Obituary: Breum, Eleanor M.
She was born in the silver mining town of Wallace, Idaho, on July 10, 1913, the youngest of three daughters, to mining engineer Robert S. Merriam and Mabel Fleming Merriam, both graduates of the University of Minnesota.
During World War I, the family moved to Climax, Colorado, where her father helped operate the Climax Mine, a critical source of molybdenum for the war effort.
After the war, she stayed briefly with family in Santa Cruz, CA, where she recalled citizens wearing surgical masks to avoid the Spanish Flu pandemic.
The family soon returned to Wallace, and she graduated from the University of Idaho with a B.S.
degree in Business Administration in 1935.
Working in Spokane, WA, after college, she met Ralph F. Breum of Deer Park, WA, and they were married in Wallace in 1939, moving to Dallas, TX, in 1954, and to Maitland in 1963.
She was a devoted wife and mother, staying home to raise two children.
After her children were grown, she was able to embrace her love of travel, visiting four more continents over the next three decades.
She is survived by her son Robert “Bob” Breum and his wife, Linda, of Sanford, FL, her grandchildren Stephen D. Lamsens of Jacksonville, FL, Catherine E. Isely of Chicago, IL, Erik F. Breum of Sanford, FL, Roger A. Breum of Palo Alto, CA, and her great-grand- child, Dwight Brugh, of Chicago, IL.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph, and her daughter, Patricia Ann Lamsens (husband, David, of Orlando).
During her illness, she was cared for by her daughter-in-law, Linda Garver Breum, who made it possible for her to spend her last years in the comfortable surroundings of her own home.
Graveside services will be held Saturday, June 7, 2014, 1 pm at Glen Haven Memorial Park, Winter Park, Fl.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 378 Centerpointe Cir # 1280, Altamonte Springs, FL 32701, https://www.alz.org.
In Memory of Eleanor Merriam Breum.