Rebekah Anderson Ellis

Rebekah Anderson Ellis, (83), passed peacefully on June 14, 2025 in Lexington, South Carolina. Rebekah was born on November 30, 1941 at Langley Field, VA to Dillard Baynard and Elizabeth Anderson Ellis. The family moved often with various Army Air Corps assignments during and after World War II, until moving to Dillon for Dill to direct the Anderson Bank.

Rebekah attended Dillon County Public Schools from grade 4 to graduation in 1959. She then headed to Converse College in Spartanburg, SC, where she discovered an interest and a talent in art. After earning a B.A. degree in Art, she moved to New York City, where she accepted a job in the main business office of Stouffer's Restaurants in Manhattan. While at Stouffer's, she qualified for an opportunity to work for IBM, training in a brand-new field called "computer programming" - a field at which she excelled!

In her early thirties, Rebekah met her one true love, Bob Zion, a life-long New Yorker. They married in 1978 and left Manhattan for Staten Island, another of the five New York City boroughs, where they lived for 40 years. They made many friends there and were active in various neighborhood communities. They always shared their homes with cats and dogs.

Rebekah worked for IBM for 35 years, problem-solving the then active computer languages (e.g. COBOL and Fortran), and developing new ones. One of her big projects was developing software to tie point-of-sale (i.e. cash registers) to companies' sales and inventory records. After IBM, she free-lanced as a consultant and troubleshooter for various companies until retirement.

Bored with retirement, Rebekah found a part-time secretarial job with the Council of Churches on Staten Island, and a second part-time job as church secretary at Brighten Heights Reformed Church. In 2018, Rebekah and Bob moved to South Carolina to be near relatives.

Rebekah was predeceased by her husband Bob Zion; parents, Dillard Baynard and Rebekah Anderson; and grandparents, Hyman and Rebekah Anderson, and George and Antoinette Ellis.

Rebekah is survived by her brother, Thomas Baynard (Winna) Ellis of Columbia; niece, Krista Ellis (Jim) Bannister; grand-nieces, Adair, Rebekah and Winna Beth Bannister of Greenville; niece, Stephanie Ellis (Bates) Mattison; grand-nephew, Miles, and grand-niece, Kathleen Mattison of Atlanta; her sister, Antoinette Ellis (John) Black; and nephew, Jonathan Dillard Black of Lexington.

A graveside service for Rebekah was held in Rosemont Cemetery in Clinton, SC, on June 25, 2025. The service was attended by family and close friends, followed by a luncheon during which many happy, loving, and humorous memories were shared.

Memorials may be sent to ASPCA.

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