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Anne Ellis

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Anne Ellis
Anne Ellis, Santa Barbara, 1935
Anne Ellis, Santa Barbara, 1935
Born
Anna Heister

(1875-05-04)May 4, 1875
Christian County, Missouri, U.S.
DiedAugust 27, 1938(1938-08-27) (aged 63)
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
OccupationWriter, local official, seamstress, cook
Genrememoir

Anne L. Heister Ellis (May 4, 1875 – August 27, 1938) was an American author and local official who wrote two memoirs[1] chronicling her life in Colorado coal mining camps and her struggles with asthma, including at sanitariums.[2][3]

Early life and career

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Anna Heister was born in Christian County, Missouri, the daughter of Albert Lawrence Heister and Rachel Swearengen Heister (later Leavitt). She traveled West with her extended family in a covered wagon,[3] and grew up in mining camps near Bonanza, Colorado.[4]

Ellis supported herself as a seamstress when she was a young widow with two children.[5] Later she worked as a camp cook. She was the elected treasurer of Saguache County from 1918 to 1924.[4] She went to New Mexico to recover her health, and started writing in her convalescence,[6] encouraged by Santa Fe writer and artist Ina Sizer Cassidy.[7] She covered subjects including poverty, bereavement, sheep shearing, race relations, Native Americans, county politics, and equal rights conventions in her writing.[5][8] She was working on a fourth book, In White Bread Time, when she died in 1938.[9]

Publications

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  • The Life of An Ordinary Woman (1929)[10]
  • Plain Anne Ellis: More About the Life of an Ordinary Woman (1931)[11][12]
  • Sunshine Preferred; The Philosophy of an Ordinary Woman (1934)[13]

Personal life and legacy

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Ellis married George Fleming in 1894; he died in a mining accident in 1898,[14] when they had two young daughters, Nita and Joy. She married Herbert Manville Ellis in 1901, and had a son, Earl. Her younger daughter died from diphtheria in 1907,[14] and her second husband died in 1911. She moved to Santa Barbara, California, in 1931. She died in Denver in 1938, at the age of 63.[3][15][16]

Ellis's face is among those included in a tile mural created by Barbara Jo Revelle in 1989 at the Colorado Convention Center.[17] In 1995, the gravestone she hand-carved for her daughter's grave in Goldfield, Nevada, was replaced by the state.[14] As of 1996 the Saguache County Museum in Saguache, Colorado had a display on Ellis.[18] The University of Colorado awarded her an honorary degree in April 1938,[19] and has a collection of her papers.[20]

References

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  1. ↑ McFarland, Ron (2014). The Rockies in First Person: A Critical Study of Recent American Memoirs from the Region. McFarland. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7864-5163-0 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Haines, Helen E. (1932-01-30). "More About Anne Ellis; Author of 'The Life of an Ordinary Woman'". Pasadena Star-News. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 3 Shippey, Lee (1938-09-05). "Lee Side o' L.A." The Los Angeles Times. p. 20. Retrieved 2026-05-24.
  4. 1 2 "Honored Writer Was Born in This County; Mrs. Anne Ellis, Nee Anne Heister, Given Degree". Christian County Republican. 1938-04-28. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 Cooper, Esther L. (1931-10-11). "The Life of Plain Anne Ellis is Well Worth Reading". The Des Moines Register. p. 50. Retrieved 2026-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Hunter, Willa Frances Hickman (1930-02-16). "Impressions: Anne Ellis and Her Book". El Paso Times. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Writing Colony Mourns Anne Ellis Who Started Career in Santa Fe". The Santa Fe New Mexican. 1938-09-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Moore, A. J. (1929-10-07). "Story of Miner's Life from Facts; Anne Ellis Pictures Mining Camp Life as of her Own". Nevada State Journal. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Anne Ellis At Work on New Book". Santa Barbara News-Press. 1938-04-03. p. 12. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ West, Elliott (1989). Growing Up with the Country: Childhood on the Far Western Frontier. UNM Press. pp. 47–49. ISBN 9780826311559 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ Ellis, Anne (1997). Plain Anne Ellis: More about the Life of an Ordinary Woman. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803267363 – via Google Books. 1997 reprint of 1934 work with introduction
  12. ↑ Jensen, Joan M. (1995). One Foot on the Rockies: Women and Creativity in the Modern American West. UNM Press. pp. 121–124. ISBN 9780826315397 – via Google Books.
  13. ↑ Ellis, Anne (1984). Sunshine preferred: the philosophy of an ordinary woman. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803218109. 1984 reprint of 1934 work, with introduction
  14. 1 2 3 Earl, Phillip I. (1995-05-09). "Mother's handmade grave marker replaced by state". Elko Daily Free Press. p. 20. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Woman Writer Dies". Fort Collins Coloradoan. 1938-08-29. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Anne Ellis -- Ordinary Woman". Butler Daily Democrat. 1938-10-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-05-24.
  17. ↑ Morreale, Don (June 2020). "A Colorado Panorama: Chief Ouray and Anne Ellis". Your Hub. Denver Post. Archived from the original on 2022-12-04. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  18. ↑ Quillen, Martha (1996-05-01). "The Life of an Ordinary Woman, by Anne Ellis". Colorado Central Magazine.
  19. ↑ "Author of 'Plain Anne' Paid Tribute". Santa Barbara News-Press. 1938-04-26. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-05-24 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Anne Ellis papers". Rare and Distinctive Collections. University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
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