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Obituaries

Obituary for Elinor Elizabeth Kundert Denney Elinor Elizabeth Kundert Denney
South Dakota Native Was Active Lexington Retiree

Four days prior to her 102nd birthday, Elinor Elizabeth Kundert Denney of Lexington departed this life on March 19, 2018 at the age of 101.

A descendent of early settlers to the Dakota Territory, she was born March 23, 1916, in Akaska, S.D., to Karl John Kundert and Magdalene Kayser Kundert and was one of four sisters, all of whom predeceased her.

Reared in Parkston and Bowdle, she attended Dakota Wesleyan University, where she was on the tennis team and sang in an a cappella choir. Transferring to Berea College in Kentucky during the Great Depression, Mrs. Denney worked her way through school while completing her studies, majoring in English and German and graduating in 1938. Upon graduation, she accepted a position in the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service office in Rockcastle County and met attorney Edwin R. Denney, whom she married after having moved on to work at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati.

After her marriage, Kentucky became Mrs. Denney's home. There, in Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County, Mrs. Denney was devoted to supporting her husband in his role as circuit court judge and minority floor leader of the Kentucky legislature. She also became loving mother to Suzanne Denney Carmichael, now of Lexington, and the late Joseph Edwin Denney, formerly of Mt. Airy, N.C. Mrs. Denney and Judge Denney spent much of their free time devoted to the mission program of the Mount Vernon Baptist Church, especially the small county mission at Chestnut Ridge.

In 1953, upon Judge Denney’s appointment as United States District Attorney, Mrs. Denney moved with her family to Lexington, Ky., where she became a highly respected community leader. An active member of the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs, she also served as president of the Woman's Club of Central Kentucky. For many years she taught adult Bible classes at Calvary Baptist Church and was on the boards of the Lexington YWCA and the Arnett Pritchett Home for senior ladies. A tireless advocate of historic preservation, she was instrumental in the restoration of the Dr. Ephraim McDowell House in Danville, Ky., and the Northborough, Mass., home of Luther Rice, founder of Columbian College, now George Washington University.

Throughout her life Mrs. Denney treasured all forms of artistic expression. She was a member of the National Society of Arts and Letters and especially enjoyed promoting the work of young artists. As a Donovan Scholar at The University of Kentucky, she studied creative writing. Her short stories and poems, some published in local literary magazines, are cherished by her family. Her grandchildren proudly display her original oil paintings in their homes, and her beautiful hand-stitched quilts grace their beds. Many a family gathering was enriched by Mrs. Denney's vivid imagination. Her granddaughters still recall waiting up to see if her collection of porcelain and hand-sewn dolls truly had a midnight tea party.

In addition, Mrs. Denney loved entertaining with luncheons and teas, both in her home on Queensway and at Idle Hour Country Club. Her Kentucky residence and the family's winter home on Sanibel Island in Florida were gathering places where friends and family knew they would find delicious homemade food, stories rich in humor, and always warm acceptance.

In 2000, 14 years after her husband's death, Mrs. Denney joined her daughter and son-in-law in Virginia, where she made her home at Kendal at Lexington Retirement Community. There, Mrs. Denney didn't miss a beat. She brought her piano and auto harp and was soon performing with the Kendal Singers. She joined the poetry, needlework and weekly Bible study groups. Early Kendal employees remember her each week decorating the tables in the dining hall with fresh flowers from the garden she planted on the Kendal grounds. In the wider Lexington community, the friendships she developed through the Lexington Woman's Club and Manly Memorial Baptist Church became a special joy. And, when she was well into her 90s, Mrs. Denney wrote and published a family history and personal memoir entitled, "From the Black Sea to the Blue Ridge."

Mrs. Denney is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Denney Carmichael, and son-in-law, Col. H. St. G. T. Carmichael III, of Lexington; her daughter-in-law, Linda Deyton Denney, of Mt. Airy, N.C.; five grandchildren and their spouses, H. St. G. T. Carmichael IV and wife, Alicia, of Bowling Green, Ky., Anne Carmichael Wilkie and husband, David, of Atlanta, Sarah Denney Young and husband, Paul, of Winston Salem, N.C., Melissa Denney Snow and husband, Tom, of Raleigh, N.C., and Joseph Ryan Denney and wife, Benita, of Durham, N.C.; as well as eight great-grandchildren and beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.

A memorial service and Christian burial will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 19, 2018 at Elk Spring Cemetery in Monticello, KY.

The family especially wishes to express appreciation to the kind and dedicated nursing staffs of Kendal at Lexington's Webster Assisted Living Center and Benjamin Borden Health Center, as well as Rockbridge Area Hospice.

For those wishing to make memorial gifts, the family suggests Rockbridge Area Hospice, 315 Myers St., Lexington, VA 24450, or Kendal at Lexington Employee Appreciation Fund, 160 Kendal Drive, Lexington, VA 24450.

Arrangements are by Harrison Funeral Home and Crematory in Lexington and Hickey and Son Funeral Home in Monticello, Ky.