Eleanor L. Stevens, 78, handbell-ringer
Last Christmas, Eleanor L. Stevens put on her green vest, packed her black gloves, and headed to a Rockport church to create the handbell harmonies she loved. Her quartet commanded a demanding four octaves of 49 bells for that holiday concert.
She began her lifelong passion for handbells almost 70 years ago, when her mother bought a set of eight bells from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London.
Ms. Stevens performed a few more times before her death July 12 in her Rockport home at age 78. She had battled kidney cancer for several years.
"Ellie just loved music," said Ruth Bowers, who played handbells with her at the Rockport Baptist Church. "She was a very kind lady, and that's how she related a lot was through bell ringing."
Friends and family described Ms. Stevens as a quintessential New Englander. She was frugal, self-sufficient, and loved to sail. She was secretary of the Sandy Bay Yacht Club in Rockport, where flags fly at half-mast this week in her honor. She enjoyed sailing on the boat of her late brother, James O. Runkle, and racing her good friend, Emily Wick, an avid sailor and friend for 55 years.
"She was very kind to everybody and always worked hard," Wick said. Wick had to give up sailing recently because of knee problems, and Ms. Stevens often drove her to her doctor's appointments.
Ms. Stevens, who was married briefly and divorced, nurtured many friendships. "We never worried about Ellie being alone, because she had a huge circle of friends," said her niece, Virginia Scott of Gilroy, Calif.
Ms. Stevens was born in Tiffin, Ohio, where her mother, Helen (Tarr) Runkle, had moved from Massachusetts to teach at Heidelberg College and met her husband, Lloyd Runkle. The couple soon moved back to Helen's native Cape Ann, where Ms. Stevens went to school in Gloucester.
Her mother was a church organist and had her daughter study piano as a child. In her living room, Ms. Stevens kept a painting of herself at age 9 sitting beside her mother's piano, according to friend Ingrid Brown.
In 1950, she graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, after majoring in Spanish and French.
After college, Ms. Stevens went to work for Air France in Boston and sang with the professional Boston choir Chorus Pro Musica, beginning in the 1950s. She also sang with the professional choir at Trinity Church. She later lived in Denver, Portland, Ore., and New York.
By the 1970s, she had returned to Massachusetts and worked 22 years at
Brown said her friend's secretarial devotion came from a lost era. "For the most part, people don't want to make the commitments to keeping things together for other people the way she did," she said.
Ms. Stevens's great niece, Kendra Scott, 24, of Gilroy, Calif., recalled playing a handbell performance at age 14 with her aunt and her mother.
She said she was thrilled when her normally reserved aunt said she was proud of Scott for hitting her notes. Ms. Stevens later gave Scott the original set of Whitechapel bells her mother had given her, plus an additional octave, as a graduation present.
"I was stunned and thrilled," said Scott, who is a music teacher. "I was amazed she would choose me to get the bells. I have sort of made it my personal goal to widen people's understanding of handbells."
Ms. Stevens leaves her sister-in-law, Priscilla Runkle of Billerica, and several other nieces and nephews.
Her family is planning an October memorial concert at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Rockport. Burial of her ashes will take place at Beech Grove Cemetery in Rockport. 