Elva Etta Brittain Strickland

Elva Etta Brittain Strickland, born May 09, 1921, went to be with her Lord and Savior after a period of brief decline and surrounded by family on July 09, 2020. A native of Burke County, she was a strong member of her community. Serving her church Calvary Baptist as a lifelong member, she played the piano for services, sang in the choir, and taught Sunday school. As a young girl, her days were filled with family enjoying singalongs with her parents and siblings. In 1943, she traveled by train to Jacksonville FL to find work at a naval shipyard during World War 2. It was there that she met the love of her life, her late husband Frank Strickland, and returned to Morganton to share 54 wonderful years. She was a hard-working woman who retired from Belk’s in Morganton after a 45-year career as the office manager. Elva was a woman of many talents. A great cook for her family at many Sunday lunch gatherings, a gardener who still tended a small harvest until into her 90’s, a musician who filled the walls of her home with beloved hymns and old timey songs, and a seamstress who made beautiful dance and majorette costumes for her daughters as well as an afghan and a quilt for each of her family members. She loved to travel and took many trips abroad with her late husband and their friends to places including London, Spain, and Nassau, as well as trips in the US including Hawaii and Las Vegas. She had a true spirit of adventure and was not one to be on the sidelines, riding some of the best rollercoasters of the southeast in her 70’s and sitting in the front car with her hands up the last time she rode one....at age 91. In her later years, she loved outings, movies, and sitting on the porch snapping a bucket of beans while the sun set. With a prayer every morning and one before bed, she walked with her Lord and Savior all through each day. Her greatest joys were times with family, which she had plenty of. Now with her Lord and Savior in Heaven, she will be missed greatly here on earth by those who loved her. Preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her siblings, she is survived by two daughters, Angela Beck and Mitzi Hendrix and her husband, Stan, of Morganton, four granddaughters, Anna Hairfield and her husband Frederik Winther, and her children Jarred Stancil, Travis Stancil, Hannah Ferris and son, Albert, Nathan Holdsworth, and Claire and Cara Hairfield, granddaughter Heather Beck Lueft and husband Mikhail, and their children, Ella and Isabel, granddaughter Jenny Beck and her children, Patience Miller Giron and her husband Josh and their little girl on the way, and Kinsey Benton, granddaughter Lori Beck Rice and her husband, Josh, and their two children, Lily Kate and Easton.

Funeral services will be held at Summit Community Church, formerly Calvary Baptist Church at 2pm on Monday 07/13/2020. There will be a procession to Burke Memorial Park immediately following the service where she will be laid to rest.

Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to Operation Christmas Child Samaritan’s Purse at www.samaritanspurse.org.

Sossoman Funeral Home and Crematory Center is assisting the family with the arrangements.