Eleanor W. Foster, 94, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., formerly of Sioux City, died Monday, Nov. 5, 2007, at Tabor Hills Healthcare Facility in Naperville, Ill. following a brief illness.
Private graveside services will be Friday in Memorial Park Cemetery, Sioux City. There will be no visitation. Local arrangements are under the direction of Christy-Smith Morningside Chapel.
Eleanor W. Foster was born Aug. 14, 1913, in Waterloo, Iowa, to Grayce (Bellman) and Isaac Whitehouse. She moved with her parents to Cherokee, Iowa, then to Omaha. The family came to Sioux City in 1928. She graduated from Central High School and attended Wayne State Teachers College in Nebraska.
She married Elgin Foster on July 15, 1933, in Le Mars, Iowa. He died Oct. 29, 1991. She was a librarian in the Sioux City Public Library System for 28 years. She was head librarian at both Riverside and Fairmount Park branches. When the Fairmount branch closed, she continued to manage the Riverside branch as well as working at the Morningside, Leeds and Smith Villa branches. In 1994, she went to live with her daughter in Glen Ellyn, Ill.
She was a member of Girls of 68, Literary Outlook Club and First Christian Church in Sioux City. She also worked as a volunteer at Marian Health Center and St. Luke's Regional Medical Center for 10 years after her retirement.
Survivors include two daughters and their husbands, Patricia and Arnold Pyle of Glen Ellyn, Ill., and Roberta and John Peterson of Fort Wayne, Ind.; a son and his wife, Elgin and Kathleen (Lynch) Foster of Prior Lake, Minn.; six grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and a sister-in-law, Bernice (Goldsmith) Whitehouse of Dothan, Ala.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, Richard and Robert Whitehouse; and a sister, Phyllis Whitehouse.