Ellamae Keck Hoggatt

Ellamae Keck Hoggatt, "Dereen" went to be with her precious Lord and Savior on the morning of August 30, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. She passed from this realm to the next at 100 years young. As a wife to Col. Ralph Sellers Hoggatt and mother to their three children and grandmother to three grandchildren, her main focus was to provide her best love and support to each of them in her own special way. She served as a Brownie leader to Denice, her daughter; Den Mother to Byron, her only son; and by teaching all her domestic skills to Kristen, her youngest child in their beautiful home, all appointed by Ellamae, right down to the Irises in the front yard and roses in the backyard.

She was born in Westmoreland Township, Pennsylvania on June 26, 1925 and regarded by many in her family and community of Kecksburg and the surrounding areas as an affable, tender and loving child, which were character traits that help her father, H. Mehrl Keck, increase sales for his beverage company, Keck's Beverages, with the Mom and Pop grocers in the Southwestern Hills of Pennsylvania. Her affability, kindness, tenderness and sense of humor carried her through all ten decades of her amazing life!

Ellamae or "Hun" as she was affectionately called by her family, was always busy with her hands, helping her mother, Jessie Silvas Keck, prepare delicious meals for her four sisters and her parents as well as whomever else stopped by to join the Kecks at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table. She continued cooking and baking throughout her life, always rising early to prepare a nutritious meal for her husband and children. As the wife of an Air Force pilot, she would rise with him at 3:00 am or 4:00 am, feed him a healthy, hot, breakfast and then drive him to the flight line. When he volunteered to enter War as an Air Force pilot for the third time (WWII, Korea & Vietnam) she wrote her Pennsylvania congressman to allow her to accompany her husband with their three children to his duty station in Udorn, Thailand. Ellamae couldn't bear the thought of being without him. Understandably, she wasn't granted her wishes, but once again her loving nature compelled her to drive him to the flight line with her three children in the backseat of their station wagon, without complaint.

She was baptized and confirmed into the fellowship of believers at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Trauger, PA. As a youth she attended confirmation classes every Saturday, by walking to every class from her home that was located a couple miles down the hill from the church. She graduated from high school at St. Joseph's Catholic School for Girls in Greensburg, PA (now: Seaton Hill) and Junior College at Pennsylvania Hall in Chambersburg, PA. After her education, she moved to Colorado to be close to two of her sisters, where she found employment as a bookkeeper at a local dry cleaner. 1950 in Boulder, CO brought many young soldiers to study at the University of Colorado, one in particular was Lt. Ralph S. Hoggatt who was studying psychology as an undergraduate. Lt. Hoggatt brought his uniforms to be laundered where Ellamae was working. Soon, he asked her to accompany him to a house party that his lawyer friends were hosting. Six months later, Ralph and Ellamae, (by then she was going by the nickname of "Dereen") were married at Messiah Lutheran Church in Denver, Colorado. They were married 64 years and 11 months. "Even though the military kept us apart, we made up for the separation while we were together," she would reminisce, giving a big smile to verify the love she had for her husband and he for she which resulted in their successful marriage.

When asked by his daughter, Kristen, in preparation for their fiftieth wedding anniversary, "Why did you ask Mother to marry you?" Col. Hoggatt replied, "She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen." She was always seen on the arm of her husband, dressed in the latest fashions with her clear blue eyes and dark brown hair perfectly coiffed in curls around her lovely, symmetrical face to complete the ensemble. In her youth she let her wavy hair free with one barrette to frustrate the wind, or when Col. Hoggatt was stationed at the Pentagon, she would pull back her long hair in a loose chignon, her husband's favorite.

With her supportive and loving personality, she found herself being vice-president of the woman's group at the Lutheran church in which, she, her husband and children were members. The president of the woman's group asked Dereen to gather some recipes from the women and together the women produced several cookbooks, with Dereen's Banana Bread, Meatloaf, and Lasagna as church member favorites. She also supported the president of the church woman's group in organizing several clothing drives for the needy as well as gathering donations for the youth. In her sixties, seventies and eighties she volunteered once a week at the Christian Assistance Ministries; kept a weekly tally of the church attendance for the church office and tended the front garden at Shepherd King Lutheran Church.

Everyone is curious as to how Ellamae stayed so upbeat during her ten decades of life. She would often reply "Rise early and stay positive." When asked the question, those close to her know she was a health advocate before fitness gyms were popular. She never spoke the words "I'm on a diet." She rarely ate bread or drank milk and used portion control to stay within her normal weight, never fluctuating for more or less than five pounds. She did eat lots of fruits and vegetables, the meat she ate was usually baked, sometimes marinated, never fried. Even though her father had his own soft drink brand, Keck's, she never drank sodas, or champagne. She didn't like the fizzy bubbles. She loved water and drank lots of it throughout her day. In her tree-lined community, she and her friends walked four miles every weekday. Apart from her friends she would do her sit-ups and stretches on her sunroom floor. Col. Hoggatt wasn't too keen on her walking in the early morning hours with just her friends to protect her, so she asked him to get her some mace. He did and thankfully she never had to use it, not even on a stray dog. She loved animals, and they loved her.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Col. Ralph Sellers Hoggatt who died in 2015. Her parents and four sisters and their husbands have already passed into the other realm as well as almost all her first cousins, and all her aunts and her uncles. She is survived by her children, Denice Hoggatt (daughter) and partner Patty Wampler; Byron Keck Hoggatt (son) and his wife Cristi Menking-Hoggatt; and Kristen Hoggatt (daughter and caregiver) and grandchildren, Kori Menking-Hoggatt, PhD. (granddaughter) and husband Jesse Griffis; Cheyenne Duarte Menking-Hoggatt (grandson); Nadye Menking-Colby M.D. and husband Michael James Colby as well numerous nephews, nieces, and cousins.

A communion service was held at Abiding Presence Lutheran (APLC) San Antonio, TX. A viewing will be held on September 13 from 12-2pm at HOFFER WILT FUNERAL HOME, 2245 Mount Pleasant Rd., Norvelt, PA 15674. Graveside service will follow at 3pm in St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery, Trauger, PA, next to her husband and surrounded by many, many of her family members who have gone before her. According to Mr. W. Martin Keck, the family historian, she is the only Keck to reach 100 years.