Elise M. Buchman, who delighted audiences young and old as an actor, director, published poet, mimist, juggler and a clown – took her final curtain call on June 4, 2023, after a sudden and mercifully brief illness.
Elise was born a military “brat,” in Victorville, CA., to Robert J. Buchman and Claire L. (Sanderson) Buchman, both of whom predeceased her. She graduated from Pius X, Lincoln NE., earning her Bachelor of Arts cum laude, in Theatre/ Communications and English from Doane College, NE, where she held office in the Student Government and was an active member of the Doane Players, Gamma Phi Iota Sorority, Cardinal Key and Student Activities Council. Popular amongst her classmates, she was elected Homecoming Queen her Senior year.
Following graduation, as a member of a local clown alley, Elise clowned under the moniker ‘Elsie the Clown’ and performed in theatre with the Pied Pipers throughout Nebraska. She was later accepted at the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Clown College. However, Elise’s desire to fulfill her remaining commitment Pied Pipers’ schedule, eventually led to her encounter with Marcel Marceau stateside and her departure for Paris, to study mime under his tutelage. She was the first American woman to complete the three-year program at Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau. She learned both French and fencing while there, later earning a Master’s in theatrical fencing from the Universitat de Barcelona, which she later taught in Spain and at Oxford.
She returned “to the States,” working at the then-Emmy Gifford Theatre in Omaha. She later moved to New York City, working for Oxbridge Academic Programs. She earned an MA in Language and Literacy and an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at CUNY. She later taught as an Adjunct Professor in the English Department.
In 2010, she relocated to the family’s vacation home near Roaring River State Park, MO, to help her father care for her ailing mother In NE. She began work with the MO Dept of Natural Resources at Roaring River State Park. She was on the Board of Directors of the Eureka Springs Five and Dime Collective, Inc. and had both directed and acted in several plays for the Holiday Island, AR Theatre Guild. She was an accomplished fly fisherwoman (even tying her own flies) and held her own on a unicycle. While a shoulder injury ended her personal athletics, she continued to support her beloved Yankees and Nebraska Cornhusker (football and volleyball).
She is survived by her sisters, Laura Buchman (Edward Duncklee) and Roberta (“Robin”) Cross (Earl Poon), her brother, Mark Buchman (Sandee), her partner, Charles Butler, as well as several cherished nieces, nephews and cousins, and a pack of fur-babies, all named after vacuum cleaners.
A candlelit vigil will be held at Roaring River State Park, in an area where she could regularly be found fishing with her late father. A family memorial will be held July 6, 2024, in Paola, KS.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Endowed Scholarship in her name at Doane College, Crete, NE, the Five and Dime Collective in Eureka Springs, AR or to the animal shelter or animal service organization of your choice.
Her care has been entrusted to Walnut Lawn Funeral Home, Ltd. DeGraffenreid-Wood Crematory.
