Eloise Alexander Gilster passed away peacefully at home on January 17, 2025.

Born in Savannah, Georgia on November 10, 1944 to Adam Leopold Alexander and Elizabeth Baldwin Alexander, Eloise had been a resident of Raleigh for 47 years.

Eloise was a 1963 Graduate of Savannah Country Day School. She attended Duke University as an undergraduate, and then pursued advanced degrees from the University of Florida, UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studied Anglo-Saxon poetry and pursued a PhD in medieval English literature, and NC State University, where she earned her MFA in poetry, as well as becoming a CPA. While at NC State, her earlier studies included computer programming, Spanish, French and German. She served for twenty years as a tax consultant for AARP and TCE (Tax Counseling for the Elderly).

Eloise loved gardening, listening to classical music, playing both piano and recorder, and traveling in Europe, with a special fondness for Scotland. She was a fierce tennis competitor at North Hills Club and captained a number of the club’s teams. She was also a devoted yoga practitioner. Everyone knew not to interrupt yoga. She and Paul took ballroom dance lessons later in life, their favorite dances being swing and the rhumba. As an avid community volunteer, she spent many hours at the Food Bank, volunteering as well with Hospice and her church. A woman of strong faith, Eloise attended several churches while in Raleigh but was a congregant at All Saints Anglican Church at the time of her death.

Eloise leaves behind her devoted husband of 47 years, Paul Gilster, who cared for her at home until her death along with a loving team of caregivers and medical personnel from Seniors Helping Seniors and 3HC Home Health and Hospice Care. She is also survived by her sister Elizabeth Ford, children Caroline Henderson Russell (Vann), Alec Gilster (Anelie), stepson Miles Gilster and grandchildren Lucy Russell Pittman (Dante) and Harold Edward Russell III.

A graveside service at Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah will be held January 30, 2025 at 11 A.M. A memorial service will be held at All Saints Anglican Church at 908 Deboy Street in Raleigh on February 11 at 11:00 A.M.

If you wish to honor Eloise’s memory with a charitable gift, please consider the Alzheimer’s Association.