Elsie M. Arnold

Elsie Marie Arnold died at her home at Swifthaven in Edgerton on September 4, 2024, one day before her 98th birthday.

She was born in 1926 to Fred and Norma (Dayhuff) Fulk on a farm near Atwood, Illinois. During the years of the Great Depression her parents moved their family to Indiana to find work, and Elsie’s youth was spent in the area around Patricksburg, Indiana, where she graduated from High School in 1944.

She married Orville Thompson in 1945 and they had Norma, Jim and Mary before he died in 1957. Elsie was living in Janesville when she became a widow with 3 children under the age of 8, and she moved her family back to Indiana. She bought a house in Beech Grove with a plan to rent out rooms to help support herself, if needed.

However, that wasn’t necessary. It happened that when Orville worked at a trucking company in Janesville, he had a co-worker named Clarence Vierck whose wife’s cousin was a young man named Duane Arnold. When Elsie made a trip back to Janesville, Clarence and Hope introduced her to Duane, and many letters between Beech Grove and rural Milton followed. They were married April 2, 1960, blending her 3 children with Duane’s 3 girls at the Arnold family farm on Newville Road. Together, they purchased the family dairy farm from his parents. Duane and Elsie’s home at “the farm” was a place of constant hard work, and Elsie faced the challenges of this large, blended family with love, patience and determination. The farm was a place many people felt welcomed – especially children. Family, friends, foster children, nieces, nephews, and eventually grandchildren -- all experienced unconditional love from Duane and Elsie, whose marriage lasted until his death in 2017.

Elsie also worked at the Burdick Corporation in Milton for quite a few years, where she took pride in her work soldering circuit boards for medical equipment. She was a member of the Edgerton Congregational UCC. Elsie was an exceptional seamstress and quilter, a great cookie-baker, and loved hosting family get-togethers. Her family was her joy.

Though her life was undeniably shaped by the years of the Depression and World War II and by the loss of her first husband, the difficulties were balanced by growing up as one of 4 children in a close, hard-working family, shaping her life-long determination and work ethic. Elsie was a private person, not quick to share her feelings, but always quick to offer help and encouragement. She has been the ROCK of her family for many years, and will be greatly missed.

Elsie was preceded in death by both of her husbands, her parents, her sister Eleanor Sebastian, brothers Ellis and Estil Fulk, daughter Norma Thompson, and great grandson Max Wolff. She is survived by her son James (Joan) Thompson of Edgerton, daughters Mary (Randy) Wolff of Janesville, Lynn Woulle of Janesville, Brenda Roberts of Janesville, and Vickie Arnold of Sundance, Wyoming. She is also survived by 11 grandchildren (Jassica, Thad, Stacie, Adam, Brian, Richard, Renah, Karl, Grant, Shawna, Cody) and 22 great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Monday, September 9, 2024 at HENKE-CLARSON FUNERAL HOME, 1010 N. Wright Road, Janesville. Pastor Lora Whitten will officiate. Burial will follow in the Milton Cemetery. A visitation of remembrance will be held from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday at the FUNERAL HOME.

Elsie Arnold’s family is beIng assisted by HENKE-CLARSON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY. Online condolences are welcome at www.henkeclarson.com.