Elsie passed away Wednesday morning, June 23, 2021, at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn. Lakeview Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Fairmont is assisting the family with arrangements. Memorials are preferred to Grace Lutheran Church in Fairmont or to the Martin County Humane Society in Fairmont.

Always remembered with love: Elsie Susan Trainor

She was born Dec. 19,1926. Passed away Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Mom Elsie passed away after a mercifully short stay at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester. Until then, at age 94, she had the general ailments afflicting the elderly but was most affected by senior dementia for a decade. Donations to dementia research in her name are very appreciated.

Who was Elsie?

She was born to a Russian immigrant family in Southern California. Father Andrew Shubin and Mother Elsie Shubin, also had brothers,Andy Shubin, Harry Shubin, and sister, Doris Lent. Times were hard in the Great Depression of the 1930’s but they managed to get by. Her mother Elsie kept a garden and there were lots of rural areas then to get local foods. The family was started in America when Mike Shubin, Elsie’s grandfather, came from Russia on someone else’s boarding pass, then taking on his American name. Mike’s wife Nellie, affectionately known as Babunia by the family, came over a few years later, children in tow. The paternal side of Shubin came from the central Ukraine and Nellie’s side came from near the Turkish border. The Shubins in Ukraine had been forced to leave Moscow by the Tzar because of their religion. The Molokans did not believe in military service. Elsie attended Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, Calif., and graduated in 1945. Her teenage years were full of fun, lots of friends, and many activities. She had a pen pal in the Air Force and once had a local Russian boyfriend. An admirer once gave her an expensive necklace from the far east, which he had procured in the merchant marines. She enjoyed popularity, she was beautiful, and had done all the things you would think about doing in Southern California in the 1940’s Elsie married Richard G. Trainor in Las Vegas, Nev. on Dec. 20, 1946. They later had a church wedding on Feb. 2, 1947, at Garvalia Presbyterian Church in Southern Calif.

What kind of person was Elsie?

Love of God was an integral part of Elsie’s life. We were started young going to church, and it generated many good memories. As her children drifted into their own lives, a strong foundation of faith had been instilled in us. Elsie was a member of Grace Lutheran Church in Fairmont, Minn. She attended until health issues kept her from going. Elsie Trainor gently shared her faith with others and personally helped bring some people to Christ. Elsie was many wonderful things: kind to people, children, and animals; generous in time and money; caring about others and supporting good causes; sociable and gregarious. With her husband Richard Trainor, they always made friends with neighbors, co-workers, and others, and those endured for decades across many homes. Elsie was super supportive of any interests the children had, even when sometimes she may not have understood those things. Elsie was our biggest cheerleader, supporting all of us. We will really miss that kind of unwavering and unquestioning support that is so rare. Being a superb homemaker, she was the epitome of neatness, cleaning, and décor. Her sense of interior design was excellent. We grew up in the Golden Age of middle-class homes, when electronics and appliances were starting to blossom, and recreational activity was busting out all over. A great cook, Elsie and husband, Richard loved to entertain family and friends, also enjoying other folk’s gatherings. She was very adventurous, and we all loved the camping, boating, water sports, and traveling to resorts. We traveled to Catalina Island in Southern California many times, a favorite place of Elsie and Richard’s from the early days of their marriage. The beaches of Baja Mexico were another favorite destination. Many, many camping trips were made to the Colorado River, deserts, Salton Sea, and to the lakes and rivers of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and beyond. They brought along friends, neighbors, and co-workers to enjoy the fellowship and great times that came naturally to Elsie and Richard. Elsie loved the Christmas season, Christmas sweaters, and all things Christmas. She had a great sense of fun in general, and she really shined at this time. She was the queen of Christmas, fully enjoying all the holiday has to offer but not forgetting the spiritual significance of this time.

Her sense of fun and social skills led her to working at Santa’s Villages Spice Shop in Skyforest, Calif., near our home in Crestline, Calif. This included working at the LA County Fair at times. We constantly had some of the best spices around. Elsie also worked for Alpha Beta Supermarket in the food preparation and distribution warehouse. She always seemed to be elbow deep in food, also working as camp cook for the 1,000 Pines Camp and the Baptist Camp near Crestline, Calif. Elsie was our caretaker of strays for animals, neighborhood children and even adults. Quick to offer food and shelter, she happily helped us care for the animals that the kids would bring home or that just showed up. We always had some animal friends, dogs and cats plus farm animals and the wild things son Randy brought home from his forays into the Chino Hills, Calif area. This instilled in her children a love of animals that showed up in their lives. In her last decade, son Cliff would bring over his aged dogs that had to be euthanized, coming over to visit one last time and she said goodbye to them. It became a ritual, complete with photographs. They had visited her many times through the good years, and she really loved that. She sent them home to Heaven with a pocket full of love. An absolutely great gardener, she turned the bare yards of our new homes into big blossoming displays of flowers and shrubs that grew into jungle size. A green thumb indeed. Elsie was also a skilled seamstress, making countless sewing patches, repairs, curtains, some of which included cloth prints direct from Paris, France. Elsie was the writer and chief connector of the family, keeping us in touch, and also with friends and acquaintances too.

Her letters, cards and calls reflected her kindness, caring, sweetness, and generosity that she was known for. She touched all whose paths crossed with hers. We will never forget that beaming smile, like the last slide shown. This is the first memory that comes up, Mom Elsie making a lunch sandwich over the breakfast bar for us, beaming that incredible smile. Always, always, with carrot and celery sticks. We will always miss you, Mom, until we meet again. Elsie Trainor lived her life in wonder and grace, as if every day was a miracle. “There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” — Albert Einstein

Preceded in death by beloved husband, Richard G. Trainor; daughter, Gerri Bausch Trainor; daughter, Jan L. Trainor; granddaughter, April Trainor Ballesteros; brother, Harry Shubin; sister, Doris Lent; parents Andrew and Elsie Shubin; grandparents, Mike and Nellie Shubin.

Elsie Susan Trainor is survived by her children, Cliff Trainor and Randy Trainor; brother, Andy Shubin; grandchildren, Terri Borgard, Ricky Bausch, Nathan Trainor; great-grandson, Brent Palmer; many other grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. www.lakeviewfuneralhome.net

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