Loving, living for 106 years
CASSVILLE, Mo. — The year was 1907. There were 45 stars on the United States flag. Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory were admitted to the United States as Oklahoma, the 46th U.S. state. Theodore Roosevelt was president.
On Nov. 22, 1907, Cleva Williams was born in a small house on the White River in the Glade community in Benton County, Ark. She was one of five children born to Harmon and Dora Williams.
On Nov. 22, 2013, Cleva Williams Douglas celebrated her 106 birthday. Blue eyes sparkling, white hair gleaming, a genuine smile on her face, Mrs. Douglas said she feels pretty good for her age.
“I never thought I would live so long, especially feeling this good.”
When asked to what she attributes her long life, she said, quoting I Peter 3:10: “Love the Lord.
“For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile…” 1 Peter 3:10 KJV
The Bible says he who would love life, keep your tongue from evil.” Asked if she had done that, she said: “I tried. Sometimes it’s hard. You have to govern yourself.”
Sometimes she struggled to remember the answer to a question. When asked who was president when she was born, she said: “a Roosevelt.”
For eight years, she walked two miles to the Coal Gap school, graduated eighth grade, then married Harry Douglas at 16.
She bore four children — two sons, Dean and Denver ‘Bill,’ and two daughters, Betty and Glenda — one of whom preceded her in death.
The couple bought a farm on the White River between Lost Bridge and Glade. She worked, both on the farm, in the home and
at odd jobs to help support her family. She sewed, she fished, she canned the produce from her garden.
In 1943, the Douglas family moved to a farm near the state line in the Gateway area.
She wore mostly dresses and didn’t cut her hair until she was 90. Her daughter laughed and said her mother kept asking her if she should cut it, but Glenda didn’t want to be responsible for that decision.
“She always wore it piled up on her head,” Glenda said, adding that once her mother decided to cut it, she enjoyed the ease of caring for shorter hair.
One photograph of her has a hand-written note beside it noting her work ethic. She is wearing a dress and bonnet and standing beside a tiller. She says she kept a garden until she was in her 90s.
She lived on the farm until she was 94. She was widowed in 1980. Over the years, she worked odd jobs to bring in cash but mostly worked the home and farm.
“She worked like a slave, gardening, canning,” her daughter said.
Her friend, Georgia Roller, recalled Cleva helping skin hogs.
In addition to her three living children, Mrs. Douglas has 10 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. She attended Gateway Chapel.
She remembers the creation of Beaver Lake; the federal government bought land around the White Riv- er, built a dam and formed the reservoir.
“They run us out,” she said of the government buying land to create Beaver Lake, although her daughter said the family had moved before the government bought the land. “It covered our house.”
Did she remember the first car? “Oh, yes.” She said her neighbor was going to have a baby and she and her family knew the doctor would come in a car. “We stayed up to see the car go by.”
“I remember the first time my brother saw a car. He ran away from it into the woods.”
Cleva Douglas was once Benton County Fair Queen, although she doesn’t remember what year that was, she said. She was featured in the daily news- paper in 2005 when visiting the fair.
For a girl who didn’t continue her education beyond eighth grade because there was no transportation and no money for room and board to take her out of the tiny community on the White River, she’s come a long way. She’s traveled the world, going to Germany with her daughter, to Washington, (both the state and District of Columbia) and to Israel. She said she’s been to all but 13 of the 50 states in the U.S. and to five European countries.
Now, she lives at Rose Hill Nursing Home in Cassville, Mo.; she lived at Autumn Place in Pea Ridge for two years.
Her daughter, Glenda Hanna, brought out a photo album she had made for her mother’s 100th birthday. Looking back over the photographs of her homes, her children and her travels sparked memories and smiles.
There were newspaper clippings as well. She was featured in The Times of Northeast Benton County on Sept. 2, 1993, showing off a large cantaloupe she had grown. In 1992, she was featured in the Good Cook column by Mike Freeman.
More than a century of life is recorded in photographs of houses, family and places visited. Some photographs are black and white, some are faded colored photographs. But all tell the story of Cleva Williams Douglas and her love of life.