Ellen White: Woman of Vision

Funeral Notice

Yourself and family are respectfully invited to attend the funeral of Mrs. Ellen G. White on the lawn at her residence, “Elmshaven,” near the sanitarium, St. Helena, California, Sunday afternoon at five o'clock, July eighteenth, nineteen hundred fifteen (DF 756). WV 546.7

Word also was sent out that she would lie in state in her home on Sabbath and Sunday. Friends who called before Sunday noon were ushered to her writing room on the second floor, where they found her in a simple cloth-covered black coffin bearing a modest silver plate with the engraved words “At rest.” If they called Sunday afternoon, as most did, they paid their respects to her in the living room, where so often she had received family and visitors. WV 547.1

Seating for about 300 people was provided on the lawn under the elm trees just in front of her house. Another hundred people sat on the lawn or in nearby parked automobiles. The sanitarium, the St. Helena church, and the college were largely represented. A few of the leading businessmen of St. Helena were present, and many friends came in from Napa, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, and Healdsburg. A canopy was provided for the officiating ministers. WV 547.2

The service was simple and informal—ideal for the setting. Those participating were mostly ministers who had been long associated with Ellen White in the work of the church in America and overseas: J. N. Loughborough, George B. Starr, and E. W. Farnsworth. The pastor of the church of which she was a member, S. T. Hare, pronounced the benediction. WV 547.3