Linda Lael Ellis

SHREVEPORT, LA - Services for Linda Lael Ramey Ellis, 82, will be held at 12:30 p.m. Monday, May 9, 2016 at Rose-Neath Marshall Street Chapel, Shreveport, LA. Music for her service will be provided by recordings of her own renditions of her favorite songs. Officiating will be Rev. Clarence Chism. Visitation will be from 11:30 until service time at the funeral home on Monday. LAEL LOVED MUSIC AND ALWAYS HAD A SONG IN HER HEART AND IN HER VOICE; SHE IS NOW AT PEACE WITH JESUS. Linda Lael Ramey Ellis passed away Tuesday evening, May 3, 2016. Lael was a lifelong resident of Shreveport. She attended Fair Park High and then Centenary College on a music scholarship. She graduated from Centenary College in 1951 with honors having served in the ROTC and as vice president of her sorority. An accomplished musician, she was asked to become the church organist of her family church at 14 years of age and continued to serve area churches for over 44 years. Lael was a longtime member of Broadmoor Christian Church but served where she had a calling as an organist and choir director for several churches including Broadmoor Christian, St Luke's United Methodist, Caddo Heights Methodist and Haynes Ave Baptist. As a charter member of The Greater Shreveport Music Teachers Association, Lael was a well-known dedicated piano teacher having taught hundreds of students, children and adults, instilling confidence and a love of creativity by requiring them to not only learn to read notes and learn to play but to compose and notate their own music. Her students were local, state and national winners in many original composition and performance competitions throughout her 40 plus years of teaching. She served as Musical Director for the Peter Pan Players and for several musicals at Caddo Magnet High School and she was often asked to prepare and train local talent for musical auditions and performances. After retiring, she would entertain for different organizations by playing the piano and singing. Lael also had a prosperous career in sales and specifically enjoyed recruiting, training and supervising other ladies to be successful and confident team players and leaders. She trained hundreds of ladies in multiple states and she herself earned trips around the world with some favorite destinations including France, China and Japan. A lifelong animal lover having rescued many an animal from dogs and cats to turtles and even a monkey, Lael found an additional passion in showing Pomeranian dogs later in life. She was a respected breeder, groomer and handler of AKC show Pomeranians and had several International and American Champions and many show awards within the United States. Responsible pet ownership and adoption was a cause close to her heart. Her mother and daddy loved to dance and every month they would go to the American Legion Club to dance but not before her daddy would put her feet on his feet and dance around with her. This inspired a love of, and talent for, dance and Lael could be found with her husband of 50 years and friends dancing at many a local band performance through the years including the local Elks Club. Lael is preceded in death by her beloved mother and father, Blanche and Cecil E. Ramey, Sr., her brother Richard who died before she was born, her brother Cecil E. Ramey, Jr. who baptized her as a child and helped mold her character, her daughter- in-law Dawn Hill Ellis and Robert D. Ellis Sr. who passed on April 14, 2016. She leaves behind her daughter, Laura Lael; and her husband Matt Candler; her long awaited and cherished grandchildren, Harper Cate Ramey Candler and Hunter Knox Candler; her sons, Scott Ramey Ellis and Robert David Ellis Jr. and his wife Liezel Ellis; her sister-in-law, Betty Rame; and many nieces and nephews and cousins.   Mom, Mama, Grandmamma, our hearts are filled with a deep sadness but you are now able to sing and dance, and play the piano, and play with your dog's forever. Please watch over us and know you will be in our hearts and dreams until we meet again in heaven.