Eleanor Lynn DeBray Caraway

A memorial service for Eleanor Lynn DeBray Caraway will be held Sunday November 22 at the First United Methodist Church in Monroe. Visitation will be at 2:00, followed by the memorial service at 3:00. It is requested that guests wear masks and maintain social distancing. The officiating clergy will be Rev. Brian Mercer and Dr. Larry Stafford.

Eleanor Lynn DeBray, born in Winnfield, LA on October 1, 1933, was the child of Eva Mae Jackson and Harold Leon DeBray. She was preceded in death by her parents and by her brother Harold Jackson DeBray and his wife Betty. Eleanor passed away November 19, 2020.

Eleanor graduated from Winnfield High School as Valedictorian of the class of 1951. She and her husband to be Stone Caraway met their senior year of high school and upon graduating became students at Centenary College. She and Stone were married in 1952, and in 1954 she graduated Cum Laude from Centenary with a degree in education. They spent the next three years in Dallas and Garland, Texas, where she taught elementary students and gave birth to their daughter Diane. They returned to Louisiana in 1957 where they lived out their lives. Eleanor taught a total of nine years in public elementary schools. She was actively involved in the churches her husband served, assisting him where ever a need occurred. She was the organist in two churches. Prior to graduation from high school she had received nine years of piano instruction. She also led music activities and taught at various levels of the church school. She was an accomplished musician and educator. She was active in the Parent Teachers Association, and she was a member of a PEO Chapter in Shreveport.

Eleanor was a consummate seamstress, and for a number of years, she made the majority of hers and Diane's clothes. She also was a proficient and creative porcelain china painter displaying a number of her works in her home. She loved dogs, and with sincere devotion, she cared for and enjoyed several collies as well as a golden retriever. Eleanor and Stone enjoyed traveling in all 50 states, 20 national parks, and many countries.

When living in Lafayette where Stone served as the senior minister of Asbury United Methodist Church, professor Dr. Richard Chandler of ULL wrote in his book Asbury, a history of the church: "Eleanor Caraway busied herself in many activities of the church, and it can be said without fear of contradiction that no pastor's wife has been more involved in church work than she was. Her departure diminished Asbury."

Eleanor was a wife cherished by her husband of sixty-nine years. She was a lady of grace and kindness which endeared her to others, and she passed along her great love for family to her daughter Diane and son-in-law C. A. "Hap" Martin Ill. Her heart filled also with her love for her grandchildren and their wives: C. Allan Martin IV and Amanda Leigh Maxwell, Wesley "Wes" Walker Martin and Emily Alice Husted and her great-grandchildren: Emma Michael, Avery Stone, Walker Allan and Levi Reid. She spoke often of the wonderful joy she experienced with the family she loved so much, and they adored her.