Obituary

CANYON -- Graveside services for Elsie Peckham, 87, former Plainview resident, will be at 2 p.m. Monday in Plainview Memorial Park Cemetery. Arrangements are by Brooks Funeral Directors of Canyon. Mrs. Peckham died Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005, in Amarillo.

Elsie Maye Anderson Peckham was born May 5, 1918, in Celeste, Texas, to Lester and Martha Anderson. The family farmed in Duke, Okla., and Lockney. She graduated from Lockney High School when she was 14 years old. After graduation she stayed at home and worked on the farm with her brothers and sisters. In her spare time, she read every book she could get her hands on. At times, the book she was reading was so interesting that she would hide behind their piano to read instead of doing her farm chores. She was so little that no one else in the family could find her behind the piano. She wanted to be a doctor, but during the Depression there wasn't enough money to send her to medical school, so she went to nurses school in Plainview. Upon her graduation as a Registered Nurse, she worked at the Plainview Hospital. She later moved to Lubbock and worked at Methodist Hospital.

While she was in Lubbock, she met Lawrence "Larry" Allen Peckham Jr., who was stationed at Reese Air Force Base. They married in January 1942. Larry was transferred to Bryan, Texas, and Elsie worked at the hospital in Bryan. Their daughter, Martha Ruth was born in September 1943. After the war, Elsie and Larry moved to Plainview. She worked at the Plainview Hospital and then in Lockney as the school nurse for seven years. She also worked at the Plainview Public Health Department, St. Mary's Hospital in Lubbock as nurse supervisor and was also a private duty nurse. She and Larry owned Hillcrest Motel. Elsie wrote a cookbook, "Sugarless Cookery for the Gourmet." Elsie was a longtime resident of Plainview and moved to Canyon in 1996. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Plainview.

Surviving is her daughter, Martha Ruth Allred of Canyon. She was preceded in death by her husband, Larry; four brothers, Clyde, Milt, Clay and Raymond; and three sisters, Mozelle Durham, Nellie Felder and Ellen Anderson. We will always remember her beautiful smile and how she was always willing to help people in need. She will be greatly missed but she will always be in our hearts.

Published in Plainview Daily Herald from Sept. 25 to Sept. 26, 2005