Elaine Marie Jerrell

                                            The Wonderful Life of Elaine Marie (Veerkamp) Jerrell

Elaine Marie (Veerkamp) Jerrell, 76, of Indianapolis, passed away peacefully on November 23, 2024. Elaine was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on May 9, 1948, to the late Joseph & Mary Catherine Veerkamp.

Elaine was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, master Catholic educator, authentic humanitarian, avid bicycler, accomplished quilter and so much more. Her gift to her family, to her Church, to Catholic Education, and to her community was that she used her God-given gifts & talents to the very best of her ability in everything she did.

Elaine grew up on the Indianapolis’ Northeast Side, the oldest of Joe & Mary Veerkamp’s 5 children. She excelled in school, first at Little Flower Grade School, then at Scecina Memorial High School, then at Purdue University Indianapolis and finally at Butler University. She put herself through college & graduated from Purdue in 1970 with Distinction, earning a BA in Social Studies Education. Her love for teaching & desire for a life teaching license motivated Elaine to begin work on her master’s degree at Purdue, Lafayette IN in the summer of 1971, continuing at Butler University, while as a stay-at-home Mom, earning a Master of Arts in History in 1976. By the way, she made straight A’s in the Master’s Program!

While teaching was a big part of her identity, Elaine didn’t let that limit her contributions as a student. While at Scecina, she was Editor-In-Chief of the student newspaper, The Crusader. She was also a member of Scecina’s “Exercise in Knowledge” Team, and was voted “Most Likely To Succeed”. That turned out to be an Understatement! Elaine began her teaching career at Roncalli High School in the Fall of 1970, teaching Current Events, World History & US History. She also served as Roncalli’s Cheerleader Moderator. She married her lifetime spouse & best friend, Patrick Jerrell, in August of 1971. Within 2 days of our first Anniversary, our daughter, Anna Catherine, was born. Elaine loves kids & always made family first. So, she put her teaching career on hold and dived into motherhood! In June of 1975, our son, Christopher Patrick, was born. So full-time motherhood continued until Christopher entered 1st Grade. However, Elaine never stopped developing her gifts, so she enrolled in the Butler Master’s Program in 1972, taking 1 evening class at a time, and giving Pat some “Mr. Mom” time with the kids. During this time, Elaine also strengthened her shared Catholic Faith through service, by coordinating the Archdiocesan Indianapolis’ Pre-Cana Engaged Couples Program, then later along with Pat, speaking to engaged couples on Natural Family Planning.

So in 1981, Elaine was rehired at Roncalli to resume her teaching career, teaching US Government. She never compromised her role as a Mom, as Anna & Chris attended our parish school, St. Jude. After school, they would walk next door to Roncalli & wait for Mom. It was a match made in Heaven, as Elaine & the kids had the same school schedule, same vacations, & summers off together! For the next 30 years, Elaine balanced her career with motherhood, then grandmotherhood, amazingly. While Roncalli had always been recognized for its accomplishments in athletics, Elaine played a key role in balancing academic achievements with athletic achievements. Elaine started Roncalli’s Cadet Teaching Program, which matched students interested in a teaching career with area Catholic grade schools to get a taste of teaching. With her teaching colleague & best friend, Kathleen Helbing, Elaine started the annual “Quest For Excellence” Saturday academic team competition for the southside Catholic grade school students, which certainly steered many of them to Roncalli for high school. In the early 1980’s, when round trip airfares to Washington DC were $99, Kathleen & Elaine organized & conducted daytrips to DC for groups of their students. Kathleen had served as a Congressional Page while attending DePauw University, so she designed the itinerary for the DC trip.

Until late in her career, Elaine had all the Seniors for her 1 Semester US Government class. They were informed on day 1, that Government was a state of Indiana requirement for graduation, so “Don’t Count The Days, Make The Days Count”, which was Elaine’s message throughout the semester class. Since Seniors were becoming of voting age, she had them fill out voter registration cards & empowered Pat to deliver them to the City County building each semester.

In her 30 years of teaching Government, Elaine fostered 8,000-9,000 well-educated & well-informed citizens! She would borrow laptop-size versions of the lever-action voting machines from the League of Women Voters office & do a “hands-on” practice ballot casting with her students. She looked forward to Roncalli’s annual Grandparents’ Day visitors to her classroom, providing a historical sampling of political ads, cartoons and lapel buttons, which awakened Grandpa & Grandma’s memories! Elaine was well-known by her students for her “Government Hotline”, where they could call her at any time to answer a question or get some guidance on an assignment. In addition to her teaching duties, Elaine coached several Roncalli academic teams, among them: Spell Bowl, Mock Trial, Brain Game, Academic Decathlon, Hoosier Academic Super Bowl & Model UN. In the last few of years of her career, Elaine achieved Certification from Ivy Tech as a Dual Credit Adjunct Instructor to teach Advanced Placement (AP) Government at Roncalli, which, for those students willing to tackle the rigors of her class, was “money in the bank” when they entered college.

Throughout her teaching career, Elaine never stopped learning new teaching approaches and expanding her subject matter knowledge, by attending Summer Teacher Seminars, among them: “Teacher As Model & Mentor” at Marian University, Advanced Placement Summer Institute for “US Government & Politics” at Northwestern University, C-Span Classroom’s “Campaign 2008 Educators’ Conference” in Washington DC, and “The Role of the Supreme Court in US History” at Stanford University. These experiences were enriching for Elaine, enabling her to be a student again & to share best practices with fellow teachers from around the country. She also got to share her teaching expertise at the National Catholic Educators Association (NCEA) Conference in New Orleans LA. Elaine also participated on a higher education Accreditation Audit Team for St. Francis College in Ft. Wayne, IN.

Elaine was Blessed to have both of our children in her Government class as Seniors, a feeling which was not necessarily shared by them at the time. However, they got to see & experience “Mom” as a teacher, which was invaluable. When Chris got to Purdue, along with several of his Roncalli soccer teammates, they would take turns asking Elaine if they were her “favorite” or “best” student of all time. She never bit on that setup, much to Chris’ satisfaction! For all her activities as an educator, Elaine maintained her focus on family time. She cheered on the Roncalli student athletes at football and basketball games, as well as at Anna’s cross country & swim meets, and Chris’ soccer games. She also enjoyed our many years of Purdue football games and tailgates, feeding hungry college students, many of whom she had taught at Roncalli, including our children. Elaine also enjoyed our hosting of extended family gatherings at Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas. 

Elaine was quite the traveler! Her love for the nation’s capital, combined with Pat’s travel as a Department of the Navy civil servant, provided Elaine & the kids many opportunities to explore Washington DC. She also enjoyed our Spring Break family trips to Gatlinburg & Smokey Mountain National Park, as well as Ashville, NC & the Biltmore Estate, among other destinations. Elaine enjoyed accompanying Pat to several St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP) National Assembly Conferences in Seattle WA, Dallas TX, New Orleans LA, Madison WI & other cities. Elaine & Pat were Blessed to have gone on 5 European pilgrimages to 7 countries with our pastor, Fr. Steve Banet, and other St. Jude parishioners. Prior to that, as members of the Ambassadair Travel Club, Elaine & Pat traveled to San Francisco, Montreal/Quebec City, Kennebunkport ME and Baltimore’s Camden Yard. Since 1977, we’ve spent a week at Clear Lake in Steuben Co. Indiana, except when the kids were in high school & college. We’ve continued the tradition with our children, our children-in-law (their wonderful spouses) and our 6 grandchildren. We were saddened this past year when Elaine’s health wouldn’t allow us to join the rest of the family. For several years, it was our Labor Day weekend tradition to join daughter Anna, husband Matt, 3 grandchildren & Matt’s parents for outdoor Mass at Cross In The Woods Franciscan parish in Indian River, MI on Sunday, then do the 5-mile Mackinaw Bridge Walk on Labor Day. Elaine has enjoyed bicycle riding since 1974, a family activity that has endured until a couple of years ago. Elaine & Pat have done bike rides locally, throughout Indiana, in Michigan, Missouri, SW Ohio, Wisconsin, the Ashville area in North Carolina, Sanibel Island FL, Mackinac Island, MI, Washington DC area and Hilton Head NC.

We’ve been active members of St. Jude Parish since 1976, and over a 20-year period, we served the parish as a Sponsor Couple, hosting marriage preparation sessions for 33 engaged couples, many of whom were Elaine’s former students. In addition, both Elaine & Pat were Eucharistic Ministers at St. Jude for many years. Elaine was also committed to social outreach as a volunteer with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP), both at the parish & Archdiocesan Council level. For several years, she drove our minivan full of Roncalli students to the SVdP Client Choice Pantry to serve hundreds of Thursday evening shoppers. Elaine also served as SVdP Archdiocesan Council Secretary for 9 years.

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Elaine learned to be an accomplished quilter. Her beautiful creations adorn our home, and she made T-Shirt quilts for our high school age grandchildren, lap quilts for our children & siblings, and many Holiday table runners for the family. Elaine also enjoyed being outdoors, either reading e-books on her Kindle on our back porch or working in our many flower beds. She designed an array of perennials that provide color & beauty throughout the growing season. Her cranesbill geraniums not only grace our flower beds, but enhance the flower beds at the SVdP Distribution Center/Mission 27 store at Maryland & Leota Streets., the Mission 27 store on Shelby St. & the Client Choice Pantry on 30th St. 

When her 32-year teaching career ended in 2012, Elaine took a part-time position at Roncalli, helping to implement the Catholic Educator Advancement Program (CEAP), to provide performance-based compensation for faculty & staff. She fully retired in 2016 & became a trained Facilitator for SVdP’s Changing Lives Forever (CLF) Program, to introduce people in Poverty to the 11 Resources that are needed to move from Poverty to Middle Class & Economic Self Sufficiency. She was part of a team from St. Jude & Nativity parishes that administered the 18-week program. 

Elaine’s contributions to the Teaching Profession, Catholic Education, and Community Involvement were recognized by the following awards: Archdiocesan & Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year (1998), IU Center on Congress Outstanding Teacher Award (2001), Little Flower Grade School Outstanding Alumnus (2003) and Catholic Charities Indianapolis Spirit of Service Award (2012), as a Co-Recipient with Pat. As documented here, Elaine had a Wonderful, fulfilling life and is now enjoying her greatest reward, that of Eternal Life in Heaven! She will be missed terribly, but never forgotten and always revered. “Well Done, my good & faithful servant. Now enter my Kingdom for all Eternity”.

Elaine is survived by her loving husband of 53 years; Patrick N. Jerrell, daughter; Anna (Matt) Kazmierski, son; Chris (Alissa) Jerrell, grandchildren; Jonah, Brother Aaron Mariae, Abby, Megan, Owen, & Lauren, brother; Steven Veerkamp, & sisters; Beverly (Mark) Moore & Dianna Deputy.

Elaine is preceded in death by her brother; Gary Veerkamp.

A visitation will be held on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, from 4:00pm-8:00pm at O’Riley-Branson Funeral Service & Crematory. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at 10:00am at St. Jude Catholic Church (5353 McFarland Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46227). The burial will take place immediately following at Calvary Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (3001 E. 30th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46218) or Roncalli Catholic High School (3300 Prague Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46227).

Please visit www.orileybranson.com to sign our online guest book or to leave a memory of Elaine.