- Date Of Birth: August 25, 1937
- Date Of Death: March 9, 2020
- State: Arkansas
Eleanor Lois (Kingery) Romine was born August 25, 1937, as the first child of Floyd Frances and Lois Eleanor (Bixler) Kingery. Her family included her sisters Marilyn, Grace Ann, and Chester. She was raised on a farm in Mt. Etna, Iowa, and often reminisced about how she enjoyed farm life – bringing in the cows with her sister, working on the farm, and attending a one room schoolhouse through the 8th grade. Her family belonged to the Church of the Brethren in Mt. Etna, where she was saved and baptized at about age 12 and served as secretary while still in high school.
In order to be able to graduate from high school, she lived with her Kingery grandparents in the closest town of Corning during the winters. Her grandparents were a great influence on her life. She remembered her Grandpa carrying a large bible with him wherever he went.
After graduation in 1955, she attended a business college in Omaha, Nebraska and later went to work for the company Dunn and Bradstreet. Although she recalled being very homesick for her family the first year away, she greatly enjoyed the next few years rooming with her sister and friends and working at her job.
Through mutual friends, she met a young airman stationed near Omaha, Waymon Dale Romine. They married in 1959, at her home church in Mt. Etna. Eleanor and Dale had three children – Carolyn, Paul, and Kathleen. A few years after they were married, they spent four years in England, and often enjoyed traveling through the country. They next spent twelve years in Florida, again enjoying traveling throughout that area, and also to visit their families in Iowa and Arkansas. Their annual visits “home” were the highlight of each year for them.
