Elva Douglas turns 100 this Saturday

Elva Douglas has outlived three husbands, her seven siblings and two of her eight children.

One might expect that from someone who’s about to turn 100 years old.

The Bonners Ferry centenarian will be feted on her birthday during an open house and family reunion from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May, 10 at Trinity Lutheran Church.

Douglas’ 55-year-old daughter, Carole Dinning of Bonners Ferry, attributes her mom’s long life to good genes, exercise and diet, including eating vegetables from her garden.

Douglas also never smoked, had a very occasional glass of wine and never had a driver’s license.

“I think she drove a Model T once, when she was a kid,” Dinning said. “People would remember her because she walked to town every day.”

Today, Douglas continues to reside at the Northside home she moved to 60 years ago. She uses a walker.

“She can do anything slow,” Dinning said.

She still likes to read and watch Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and the television news.

Born May 10, 1908, in Orient, Wash., Douglas was the second youngest of eight children.

She came to Boundary County in 1936 with her first husband, Leslie Frans, after he found a job at a lumber mill. It was during the Great Depression.

They initially lived in Naples. The couple moved to Bonners Ferry after a Christmas Day fire in 1948 destroyed their home.

Leslie Frans died from a stroke in 1958. He was 49, and left his widow to raise the three youngest of their eight children.

Four years later, Douglas married Naples farmer Cecil Cossairt. Four months into the marriage, Cossairt was killed in a tractor accident. She continued raising her children and three of Cossairt’s teenagers and moved back to her home in Bonners Ferry.

In 1978, she married Ted Douglas. He died Thanksgiving Day 1999 at age 93.

Two years ago, Douglas lost her oldest child, Joyce McCalmant, 77, of Bonners Ferry. Another daughter, Geraldine, died in 1937 at age 2 from spinal meningitis.

Douglas’ other children are Bill Frans, 78, of Bonners Ferry; Wayne Frans, 76, of Hayward, Calif.; Floyd Frans, 74, of Darley, Yorkshire, England; Glenda McCalmant, 67, of Bonners Ferry; and Lynda Cossairt, 63, whose home is her recreational vehicle.

Douglas also has 22 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren and 15 great-great grandchildren.