Celebrating 100 years: Retired teacher Elsie Dondanville turns 100
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Anyone who knows Elsie Dondanville well knows she does not like surprises. So it was no surprise that Dondanville already knew about her “surprise” birthday party last Thursday. But Dondanville was still not prepared for the more than 100 people who showed up to celebrate her 100th birthday.
“I’m overwhelmed, but I remember everyone,” Dondanville said as she laughed and reminisced with her visitors. She sat in a chair, her walker nearby, one of the few indicators of her age, receiving hugs, handshakes and smiles from familiar faces.
All her friends, family and former students traveled from as near as Polson and as far away as Washington D.C. to congratulate her.
“People I never dreamed would be here are here,” Dondaville said. “There are people I haven’t seen in years. I almost fell over.”
Dondanville lives in an assisted living center in Polson. She has only been here for a few months and she is still trying to adjust to the move. For the past 60 years, Dondanville had lived by herself on her ranch in Lone Pine.
She said with the help of good neighbors and friends that often checked on her, she was quite independent. But after falling a few times and giving up her driving license, Dondanville didn’t want to be a burden and decided it was best to move to Polson.
She said the transition was hard because she didn’t know anyone but today friends and family surround her.
“I remember her as a very creative teacher, but also quite strict,” Bessie Argo of Ronan said. Dondanville was Argo’s elementary school teacher in Lone Pine.
“She was strict, boy, you didn’t mess around,” Janine Woods of Hot Springs said, another former student of Dondanville’s at Lone Pine.
Both Argo and Woods also recalled Dondanville as a fun and involved teacher who didn’t allow them to play on the playground during recess. Instead she organized games for them to play and she always played along with them. Dondanville especially loved to play baseball.
“I’m a baseball nut,” Dondanville said.
Other activities she organized included teaching them how to square dance, ice skate and singing patriotic hymns and songs.
Dondanville was also member of the National Grange for 70 years and had all the rituals memorized by heart. Nowadays she finds it harder to remember some of those things, but like teaching, it was another important aspect of her life.
Dondanville officially retired as a teacher about 26 years ago. She started teaching elementary school grades shortly after she graduated from high school in 1929.
She has worked for six different schools and taught hundreds of children.
“I always liked to be with kids,” Dondanville said. Though she never had any children of her own, Dondanville has been like a mother and grandmother to many.
One person in attendance who is especially close to her is her former neighbor Justin Bras.
“It’s not every day you know, let alone love someone, who turns 100,” Bras said during the birthday toast. Bras, now 30, said he has known Dondanville since he was a child.
He was there to help her blow out the candles on her cake. It was a carrot cake, her favorite.
Though only a few candles were lit on the cake, it didn’t stop friends and family from joking with Dondanville.
“Elsie, are all the candles on there?” someone shouted as the crowd gathered to watch her blow out the candles.
“It’s going to set off the fire alarm,” another person shouted.
Even for Dondaville it’s hard to believe she is celebrating 100 years.
“I am healthy and able to function,” Dondanville said. “There are some people who can’t function and have a lot of health problems. I am thankful.”
