Eleanor Elizabeth Marshall's Obituary
Eleanor Elizabeth Marshall affectionately called Ellie B, was born January 1, 1931 in New Orleans Parrish, Louisiana. She spent her childhood in New Orleans and spent a lot of time with her grandparents before moving to Chicago. She was the only child of Wilson and Lucille Marshall who both proceed her in death. She grew up in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from W.E.B. Du Bois High School in 1951.
In 1947 Eleanor was baptized in St. Anselm Roman Catholic Church in Chicago and was re-baptized, accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, on June 2, 1985 in Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Jose, California. Eleanor begin attending For His Glory Church in 2012.
On June 11, 1957 Eleanor married Orlando Lee Biggs Jr. and when Orlando entered the United States Army, they left Chicago and traveled to San Francisco California. Eventually Orlando was transferred to Fort Ord, California and they bought a home in Seaside California to raise their family in. They had five children, Pamela, Kimberly, Myrna, Patricia and Orlando Lee lll.
Eleanor’s love of travel begin when the family traveled to Germany and lived there for four years. She traveled all over Europe and the United States with her favorite trip being a visit to the Hawaiian Islands with Orlando. Eleanor was a resident of North Highlands California and lived there for 30 years.
Eleanor was a private duty nurse on the Monterey Peninsula while also attended Monterey Peninsula College where she received an AA degree in nursing. In 1973 Eleanor and her children moved to San Jose, California where she worked at Lockheed, until she moved to North Highlands in 1986. Miss Eleanor worked at Health Net until she retired to take care of her daughter Pamela full time who has MS. She made sure that all of Pamela’s needs were taken care of for 25 years and until her illness, she took care of Pam selflessly.
She was a laid back woman who took care of business and her love for fine perfume and shopping at Nordstrom’s is well known by all who were close to her. Her wealth of friends will miss her presence in their lives, because she was a special woman and made everyone know that she genuinely cared about them. She was a good friend.
Eleanor loved music with Jazz being her favorite and her favorite artist were, David Sanborn, Kenny G, Yoni, and anyone who played a saxophone. She also loved old school R&B, snapping her fingers to Stevie Wonder, dancing to the Temptations and singing off key to Fire and Desire. Culture and education were important to her, so she exposed her children and grandchildren to the world of books and museums. She also took her granddaughters to the ballet, exposing them to performances like the Nutcracker and the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe.
She was a philanthropist and gave to several organizations supporting their causes. Eleanor influenced the lives of so many people outside of her family and would help anyone in need if she could. She devoted her life to her family and all of their friends call her Grandmother or Miss Eleanor. Her love of cooking spilled over into the community and she generously prepared
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