Elaine Bright died after a brief stay in hospice in Fishersville, Virginia, at age
97.
Elaine was part of the Cadet Nurse Corps during WWII. As a girl, she saw a
role model in the figure and spirit of Emilia Earheart. In an era with few
professional avenues for women, however, she occupied two of them,
spending much of her working life in nursing and medicine, and also as an
instructor.
Elaine was born in Youngstown, Ohio, to Nellie and Stanley Boyd. Her mother
died of cancer at 36; little is known about her father. At 14 she left home to
escape an abusive relationship with a stepfather, and was adopted by Helen
Brooker, a teacher. Just after WWII, in 1947, Elaine met Richard H. (Dick)
Bright at Baldwin Wallace College in the Cleveland suburb of Berea, Ohio.
Their first encounter was in a religion course; not being religiously observant,
both found this to be ironically humorous. Elaine and Dick, a physician,
married in 1950. They had two sons; Rick (1959), and Paul (1962). Elaine and
Dick lived in northeast Ohio until 1981, when they moved to Hilton Head
Island. They moved again, from South Carolina to Virginia in 2000, and in
2002 settled in Fishersville, near Staunton.
Elaine made acquaintances readily wherever she lived, and the couple
attracted and enjoyed a diversity of people regardless of age. As the two
grew older, neighbors arrived unbidden to shovel snow or assist with tasks.
She was an inveterate chronicler of friends’ lives, and could recite which
friend from thirty years ago was living where, and what their children or
grandchildren were up to. Elaine embodied a level of irrepressible energy that
seemed to only increase until very late in life. Even after a series of medical
setbacks beginning in 2006, her vitality and sheer force of will managed to
conceal most of their effects. Ten days before her death she was still able to
dance with her physical therapist.
Her younger sister, Pat Stanzel, died 2021. In addition to her husband, Elaine
is survived by her two sons, three grandsons; Craig, Austin, and Jay, and
three great-grandchildren; Jayden, Vincent, and Chloe.
McDow Funeral Home