Eleanore Holliday Llewellyn papers

Eleanore Holliday Llewellyn was born November 10, 1893, in Gurdaspur, Punjab, India to missionary parents. She graduated from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio in 1914. She subsequently taught in Cedarville, Ohio, and in Monessen, Pennsylvania.

In 1918, Eleanore Holliday attended Biblical Seminary in New York, where she met her future husband, Frank Bowman Llewellyn. They were both assigned as missionaries for the Presbyterian Church in India. In 1919, after finishing a year of Punjabi language school, the Llewellyns were married in Landour, India.

From 1919 to 1921, Rev. Frank Llewellyn was head of a high school in Lahore (now Pakistan). Eleanore Llewellyn was head of the school for Hindu girls, also in Lahore. In 1921, they were transferred to district evangelical work in the villages of the Punjab. Rev. Llewellyn was preaching and teaching as well as organizing the building projects. He was instrumental in the baptism and conversion of thousands of the lower caste or “untouchables.” Eleanore Llewellyn contributed much to the teaching and welfare of the people.

A daughter, Dorothy Ann, was born in 1923. She was educated in the United States, and received her medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She married a physician, Elrie Rodgers.

Eleanore Llewellyn did graduate work in education and anthropology during furloughs, and was asked to speak on both subjects often. During World War II she was a volunteer supervisor of a civilian organization of Punjabi women. They looked after the welfare of families whose men were involved in the war. She was given a “Kaisar-I-Hind” medal of honor for her service.

Frank and Eleanore Llewellyn retired from Missionary service in 1956, after which they served in churches in California.

Eleanore Llewellyn wrote a Christian novel entitled My Tears in Thy Bottle. It is a story about a member of the “untouchable” caste converting to Christianity and his relationship to a member of the Sikh community in 1947, during the creation of the Republic of Pakistan.

Llewellyn retired to Westminster Gardens, a retirement community for missionaries from all over the world, in Duarte, California.