PORT ANGELES — A lifelong Clallam County resident celebrated her 104th birthday with flowers, friends, cake, a teddy bear and balloons Monday afternoon.
When Ada McElravy was born in 1900, President McKinley was in office, George Eastman was making the first portable, affordable camera and the electric typewriter was about to be invented.
An emotional Mrs. McElravy, clutching a brown teddy bear given to her by Crestwood Convalescent Center staff, thanked more than 30 people for attending her birthday party.
“Thank you all so much,” she said through tears.
“This is too much.”
Mrs. McElravy is the oldest resident of the convalescent center located on Lauridsen Boulevard on Port Angeles’ east side.
Her nephew, Larry Stevens of Chimacum, said his aunt was born in the Mount Pleasant area on April 26, 1900, and remembers the county before development began.
“She used to tell me that it took all day to travel from Mount Pleasant to downtown Port Angeles in a horse and buggy,” Stevens said.
“She is probably related to most of the pioneers in the county. She has lived here all of her life.”
Her birthday coincides with the anniversary of Clallam County’s creation by the Washington Territorial Legislature on April 26, 1854 — 46 years before she was born.
