Ross, Eliza Etta Brenneman (1904-1954)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1954 Dec 30 p. 1

Birth date: 1904 Nov 8

text of obituary:

WIFE OF HESSTON MINISTER KILLED ON KANSAS HIGHWAY

Mrs. Eliza E. Ross, 50, wife of Rev. I. Mark Ross of Hesston, was killed in an auto accident on U. S. 59 north of Baldwin Junction, near Lawrence, Kans. Wednesday morning, Dec. 29, according to word received here.

The Rosses were en route to Hesston when their car and another vehicle sideswiped in a snowstorm. Rev. Ross, former instructor and field representative off Hesston College, was not injured.

Funeral services will be held Saturday afternoon at Kalona, Iowa, Mrs. Ross' s former home. She leaves her husband and a daughter, Mrs. Leroy Guengerich of near Kansas City, Mo.

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Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1955 Jan 13 p. 8

text of obituary:

ELIZA E. ROSS

Eliza Etta, eldest daughter of Joseph C. and Alice V. (Swartzendruber) Brenneman, was born near Kalona, Iowa on the Brenneman homestead Nov 8, 1904. She departed this life on Dec. 29, 1954, at the age of 50 years, one month and 21 days. Her death was due to fatal injuries received in a car accident on U.S. Highway 59, 10 miles south of Lawrence, Kansas. She quietly slipped away a few minutes after the crash.

In her early youth she confessed Christ as her Saviour and was baptized by Sanford C. Yoder, becoming a member of the East Union Mennonite church. In this faith she faithfully and joyously served her Lord until the end.

On June 23, 1929, she was united in marriage by Sanford C. Yoder to I. Mark Ross of Elida, Ohio, where she made her home the first six months of her married life. The yearnings of her mother heart were rewarded when,in His great goodness and in answer to prayer, God placed in her arms a sweet smiling babe, only a few months old whom she names Beulah Ferne, and upon whom she lavished here mother love. The crowning joy of her earthly pleasures was the happy privilege of recently caring for her newborn grandchild in her daughter's home, toward which she had looked with great anticipation.

She was preceded in death by her parents. She leaves to mourn her departure her husband I. Mark Ross, a minister of Hesston, Kansas; her daughter, Mrs. LeRoy Guengerich, Gashland, Mo.; her six-weeks-old grandson, Mark Leon; one brother, Maynard M. Brenneman, Kalona, Iowa; three sisters, Mary Ellen Brenneman, living with Ruth, Mrs. Norman Earnest, and Mildred, Mrs. Virgil Hochstetler, all of Nampa, Idaho; one aged paternal uncle, Harvey Swartzendruber, Kalona, Iowa; scores of cousins and other relatives, and a host of admiring friends and acquaintances.

She, with her companion, moved to the home place near Kalona in 1930, where they farmed through 1937. The date of her burial, Jan. 1, is the 17th anniversary of Jan. 1, 1936, when at the Master's call, she with her companion and five year old daughter moved to Hesston, Kansas, where he enrolled in Hesston Colleg [sic] and Bible School in preparation for more extensive service. From 1936 until 1945 they were given pastoral charge of the Woodlawn [sic Woodland] Mennonite church, Wichita, Kansas, three years of which were resident in Wichita. In November 1942, they returned to live at Hesston, which remained their home at the time of her passing.

Her life was an continuous flow of unselfish sacrifice, service and love. She labored long and hard to assist financially through years of college training. She stood faithfully by her minister-husband in mission and evangelistic work, often being at home for weeks in his absence. She was alert to needs of others on every hand. She reveled in her Sunday school and summer Bible school classes, having taught school before her marriage.

She knew no idle moments. Her heart was full of love to others and her hands were filled with work — handy work, needle work, and hard work mostly for others. Her hands moved swiftly and aptly at their joyous tasks. A moment before her untimely death her lap was filled with work, the highway, permit her willing hands to continue their tasks, the 20th century version of a New Testament Dorcas.

Her daily journal was filled with items, a silent testimony to her devotion to others. Her hands and heart were ready for service or summons. Her radiant smile so genuine, so pure, a spontaneous flash of inner joy, cheered many lives and won her many admirers. A spring of praise and "Thank yous" flowed constantly from her grateful heart. No favor, small or great, could she receive without a radiant, overflowing "thank you."

Her last years in company with her evangelist husband were her richest and best. The last summer with the Brunk evangelistic party being the crowning diadem of a life dedicated to the salvation of the souls of "others, who have no hope."

Funeral services were held at the East Union Mennonite church near Kalona, Iowa, with John Y. Swartzendruber, A. Lloyd Kauffman participating. Burial was in the East Union cemetery.

A complement to her unselfish and helpful spirit in the Goshen College annual, 1928, the year of her graduation, "If you need help, ask Eliza," prompted the following tribute by her sorrowing companion, penned at midnight for the occasion.

The Father Needed Hands

The Father needed hands,
     Willing hands, untiring and nimble,
To bathe a weary brow and minister with thread and thimble,
And feet of strength, all swift and steady,
Feet of consecration to the meanest tasAnd k, and ready;
     And so he asked Eliza.

The Father called His own — His purchased one, His blood-bought one.
His precious one, elect, and precious one, with ready hands and feet;
With ready lips, and ready smile, always ever-ready smile,
And ready heart — made ready all the while through Jesus Blood,
Ready for heaven, home and glory.
     And so He called Eliza.

He needs me too with hands and feet all steady,
And lips and smile all genuine and ready;
And heart and mind with Love Divine aflame,
To minister and to serve in His dear name,
And so Dear Lord, I'm yours for service or for summons.
I hear your call, I too am ready,
     In Loving Remembrance. — I. Mark Ross.