Ellen Frances Gray Massey

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Ellen Frances Gray Massey, of Springfield, Mo., formerly of Lebanon, Mo., passed away Sunday, July 13, 2014, in Springfield. She was born in Nevada, Mo., on Nov. 14, 1921, to Chester Harold and Pearl Welch Gray.

Ellen was an extension home agent, a teacher, and a writer. She started "Bittersweet," a quarterly magazine about the Ozarks researched, written, and published by students in Lebanon High School. She has had 29 books and many short stories published and one play produced. She won several awards for writing, including being inducted in the Writers Hall of Fame of America in 1995, and the Lebanon Missouri Wall of Honor in 2012, and won the Western Writers Spur Award for her youth book "Papa's Gold," this year.

She is survived by son, David Massey and his wife, Deborah, of Columbia, Mo.; daughters, Ruth Massey, of Rogersville, Mo., and Fran Massey and her husband, John Bartolo, of Hobe Sound, Fla.; sister, Carolyn and her husband, Lester Thornton, of Nevada; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and -nephews, great-great-nieces and -nephews, two great-great-great-nieces, and other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, David Lane Massey; mother and father-in-law, Arnett and Cora Massey; sisters, Miriam Gray, Kathryn Dudley, and Gertrude Toth; and brothers, Harold, Ralph, and Vernon Gray.

Burial will be in Mt. Rose Memorial Park. There are no services planned at this time.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to a favorite charity of the donor's choice.

Arrangements are under the direction of Shadel's Colonial Chapel, Lebanon, Mo.