Root and Early Adventures

Ellen Leona Dula was born on December 12, 1943, at Shannon Hospital in San Angelo, Texas, to Arthur and Marguerite Downey Dula. Ellen always maintained that the Dula family was directly related to the infamous character in the Kingston Trio folk song “Tom Dooley”—though, as the family always noted, genealogically speaking, we all trace back to Noah anyway!

As part of a military family—her father serving in World War II before transferring to the Air Force—Ellen learned early on how to pack a bag. By 1950 she was living near Brownwood, Texas, attending elementary school in Burkburnett, where her report card featured a glowing remark from her teacher: “Ellen has been an excellent pupil”. If you look through the more than 50 scrapbooks Ellen lovingly made over her lifetime, you’ll see she made friends everywhere she went, joining the Brownies in their brown little dresses and caps before moving up to the Girl Scouts in 1952 (badges she proudly kept right in her photo journals).

Of course, childhood wasn’t without its wild moments. In the fall of 1951, the family moved to Hayward, California, and later to Pleasanton. During one move, her father rented a U-Haul trailer. The clerk explicitly warned Arthur not to let any children ride in the back. Naturally, Ellen and her brother Pat begged and pleaded until he gave in. A family friend, Sgt. Banks, bravely volunteered to ride back there with them for safety.

A few miles down the road, heading down an incline, the trailer started wildly zigzagging. Convinced it was going to flip, Sgt. Banks tried to gently lower the kids off the side while the car was moving, sending Ellen and Pat rolling down an embankment! It became a legendary generational story that Ellen and Pat retold with laughs to every child and grandchild in the family.

California, Snowstorms, and a Hairpin Career Turn

After a stint in Livermore, California—where she earned her American Red Cross certificate for beginner swimming in 1955 and visited the strange and amazing Winchester Mystery House—the family moved in June 1958 to Lockbourne AFB in Columbus, Ohio.

Moving after 6.5 years in sunny California came with a weather shock. Ellen recalled:

“All I owned was a lightweight jacket. Mama took me to a department store and bought me a heavy long waistcoat, boots, and knee-high socks. I walked home from school almost two miles with snow shoveled up around the sidewalks like a maze, stopping at a little store halfway home just to warm up”.

Ellen was baptized in the Church of Christ in Columbus in 1959. Shortly after, when her father was assigned to Thule, Greenland, Ellen, her mother, and Pay stayed behind in Ohio until 1960, when they packed into a Volkswagen microbus and drove all the way back down to San Angelo, Texas.

Ellen finished high school at San Angelo Central High, joining the Future Nurses Club with dreams of becoming a registered nurse. To test the waters, the club spent a full day at Shannon Hospital—giving injections, placing catheters, changing linens, passing meds, and handling 24-hour urine collections. After eight hours of that, Ellen made a total career pivot: she decided she did not want to be a nurse.

Instead, she attended Jean’s College of Beauty, graduating and getting her license in 1963. It was a practical pivot: her husband John and their sons got free haircuts for the rest of their lives. As John always pointed out with a laugh, he saved thousands of dollars over the decades! (Ironically, John ended up becoming the registered nurse, and her brother Pat became a barber).

A Lost Airman and Sixty-Two Years of Travel

In July 1964, Ellen got engaged to a lonely young airman named John Axsom, stationed at Goodfellow AFB, whom she had met at Sunday School after he got hopelessly lost trying to find the church. A month later. On August 14, 1964, they were married at the Johnson Street Church of Christ.

They honeymooned in Chula Vista, California—visiting Disneyland, the San Diego Zoo, and meeting all of John’s relatives. That kicked off 62 years of incredible travel sparked by military life. Their first home was in Bremerhaven, Germany. Next came Orlando, Florida, where their first son, James, was born in 1967.

After John was honorably discharged from the Air Force, they drove cross-country to California, only to boomerang back to San Angelo in 1969 with a second baby, Kenneth, living on San Antonio Street (which provided prophetic since they eventually settled in San Antonio).

After John graduated from Angelo State University, the family moved to Dallas so John could attend nursing school and join the Army Nurse Corps program. Their third son, Jeffrey, was born at Baylor Hospital in Dallas—where John was proudly present in the delivery room to see Jeff get his very first spanking on the hips!

As a first lieutenant and career Army nurse, John’s assignments moved them across the country and back to Europe: El Paso (William Beaumont), Fort Leonard Wood, Landstuhl (Germany), Fort Sam Houston, Fort Irwin, Fort Gordon, and finally back to San Antonio to work at BAMC. Through every move, Ellen made hundreds of lifelong friends.

A Life Well-Lived and Loved

In her later years in Garden Ridge and San Antonio, Ellen stayed wonderfully busy with Young Living Essential Oils, Universal City First Baptist Church, taking Jeffrey to work, attending neighborhood parties, and—true to form—making a brand-new scrapbook every single year she lived on this earth. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if she’s already starting a brand-new series of scrapbooks up in heaven.

Ellen loved her neighborhood and community, which was evident through her giving spirit. She poured so much love into her friendships, especially her dear friends from the Gift Group, and looked out for everyone. Ellen also dedicated so much of her life to education and children, starting back when Jeffrey was in elementary school in 1980. For many years after, Ellen and Jeffrey kept those ties alive by attending the yearly teacher reunions at the restaurant.

After a life defined by adventure, sharp wit, and deep devotion, Ellen passed away peacefully at Brooke Army Medical Center on October 8, 2026, at 11:40 PM.

She is survived by her devoted husband of over 60 years, John Axsom; her brother, Pat Dula; her sons and daughters-in-law, James and Sarah Axsom, Kenneth and Gracia Axsom, and Jeffrey Axsom; and her beloved grandsons, Max Axsom, Benjamin Axsom, and William Axsom.

A graveside service will be held on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, beginning at 1:00 PM at Holy Cross Cemetery.