Elsie Caldwell

CALDWELL, Elsie Fletcher, who died on Monday, May 30, 2011 was born of missionary parents in Taegu, Korea, May 2, 1916. She graduated high school in 1934 from Pyong Yang Foreign School, Pyong Yang, North Korea. She was a 1938 graduate of Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA and received her Masters degree in religious education from New York University in 1941. She worked for the New York city Mission from 1939 - 1941 and taught at Montreat College in North Carolina from 1941 - 1942. Mrs. Caldwell served her country honorably as a Lt. j.g., intelligence officer in the United States Navy from 1943 - 1946. She attended a Japanese language school, after which she translated captured Japanese documents. In Korea, Mrs. Caldwell was a Cultural Officer with the United States Army and the United States State Department from 1946 - 1950. In 1949, she married John C. Caldwell in Korea and they evacuated Korea together in 1950 and settled in Nashville, TN in 1951. She assisted her husband with writing his many travel related books and conducting his tours to the Orient and around the world. Mrs. Caldwell operated the Golden Dragon Import Shop from 1964 - 1968 and then founded Caldwell Travel with her son Billy and daughter Betsie in 1977. She retired from Caldwell Travel in 2002, but remained Chairman of the Board. Her husband, John C. Caldwell died in 1984. Mrs. Caldwell is survived by three children David Caldwell of Raleigh, N.C., William Caldwell of Nashville, TN, Elizabeth Richards of Mobile, AL, and two step children, John Caldwell, Jr of Nashville, TN and Kendall Morris of Barnesville, GA, one brother, Dr. Donald Fletcher of New Jersey, five grandchildren, six step grandchildren, three great grandchildren, and six step great grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at Calvary United Methodist Church on Saturday, June 4, 2011, 10 am and burial to follow at Harpeth Hills Memorial Gardens. HARPETH HILLS FUNERAL HOME 615 646-9292