Eleanor Lister

Eleanor Ann Glass Lister departed this life Tuesday June 12, 2012 in Bellevue, Idaho with her family at her side following a long battle with emphysema.

Ellie was born December 29th, 1928 in Washington DC, the daughter of Jay Walter Glass and Theresa Glass Alden. Growing up in Washington and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, she had many interesting stories of her childhood and teenage years during World War 2 including air raid drills, blackouts, training as aircraft spotters, and field artillery pieces placed on her high school campus. After venturing to the Midwest for college, Ellie graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute and began work as a commercial artist with Hallmark Cards in Kansas City. She and several friends came to Sun Valley via Union Pacific railroad to work a summer job at the Sun Valley Drug Store after graduation. Like many, she fell in love with this area and never left. With her usual artistic flair, she documented much of her early years in Sun Valley through her paintings and drawings.

She married Johnny Lister in Sun Valley on September 8, 1953 and during their marriage had two children, Evan and David. They were later divorced.

Ellie was always a forward thinking intellectual. She and her husband Johnny along with the Maricichs, Solheims, Solis, and others decided in the early 1960’s that Ketchum needed a more eclectic nightspot to provide an alternative to the normal bars in town. The Leadville Espresso House was born in the old steepled church on Leadville Avenue that later became Louies Pizza. Ketchum in the 1960’s was a conservative western cowboy town, and espresso, imported beers, acoustic folk singers and foreign films were quite a contrast to the established culture and about twenty years ahead of their time.

Ellie also made significant contributions to Ketchum as one of the founding members of the Community Library Association and also served on the first Ketchum Zoning Commission. This was a time when Planning and Zoning regulations were considered a very dangerous thing that would destroy private property. The work of that first Zoning Commission created the rules that prevent large exposed neon signs in Ketchum today. The civic work she participated in, however quietly in the background, was always a source of great satisfaction to Ellie.

Ellie’s third career was as reference librarian at the Community Library in Ketchum. She was very well read and had the ability help patrons find virtually any information in the pre-internet era where reference books and interlibrary loans were the primary research sources. Countless friendships were made over the desk and pages at the Library she loved so much. Free time often found her buried in the latest best seller from the New York Times list or educating herself on a new subject with a 300 page hardback which would be completed that same day. Ellie always had an ongoing stack of books she was in the midst of and was an insatiable reader. Retiring from the Library did not mean an end to her reading, but did give her the time to start through her accumulated collection.

She is survived by her daughter and son in law, Evan Lister Stelma (Bart Lassman) Bellevue, her son and daughter in law, David Lister (Carolyn) of Hailey, her three grandsons, Colin (Megan) Stelma of Fairfield, Nick Stelma of Bellevue, and Jesse Lister of Pflugerville, TX; and by three great grandchildren Ashley and Katie Lister and Alexandra Stelma. Preceding her in death were her parents, her brother and a grandson.

Memorial services will be announced for a later date this summer.