The Alamo Group lost one of its founding members on August 9th with the passing of Eloise Yantis Stoker. In 1968 Eloise and Jim Stoker along with Lee and Richard Carr organized the San Antonio Chapter of the Sierra Club that latter became the Alamo Group of the Lone Star Chapter.

One of their first activities was lobbying for the designation of the Rio Grande as a Wild and Scenic River. Eloise was involved in many of conservation and outing activities in the years that followed. Eloise served as chairperson for the Alamo Group and on the National Sierra Club Board.

She was a gracious host for many organizing meetings, the Group Executive Committee and Group Retreats at the Stokers' Guadalupe River cabin. Eloise was an outings leader on trips that included an annual canoe outing to Caddo Lake.

Eloise was a fine artist who received a BS in Art from UT-Austin in 1957 and BS in Graphic Design from New Mexico Highlands University in 1962. She met her husband Jim at UT-Austin and married in 1957. She was a Professor in the Art Department at the University of the Incarnate Word from 1970 to 2005. Eloise worked in various art forms but her favorite was working with clay to form pottery, plates and sculpture. Eloise was a naturalist who used many forms from nature to create imprints in her bowls and plate. She donated art pieces to the Alamo Group Christmas auctions allowing some of us to be blessed with her work.

Rememberances

Eloise and Jim Stoker were among the first people to welcome us when Kirk and I moved to San Antonio in the summer of 1970.  At a Sierra Club meeting at the Witte Museum, we were inspired by their talk about a week’s canoe trip down the deep Lower Canyons of the Rio Grande that included portaging--and even running--iconic rapids, soaking in hot springs, and camping in the wilderness for five nights.  “If you broke a leg, the only way out was miles downstream.  We joined them in the multi-year, successful effort to get Wild and Scenic River status for Texas’ amazingly beautiful Lower Canyons.

Eloise was a gifted artist and teacher of art.  Students flourished with her encouragement.  I took her suggestion to expand my calligraphy training by taking design at IWC,  and learned a lot about Native American Arts and Crafts in her flow of many stories that included firing clay with buffalo chips, making lovely dyes from plants, and her trip with Jim into the Bayou habitat of Louisiana with Indian descendants to understand their particular materials. 

I never managed to fit in Eloise’s next suggestion—to take a pottery course and write on pots.  Just before COVID closed the doors, I stopped in at Brookdale and told her she had been right 40 years ago, I should have followed her advice.  She brightened, laughed, managed a yes, accepted an appreciative hug.

The work to protect the Edwards Aquifer watershed to  assure sufficient pure water for present and future generations of the region continues in San Antonio.   This year, I have dedicated my efforts to the inspiration of my friend Eloise Stoker, a strong, compassionate, generous and dedicated volunteer all of her life to the natural environment on which we all depend.

I have fond remembrances of Eloise hosting the Alamo Group Executive Committee meeting around the kitchen table in the mid-1990's.  She often provided cookies for snacks along with drinks. It was a great atmosphere for the meetings.  Eloise also contributed ideas about how to tackle problems and could put them in historic perspective given her knowledge of past Alamo Group activities. I remember her strong pleasing voice.  This was the period of Alamo Group participation in the lawsuit to protect the endangered species at Comal and San Marcos Springs.  

During that period, Eloise and Jim hosted several Ex Com retreats at their Guadalupe River cabin. Once again Eloise provided treats for the meeting.  We also took tours of the Guadalupe River bottom below their cabin on the cliff.  Eloise and I shared a love and knowledge of native plants on those excursions. My favorite plants that I remember from their property are wonderful examples of cedar sage and large buttercup that grew on the limestone cliff and the shaded area below.

Eloise had a pottery studio at the cabin.  That was another connection.  My wife Ann had learned to throw pottery in the 1990's.  When Eloise put pottery pieces in Christmas auctions to raise funds for the Alamo Group,  Ann and I purchased several pieces.  We have a beautiful hand built vase and a leaf plate with leaves from John Muir's home site in Wisconsin.

Our love of native plants lead to Eloise getting me an invitation in 2002 to speak to the San Antonio Group of the Native Plant Society of Texas on the Salvia genus which I was collecting and propagating. I applied my honorarium to membership in NPSOT.  I have been an active participant in this group until today.  Thanks, Eloise.

We are truly thankful for Eloise's contributions to the Sierra Club and her support for the natural world and the environment.