Eleanora died peacefully in her sleep at the Sunnyside Permanente Medical Center, in Clackamas, Oregon on Sunday morning, November 26, 2023 after having suffered a major heart attack the previous evening. She was buried Wednesday, November 29, 2023 in River View Cemetery next to Gordon.

Eleanora Helen (DeKrey) Larson was born May 21, 1924, on the family farm in Weiser township (near Pettibone), North Dakota. Her parents were Cornelius DeKrey and Winnie (Vellenga) DeKrey, and she was the second of their seven children. She attended a one-room country school (Weiser School #1) for grades 1 through 8 and graduated as valedictorian from Pettibone High School with her class of 13 students in 1942, after the start of World War 2.

She started teaching in rural ND schools, attending college during the summer and earned a 2-year teaching certificate. During the 1946-1947 school year she taught first grade at a much larger school in Hatton, North Dakota. In that school's High School, Gordon Larson taught classes, including English, and coached basketball. Eleanora married Gordon Howard Larson on May 31, 1947, in the Malcolm Congregational Church in Weiser township. In late 1947, they moved to Vanport, Oregon where Gordon taught at the Vanport Public School. There Linda Lee was born. Then on May 30, 1948, the dikes protecting Vanport failed, and the entire city of 18,500 people flooded. While they were safe, they lost almost all their possessions.

While living in various parts of the Portland, Oregon area, Ellen Kathleen and Howard were both born in 1950. The family moved to the Sunset district of West Linn in 1953, where Eleanora started teaching again and began working towards earning her full four year teaching credentials. Robert Keith was born in 1958 and they bought a home in the Robinwood area of West Linn. Eleanora lived in that house for 62 years, until November 2020, when she moved into a one bedroom apartment at Tanner Spring Assisted Living in West Linn.

Between night classes at Portland State University and Summer classes at the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon State University), Eleanora earned her teaching certificate. In the early 1960s, she started teaching in what is now the North Clackamas School District. She started at Oak Grove School, and soon moved to the then new North Oak Grove School where she taught first grade for many years. She finished her career by teaching special ed reading before retiring in 1985.

Gordon died on February 3, 1977, at the age of 58 after several years of ill health. He is buried at Riverview Cemetery in Portland, and Eleanora joins him in an adjoining plot. While she was married for almost 30 years, Eleanora was a widow for almost 47 years. Eleanora was very active after retiring and volunteered with many different organizations. She was most heavily involved at West Linn First Baptist Church (now New Life Church). She loved singing in choir as well as helping with the Manna pantry and Seniors group. For many years she volunteered most weeks with NW Medical Teams (now Medical Teams International), and went on many international trips with them – including Romania (3), Moldova via Ukraine (2), and Mexico. With the Friendship Force, she went to the Netherlands, England, and New Zealand – and in turn hosted visitors. She went on mission trips to Italy and Mexico. She visited Israel and Greece on a tour led by a seminary professor.

During the 1990s, Eleanora lived two different times for 6 months in Macau (then a Portuguese colony and now part of China) where she served as a mission secretary. Besides Macau, she saw Hong Kong and took a couple of trips into China – which was not common then. On one tour she visited places where the "Flying Tigers" flew supplies into inland China over the Himalayas during WWII – but she was the only person on the tour and had to figure out airport transfers by herself without knowing Chinese.

While Eleanora loved to travel, most of her trips were to visit relatives in Chicago, North Dakota, the Seattle area, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, California and Houston, Texas. Sometimes she went with family members on vacation adventures, including trips to Hawaii, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, and cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean (including going through the Panama Canal). In her early 90s, she went with the DeKrey Family Tour of Holland and with Howard and his wife Susan to visit grandson Jeff and his family while they were stationed with the State Department in Berlin.

Eleanora loved to work in her yard – her fruit trees, blueberry bushes, vegetable garden, and especially her flowers. She made flower arrangements for the church sanctuary for many, many years. She was a member of the garden club at Tanner Spring.

A Memorial Service/Celebration of Life was held at 1 PM, Saturday, December 9th, at New Life Church, 1984 McKillican Street, West Linn, OR 97068.