Collene Ellis Keene

Stella Collene Ellis Keene passed away peacefully on February 26, 2019, surrounded by her family. She was born in Hamilton, Missouri on November 11, 1925 to Otis Patrick Ellis and Minerva Hall Ellis of Breckenridge, Missouri, a town of 500 people. She was the youngest of three sisters and a brother: Bernice, the eldest, Marjorie, and twins, Maxwell & Maxine. The family lived on a farm near Breckenridge but moved to a house in town as the children started school and lived there until the parents passed on. But Grandad Ellis had land in the countryside with hay for his cattle, and barns for milk cows and sheep. The family was very close; they spent warm summer nights on the front porch singing songs in harmony. They attended the Assembly of God Church that was one block up the street from their house.

Collene would help her father bring in the milk cows, help with the milking and separate the milk from cream before bottling both for delivery to folks in town. She would ride with her dad in his pickup, and run the bottles up to the doors, pick up the empties, and collect the money in a box for her Dad. Her brothers and sisters also had jobs to help the family get by, including gardening, picking berries, canning vegetables, and sewing clothes.

During the depression of the ’30s and during World War II, the family shared the difficulties and sacrifices of most of the rest of the country. Patrick Ellis managed to get side jobs as an oil delivery truck driver and did hard labor in local towns. Collene’s mother and the children kept the farm going to provide food for the family. Collene’s brother Maxwell enlisted in the US Marine Corps and survived the war in the Pacific, coming home to farm and raising a family of four girls.

Most of Collene's sisters also married local farmers, except for her eldest sister Bernice who, along with her husband Edwin Ziemann from Wisconsin, would become pastors and missionaries in Africa. Collene, admiring her elder sister, was also restless and wanted to see the world. She was swept off her feet by a new boy in town named Jack Keene, whose family had moved to Breckenridge from a small town in Kansas. Jack had big plans to leave small town life behind and join in the war effort like his older brother, Forrest M. Keene, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who had shot down two German aircraft.

So Jack and Collene decided to elope and got married in Kansas City, Kansas, before moving to Memphis, Tennessee in 1943, where Jack joined the U.S. Navy, wanting to follow in the footsteps of his war hero brother and their father who flew in World War I. However, in late 1946, Jack was seriously injured while driving a Naval ambulance, which collided with a car that ran a red light. Prior to the accident, Jack and Collene had a baby daughter, Sharon Kay Keene, and Collene was expecting a child conceived prior to Jack's injury, their son, Jack Donald Keene Jr.

Due to a broken back, Jack Sr. was in a full body cast and traction for 14 months. Collene raised the two children on her own in a small quonset hut provided by the Navy. When Jack was finally released from the hospital, the family moved back to Breckenridge, where Jack went back to farming and crop dusting. Funded by the GI Bill, he completed a B.A. in mathematics and became a high school teacher in New Franklin, Missouri. Their third child, Joanne Louise Keene, was born in Fayette, Missouri in 1951.

In 1954, Jack was unexpectedly sought to join the first ""think tank"" of the RAND Corporation, a contractor with the Lincoln Laboratory at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Jack became one of the first early computer programmers and systems analysts, which involved a dramatic change in the lives of Collene's family. They proceeded to move frequently, following specific Air Force computer defense projects each year. Their fourth child, Janette Lea Keene, was born in Syracuse, New York in 1957 prior to moving to the Air Force base in Grandview, Missouri.

During the yearly relocations of her family, Collene strove to keep a sense of continuity and security for her children. She would often travel to the location of their soon-to-be new home, and make sure that the furniture and children’s rooms were all arranged in a similar manner to their previous home, so that the kids would walk in to a sense of familiarity and hominess.

In 1971, the only child left at home was Janette, the others having moved on to college and establishing their own families. Jack, Collene and Janette moved to Oklahoma City. Jack’s physical condition had deteriorated to the point that he could no longer work. Prior to receiving his official VA disability, the family was suddenly without a means of support. Therefore Collene applied for jobs and became an apartment manager of a 50-unit complex. She subsequently rose to manage a large 1100 unit complex in south Oklahoma City, and supported the family through Janette’s graduation from high school. Collene was able to demonstrate her skills as an excellent businesswoman.

Eventually Jack and Collene settled in Denver, Colorado, where Jack would receive intensive medical treatment for his increasingly painful condition, which was caused by his injuries while in the Navy. He was declared a Disabled Veteran with full benefits, although he kept his mind busy helping out friends with business ventures. The three daughters had settled in the Denver area, and son Jack located his family to Durham, North Carolina.

Collene took meticulous care of her husband through serious health crises until his death in 1989. She remained in their home in Denver for many years, and worked as a volunteer at St. Anthony Hospital on Colfax Ave. Eventually she relocated to a house in Lakewood, Colorado where she made many wonderful friends, and to be near her daughter Joanne.

In the year 2000, Collene tragically experienced the parents’ worst nightmare: she lost her daughters Sharon and Joanne. The family also lost Sharon’s husband, Mike Kindig, a few years later. This followed the news that Collene had Macular Degeneration, and would be losing her sight over the following decade. She also suffered with chronic bouts of the shingles. In Collene’s final years, she lived in an Assisted Living facility in Lakewood, and formed a close friendship with John Maravilla, an extraordinary man who made Collene’s last year meaningful and joyful, with shared Christian values.

Collene’s surviving family are: son Jack Donald Keene, daughter Janette Keene Taylor, and children in-laws: John Dorschner, Judy May Keene, Jeff Jackmond, Linda Jackmond, and Julian Taylor; Grandmother of: Tom Osborn, Jeffrey Dorschner, Jennifer Schmidt, Michael Keene, Lisa Keene Dugan, Matthew Jackmond, Beth Jackmond, Jacqueline Jackmond, Colette Taylor and Maxwell Taylor. Grandchildren in-laws: Kimberly Osborn, Mari Dorschner, Tom Schmidt, Jeff Dugan, and Ann Jackmond. Great-Grandmoether of: Sadie and Tate Osborn, Jeffrey, Sophia and Christopher Dorschner, Grace and Laurel Schmidt, Riley Keene and Jack Oliver Firestone Keene, McKenna May, Keegan Ann and Patrick Jeffrey “PJ” Dugan, and Ella Eun Ae Jackmond.

Visitation will be Friday, March 22, 2019, 4pm-7pm, Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 3101 S. Wadsworth Blvd, Lakewood. A Celebration of Collene’s Life will be Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 11am, Mountair Christian Church, 1390 Benton Street, Lakewood. Burial wll be Monday, March 25, 2019 at 1pm, Staging Area A, Fort Logan National Cemetery.

Visitation: March 22, 2019 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Horan & McConaty - SW Denver/Lakewood
3101 S. Wadsworth Blvd.
Lakewood, CO 80227

Celebration of Life: March 23, 2019 11:00 am

Mountair Christian Church
1390 Benton Street
Lakewood, CO 80214
303-237-5526

Graveside Service: March 25, 2019 1:00 pm

Fort Logan National Cemetery
3698 South Sheridan Boulevard
Denver, CO 80236
(303) 761-0117
https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/ftlogan.asp