Bolingbrook, Il - ELAINE W. PARMENTER BURGESS

Elaine W. Parmenter Burgess was born on January 16, 1928, in McCook, Nebraska, to Dr. E. W. Parmenter and Doris Russell Parmenter. She passed away peacefully on December 28, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois.

Elaine grew up in McCook, Nebraska and graduated from McCook High School in 1945. She attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, earning her Bachelor's degree in education in 1950. In 1947, she married Warren A. Burgess, and together they had three children.

The family moved to Omaha in 1956, then settled in Des Moines, Iowa, where Elaine earned a Master's degree in Psychology from Drake University in 1965. She worked for Drake as a counseling psychologist and director of International Student Services. In 1983 she moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma to serve as Director of International Student Services at Oklahoma State University until her retirement in 1998.

In 1970, following her divorce, Elaine took her children to Puerto Rico, where she served as a training consultant for the U.S. Peace Corps. This began more than two decades of work with the Peace Corps, serving as a consultant or training director in many countries around the world. Elaine retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1998 where she pursued a wide variety of new interests. In 2025 she moved to Chicago.

She is survived by her 3 children, 8 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.

For a fuller account of her life, work, travel, and family, please go to:

https://neptunesociety.com/obituaries/downers-grove-il/elaine-burgess-12681821

Remembrances may be sent to a livingtribute.org to plant trees in New Mexico in her honor.