Ellen R. Westbrook

Ellen R. Westbrook, 89, passed away on January 8 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Maryland, after being hospitalized for pneumonia on New Year’s Day.

Born Ellen Karla Rasmussen in Seattle, Washington, Ellen was the fourth of five daughters whose parents, Thorvald and Karla, immigrated to the U.S. from Denmark in 1922. From an early age she loved to sing and in her teens taught herself the Hawaiian steel guitar, often playing at family gatherings and local events. After graduating from high school, she worked as a comptometrist (the operator of a mechanical precursor of the calculator) for Western Electric’s Seattle office and saved enough money in four years to move to San Francisco with two girlfriends, where she found a position with Bechtel Corporation.

Returning to Seattle in the early 1950s, Ellen spent four years at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, vacationing twice in Hawaii with her friend Helen. In October 1955, she met Dale Westbrook at an officer’s club party, and in October of the next year they were married.

The couple traveled cross-country multiple times in their mobile home while Dale was on surveying crews, stopping in Seattle to have their first child, Matthew, in 1959. In 1961, when Dale was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, Ellen had a second son, Eric, and in 1967 she gave birth to a third, Christopher, while living in Bowie, Maryland.

A devoted wife and mother and a meticulous homemaker, Ellen remained in her Bowie home, which she and Dale purchased new in 1963, for 56 years, the last 18 as a widow. She cultivated friendships, sang with the Bowie Sweet Adelines women’s barbershop chorus, and worked part-time at a local department store while caring for her family. She doted on her five grandchildren, who were born beginning in the ‘90s, and as they grew liked nothing more than to hear of their interests and activities and watch them perform at family gatherings—just as she had done as a child.

Ellen is survived by her three sons, Matthew, Eric, and Christopher; daughters-in-law Barbara and Pamela; and grandchildren Kira, Kimberly, Jennifer, Elizabeth, and Daniel.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Ellen’s name may be made to the National Park Foundation at https://donate.nationalparks.org/page/23790/donate/1?chain.