Elva Viola Templeton

Elva V. Templeton, 105, died peacefully in her sleep late Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in her residence at the Health Care Resort of Topeka, Kan.

Elva was born Sept. 14, 1919, in Rock, KS.to Zina E. and Jesse Mae Moore and grew up in Wichita where her father was a mail carrier. As a little girl she wanted to play the piano, but the cost of a piano was beyond a mail carrier’s budget, so she started her lifelong musical path on a more affordable violin. Finally at age 11, her grandparents gave her a pig and kept it on the farm until ready for market whereupon it was sold it to fund the purchase of a piano when she was 12.

After graduation from Wichita North High School she earned degrees in Music Education and Drama at Friends University of Wichita and taught music in the Cheney, Kan., public schools.

In 1946 she was married to George L. Templeton of Great Bend, Kan., for 71 years of marriage until he preceded her in 2017. They moved their family of four boys to Topeka in 1960 where she taught piano privately and played the organ for area churches for almost 20 years before moving to Prairie Village, Kan., in 1980. They traveled extensively in retirement, living for a period in Kodiak, Alaska, at the American Baptist Mission Station and later Lawrence, Kan., before returning to Topeka after George’s passing.

Her love of travel was driven by intense curiosity to learn and engage in places and cultures far and wide to all 50 states and many countries. A trip to one destination would randomly and seamlessly expand by days or weeks and hundreds of miles when an opportunity for an added adventure presented itself.

She is survived by her four sons and their wives, Gary and Nancy Templeton, Ozawkie, Kan., Roger and Karin Morris Templeton, Santa Monica, Calif., Don and Marina Templeton, Amherst, Mass., and Craig and Debra Templeton, University Park, Md., five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for a later date.