Julia Ellis Austin

Julia Ellis Austin’s remarkable and meaningful life concluded in Littleton, Massachusetts on Tuesday, June 9th at 6:15 pm. Julia was born on December 8, 1940, in Dermott, Arkansas to Gladys and R.B. Ellis. Her father served in the U.S. Navy during her early years, and he later served as the town’s postmaster while her mother delivered mail. Over her first sixteen years, Julia welcomed four siblings to her family: Jean, Burt, Tommy, and Paula. She loved them, and all but Paula predeceased her.

Julia graduated from the segregated Dermott High School in 1958 (the same year the Little Rock Nine integrated Little Rock’s Central High School), and she was able to attend Arkansas College (now Lyon College) after she received a scholarship. There, she majored in English, served in many leadership positions, joined a sorority, and met Bill Austin, whom she married after their graduation in 1962.

Both Bill and Julia attended Louisiana State University’s graduate school, with Julia earning her Master’s of Social Work in 1964. After living and working in Memphis for a little while, they ended up in Martin, where she served as Dean of Women for the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) during the late 1960s. She also taught in UTM’s department of Social Work in the 1970s and the early 1980s, making compassion, justice, and service the centerpieces of her personal and professional lives. She later taught social work classes at Union University.

Julia and Bill joyously welcomed three children to their family: Andy, Shelly, and Brad, all of whom attended Martin Public Schools. Julia helped ensure that the kids spent their schoolyears in dance classes, at football, soccer, and baseball practices, in arts enrichment programs, singing in choirs, at piano lessons, and riding bikes all around town from their home on Redbud Circle. Their summers were full of drives to the pool in Dresden, root beers from K&N, visits to grandparents in Dermott and Atkins, Arkansas, camping trips to the Ozarks, reading, and catching a lot of fireflies in the front yard.

Julia, Bill, and many others worked together to found Martin’s Trinity Presbyterian Church in 1976, and she served the church as an Elder and as a catechism class leader during her time there.

After more than two decades of marriage, Julia and Bill divorced in 1985, and she moved to Jackson, Tennessee with Andy and Brad, settling in an integrated neighborhood, which was very important to her given her childhood experiences, personal, and professional commitments. There, the boys attended North Side High School, and Julia established herself as a pillar of yet another community. She spent the last decades of her career in private practice as a therapist, specializing in helping couples and people who had been abused and marginalized. She founded the first divorce support group in Jackson, made sure to use rainbow ribbons to tie back her office curtains to let patients know that all were welcome there, and helped hundreds of patients navigate the challenges and trials of modern life. She joined Jackson’s First Presbyterian Church and proudly maintained her membership for the rest of her life.

She loved her house and, especially, her yard on Charlesmeade Drive, and she was a beloved friend to her neighbors, always eager to visit with them while their children drew pictures on her driveway with the chalk she just happened to have ready or to talk with them about how her flowers were doing. They were usually doing just fine, even if her sons weren’t as committed to pulling weeds as they should have been.

A proud Democrat, Julia was always willing to replace the yard signs supporting her candidates when they disappeared (as they fairly often did) and to explain the principles she so strongly held and lived to uphold.

There were several constants in Julia’s life. Some seem almost too trivial to list in an obituary, but they help provide a sense of what Julia was like. To know her was to know her love of tomatoes, devotion to ice-cold Cokes (preferably in a can), ability to identify almost any plant, her habit of waking up to make coffee and then taking a nap until it was ready, the stacks of books (surrounding the ashtrays) at every place she liked to sit, her beautiful handwriting, and her eagerness to give thoughtful (if sometimes odd) gifts.

Other constants were more fundamental: her love for her children, grandchildren, and extended family, her devotion to her mom and to her sister and best friend, Paula, her deep Christian faith, her connection to a series of dogs and cats who made her life better, her curiosity, her intelligence and wisdom, and her creativity.

Although her last years were notable for how a series of strokes had robbed her of much of her memory and, eventually, most of her sight, she remained herself until the very end. The wonderful staff at Littleton’s Life Care Center loved her stories about Arkansas, her appreciation of music, her advice about hair care, and how she responded to almost every question with a polite “yes, ma’am” or “yes, sir.” She lived a life of dignity, purpose, service, and love.

Julia is survived by her sister, Paula Ferguson, by her children, Andy Austin, Shelly Orman, and Brad Austin, by her grandchildren, and by the legions of people she befriended and counseled along the way. Her neighbors, Dorothy, William, and Darnell deserve special mention for the loving care and friendship they provided to Julia during her last years in Jackson.

She lived a quiet, humble life, dedicated to helping others and letting them know someone cared about them. Her communities were better because she was in them, and if you want to honor her, you can help give others the opportunity that changed the trajectory of her life by donating to Lyon College scholarship fund (links found here: https://www.lyon.edu/). 

The family intends to have a private memorial service in Dermott in December.

Arrangements are under the care of Badger Funeral Home, A Life Celebration Home, 347 King St., Littleton, MA 01460. 978-486-3709