Elaine Fleck

Board Member-at-Large, Neighborhood Preservation & Improvement Committee

I was born in Ft. Monroe, in coastal Virginia. My father was a colonel in the army, so my family and I 

moved often, including three years in Germany. I attended art school at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, and after graduation, I took off on a cross-country bike trip with my British boyfriend—eventually ending up in San Francisco, where I lived for ten years. Needing a break from city life, I moved to Taos, NM to paint and enjoy the sky and mountains and a more relaxed way of living. I re-connected with another San Francisco refugee, and Richard and I soon married. When our son was two, and after doing some research, we decided to move to Roanoke. Old Southwest was our first and only choice, since we liked the diversity and the convenient location to both downtown, Highland Park, and the expanding Greenway. We both care about nature and the environment. Richard and I have been in Roanoke since 1996, having moved here one month before the infamous “blizzard of ‘96.” We bought our home on Mountain Ave. in 2003. These days I divide my time between my art studio in my backyard, the Market Gallery downtown, supporting our OSW neighborhood, and my garden Rabbit Hill Farm—just down the street from our house on Mountain. It’s our little patch of country in the city!