http://www.shelbystar.com/portal/ASP/article.asp?ID=8840 Shelby native dies in Iraq Emily Killian Star Staff Writer Shelby native Jean Dover Elliott knew how dangerous it would be in Iraq. Even her e-mails home contained code words. When things weren't going well, she wrote home to her sister, Mary Wilson, in Kings Mountain that there was "a lot of gravel around." Jean, 58, and her husband Larry T. Elliott, 60, were Christian people in a faraway, war-torn land. Monday, Jean and Larry were gunned down in a drive-by shooting near Mosul, Iraq. The Elliotts had served the better part of their lives as missionaries, mostly in Honduras. They had gone to Iraq to help rebuild the country. Larry had expertise in water purification and digging wells. They knew of the danger. "They were just here in January," said Mrs. Wilson, one of Jean's six living siblings. "We had a grand time and said our goodbyes and made videos and pictures, knowing it was possible," she said. Possible, but unthinkable. "We didn't really think that, because we hoped they would come home," Mrs. Wilson said. "She told me: 'If something happens to us there, just trust that it was to be.'" Jean grew up in Shelby, the daughter of Robert and Irene Roberts Dover, and graduated from Shelby High School in 1963. She lived on Hamrick Street and eventually attended Meredith College, said her brother-in-law Ronnie Wilson. The Elliotts went to seminary at Wake Forest and then both felt the call to mission work, he said. The first stop was Costa Rica to learn the language, then Honduras called and the Elliotts stayed there 25 years, braving hurricanes. They would come back home, visiting Second Baptist Church in Shelby, where the Women's Missionary Union group is named after Mrs. Elliott. "We're all in shock, yet we're not surprised because they realized the danger," said Jerry Lail, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Shelby. "They gave their all for the one that gave all for them." Larry first traveled to Iraq last month to survey the country's needs and his wife joined him a few weeks later, said Michelle DeVoss, who attended church with the Elliotts in Cary, where the couple lived while in the States. The couple planned to return to their home in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa later this month and move permanently to Iraq in June, she said. During their time in Iraq, the Elliotts had already told of meeting the Iraqi people, Mrs. Wilson said. "They said the people were wonderful," she said. "Little children would come up and grab their hands. The adults didn 't really approach them." Mrs. Wilson said she talked almost daily with instant messaging, unless the Elliotts were traveling and didn't have access to computer hookups. "They were excited about their work. They would always say, 'We have so much to tell you.'" Councilwoman Jeanette Patterson, good friends with Mrs. Elliott's sister, Carol Ledford, shared the news of the couple's killing at Shelby City Council Monday night. "It was really a shock," she told The Star later, when she got the call shortly after 6 p.m. Monday. "She just had the prettiest smile of anybody I've ever seen," Mrs. Patterson said. "Her sister and I went to school together and we spent the night together at each other's house like you used to do. That's how I got to know Jean. Then she married my husband's nephew. "It's sort of like her family was my family and my family was her family. I'm just really saddened by the whole thing." Mayor Ted Alexander asked for prayers for the family at the start and close of Monday night's council meeting.Lail said the family needs prayers, especially the Elliotts' children and grandchildren. "They'll grow up without a grandfather or grandmother to hold them," he said. Karen Watson of Bakersfield, Calif., also died and two others, whose names were being withheld, were injured Monday in the attack. The five were attacked while traveling together in a car on the eastern side of the city, officials said. Lail said a memorial service is being planned but no date has been set. Wilson said Jean Elliott was one of eight children. Her siblings include Mrs. Wilson, who lives in Kings Mountain, Bill Dover of Shelby, Nanci Ellis of Shelby, Carol Ledford of Shelby, Jimmy Dover of the Charlotte area, Joyce Whitten from Indiana and Peggy Ann Dover, who died at birth. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 8840-3/16/2004-LN Sharon Dover Romanek Primary e-mail: [email protected] Secondary e-mail: [email protected] Researching: Romanek, Gucwa, Dover, Shrader, Tyner, Johnston, Williams, Edge, Smith, Kirksey, Demers, Murphy, Allen It's 2004... Do you know where your g-g-great grandparents are? --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Internet Of Salisbury, Inc.]