Ellen was born November 30th, 1944, at St. Catherine’s Hospital in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Eleanor Slemensky, her sister, Marilyn Merritt, and two husbands.
Ellen married Russell Baken on December 7, 1963. They had one daughter together in 1964, Kathleen Baken-Barney.
Ellen and her husband Russell moved to Alaska in 1972, where they lived together until his death in 1991.
In 1993, Ellen met Tommy Copelin and his two sons John and Chad Copelin. Ellen and Tom were together until Tom’s death in 2018.
Ellen is survived by her sister Bernice (Eugene) Serpe, her daughter Kathleen (David) Barney, Stepdaughter Helene (Oscar) DeLeon, stepsons John (Heather) Copelin and Chad Copelin, her grandchildren Russell Barney and Danielle Reese, Nicholas DeLeon, Amanda DeLeon, Saige, Colton, Kimber, Victor, Chad, and Memory Copelin, and four great-grandchildren.
Ellen was a Master Gardener and enjoyed gardening, reading, and walking her faithful dog Tuffi.
Ellen was a courageous woman. She fought two separate battles with cancer and won, but developed pulmonary fibrosis. She lost the battle with pulmonary fibrosis on August 6th, 2024. She passed in her beautiful Lake home surrounded by her loved ones. She will be dearly missed.
The visitation will be at Sunset Ridge Memorial Park Chapel on Friday, November 15, at 1pm.
Ellen’s favorite poem:
Summer Place
A hammock is the best place to spend a midsummer afternoon.
When you climb into a hammock, you are linked to reality only by the narrowest of cords. Suspended in time and space, you shed any sense of weight or corporal substance. As you sway with the gentle rhythm of the breeze,
you drift and dream between heaven and Earth, glimpsing the blue truth of sky beyond the wagging treetops. Then suddenly the spell is broken by a dog’s snout poking you, a rumble of thunder, or a child’s cry and you are brought back to a world you temporarily left behind. But the hammock’s solace
is not forgotten. Its gentle crescent lingers.
