Ellen Demetra (Pappas) Balfour

Ellen Demetra (Pappas) Balfour passed away peacefully on July 19, 2025, at CC Young Hospice in Dallas, Texas, after a courageous thirteen-year battle with breast cancer.

Ellen was born on February 1, 1950, in Monroe, Louisiana. She graduated from Neville High School and went on to attend Centenary College and the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She began her professional career as the Executive Director of the March of Dimes in Monroe. It was while organizing their annual Halloween charity event that she fell in love with one of the haunted house “ghouls” and began a marriage that would span nearly five decades.

Inspired to pursue a career in healthcare, Ellen returned to school and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Grambling State University. She worked as a psychiatric nurse at E.A. Conway Hospital, a school nurse for Monroe City Schools, and later as a nursing instructor at Delta Community College, sharing her passion for compassionate care with future generations of nurses.

Ellen found joy in life’s simple pleasures and in the people she loved. She traveled the world with her beloved husband, Jimmy; cooked delicious meals with her son, Jay; explored gem shows with her daughter, Margaret; and proudly attended concerts to hear her grandson, JP, play the saxophone. She loved the New Orleans Saints, even when they were terrible. Above all, she loved being a mom and the “family coordinator” who made sure everyone was cared for and connected.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Bobby and Ruby Pappas, and her brother, Gary. She is survived by her husband, Jimmy Balfour; daughter, Margaret Balfour; son, Jay Balfour and his wife, Suzanne Rosonke; and grandson, JP Balfour.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Ellen’s memory to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation at www.bcrf.org. And please — don’t forget to schedule your mammograms.