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Elynor Teresa Hanna, 101

Elynor Teresa Hanna — loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother — passed away peacefully at Hospice House in Hayden, Idaho, on Nov. 9, 2018.

Elynor was born March 3, 1917, in the Bayridge section of Brooklyn, N.Y. She studied dance and music for over 10 years while attending grammar and high school and excelled at both.

During that time, she was accepted into the prestigious Fred Astaire School of Dance in New York and quickly rose to become one of the top dancers in the school. The dance school often attracted talent scouts from both Broadway and Hollywood to audition the school’s best dancers for roles in musicals and theater productions.

After one of her school practice performances, Elynor was offered an audition by an MGM Studios talent scout for an upcoming production. He asked if she would be available for future auditions should she not get the part. She was a young teenager at the time and aspired to be a dancer/singer.

Because of her age she needed her family’s permission to participate. Her dream was quickly short-circuited by her father, who was a career musician, composer and bandleader who performed in New York City and in other major cities on the East Coast. He knew firsthand how the business worked and how women were treated in show business at that time, and wanted none of that for his daughter. He refused permission to let her participate in the studio’s talent pool and audition calls.

After high school she attended Queens College in New York City and studied music and theater. She had to leave college after two years to work and help her parents financially. It was the Great Depression years. In September of 1943 she married her high school sweetheart, George. They knew each other for 90 years and were married for 69 years.

After her husband returned home from service in the European theater of World War ll they had a son, Dayne. Elynor stopped working and, like most women during that era, concentrated on being a mother and homemaker. Her spare time was devoted to volunteer work in schools and hospitals and her hobbies were recreational singing and dancing.

Elynor was preceded in death by her husband, George; her brother, Frank and her sister, Margaret. She is survived by son, Dayne and daughter-in-law, Judi Kenyon Hanna; grandson, Jeff and his wife, Kellie Conley Hanna; Will Kenyon (son of Judi Hanna); Willow Kenyon (daughter of Judi Hanna) and great-grandchildren, Chloe Hanna, Chet Hanna, Skye Boyd (daughter of Willow Kenyon) and Liam Kenyon (son of William Kenyon).

Funeral services are at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2018, at St. Thomas’s Catholic Church, 919 E. Indiana Ave., Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

In lieu of flowers, Elynor’s wishes are that you please send a donation to Hospice of North Idaho, 2290 W. Prairie Ave., Coeur d’Alene, ID 83815.

Visit Elynor’s memorial and sign her online guest book at www.englishfuneralchapel.com