FAYETTEVILLE — Ellen Kay Compton,

age 81, of Fayetteville passed away Thursday, March 19, 2020. She was born August 22, 1938 in Little Rock to Dr. Neil and Laurene Putman Compton.

When her father began his service as Navy physician in the South Pacific, Ellen moved to Bentonville, living with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Surrounded by these women, she witnessed strength and resiliency and developed a thorough understanding of the importance of connectedness and sense of place.

After World War II concluded, Ellen would follow her father throughout the Ozarks as he collected and transplanted native species onto their property, Crystal Springs (now home to Crystal Bridges). Like her parents, she felt close to nature, enjoyed hiking, and was passionate about saving and maintaining the Buffalo River for future generations.

She attended the public schools of Bentonville, Arkansas, and received a B.A (1960) and Master’s degree (1964) in history from the University of Arkansas. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority where she made life-long friendships. During this time, she took on the first of many leadership roles as the president of Women’s Student Association.

For the next several years, Ellen immersed herself in the study and teaching of history, working on her PhD and teaching Western Civilization at the University. She then began her career as a process librarian with Fayetteville Public Schools.

In 1980, Ellen was employed by Special Collections in the University of Arkansas Libraries, where she remained for thirty years. She received a certificate in Archives Management from the US National Archives in Washington in 1982. Throughout the 1980s, she traveled the country as a field archivist, collecting materials for preservation in Special Collections. Among these was a major collection of records from women’s clubs in the state with emphasis on Arkansas Home Demonstration Clubs. Her wide acquaintance with Arkansans far and wide was an invaluable asset in this work. This was also the case when she was appointed Major Gifts Development Officer during the project to expand Mullins Library.

In addition to her work-related travel, Ellen explored the world to learn more about her place in it, visiting sites throughout Western Europe, the Mediterranean, and Asia. She particularly enjoyed her trips to China under the expert guidance of Dr. Henry Tsai. To further their understanding of others, Ellen and her family acted as hosts for foreign students attending the U of A, developing close, lasting friendships with many of them.

All the while, Ellen maintained her connection to Arkansas. She continued to be active in the Ozark Society and was twice appointed by then Governor Bill Clinton to the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, serving from 1979-1996.

She was a member of the Washington County Historical Society and was editor of the WCHS journal Flashback from 1979-81. She served as president of the Arkansas Historical Association from 1986-1988.

Wanting to preserve the legacy of their grandmother and their parents, Ellen and her siblings sold their family home and grounds in Bentonville where it is now known as Compton Gardens and part of the Peel Compton Foundation.

In 2002, she began work on the extensive professional and personal papers of Fay Jones, prize-winning architect and a member of the faculty of the University’s School of Architecture. She conceived and established the physical environment for an expanded Arkansas Architecture Archives. Ellen’s career at the University culminated in 2009 with the Distinguished Service Award, recognizing her 30 years of outstanding contributions to the U of A.

After her retirement, Ellen and Charles Allison published Fayetteville (Images of America), a book of photos and descriptions detailing the history of the town, beginning with its founding in 1828.

In 2017, she received the Washington County Historical Society’s Distinguished Citizen Award. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Arkansas Historical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

While it is easy to enumerate the many ways Ellen impacted Arkansas at large, it is more difficult to adequately describe her as a friend, grandmother, and mother. Meetings of the Modern Literature Club were occasions to celebrate friendships and deepen intellectual bonds. She enjoyed attending movies and art events with friends and family and enjoyed critiquing/debriefing those events even more. Yet, she continued to love Bob Dylan, regardless of the state of his vocals. And when she became Nanna Ellen, she sat on the floor, played games, colored, and watched episode after episode of Boss Baby with her youngest grandsons.

Fiercely independent, Ellen was also incredibly introspective and vulnerable. Her numerous journals give testament to the care she placed on relationships and to the ways she challenged herself to do more, to do better. Likewise, she challenged those around her to think critically and to question the status quo. Her home was filled with books of poetry, Arkansas history, award-winning fiction, and theology; she was continually reading and learning, underlining meaningful phrases and passages, making notes to herself for future reference on hundreds of library catalogue cards. While Ellen did not always suffer fools gladly and her conversational pauses could stop hearts, her sharp wit and joie de vivre made every group more interesting. Yet, instead of being reactive, her insightful, intentional commentary was meant to bring out the best in each person she knew.

Ellen was preceded in death by her grandmother, Edna Swift Putman, her parents, and her brother, William David Compton. She is survived by two sons, David Shipley and his wife Jamie of Little Rock and Neil Shipley and his wife Sally of Fayetteville; her sister, Edra Ann Diaz and her husband Rene of Prairie Village, Kansas; a granddaughter, Sarah Ann Shipley; three grandsons, William Harrison Shipley, Benjamin Rhys Shipley and Braden Compton Shipley; two nephews, Armando Diaz and Spencer Compton; and countless friends and extended family members, including Ken Smith, Curtis and Jane Shipley, and her fellow parishioners at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville.

Cremation arrangements are under the direction of Moore’s Chapel in Fayetteville. Given the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a private interment will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, March 28th at 9:30 a.m. Please think of Ellen at that time. The family will host a celebration of Ellen’s life later in the year and hope that her friends and extended family members will join us at that time.

Memorials are preferred to the Ozark Society, P.O. Box 2914, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, www.ozarksociety.net; Compton Gardens, 312 N. Main St., Bentonville, Ark. 72712, www.peelcompton.org; or St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 224 N. East Ave., Fayetteville, Ark. 72701, www.stpaulsfay.org/give. To place an online tribute, visit www.mooresfuneralchapel.com.