Eleanor Elliott stayed connected and caring all of her life

Eleanor Elliott was born on the Canadian frontier and taught in a one-room schoolhouse. As a young wife, she lived in Washington fishing village so remote that she had to sail across the Columbia River each time she gave birth. But despite the lack of luxuries, she always saw the positive side of life.

"She was a wonderful woman, it's really hard to do her justice," said her son-in-law Darrel Trotter of Rosburg. "She lived through so many difficult times ... but in the daily journal she kept there's nothing negative in it."

Eleanor died Aug. 2, 2011, in Cathlamet at the age of 93, having spent 73 years in Wahkiakum County.

Eleanor R. Tomlinson was born Feb. 20, 1918, in Hazelton, British Columbia, to Robert and Ethel (Collins) Tomlinson. Her mother died a year later in childbirth. Her father later remarried and the family moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, where she graduated from high school.

As a young woman, she traveled alone down to Bellingham, Wash., and paid her own way through then-Washington Normal College (now Western Washington University), earning a teaching degree.