Ellen Louise Butler Riffe

Passed away peacefully at her home in Melbourne, FL on May 15, 2026. Born 14 Sept 1938 in Rubyville, Ohio to Omar Butler and Clara Raike Butler deceased. Also deceased daughter Madeline Riffe Cross and brother Charles R. Butler. She is survived by her husband Nelson Lee Riffe, daughter Lauri Ann Yates (Harlan) and grandson Anthony Nelson Cross. She attended the old Rubyville school and graduated from Clay HS in 1956. She worked part time at Mercy Hospital while in school and attended nurse training there after graduation. In 1958 she married a soldier (Nelson) and moved to Seattle where she worked in medical insurance claims. Her move to Seattle was the first of 12 major moves she dealt with during her first 17 years of marriage. Her daughters were born at FT Monmouth, NJ and FT Benning, GA. She lived and worked, including volunteer work, in Bangkok, Thailand, Panama, CZ and Worms, Germany as well as several locations in the USA. While in Germany more than 13 years she worked as a personnel specialist in Mannheim, Heidelberg, Frankfurt and Darmstadt where she became GS12 chief of the Technical Services Branch. She lived in Worms, Germany the city where Martin Luther gave his historic "Here I Stand" speech during the "Diet Of Worms" and was condemned as a notorious heretic. Therefore, Luther fled to the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, Germany where he had lived as a schoolboy. Ellen and Nelson were guests of the German government for 3 days in the Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible from Greek to German and the result is again historic. Ellen enjoyed living overseas, driving on the German Autobahn, NASCAR and the company of her daughters who lived nearby in Germany and Melbourne. D.W. Swick Funeral Home in Sciotoville will provide final arrangements at a later date.