Kathi Anderson shows Ella Coash one of her dolls wearing clothes made by Coash. Image credit to Philip Potempa
This story by Philip Potempa originally appeared on page 6A and 7A in The Vidette-Messenger on August 31, 1993.
VALPARAISO - Ella Cash appreciates the simple things in life, like flowers, poetry and animals. Coash, who celebrated her 105th birthday last week at Canterbury Place, grew up during an era filled with simple pleasures rather than modern conveniences.
"Ella never did rely on modern conveniences throughout her life. She always preferred to do things ‘the old-fashioned way.' Even while she was on her own up until 1983, she did her cooking on an old cast-iron cook stove. She did have a small electric grill that she used once in a while, but not often," said Pinney Sommers, of Kouts, Coash's first cousin.
Sommers and his wife were two of Coash's closest family members who attended a big birthday celebration in her honor last Tuesday at Canterbury Place, where Coash has been a resident for the past 10 years.
The party guests included Canterbury residents, staff, relatives and area dignitaries. “Today Show" weatherman Willard Scott read Coash's name over the NBC air-waves, while State Sen. Bill Alexa, D-Valparaiso, sent a special written birthday greeting to be read following the birthday dinner.
The dinner and party had a “turn-of-the-century" theme that recalled what life was like during the early 1900s.
Despite the afternoon heat, the Canterbury staff donned floor-length black skirts, white ruffled blouses and pinned-up their hair to resemble the attire of the period.
Fresh-cut flower tops floated in water-filled, fluted-glass globes on every table of Canterbury's main dining room. Coash, sporting a large corsage, sat at a head table that was adorned with a large center-piece. All of the flowers for the occasion were donated compliments of Costas' floral department.
"Ella loves fresh flowers. She always has. Her small house here in Valparaiso always had flower beds (for cutting) to fill any empty vases inside her home," Sommers said.
What do you give someone celebrating their 105th birthday?
"Flowers are the perfect gift for Ella. We told everyone who was invited that if you want to get her a gift, flowers are one of the things that she really enjoys," said Diana Carnahan, Canterbury's director of marketing who helped plan the event.
The birthday dinner was a feast of old-fashioned favorites - fried chicken, carved ham, homemade buttermilk biscuits, fresh jams and jellies, corn-on-the-cob, strawberry shortcake, sugar and molasses cookies and cherry, apple and ice-box lemon pies. The birthday cake was donated by Costas bakery.
Coash is remembered by many people in Porter County for her craft of making doll clothes. Some of the staff members at Canterbury still have dolls from their childhood that are clothed in Coash's doll designs.
"I was 10 or 11 when my mother took me to Ella's house to pick out some doll clothes," said Kathi Anderson, a physical therapist at Canterbury.
She said Coash's doll clothes ranged in price from $5 for basic garments to $35 for elaborate wedding gowns.
"Ella worked for Dr. Louis for many years as both receptionist and examining room assistant. She was also the private babysitter for local manufacturing magnate Charles McGill's children, as well as a frequent contributing writer for ‘The Vidette-Messenger' about social events,” said
Don Coash, Coash's first cousin from Crown Point.
Coash said the Canterbury's detailed "period party" was perfect for his cousin because she spent much of her life recording historical information, such as home remedies, family customs and social and religious events, in a scrapbook that is on file at the Porter County Library.
And what did the birthday girl have to say today about all of this?
“Do you know the name of a rich millionaire? I’d like to marry him,” joshes Coash, who never married.