Elvira Latta Charles

Elvira Latta Charles passed away peacefully in Salt Lake City, Utah, surrounded by family and love. Born on November 16, 1926, in Havana, Cuba, she was the cherished daughter of Dwight Millard Latta and Elvira Rosita Escoda y Gil de Latta, and the beloved older sister of Diana Latta Baude.

Elvira spent her childhood in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Manhattan, New York. She graduated from Julia Richman High School, where she served as senior class president, and later earned her Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Hunter College.

In 1951, she married the Reverend E. Otis Charles, beginning a life shaped by faith, service, and a shared commitment to community. Inspired by Dorothy Day, Elvira worked in inner-city ministry in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and later served at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Beacon, New York. Together, they raised five children-Christopher Dwight, Nicholas James Christian, Emilie Marie Scott, Timothy Latta, and Elvira Maria Pilar.

In Washington, Connecticut, where Otis became rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Elvira and Otis co-founded the Washington Montessori School in 1965 with a single grade. Today, the school thrives as a K-8 institution, a testament to her enduring belief in education and the flourishing of young minds.

The family moved to Salt Lake City in 1971 when Otis was consecrated as the Eighth Episcopal Bishop of Utah. During her years there, Elvira volunteered with many community non-profits, including the YWCA and Crossroads Urban Center, where she served on the Board, and was a long-time docent at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In 1986, she and Otis relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she earned a Master’s degree in Feminist Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School, deepening her lifelong journey of faith, reflection, and the integration of spirituality into daily life.

Following their divorce, Elvira returned to Washington, Connecticut, in 1993, where she enjoyed the companionship of family and friends and worked at the Hickory Stick Bookstore, surrounded by the books she cherished.

In 2003, Elvira returned to Salt Lake City to live with her daughter Mimi and son-in-law, Brian Wilkinson. She embraced this chapter with joy, pursuing her love of art, history, museums, travel, and learning. She visited family in France and Spain. She toured Russia, seeing the art and hearing the language she studied in school, and journeyed to Ireland to explore her father’s roots. In 2023, she moved to Capitol Hill Senior Living, where she found comfort in community and continued closeness with family.

Elvira is survived by her children-Chris (Cathy), Nick (Louise), Mimi (Brian), Tim (Janice), and Elvie-along with ten grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren. She will be remembered for her intelligence, elegance, wit, and grace-a woman of inward and outward beauty whose warmth and dignity touched all who knew her. She was predeceased by her parents, her sister, and her former husband, Otis.

A service for family and close friends will be held in May of 2026 at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her ashes will be placed in the cathedral’s columbarium; a sacred space she helped create many years ago. Honoring her wishes, a portion of her ashes will also be carried to Pratdip, Spain, her mother’s birthplace, returning her to the soil of her ancestry-her final homecoming.

Elvira’s life-rooted in devotion, creativity, curiosity, and love-stands as a testament to her faith, her commitment to family, and her graceful way of moving through the world.

The family extends its deep gratitude to Mimi and Brian for their 22 years of extraordinary care, companionship, and devotion to Elvira.