her joy with family and friends who came to call, especially after the many previous weeks of quarantine from Covid, followed by another more serious infection, which resulted in surgery and 40 days of IV medication, which her body rejected after the first 30 days. During that last week, Debbie read to her about the Thomas family recollections written by her Aunt Alice Satterthwait Walton’s book Tell Me More.  At a break in the reading, she broke out, “Isn’t that a wonderful story? And it’s about us!”

She spoke often that week of Her Savior Jesus and His great love and care for us, and of course how much she loved her family near and far. She said she wished we could all travel Home together. Then on separate occasions early one morning, she told her daughter and then her granddaughter that she was leaving us, but we could come later. She thanked us for her care and cautioned us not to cry or worry for her; she would be fine. Later that morning, after a happy visit with a much-enjoyed grandson and grinning the whole time, she finally fell into a peaceful sleep.

Elvina left us quietly in the early dawn of the next morning, June 14, 2026, for a place she knew was Home, but had never seen. She knew she was going to the Promised Land and would arrive to be embraced by her First Love and Redeemer, living with Him forever more.

There will be a private burial earlier in the week in the peaceful country setting of Shortcreek Friends Cemetery, near Harrisville, down the hill from the old Meeting House, and beside her parents and grandparents.