May 4, 1925 – July 9, 2020
Elizabeth S. Pursell passed-away on July 9 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center; she was 95-years-old
Elizabeth May Shrout was born May 4, 1925 in Independence, Missouri to Thomas Jefferson Shrout and Bernice Idalee Shrout. She was the youngest of four children and the only girl. She was raised on the family farm during the Great Depression.
Liz loved growing up on the farm, something that never left her. She learned at a young age that when something broke you made do by fixing it with whatever you had and she practiced that for the rest of her life. She graduated from William Chrisman High School in 1943 and in 1944, she attended Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. After a year she returned home to help attend to a family member, but some say she was also homesick.
In April 1947, she married Richard Carlye Legg and that fall they moved from Independence to Coos Bay, Oregon. Dick’s brother lived there and had work. In 1948, they moved to Jacksonville and never left. In 1950, they purchased the Shell Station from Otto Heckert. Liz helped to run the gas station, doing whatever was needed; picking up and delivering customers’ cars, chasing parts, doing the books, etc. In 1952, they had a son, Charles Paul Legg, and in 1954, they moved into the house she would live in for the next 66 years. In 1959, their second child was born, Thomas J. Legg. In 1969, she and Dick divorced and in 1970, she took the Civil Service test and went to work for the Jacksonville Post Office, retiring in 1987. In 1972, Liz got a loan and hired Red Bowman and Kenny Owen to build a Beauty Shop on her property, all on her own. After a long courtship, she married Kenneth C. Pursell on December 31, 1977. Together, she and Ken worked, and often stayed at Ken’s ranch on Spencer Gulch in the Applegate. The farm girl was back on the farm! They enjoyed many years together until Ken’s passing in 1995.
Liz joined the Jacksonville Presbyterian Church in July 1958 and supported the church up until her passing. She was also a lifetime member of the Jacksonville Community Center. Liz loved Jacksonville and made many lifelong friends there.
Liz was preceded in death by her parents, Thomas Shrout and Bernice Shrout, her brothers, Thomas Reuben Shrout and his wife, Mildred, the twins: Dewitt Clinton Shrout and Charles David Shrout, her son, Charles Paul Legg and her husband Kenneth Chester Purcell. She is survived by her two sisters-in-law, Betty Shrout and Harriet Shrout, her cousin, Paula Jones, her son, Thomas Legg, her grandchildren, MacKenzie Elizabeth Legg, Charles and Andraya Legg, their two children, Sy and Isaiah, plus, her two nieces, six nephews and her three best friends, Marlene, Melba, and Geraldine.
Liz requested no service or funeral be held. Her headstone is in the family plot, at the Salem Cemetery in Independence, MO. Memorial Contributions may be made to any of the following:
The Jacksonville First Presbyterian Church – P.O. Box 297 Jacksonville, OR 97530, The-Jacksonville Community Center – P.O. Box 1435 Jacksonville, OR 97530, Cottey College 1000 W. Austin Blvd., Nevada, MO 64772, First Christian Church, 125 S Pleasant St Independence, MO 64056.
Liz lived independently up until the day she went to the hospital and passed-away. She wouldn’t have had it any other way.