Eleanor Merlie

WESTVILLE Eleanor Dowiatt Merlie, 89, of Westville died at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 27, 2014) at the Bridle Brook Senior Living Community, Mahomet. Her daughters are grateful for the compassionate care given their mother by the Bridle Brook staff and Carle Hospice. On Thursday friends and family remembered Mrs. Merlie as a beautiful person with a kind and gentle manner and as a talented homemaker, seamstress and “darn good cook.” She had learned how to cook Lithuanian food from her ancestors and Italian fare from her mother-in-law, Rose Fava Merlie. Eleanor also was a talented writer. As a young woman she won a national radio-sponsored writing contest with her essay about Washington Irving. Later in life she wrote the “Grandmas Musings” column for the Vermilion County edition of The News-Gazette. In those she told of her “jaunts” with her oldest daughter and the history of Westville throughout her life she remained proud of its and her own immigrant heritage. She also was an avid and discerning reader, enjoying books and playing “Words with Friends” until the end of her life. She played golf and loved to hike, particularly at Forest Glen Preserve, near where she had grown up. She was born Oct. 18, 1924, in McKendree Township east of Westville, a daughter of P.J. Dowiatt II and Helen Nolan Dowiatt. She graduated in 1938 from Blakeney School, a one-room schoolhouse near her family farm. She went on to graduate from Westville High School in 1942 in the top 10 percent of her class. She wanted to attend college. But because her family couldnt afford it she instead worked as a secretary at Danville factories and later as a legal secretary including for her husband, Donald L. Merlie. The two were married July 10, 1948, at St. Marys Church, Westville. Later in life, after her children were working, Mrs. Merlie took classes at Danville Area Community College, where she was known as a bright and enthusiastic student. While in her 80s, she returned to the college to tutor foreign students in English. Besides her husband, at Bridle Brook in Mahomet, survivors include daughters Melissa Merli of Urbana, Patty (Cliff McWilliams) Merlie of Leawood, Ks., and Carol (Mike) Hatfield of Champaign; four grandchildren, Tony (Katie) Merlie and Jimmy (Tina) Merlie, all of Indianapolis; Angie Hatfield (Danny) Marker, Savoy; and Nic Hatfield, Champaign; six great-grandsons, Kyle, Max, Joseph and Will Merlie and Johnny and Dean Marker; and daughter-in-law Nancy Fadale Merlie, Danville. Mrs. Merlie was preceded in death by her firstborn child, Michael J. Merlie, in May 2013; her parents; and her sister and brother, Regina Dowiatt and P.J. (Fifi) Dowiatt III. Visitation will be from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, August 31, 2014, at Sunset-Urbas Funeral Chapel, Westville, followed by a memorial service at 4 p.m. with Father Luke Spannagel of St. Johns Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois. Mrs. Merlies body was cremated, per her wishes.