SEATTLE -- Doris Ellis, the wife of Mariners chairman emeritus John Ellis and a member of the ownership group that helped keep the club in Seattle in 1992, died earlier this week at age 89.
"All of us who were privileged to know Doris loved her," said Mariners president and CEO Kevin Mather. "We will all miss her laugh and her storytelling. One of my favorite memories of Doris is the night she got up on the Kingdome dugout roof to dance with the Mariner Moose during a game. We will keep her family in our prayers."
Doris Ellis (Stearns) graduated from Franklin High School in 1946 and then earned a degree in home economics from the University of Washington. She taught at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland for four years before deciding to stay home and raise her family.
She and John Ellis married in 1953 and were active in numerous charities in the Seattle area.
"For the last 25 years Doris was behind the scenes at the Mariners as a member of our ownership group, but she built her life around her family," said Mariners chairman John Stanton. "Nothing was more important to her than John, her four children -- Tom, Jim, John Jr. and Barbara -- and her eight grandchildren. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with all of them today."