dward R. McElligott, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York in 1907, lived there until the age of nineteen, when he joined the Merchant Marine. After three years at sea, he wound up in Anchorage, Alaska in 1929.

Like so many others of the day, he had come to Alaska looking for work. He found it with the Alaska Railroad, working in the freight depot. He soon left the railroad and joined W. J. Boudreau Company, a wholesale grocer, where he received a good background in the grocery business. It was not long before he opened his own store, the Anchorage Grocery, located on the corner of 4th Avenue and H Street.

Edward married Esther Alberta Olund, a young graduate nurse who came to Anchorage in 1930. She was born in Manchester, Washington in 1907 and, after her schooling, received her training as a registered nurse at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. In 1930, she was hired by the United States Department of the Interior to come to Anchorage on a one-year contract to work as a registered nurse at the Alaska Railroad Hospital.

Ed eventually sold out of the grocery business and invested in an insurance firm in Anchorage and then in the Automotive Parts and Equipment Company, at one time the largest distributor of auto parts in Alaska. He served two terms on the Anchorage City Council and was a member of other civic groups. Esther was one of the founders of the Bishop’s Attic, and served on its board of directors almost until her death. She was also a member of the board of directors that planned, started and built the Anchorage Senior Center.

Ed and Esther McElligott had five children. Their eldest son, James Morgan, died at the age of sixteen. Daughter Marymae married James Duncan, and they had five children; Mark, Robert, Greg, Jeff and Elizabeth. Daughter Margaret Ann married Howard Gass, and they had three children, David, Stephan and Margaret Esther. Son Edward Michael married Marianne Hartlieb, and they had three children; E. Michael II, Kirstin Michelle and James Morgan. Daughter Esther Lynn married Walter Hickel, Jr., and they had three children, Walter J. III and twin girls, Morgan Brittany and Kolby Alexandria.

Edward R. McElligott died in 1991 and is buried in the Catholic Tract of the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. Esther died at home in Anchorage in 2004, and is also buried at Anchorage Memorial Park.