Columnist known as the ‘Queen of Butler County’ dies at 89

A longtime newspaper columnist, once talked about as the “Queen of Butler County,” has died.

Ercel Eaton, who wrote for the Hamilton JournalNews for 43 years and authored many books, died Thursday at Woodlands in Hamilton. She was 89.

She was born Leslie County, Ky., and spent a large part of her journalism career writing about the mountain culture and history that she loved so dearly, her family said.

“She wanted to show those people as kinder, gentler and how they were hard workers,” said one of her daughters, Bridget Ossmann. “To her, they weren’t hillbillies or rednecks. They were people first.”

Eaton was a reporter until the end, her daughter said. While in the hospital, Eaton talked to everyone, and soon the conversations sounded like interviews, Ossmann said. She wanted to know about their backgrounds and their families.

“She met so many people from so many different walks of life,” her daughter said. “She said, ‘They are all wonderful.’”

Ossmann called her mother “a feisty little egg” and a “wonderful woman.”

Her other daughter, Bekka Eaton, wrote that her mother will be remembered for the “infinite size of her heart and her immense compassion.”

Eaton said she was amazed by her mother’s ability to connect with all people.

“She had a magic about her,” her daughter said. “Even in the hospital, she would take a person by the hand, look them in the eye like she was searching for their story and she would get it. She immediately loved people and was fascinated by them.”

Eaton will be buried in Kentucky, and the family will host a local celebration of life in the future.

She also is survived by three grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, John, who died in 2007.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to help launch The Virginia Budge Award for the Creative Arts’ Special Needs category. Make checks out to Virginia Budge Award and send to 2548 Resor Road, Fairfield, OH 45014.

Years ago, in anticipation of her passing, Ercel Eaton wrote this poem:

To My Loved Ones

If it is true that silver-streamered souls

Flit ceaselessly about our air

Gazing with grief or gladness

At our life upon beyond this spinning globe;

If it is true that light and airy scraps

Of eternity contain the mind, the heart,

The soul beyond the faded breath;

If it is true that I, who love you more than life

Can know about your world, your pain

And your delights.

If it is true that I can linger

In my gauzy nothing of a gown; If I am

Given time to find you, wherever

Your life leads you on this earth

(And who’s to say I can’t cross continents

and seas at will with no earth-time spent.)

If it is true that my soul sings onward

Toward the finest of the fine and knows

So many answers to questions

We could never solve…

Then I can shine a day along

The pathways where you walk,

Or sit a night in nearness to your bed.

I, in my silver-streamered soul-dress,

To yearn toward your pain, or share

With you your many-splendored moment.

Then I shall be a silver-streamered shadow

Where you are; and I shall know your

Pain and deepest dreads; and I

Shall sit in my wondrous silence near you

And offer you the comfort your heart craves.

Then while you sleep my silver-streamered self

Will ease your pain with feather-likened

Touch. And if you fancy you can feel

Tender, almost non-existent fingers brush

Across your cheek, then it is I

Who loves you more than life

Who comes to comfort you with all my soul.

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