Nora Lorena Gilley Elam

Nora Lorena Gilley Elam passed peacefully from this earthly life Saturday, December 22, 2018. Service:  1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28, 2018 in White’s Chapel of Memories, 130 Houston Ave., Weatherford 76086 Interment:  Veal Station Cemetery, Parker County. Visitation:  The family will greet family members and friends from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at White’s Funeral Home, Weatherford. Memorials may be made to a church or charity of your choice. Nora was born November 25, 1918 in Sabathany, Parker County, to George Washington “Squire” Gilley and Cleo Lorena White Gilley and joyfully celebrated her 100th birthday four weeks ago. Early in her life she became a member of the Church of Christ at Highland in Parker County. She was a graduate of Azle High School’s 1936 “Centennial” Class, celebrating Texas’ 100th birthday. Nora was a member of Mary Isham Keith Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Julia Jackson Chapter 141, United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1940, she married Lawrence Edward Elam, and they lived out their happy 69-year marriage in Fort Worth, except for a brief while in Bremerton, WA, during WWII.  Nora found great satisfaction in running a neat, well-ordered home. She was mother to three children, and only after they left the nest, did she work outside the home – as a private shopper, and later, doing alterations, revealing her exceptional skills in sewing which she had perfected, creating clothes for herself, her two daughters and on occasion, for her son and husband. To her, family and friends were of greatest focus, embracing a large number of aunts, uncles, cousins and dear friends. She remembered them all and kept in touch whether related by blood or marriage. She was predeceased by her husband, Lawrence; brother, Herbert Weldon Gilley; and sister, Ruth Gilley (Mrs. James) Irwin. Survivors: daughters, Linda Gayle Johnson (Harold); Sonja Iris Starnes (Gary); son, Theron D. Elam (Geneva); granddaughter, Emily Susan Starnes Kinsky (Edward); grandsons, Troy Daniel Elam (Julie); Piper Ashlin Elam (Alisha); great-grandchildren, Josiah Edward Kinsky, Katherine Grace Kinsky, Coleman Reed Elam, Ava Grace Elam, Jack William Elam, Isaac Pritchett and Amber Pritchett.