Elva Gulsasola

Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Elva Gulsasola

Elva Adele Guisasola, 93, of Mountain Home, died Nov. 24, 2008, at a Meridian care center.

Funeral services were held Tuesday, Dec. 2, at Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel. Burial followed at Mountain View Cemetery in Mountain Home.

Elva (nickname "Jim" by her father) was born on a ranch in the Bruneau Valley on Aug. 25, 1915, the oldest of nine children of Madison and Charlotte (Dunham) Ramsey.

She attended the first eight years of school at the Beehive School in Little Valley. She graduated from Mountain Home High School in 1934.

She earned her teaching certificate in 1936 from the Albion State Normal College, and taught school in Grand View for five years. There she met John and after a four year courtship, they were married on Aug. 25, 1941.

The marriage began with an instant family. Elva's mother died and John and Elva brought Elva's three younger sisters and a brother, along with her father, to live in Mountain Home. Their only child, John Lance, was born in 1945.

John operated the Gem State Trucking Line in Mountain Home until he retired in 1972. Along with doing bookkeeping for the trucking business, Elva taught 27 years in the Mountain Home School District. She retired in 1977 after 32 years of teaching.

Elva took part in many community activities. She organized the Girl Scouts both in Grand View and Mountain Home, was past president of the Elmore County Historical Foundation, an active member in the First Congregational Church, and a charter member of Delta Kappa Gamma.

Elva is survived by: her daughter-in-law, Myra Guisasola; two grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; four sisters, Mattie Black, Lee Taylor, Bonnie Pascale and Beckie Janousek, and several brothers and sisters-in-law, as well as numerous nephews and nieces.

Elva was preceded in death by: her husband, John; son John Lance, three brothers, Champ, Albert and Tony, and one sister, Mildred Patterson.

In lieu of flowers the family suggest memorials be made to the Elva Ramsey Guisasola Scholarship Fund, Mountain Home Senior High, Scholarship Coordinator, 300 S. 11th East St., Mountain Home, ID 83647, or The First Congregational Church, 515 E. 15th North St., Mountain Home, ID 83647, or a favorite charity.