Elsie Maycock Powell
January 26, 1899 - March 9, 2002
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Elsie Maycock Powell was born in Gering, Nebraska on January 26,
1899. When she was a child, her family traveled to Wyoming by covered
wagon and ranched north of Gillette. As a youth she worked on the
ranch: branding calves, herding cattle and raking hay. She was one of
four graduates from Gillette High School in 1919.
She worked as the only woman teller in the Stockmen's Bank in Gillette
for seventeen years and married her fellow-worker, Ben Powell. Her
father and uncle had started the bank. Together, she and Ben had two
children, Martha and Ben Jr. She and her family moved in 1943 to
Sheridan, Wyo., where they were active in First Baptist Church and were
founding members of Calvary Baptist Church. She sewed the clothes for
her children and embroidered, crocheted, and knitted many items. She
pieced together quilt tops. From 1958 to 1965, she and her husband,
Ben, served as missionaries to two country churches in Ranchester and
Big Goose, Wyo. At both Sunday schools, Elsie taught Bible stories to
the children using felt figures on a flannelgraph board. On her 100th
birthday Elsie received a birthday card from a second generation
Christian from the Big Goose country schoolhouse Sunday school saying:
"We have many special memories of the 3B's Sunday school and the
Powell's, the people who brought God's Word and salvation through
Christ! Thank you! Thank you!" (Judy Workman Hayworth, Colstrip,
Montana).
The Ranchester Church is still serving its community forty-six years
later (2004) with a full range of activities for youth and adults. The
card from a second generation Christian from Ranchester Community Church
read: "I have remembered you and your husband from when you went to
Ranchester Community Church. I was just a young tyke but God planted
your Christian walk in my mind. You were a blessing to us all."
(Shirley Baker Allen)
Elsie and Ben were married for 62 years before his death in 1985. That
year, she moved to Louisville, Ky. to live with her daughter and was
active in Baptist Tabernacle church. In 1992, when she was 93 years
old, she completed a 450-page book on her life in Wyoming with
genealogies of the Maycock and Powell families. She was known for
always wearing a hat with flowers on it; whether she was branding calves
or walking downtown or attending church.
Elsie's favorite scripture passage was verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 91: He
who dwells in the secret place of the most high, shall abide under the
shadow of the Almighty. Elsie loved scripture passages with the word
"wings" in them. Verse 4 reads: He (God) shall cover you with his
feathers and under his wings shall you take refuge; His truth shall be
your shield and buckler.
Elsie Maycock Powell, age 103, died March 9, 2002 at Baptist Hospital
East in Louisville, Ky. after living in three centuries. Her survivors
include her daughter, Martha, of Louisville; her son, Ben and his wife
Kathleen of Los Angeles; 4 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. She
is buried in Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, Gillette, Wyo.
Whenever her children left her house after a visit she would say "So
long for now." You can almost hear her say "So long for now. I'll see
you in heaven someday."
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