Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Crestwood Cemetery for Eleanor Helen Otto Hilleke, who was born on October 10, 1916, to George Wilhelm and Pauline Bierig Otto in Hillside, New Jersey, where she not only worshipped at the First Presbyterian Church from age 6, but also, later taught private ballet lessons to her students.
Having married an Alabama boy, James Dempsey Hilleke, in 1942, two weeks prior to his three-year Army deployment overseas, she continued her volunteer work with the American Theater Wing, danced and worked occasionally at her parents' restaurants. Upon his return, they moved to Alabama, settling finally in Gadsden in 1949, where they reared their six adorable children while he worked for Republic Steel and she eventually as assistant secretary, librarian and bookstore manager for the First Presbyterian Church.
While in her eighties, she taught her last ballet lessons in her downstairs studio until, at 93, she moved to Monroe, La., to live with one of her sons from where, on Monday, July 28, 2014, she departed to be with her Lord and loved ones.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Col. James Dempsey Hilleke; two young sons, Glen Alan Hilleke and Lee Owen Hilleke; one grandson, William Andrew Hilleke; and her only sibling, Pauline Otto Lorentz.
She is survived by four of her children, son James William and wife, Laura Ayres Hilleke, of Monroe, La.; daughter, Adele Hilleke and husband, Rev. Alan Arthur Morrow, of Clover, S.C.; son, Dr. Russell Otto and wife, Beth Horton Hilleke, of Charleston, S.C.; daughter, Gwen Hilleke and husband, Rev. Joseph Steven Wilkins, of Monroe, La.; and by 15 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren (2 more waiting in the wings); and, the Lord willing, many more to come.