Rose Elliott never ran out of things to do.
She taught home economics into her 60s, she made at least two wedding dresses in her 70s, she wrote her memoir in her 90s, she learned to play Wii bowling when she was 99 and she knitted party favors for more than 100 guests who came to celebrate her 100th birthday.
“Mother wanted to keep busy,” said her daughter, Rose Johnston, of Cumming. “She didn’t like the idea of being idle.”
Susan Britton, of Roswell, said her grandmother was “game for anything.” Learning to play Wii was just one of the ways her grandmother kept up with her great-grandchildren, her granddaughter said.
“She sat in her wheelchair and bowled with the best of them,” she said.
Mrs. Elliott was an easy-going lady, whose memory remained sharp as she aged, her granddaughter said. Mrs. Britton said her grandmother was still able to recall a lot of details and facts. One of the most amazing things Mrs. Elliott did was disassemble, repair and reassemble a sewing machine, when she was 96, Mrs. Britton said.
“That’s how sharp her mind was,” she said. “And of course the machine worked beautifully after that.”
Rose Gratis Wilkinson Miller Elliott, of Forsyth County, died Sunday at Embracing Hospice in Cumming, after suffering a stroke a week earlier. She was 101. A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kenton United Presbyterian Church in Portland, Ore. Entombment will follow at Riverview Abbey Mausoleum, also in Portland. Ingram Funeral Home & Crematory, in Cumming, is in charge of arrangements.
Darlene M. Culligan, of Hayward, Calif., said one of the most fascinating things about her mother was her ability to "make do."
“Some people now don’t know how to substitute things and make other things work, but she did,” Mrs. Culligan said. “And she had to, with five children, the budget was low.”
Mrs. Elliott would buy a bolt of material and make clothes for her children, Mrs. Culligan said.
“We’d all have matching clothes, but different buttons, or trim or something like that,” she said. “She made that bolt of material work for the family.”
Sewing, knitting and crocheting were among Mrs. Elliott's favorite activities, her daughters said. She still enjoyed knitting and crocheting until her eyesight began to fail her earlier this year.
“Even though she dropped a stitch here and there, she never stopped trying to knit,” Mrs. Culligan said. “She never, ever stopped trying.”
Mrs. Elliott is also survived by two additional daughters, Shirley Anne Miller of Springfield, Ore., Helen Eileen Williamson of Pleasant Hills, Calif.; son, William Wray Miller Jr., of Portland, Ore.; stepdaughters, Waneta Elliott of Greeley, Colo., Bonnie Anderson of Pine Bluff, Wyo., and Ellen Bradley of Sun City, Ariz.; stepsons, Donald Elliott of Greeley Colo., and LeRoy Elliott of Wheaton, Ill.; 17 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren, two and great-great grandchildren.
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