Elsie Myers Klute was born a Georgia peach in Albany, Georgia on August 19, 1944 to Edward and Susie (Martin) Myers and passed away on October 11, 2025. She was raised in Westbury, New York and Warminster, Pennsylvania with her siblings Jonathon Myers (Jennifer Smith), Margaret (Robert) Holby and Susan (Dale) Pleticha, all of whom she adored and respected for their individual personalities and talents.

Elsie attended Penn State University where she earned a BA in Russian in 1967. Following her graduation she lived and traveled in Europe for some time. Later travels brought her to Richmond, Indiana where she met her husband, Byron Klute.

Her favorite job in the area was working for The Whitewater Opera company. She had a passion for opera music and enjoyed the people she met through her work there.

Upon her retirement Elsie focused on another passion: Writing. She founded Daylily press where she published books for others as well as two of her own: Gathering the Bones and Singing the Bones.  Gathering the Bones received the Writer's Digest National Self-Published Book award while Singing the Bones received their honorable mention. Over the years she was active in many writing workshops including The Midwest Writers and Carter Caves. She volunteered annually at the Corn Island Storytelling Festival. She was active with the Richmond Writers Group for ten years and the friends and comradery within the group was special to her. It was through Professor Mary Fell's W403 Poetry class that she met adopted daughter, Jennifer Cornett, in 2004. They enjoyed over twenty years of poetry classes, travel, theatre, talking and laughing and also supported one another through life's more trying times.

Elsie enjoyed traveling to yoga retreats with her friends, reading, writing and observing daylilies and other plants in the garden she and Byron tended in their backyard. She savored her coffee, but not as much as she savored the friends she shared it with.  Loved ones will remember her singing bird clock, extensive book collection, and bright red nails, but will forever treasure the way she had of being hilarious without effort and how completely supported and loved she made them feel in the unique way that only she could.

Elsie is survived by her step-children: John (Mitzi) Klute, Debra Klute, Tammy (Joseph) Reynolds and Jill Johnson as well as by the grandchildren both she and Byron cherished.

She is also survived by nieces and nephews, a great-niece and great-nephews. She loved sharing photos of them to everyone at Friend's Fellowship.

She is survived by many wonderful friends and her daughter, Jennifer (Doug) Cornett, Grandson, Chase Cornett, Granddaughter, Zoe Cornett, Great Grandson's Kaizer and Grayson Cornett and Great-Granddaughter, Ahngelina, who made her smile until the end.

She is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Byron Klute, her niece, Arianna Martin Holby and a special friend, Beverly Senese.

A private celebration of Elsie's life will be held at a later date.

Memorial contributions in her honor can be made to the American Parkinson's Disease Association at PO Box 61420, Staten Island, NY, 10306.