Albert "Jay" Eller

Pineville, North Carolina – Albert "Jay" Eller departed this life peacefully among
members of his immediate family on November 11, 2024, as a result of
complications from a stroke he suffered shortly before his 99th birthday.  Jay was
blessed with a long and independent life, often bragging that despite heart
conditions diagnosed early in life, he had not suffered so much as a head cold in
65 years.

Jay was born at home in the rural mountains of Northeast Georgia near Hiawassee
on December 20, 1925. He was the youngest of the eleven children of the late
Alfred M. Eller and Jane "Dollie" Garrett Eller.

Jay was extremely proud of his Cherokee heritage. He often spoke of his Cherokee Roots with honor, love and pride.

Early life for Jay was hard, as times were lean in the 1930s. As the only child still
living at home, Jay was forced to quit school in the seventh grade to help his
parents maintain their sustenance farm. Jay later supplemented their household
income by delivering U.S. mail on horseback.

Answering the call to enlist in the United States Army during World War II, Jay
traveled to Gainesville, Georgia, where he was diagnosed with heart fibrillation at
the induction center, making it impossible for him to serve in the military.

As with most members of "The Greatest Generation", Jay was determined to serve
his country in some capacity.  Hearing of jobs available at a government plant
under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Jay found employment as a security
guard and later, as a technician at a rapidly growing government research plant.
The top-secret work at that plant, he later discovered, was part of the Manhattan
Project, which was instrumental in developing the first atomic bomb that aided in
bringing a rapid end to World War II.

After the war, Jay traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where on a blind date, he
met and later married his lifelong friend, Clarice Fisher.  Surviving this marriage
are children, Perry Martin Eller (Janalyn Raye Toney) of Gainesville, Georgia;
Charles Fisher ("Jet") Eller (Anne Fontaine Egger) of Charlotte, North Carolina;
Marie Eller Root of Columbia, South Carolina; three grandchildren, Melissa K. Eller
(Mark McKeller) of Kralendijk, Dutch Bonaire, Crystal M. Keats of Kannapolis,
North Carolina, and Stephanie A. Eller of Acworth, Georgia; and one great
grandchild, Aubrey D. Griffin of Marietta, Georgia.

Jay was a remarkably well-rounded man with multiple talents.  He worked as a
professional machinist, welder, manufacturing equipment technician, and even as
a licensed beautician.  In music, Jay enjoyed bluegrass and gospel and taught
himself to play the fiddle, Jew's harp (which he called the "juice harp"), and the
harmonica. For hobbies, he enjoyed painting, photography, and devising
MacGyver-style ingenious creations, such as a fully automatic electric mouse trap
and a bayonet telephoto lens adapter for his camera and binoculars using the cap
from a Tidy Bowl dispenser.  Reading the Bible and watching old television
Westerns (especially Gunsmoke) were two of his favorite daily pastimes.  Jay also
enjoyed participating in church visitation and attending Men's Bible Class;
especially with his longtime friend, Bob Furr.

In the late 1960s, Jay was a faithful member of the First Nazarene Church on Gay
Street in Pineville (now Johnson Street).  He took pride in wearing his waist-long
string of lapel pins awarded for decades of perfect Sunday School attendance.  In
addition to serving as the first sound system technician for the church, he taught
Sunday School and assisted in the design and construction of the church's annual
Christmas season live Nativity scene.  Working with his father-in-law, the late
Charles Fisher, he designed the electrical seat sensing system for the award
winning Pineville Nazarene Bible Quiz Team.  Additionally, he and Clarice were
instrumental in pioneering the children's first bus ministry program at the church.
Jay's family wishes to express heartfelt gratitude for the long and enduring
kindness and friendship of his neighbors, Aaron and Geneva Ott, who were ever
present to help him when needed, check on him daily, collect his mail, and share
delicious Sunday afternoon lunches.

A Celebration of Life Service honoring Jay will be held 1:00pm on Thursday, March 6, 2025, at the
Pineville Nazarene Church 8614 Pineville-Matthews Road Charlotte, NC.

Memorials may be made to Jay's favorite charity, The St. Jude's Children's
Research Hospital, or to the Pineville Nazarene Church.