Elsa A. Duke

     Elsa Duke passed away peacefully on April 12, 2024.  In the many days leading up to her passing, she was surrounded by her loving family.  

     Elsa, formerly Elsa Anne Stopp, was born on March 25th, 1946, the eldest child of Herbert and Rosemary Stopp, and sister to Erhardt and Phyllis Stopp.

     When she was 13 years old, at her bother Erhardt's little league baseball game, she met Jodie Duke, whose brother, Allen was playing in the same game.  After that first meeting, Jodie and Elsa attended their church's Valentine's sweetheart banquet together, and later became high school sweethearts.  

      Elsa was a three-sport varsity athlete in High School and studied coursework to become a physical therapist at the University of Missouri at Saint Louis.   But when her high school sweetheart, Jodie planned to pursue his PhD in Chemistry at the University of Michigan, she happily accepted his offer of marriage, traveling with him to Michigan to start their new life as husband and wife.  They were married on August 19th, 1967.  They were married for 57 years.

      Elsa and Jodie's first child, Deanna was born in 1969 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.   Soon after her birth, Jodie was drafted into the Vietnam War. Elsa and Deanna soon found themselves living in Valley Station, Kentucky where Jodie was stationed. Following various work opportunities after the war, the young family lived again in Ann Arbor, Saint Louis, and Decatur, Illinois. In Decatur, Elsa and Jodie's second child, Duane was born.   After a short time in Winston Salem, North Carolina, Elsa and Jodie moved their family of four to Newark, Delaware in 1983.  They lived in the Pike Creek neighborhood there for 39 years.

      As a member of the Hockessin Baptist Church (now Sycamore Hill Church) for nearly 40 years, Elsa worked in the nursery, helped with Sunday School, worked on the flower committee, and helped run the church's Vacation Bible School.   At the church, she and Jodie made lifelong friends.

      Above all, Elsa was a devoted wife to Jodie; a loving and dedicated mother to Deanna (spouse Tom) and Duane (spouse Liz); and a loving "Oma" to her four grandchildren, Matthew, Madelynn, Liam, and Emma.  Although she traveled around the country during much of her young adult life, she treasured her home in Newark; her home was her oasis.   She was an avid decorator and an expert gardener.  In addition to cultivating flowers in her backyard, she spent countless hours raising and tending to her four grandchildren.  She is dearly missed.  

     Please join us for a celebration of Elsa Duke's life on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at Sycamore Hill Church, 505 Schoolhouse Road, Hockessin, DE 19707. Visitation will be from 1:00-2:00pm followed by a Funeral Service at 2:00pm. Interment will follow at Hockessin Friends Memoral Cemetery, 1501 Old Wilmington Road, Hockessin, DE 19707.  In lieu of flowers, donations to the Michael J Fox foundation for Parkinson's disease would be welcomed.  Online at www.michaeljfox.org/ or send check made payable to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, P.O. Box 5014, Hagerstown, MD 21741.  

     Arrangements are by Matthew Grieco of Grieco Funeral Home & Crematory, Inc. (484-734-8100) of Kennett Square. To view Elsa's online obituary and to share a memory with her family, please visit  www.griecofunerals.com.