Eleanor Christensen Wilt passed from death to eternal life Tuesday, January 15, 2019. She was 92. Born in New York City to Danish-American parents, August and Emma Christensen, Ellie, as she was known to her friends, was active in her Brooklyn neighborhood Lutheran Church, St. Stephen. Throughout her life, she was a voracious and wide-ranging reader of novels, biographies and other non-fiction. She was also an avid reader of newspapers, and until shortly before her passing, read three each day: the local paper, "USA Today" and "The New York Times."
After high school, she attended Brooklyn College and worked for American Express. She married Frederick Wilt, on December 23, l950. They moved to Lafayette, Indiana, in 1955 where Fred was senior resident agent for the FBI. The couple reared three daughters, all graduates of Purdue University. Ellie loved to travel. One of her most memorable trips included a voyage to Helsinki, Finland for the 1952 Summer Olympic Games, where Fred competed in long distance track events. She also later accompanied Fred to track and field clinics around the world, including Australia, Canada, France, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad.
Ellie is remembered as a gracious hostess to many international track coaches and dignitaries who over the years enjoyed the warm hospitality of the Wilt home in Lafayette, making stops there from faraway places such as
India, Jordan, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and many others. It was said that while the "track people" enjoyed talking shop with Fred, they enjoyed Ellie's intelligent, lively conversation, and kind manner just as much. Fred was the writer and Ellie the technical illustrator of some twenty books on track and field athletics, training, and physiology.
When Fred retired from the FBI and became the head coach for the Women's Track and Field team at Purdue University in l978, Ellie naturally was part of the team. She accompanied them to all their competitions and talked with the athletes, encouraging them, and offering sage counsel. She was indispensable to Fred in the office as well, writing up training regimens and event results, and lending a kind ear to stressed, injured, or homesick athletes. She was later recognized as an assistant coach. Fred and Ellie retired from coaching in l989. Ellie continued her interest in books and reading in the following years becoming a valuable advisor and assistant to daughter Christina's literary agency, Hebsgaard Associates. With her brother Albert, Ellie co-authored a manuscript titled "Voyage of the Anna Salen", which chronicled her stay in the Orkney Islands off Scotland where the Swedish liner collided with a Norwegian vessel.
Eleanor was preceded in death by her husband, Frederick Wilt; daughter, Christina (Edward) Lipka; grandson, Andrew Barnett; sisters, Norma Christensen and Irene (John) Hall, and brother, Albert (Jean) Christensen.
Eleanor is survived by two daughters, Barbara (Paul) Bustion, of Anderson, Indiana; Candace (Richard) Barnett, of Atlanta, Georgia; grandchildren, Alex (Becky) Lipka, of Urbana, Illinois; Olivia Bustion, of Chicago, Illinois; Cassandra (Walter) Leite, of Gainesville, Florida; Paul Bustion III, of Anderson, Indiana; Annamarie Bustion, of San Francisco, California; Lillie Marie Barnett, of Athens, Georgia; great-grandchildren, Christina and Sigmund Lipka, Thomas and Jonas Leite, and brother, Donald (Janet) Christensen, of Long Island, New York.
The funeral, for family members only, will be held on Saturday January 26, 2019 at Christ Lutheran Church, 2751 N. Scatterfield Rd., Anderson, Indiana, 46012, the Rev. John A. Jameson presiding. Private interment will follow at Grovelawn Cemetery in Pendleton, Indiana.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations made to the Purdue University Women's Track and Field program or St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital