Mavis Alliene Ellis, former Swan Coach House hostess

By Laura Berrios

For the AJC

Mavis Alliene Ellis had a bird’s-eye view of the 1970s social scene of Atlanta’s most influential civic leaders.

Through her job as hostess at the Atlanta Historical Society’s Swan Coach House Members Room, Mrs. Ellis served prominent guests such as Lady Bird Johnson and celebrities like Vincent Price and Tony Randall, among countless others, said daughter Donna Gillespie of Jonesboro.

She ran the private dining facilities for Atlanta’s old-money crowd from the late 1960s until she retired in 1977. A who’s who of notables dined there and Mrs. Ellis treated everyone special.

“She had a gift of making you feel you were the most important person in the world,” said longtime family friend Carole Lindsey of Forest Park. “She always thought of others before herself.”

The club members and guests also thought the world of Mrs. Ellis, recalls her daughter.

At the time, Mrs. Gillespie was a college student majoring in voice with ambitions of singing professionally. Through her mother’s influence, she was asked to perform at numerous conventions and events, and was feted with tickets to musicals, operas and other entertainment attractions.

“These were opportunities I never would have had if it hadn’t been for my mother and the way they thought of her,” said Mrs. Gillespie, who now works at AT&T.

Mavis Alliene Ellis, 82, of Jonesboro died Jan. 28 of cardiac arrest at Southern Regional Medical Center. A memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Jonesboro First United Methodist Church. The Cremation Society of the South at Eagle’s Landing is in charge of arrangements.

After retiring, Mrs. Ellis became an avid genealogist, tracing both sides of her family history back 300 years, her daughter said.

The interest grew out of a desire to know her father, who died when she was 3, Mrs. Gillespie said. Her mother grew up in Hiram, one of nine children.

What started as a personal journey grew into a mission. Mrs. Ellis chronicled much of the genealogical history of early Paulding County settlers, and helped countless others get started tracing their own family roots, her daughter said.

Based on your last name, Mrs. Ellis could give details of your family as well as the history of the area you were from, said family friend Alissa Dunn of Woodstock.

Mrs. Ellis met her husband, Coleman Thomas Ellis, in Atlanta. She and two of her sisters moved there to work shortly after she graduated from high school. The sisters lived near the old Winecoff Hotel and had to evacuate their apartment during the 1946 hotel fire.

The Ellises married in 1947 and raised their family in DeKalb County. Mr. Ellis died in 2003.

Other survivors include: another daughter, Margie Bruner of Stone Mountain; a brother, Collins Hitchcock of Hiram; sisters Mary Dean Mitchell of Hiram, Marjorie Hulsey of Atlanta, Edna Neeley of Louisville, Ga., and Retha Shipp; two grandchildren; and several great grandchildren.

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