News

Ellie Michalove, wife of former mayor, dies in Texas

By Bill Moss, Published: February 23, 2015

Eleanor Nanney “Ellie” Michalove, a former schoolteacher and wife of former Hendersonville mayor Don Michalove, died on Wednesday, Feb. 18, in San Antonio, Texas.

Mrs. Michalove’s death was first reported by WHKP-AM 1450. News director Larry Freeman said he had spoken with the former mayor, who served as a cohost of WHKP’s Open Line Hendersonville program up until about two years ago. Michalove served as mayor of Hendersonville from 1981 to 1993. The couple sold their home on Fifth Avenue West and moved to San Antonio, where one of their daughters lives.

Ellie Nanney grew up in Tryon on a farm called Cottonpatch Plantation. Her parents named her brother Franklin Delano Nanney and named her Eleanor.

“The people they worked for were real good friends of the Roosevelts,” said Cindy Nanney Walker, who is Delano Nanney’s daughter and Ellie Michalove’s niece.

A graduate of Western Carolina University, Mrs. Michalove taught school in Henderson County. Gary Jones recalled that Miss Nanney was the one who told his class of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Nov. 22, 1963. Years later, he said, she always remembered him.

“She’d always come hug me and tell me I was one of her favorite students,” Jones said. “I finally realized each and every one of her students was her favorite student.”

Surviving in addition to the former mayor are the couple’s three daughters, Lori, Melissa and Rachel. No funeral arrangements have been announced.