Lela Mae "Dean" Ellis of Little Rock, Arkansas went home to be with her Lord on Sunday, March 19, 2023, at the age of 86 years old.

Dean Ellis was born in Conway, Arkansas on Friday, September 18, 1936, and was the eighth child out of eleven children born to the late, Charley and Minnie Andrew James. Dean grew up in the Conway and Mayflower, Arkansas area and her father and mother were sharecropper farmers. She and her siblings learned at an early age how to work hard. She often told stories about being a little girl of three, picking cotton in the fields with her family and as she got older, cutting and hauling wood and helping with all the farm work with her father. She left the farm and moved to Little Rock in the late 1950's, where she became a car hop at the Blue Goose Drive Inn. There she met and married the love of her life, John "Jug" Ellis.

Dean will be greeted in heaven by her husband, John; parents, Charley and Minnie James; brothers, Junior, Roy, Harold, CW, and Joseph; sisters, Mary, Pearl, Wilma, Josephine, and Martha; son-in-law, Glen Watts; granddaughter, Tamara Eason Cambron; and her nieces and nephews.

She is survived by her four daughters, Jo Ann McCormack, Pam Forrest (Dewayne), Anita Bobo (Douglas), and Jackie Eason (Bill); five grandchildren, Bryan Stires (Jamie), Danielle Lindley (Matt), Jonathon Bobo (Rhea), Nathan Forrest (Jessica), and Brandon Forrest (Brianna); thirteen great grandchildren, Brandon Smith (Raquel), Kaleigh, Raley, and Kindle Stires, Mason and Elizabeth Ashcraft, John Ryan, Avery, Eli, and Easton Forrest, Brantley and Tensley Bobo, and Carma Cambron; three great great grandchildren, Oliver and Jasper Smith and Landon Stires; along with a host of nieces and nephews.

Dean loved the Lord and made a point to read her Bible and spend time in prayer every single day. She was a great prayer warrior for her family and friends. She was a member of Ironton Baptist Church and enjoyed her church and church family. She was a devoted daughter and took great care of her mother and father in their later years. Dean retired from Lucent Technologies in the late 1980's. She was a hard worker and passed her work ethic onto her children. She was a determined person and she always made sure that her family had a nice home and that it was always clean and put together. She enjoyed going shopping and always looked forward to her Saturday shopping sprees. She loved to have pretty things all around the house and she loved to dress up. She always made a point to look nice. In her later years, she loved going to flea markets and specialty shops where she could find little treasures to take home. She also enjoyed attending antique car shows. She loved taking her trips to Branson, where she would go see her favorite group, "New South." Some of the songs that are played today are from their CD's.

Celebration of life will be held on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, at 2:00 P.M. with the visitation held one hour prior at Dial and Dudley Funeral Home. Burial to follow at Pinecrest Memorial Park.