Page 1 of 24 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Ella “Maggie” Johns Frank 
1980  
Cassette 1, Side 1 
 
 
Winona Weber  00:03 
Well I wasn't sure about the tape recorder, I mean-- 
 
Ella Frank  00:06 
Oh, I see-- 
 
Winona Weber  00:07 
I haven't--I haven't used it before, I wasn't sure whether it worked or not. 
 
Ella Frank  00:11 
Oh. 
 
Winona Weber  00:11 
--kind of crossing my fingers. Okay. I want to make sure that it's on the tape part so that 
[inaudible]. You said you were born there at Oyhut? 
 
Ella Frank  00:31 
Mhm [affirmative].  
 
Winona Weber  00:33 
Did you, did you spend most of your time there when you were growing up, or did you spend 
more of it at [inaudible]? 
 
Ella Frank  00:38 
Um, stayed at Humptulips until I was eleven--  
 
Winona Weber  00:45 
Uh-huh. 
 
Ella Frank  00:45 
--and then we lost my mother and my brother moved with him into [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  00:51 
Page 2 of 24 
 
Which brother was that? 
 
Ella Frank  00:52 
Roy. 
 
Winona Weber  00:53 
Roy. [Inaudible.] 
 
Ella Frank  00:53 
Mhm [affirmative]. I stayed there like [inaudible crosstalk]. Since eighteen. 
 
Winona Weber  01:05 
Your mother--You said she was widowed while you were a really small child.  
 
Ella Frank  01:13 
Mhm [affirmative].  
 
Winona Weber  01:14 
What did she do to, to you know, bring the money in to support you? 
 
Ella Frank  01:21 
Well, she fished and did washing, mending. 
 
Winona Weber  01:28 
What kind of fishing did she do?  
 
Ella Frank  01:30 
[Inaudible.]   
 
Winona Weber  01:32 
Yeah, [?I know?] how big it is. What kind of fishing? Did she use a-- 
 
Ella Frank  01:35 
With a net.  
 
Winona Weber  01:36 
Gill net? 
 
Ella Frank  01:37 
Mhm [afffirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  01:38 
Oh, I see. 
 
Ella Frank  01:38 
Page 3 of 24 
 
[Inaudible.] She fished, and then fished on the river, too, I remember that. You know it's a river, 
Humptulips River. And she fished, fished on the [?deep holes?] there. We lived on an island, if 
you've been up--  
 
Winona Weber  01:49 
Yeah. Yeah, I know [inaudible].  
 
Ella Frank  02:00 
Yeah, well we lived on that island. [Inaudible] on Humptulips River? There's an island, and the 
river flows around, and that's where we lived. 
 
Winona Weber  02:13 
Oh! Huh, I never knew that anybody ever lived there.  
 
Ella Frank  02:14 
Yeah, there were several houses there. Hayden lived there. There were several there, but they 
moved away, or--one family, they died--but mostly moved away. See if I remember their names. 
 
Winona Weber  02:37 
What was the name of the island? Did the island that you guys lived on, did it have a name? 
 
Ella Frank  02:42 
I never did remember it having a name, but it was quite a big island. It was bigger than this one 
acre of uh-- It was long, it was long. There are at least, see--one, two, three, four houses there. 
 
Winona Weber  02:52 
Uh-huh. Hmm! 
 
Ella Frank  03:01 
Tom Hayden? You heard of the Haydens. 
 
Winona Weber  03:04 
Yeah, I've heard of the Haydens. 
 
Ella Frank  03:06 
The father of the-- Well, John Hayden--I think he still there. John Hayden. Old John? 
 
Winona Weber  03:14 
Yeah, that's where I heard it. 
 
Ella Frank  03:17 
His father, his name was Tom Hayden. 
 
Winona Weber  03:20 
Yeah, I've heard of the Haydens. 
 
Page 4 of 24 
 
Ella Frank  03:23 
Yeah, he had a house there, and he died. And then it was John Kettle, you've probably heard of 
him. Tom Hayden lived right here [gesturing]. 
 
Winona Weber  03:36 
Uh-huh. 
 
Ella Frank  03:36 
And then John Kettle-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:38 
Yep. 
 
Ella Frank  03:41 
He's kind of [?wrong?], he just lives across from Tom Hayden.  
 
Winona Weber  03:46 
Oh, I see.  
 
Ella Frank  03:46 
Our house is just further up the, this island, and then--[inaudible] Where it stops that way-- 
 
Winona Weber  03:59 
Oh, I see. 
 
Ella Frank  04:00 
--[Inaudible.] So there's one, two, three, four houses. 
 
Winona Weber  04:08 
Hmm! That's a pretty good-sized little settlement there. 
 
Ella Frank  04:10 
Yeah!  
 
Winona Weber  04:12 
When you--did you have a garden by your house? 
 
Ella Frank  04:18 
I think my mother did. She had a big berry patch, too. 
 
Winona Weber  04:22 
Oh, yeah. [Crosstalk.] 
 
Ella Frank  04:23 
Raspberry patch. Oh, she had a beautiful raspberry patch. Of course it sounds great country, 
there [inaudible]. 
Page 5 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  04:32 
Oh, yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  04:33 
Blackberries. There's nothing here. Had to raise my raspberries [laughs]. 
 
Winona Weber  04:39 
[Laughs.] Yeah. When-- Now, when your-- Did your mother-- Did you have to help her garden 
and that whole thing? What did you do? 
 
Ella Frank  04:53 
Oh, I helped, but I was pretty young, you know, eleven years old. I helped, boy I had to work. 
 
Winona Weber  05:00 
Oh yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  05:00 
We had to. I learned to cut fish when I was pretty young. 
 
Winona Weber  05:07 
That was before you were eleven, guess it was? 
 
Ella Frank  05:10 
Yeah I'd be before, long before eleven then, and I was always in the sink, they'd pull a chair up 
for me, and-- 
 
Winona Weber  05:18 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  05:19 
Seemed like we always had company. 
 
Winona Weber  05:22 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  05:22 
Was always taking care of little kids, and I was just a kid myself. I remember I was always in the 
sink, I still can't get out of the sink. 
 
Winona Weber  05:31 
[Laughs.] Yeah, I know how that goes. When you had company, who would you have for 
company?  
 
Ella Frank  05:40 
Page 6 of 24 
 
Some of her relatives. Sometimes, it would be Simon--you know I was talking about Simon--and 
he always said he never had any kids of his own that he always had other people's kids. 
 
Winona Weber  05:51 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  05:52 
And there'd be a bunch there. Stayed--well, they wouldn't stay one night, they'd stay for days. 
And my mother would cook for them, you know. It was common, [inaudible]. There was always 
somebody there. [Inaudible.] She was a good cook. Not that much of a cook, I wasn't. I'd do 
anything but cook! 
 
Winona Weber  06:02 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. [Laughs.] 
 
Ella Frank  06:22 
[Laughs.] I'd rather work! 
 
Winona Weber  06:23 
Yeah [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  06:25 
But she, she was a good cook.  
 
Winona Weber  06:29 
Did--did you have any brothers or sisters living at home with you?  
 
Ella Frank  06:35 
Off and on, my brother stayed--the younger brother, the one that was drowned. He drowned 
when he was in his late teens. 
 
Winona Weber  06:35 
Uh-huh. 
 
Ella Frank  06:37 
Yeah, [inaudible.]. He was home. He'd work somewhere else, you know, and then he'd come 
home. And it's just he'd to stay and then he'd be gone again. Then when my mother married this, 
uh-- 
 
Winona Weber  06:56 
Walt? 
 
Ella Frank  06:56 
Walt. He didn't like my brother, so he wasn't there very much after he got [inaudible]. He liked 
me okay, but he didn't like my brother. So I hated him. [Chuckles.] 
 
Page 7 of 24 
 
Winona Weber  07:07 
[Laughs.] Oh! 
 
Ella Frank  07:10 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  07:16 
Who, Walt? 
 
Ella Frank  07:17 
It would have been okay, if he didn't see--He didn't allow my brother to even come there. 
[Inaudible.] Kid can hate. [Chuckles.] Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Winona Weber  07:17 
Oh [sympathetic]. Really? How old were you when-when your mother married this man Walt? 
 
Ella Frank  07:37 
Oh, I must have been, oh--say, seven? Seven years old. 
 
Winona Weber  07:37 
Hm. 
 
Ella Frank  07:50 
She was married to him. She-she died. She died real quick.  
 
Winona Weber  07:54 
Mm [sympathetic]! 
 
Ella Frank  07:55 
Still [inaudible]. Didn't I turn that burner on if we want coffee.  
 
Winona Weber  08:04 
[Laughs.] Is it? [?And it's?] boiled away! [They laugh.] 
 
Ella Frank  08:09 
[Recorder jostles.] Drink of water, I'm thirsty. [Cross talk] This--that can there?  
 
Winona Weber  08:25 
Oh, yeah! I take this--[Inaudible cross talk.] [Chairs moving.]  
 
Ella Frank  08:29 
I do, too. I don't drink much coffee, when I want it, I've got to be able to get it.  
 
Winona Weber  08:37 
Want it right now. Yeah. [Inaudible cross talk.] 
 
Page 8 of 24 
 
Ella Frank  08:43 
Are you warm enough? I can turn the heat up-- 
 
Winona Weber  08:45 
 Oh yeah. I'm plenty warm.  
 
Ella Frank  08:46 
I've been warm. It's easy for me to keep warm. I think I'm cold-blooded. [Chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  08:56 
Yeah, it's funny, because my aunt-- A lot of younger people complain that her house is too cold. 
I wonder if you just get used to living in a colder house? 
 
Ella Frank  09:09 
Maybe--I think it's it because this house isn't as warm as the other houses. It's kind of drafty, I 
think. But when I raised my kids here, no one was hardly ever sick. They get--my daughter had 
heart trouble. She had rheumatic fever. When she was--she was married when she got that. And 
then instead of--I shouldn't be going into this--instead of giving her--there's something you're 
supposed to take after you have rheumatic fever, and they didn't give her that. They didn't even 
tell her. And then the calcium formed in some valve that goes to her heart. 
 
Winona Weber  09:54 
Oh [sympathetic]! 
 
Ella Frank  09:55 
So she's scheduled for heart surgery when she--[Inaudible]. She just [?died down?]. She's healthy 
in every way except-- 
 
Winona Weber  10:09 
Just for that valve. 
 
Ella Frank  10:10 
Yeah. Formed and blocked that one valve. They were going to do it, and they kept sending her 
home, rescheduling her appointment, you know. I don't know why they were doing that, I really 
don't. It had to be done. [Inaudible.]  
 
Winona Weber  10:31 
Yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  10:32 
I think they wouldn't have done that now, then they didn't want to go. That's just--Help and--I 
think they'd have done it now. So sending her home, take her over there and then they'd send her 
home, reschedule her for surgery. 
 
Winona Weber  10:51 
Other people getting [inaudible] around like that. When they go to--go to get help. 
Page 9 of 24 
 
 
Ella Frank  10:56 
Yeah. Well, they--Regina Mason was gonna do it. They said they'd do it. She was so healthy in 
every other way that they want to do it right now. And she thought--she and her husband both--
makes you sick when I think of it. They thought it was too much money, it was $1,600, that's all 
it was. I said, "You mean your life isn't worth that much? She says, "Heavens, no, I am going to 
get it done through Indian Health Service. So she'd go over there, and they'd send her back home 
and tell her, "Come back another day." And she was strong, except she gets spells where her 
breath would-- 
 
Winona Weber  11:42 
Yeah [crosstalk]. 
 
Ella Frank  11:43 
Hardly breath-- 
 
Winona Weber  11:43 
That's what happens when--[Cross talk.] Get short of breath. Huh, Gee! 
 
Ella Frank  11:47 
She was packing a 90-pound motor, bringing it down to the boat dock.  Of course, we did no--we 
didn't even know. We didn't--I didn't even know she was down there. She--her car was still 
running up there and she darted down there and took the motor out of the boat. [Cross talk.] 
Makes me sick that we were so dumb that we didn't even know. Just dumb. 
 
Winona Weber  12:16 
How--how did your, um-- Did your mother--Did your mother do--That--Well, the Indians around 
up on the coast here. You know, they have so many different kinds of basketry, and everything 
like that. Did your mother do anything like that?  
 
Ella Frank  12:38 
Uh-huh (affirmative). 
 
Winona Weber  12:39 
Baskets? 
 
Ella Frank  12:39 
Uh-huh (affirmative). 
 
Winona Weber  12:40 
What kind of baskets did she-- 
 
Ella Frank  12:42 
I'll show you what she, what she made. [Gets up, walks away from the recorder.] Let's see. I was 
showing some folks last night, [inaudible]. 
 
Page 10 of 24 
 
Winona Weber  12:44 
Oh! Oh really? [Laughs.] 
 
Ella Frank  12:56 
This is what we make around here, you know.  
 
Winona Weber  12:59 
Yeah, I've seen some of these. Ooh! This is a nice basket. [Cross talk.] 
 
Ella Frank  13:04 
Because it's old. [Chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  13:07 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. Oh, that's nice! 
 
Ella Frank  13:14 
And I was showing it to Nancy. 
 
Winona Weber  13:21 
Did she just make baskets for her own use? Or did she--did she ever sell them? 
 
Ella Frank  13:26 
Oh sure, then, everybody sold their baskets. 
 
Winona Weber  13:29 
Uh-huh [affirmative].  
 
Ella Frank  13:30 
Even I did, [chuckles], after I got married here, and my mother-in-law made baskets all the time, 
and she was a hustler! She'd go to Ocean Park, you know, camp over there, and then she'd make 
baskets all winter and then go over there. Come back with a fistful of money.  And she'd take 
mine, too, you know, whatever I'd make, she take it over there. Sell every bit of it to tourists you 
know, in the summer within Ocean Park. These is what the Quileutes made.  
 
Winona Weber  13:50 
[Laughs.] Oh, really? 
 
Ella Frank  14:02 
They do nicer work than-- I think that's beautiful work.  
 
Winona Weber  14:07 
Oh, geez.  
 
Ella Frank  14:08 
My husband, he was, he was part Quileute, you know. He's related to--oh, what's her name? 
Beatrice--[?lacking?]  
Page 11 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  14:16 
Beatrice? Yeah, [inaudible]. [Cross talk]. Oh, really?  
 
Ella Frank  14:19 
And that's what they make, and you can see how-- 
 
Winona Weber  14:21 
Geez, nice, nice work.  
 
Ella Frank  14:24 
Yeah. Of course, it wasn't like that. It's just been deep in here for 30 years, maybe 40 years. 
[Chuckles.] They gave me--used to fish down there, take his boat down there and fish out of 
there, and then he'd stay with his cousins. 
 
Winona Weber  14:41 
At La Push? 
 
Ella Frank  14:41 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. Indians used to live there, yeah. 
 
Winona Weber  14:44 
Oh, yeah, there's still some there. 
 
Ella Frank  14:46 
Is there? [Inaudible cross talk.] Not a very big--. --Resort. Yeah, it is.  
 
Winona Weber  14:50 
There's a lot of, you know, non--non-Indians there. Lot of white people.  
 
Ella Frank  14:55 
Used to be reservation. We went down there once, it's Fourth of July. You know, it's just--they 
were having a feast there.  
 
Winona Weber  15:05 
Ooh. 
 
Ella Frank  15:05 
Yeah, it was [inaudible] joy. You'd just go there and eat, you know?  
 
Winona Weber  15:11 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  15:12 
Yeah well it's not now. [Inaudible cross talk.] Taholah don't do that many [inaudible]. You know, 
have feasts where everybody can come and eat.  
Page 12 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  15:26 
Huh, they don't. 
 
Ella Frank  15:28 
I don't think they do.  
 
Winona Weber  15:30 
We have Fourth of July celebration, but-- 
 
Ella Frank  15:34 
--You have to pay for it-- 
 
Winona Weber  15:34 
--you have to pay for everything [inaudible] celebration. 
 
Ella Frank  15:38 
Well in my day, we used to have feasts. They used to even have it in [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  15:43 
Uh-huh [affirmative].  
 
Ella Frank  15:43 
People--Indians from all over--Oakville, Lummi--everywhere. We'd come down there and kind 
of a convention or like a get-together, you know.  A lot of people from all over. Or sometimes 
they'd have it in Oakville. Warm Springs and Lummi Reservation. You don't hear of that 
anymore. Kind of a Shaker convention or something. 
 
Winona Weber  15:52 
Usually the fate, if the feasts were tied to, say, a Shaker convention. Fourth of July, or--[cross 
talk]. 
 
Ella Frank  15:52 
Yeah everybody meets, and then they have Shaker meetings. I don't think they do that anymore. I 
think they used to even have it here in [inaudible]. I think they used to have it there. I'm not sure, 
now. 
 
Winona Weber  15:52 
Yeah.  I've heard a lot about the Shaker church here in Bay Center. [Inaudible cross talk.] 
 
Ella Frank  16:43 
When I got here, that was [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  16:47 
Oh! 
 
Page 13 of 24 
 
Ella Frank  16:49 
But they used to have feasts there. Right-right there in [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  16:51 
Mhm [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  16:53 
Because I used to work there. Well, set table, clear table, serve food--people would stay there for 
days. [Inaudible], that was fun. My mother used to cook, you know. She was a good cook. Boy, I 
remember she'd be on her feet all night, you know, preparing food. 
 
Winona Weber  17:18 
Oh, really? 
 
Ella Frank  17:18 
Yeah. Her ankles would be just swelled like that [gestures]. I don't have that trouble. I don't have 
swollen ankles. 
 
Winona Weber  17:25 
Hm! No, you don't. 
 
Ella Frank  17:29 
Uh-huh. She did, so I think she had, she must have had a heart, a bad heart or something. Those 
days, there were no doctors, and-- 
 
Winona Weber  17:38 
--Yeah-- 
 
Ella Frank  17:40 
Boy, her-- Being on her feet, you know, all night. She'd have swollen feet or ankles. I haven't had 
any so far. 
 
Winona Weber  17:56 
Probably won't, then. [Inaudible cross talk.] Some people are lucky that way, you know, 
[inaudible]. 
 
Ella Frank  18:12 
I had big plans, too, you know. [They laugh.]  
 
Winona Weber  18:14 
Oh, yeah? 
 
Ella Frank  18:15 
If I can get a ride down there, it's hard to get rides. 
 
Winona Weber  18:18 
Page 14 of 24 
 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  18:19 
Clam digging's been so lousy.  
 
Winona Weber  18:21 
Yes.  
 
Ella Frank  18:21 
They just don't show. I guess you know more about that than I do. 
 
Winona Weber  18:26 
I haven't been clam digging in a long time. I've been going to school--[cross talk] 
 
Ella Frank  18:30 
Well, yeah, you're gone. 
 
Winona Weber  18:33 
I go to school from when--just about when the clam season's open to just about when it closes, 
you know? 
 
Ella Frank  18:41 
Oh, I love clam season. I just love it. 
 
Winona Weber  18:46 
You get asked to [inaudible]? 
 
Ella Frank  18:47 
Mhm. Takes us two hours to [inaudible]. 
 
Winona Weber  18:51 
Yeah, it takes me an hour from my house. 
 
Ella Frank  18:53 
Yeah, you're close. I wish I lived with you. Get some rides from there, you know. Martha lives in 
Moclips, and she got good clams in Moclips.  
 
Winona Weber  18:58 
[Laughs.] Martha McBride? 
 
Ella Frank  19:07 
Mhm.  
 
Winona Weber  19:10 
I haven't--that's another person I should-- 
 
Page 15 of 24 
 
Ella Frank  19:12 
You should interview her.  
 
Winona Weber  19:14 
Yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  19:15 
I'd like to see her, too. What, I see her about maybe once in five years. See, I don't drive. I can't 
go where I'd like to visit. 
 
Winona Weber  19:27 
Did you ever learn how to drive? Have you ever driven before? 
 
Ella Frank  19:30 
Unh-uh [negative]. I wish I did. Because now I don't trust me. You know, I'll do the wrong thing 
at the right time, is what I'd do [laughs]. 
 
Winona Weber  19:43 
Oh, I see.  
 
Ella Frank  19:44 
Yeah. I never could think very fast anyway, you know, I think slow. I can think it depends on 
when you're driving-- 
 
Winona Weber  19:55 
--By the time you're getting around to doing it--[cross talk] 
 
Ella Frank  19:57 
Yeah, turning the wrong way. 
 
Winona Weber  19:59 
Yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  20:02 
I don't trust me, now. And then this hill, going up that hill, you know, I never did like that. I don't 
like that. I used to--wouldn't ride up that hill when we had a car. I'd walk up because we were 
always breaking in a kid to drive. 
 
Winona Weber  20:19 
Yeah [laughs.]. 
 
Ella Frank  20:19 
We get them broke in, and they'd leave home and break in another one. But I wouldn't ride up 
that hill. You'll find out that's steep. 
 
Winona Weber  20:29 
Page 16 of 24 
 
Yeah. Well, they got right up the hill with a new driver. [They laugh.] 
 
Ella Frank  20:34 
Yeah, you know if they're just learning, they should kill the motor and back down, you got to be 
pretty sharp to steer backwards.  
 
Winona Weber  20:43 
[Laughs.] Yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  20:45 
I was in with my daughter, daughter-in-law. She drove up. She killed the motor. When she 
backed down, she went right in the ditch. Of course, no one was hurt.  
 
Winona Weber  20:55 
Oh. 
 
Ella Frank  20:55 
I wasn't with her. 
 
Winona Weber  21:03 
How did--I was just thinking about your mother again--How did your mother--did your mother's 
life change somewhat when she married that man Walt? 
 
Ella Frank  21:15 
I think so. 
 
Winona Weber  21:16 
Did she still have to go on the fishing? 
 
Ella Frank  21:19 
No, no no.  
 
Winona Weber  21:20 
That's what I meant. 
 
Ella Frank  21:21 
No he was the logger. [Inaudible] he's white.  
 
Winona Weber  21:24 
Uh-huh, he's a white man [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  21:27 
What I don't like is--he was pretty windy, you know. I don't like white guys [chuckles]. I hope 
you're not married to one. 
 
Winona Weber  21:35 
Page 17 of 24 
 
I am. 
 
Ella Frank  21:36 
Oh, shoot! [They laugh.] I knew it! 
 
Winona Weber  21:39 
He's not the windy type. I know what you mean, though. 
 
Ella Frank  21:42 
I just wouldn't marry a white guy. They're okay, I mean, boys. I never did forgive my mother for 
marrying a white guy-- 
 
Winona Weber  21:50 
--Marrying a white guy-- 
 
Ella Frank  21:53 
Who would [inaudible] me. Didn't treat my brother good. [Inaudible cross talk.] 
 
Winona Weber  22:02 
Kind of rubs against you, rubs you the wrong way. 
 
Ella Frank  22:04 
Yeah, I loved my brother. He teased me a lot-- 
 
Winona Weber  22:07 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  22:07 
--but I still loved him. He was just young enough so he just liked to have me squawking all the 
time. 
 
Winona Weber  22:13 
[Laughs.] 
 
Ella Frank  22:13 
He was growing up and I was a skinny little kid. I never was very heavy when I was little. When 
I was eight years old, I think I weighed exactly 49 pounds. That isn't very heavy is it? 
 
Winona Weber  22:35 
No, no. My daughter is eight, and she weighs 50 pounds. 
 
Ella Frank  22:43 
She's little. 
 
Winona Weber  22:43 
She's in third grade, but she's a really little person, too.  
Page 18 of 24 
 
 
Ella Frank  22:46 
Oh, that's little.  
 
Winona Weber  22:49 
But she's the littlest one in her class. 
 
Ella Frank  22:51 
Gee! That is little! [Inaudible cross talk.] Well see I weighed-- They used to say I weighed 
exactly a sack of flour.  
 
Winona Weber  22:59 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  23:00 
Sack of flour is fifty pounds. With the sack. That's what I weighed. I wasn't very healthy, either, I 
guess. So they took me to the doctor, and there was a doctor in Hoquiam. We lived in 
Humptulips.  
 
Winona Weber  23:17 
Yeah.  
 
Ella Frank  23:18 
And the doctor said, "We'll just keep her comfortable. It's just a matter of time." So [chuckles] 
that was his verdict with me. They didn't even give me no medicine or nothing. They just--"Keep 
her comfortable." 
 
Winona Weber  23:33 
"Keep her comfortable." That's kind of a-- [inaudible] 
 
Ella Frank  23:36 
That's dumb. That's what they told her, told my mother. I must have been real sickly, I must have 
been.  
 
Winona Weber  23:46 
Yeah, I did. [Chuckles.] 
 
Ella Frank  23:46 
I weighed 126. Bony [chuckles]. I don't know what--The doctor said I was gonna have another 
baby, and I wasn't. I didn't have a baby for three years after the first one. I was really sick, I don't 
know what was wrong. [Inaudible cross talk.] And then once you're a healthy person--Struggling 
along. Yeah, I don't know. I got sick after I was married and got real thin. I was so weak, I 
couldn't even--had one baby, my first baby--I couldn't hardly even wash her diapers. I washed 
every day, but that's all I could do. We were living here, then. Now I went to the doctor, they 
took me to the doctor. I must have been nineteen. I only weighed 126 pounds, you can imagine. 
You probably weighed more than that.  
Page 19 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  23:46 
You might have been.  My mom-- I was always real skinny, growing up. My mom always kind 
of felt like it was kind of an insult. Because she was always shoving food in my face, you know? 
[Laughs.] Put something in me that I--and I ate, I ate, I ate really good. I remember putting away 
three pancakes, a couple eggs, three or four pieces of bacon, and two or three glasses of milk at 
breakfast, and God, I ate like a little horse. Never gained any weight.  
 
Ella Frank  25:35 
And well some people are like that, though. 
 
Winona Weber  25:40 
Just like this [gestures] all the time I was growing up, my legs were like that big around, you 
know, little toothpicks [laughs]. I think some people are just that way. 
 
Ella Frank  26:02 
Yeah, I just stay with it is heavy, and I shouldn't weigh that much. I have to walk so much, and 
everywhere you go here it's a hill going uphill and downhill. 
 
Winona Weber  26:24 
[Laughs.] Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  26:25 
I do that--that mower I got--it's, it's a heavy one.  And I have to mow in the back here, and it's 
steep, you know, it goes down. And gee whiz, like I say, my back is strong, and I had to pull that 
thing uphill. 
 
Winona Weber  26:34 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  26:36 
There are people--I've known some--they said they just eat anything they want. Well, I don't 
gain, but I am fat. I don't--I just stay that same, same weight, I don't--I don't gain--You know, 
some people just look at the food and they put on the pounds, so I don't, I just stay-- 
 
Winona Weber  26:41 
Just stay the same weight.  When was your birthday? When is your birthday?  
 
Ella Frank  26:47 
April. 
 
Winona Weber  26:48 
April. Your birthday was last week. 
 
Ella Frank  26:48 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
Page 20 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  26:49 
Okay. I don't think I have it. What, um--How long have you been down here in [inaudible]?  
 
Ella Frank  27:03 
See, since--since--See, we lived in South Bend for a year or so. Since, say, [19]'22. I lived here 
for a while, and I moved back to--I mean, I'd stay for a few days down-- I mean like in town like 
I said that I wanted to live in town.  
 
Winona Weber  27:22 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  27:22 
So we had an apartment up there. But every now and then, I'd stay at his mother's. [Inaudible.] 
But we moved down here in '22 for good. And I've been here ever since. 
 
Winona Weber  27:37 
You sound--Did-did you have--Did all your relatives stay up--stay up on the North Beach? 
 
Ella Frank  27:49 
My brothers, my mother.  
 
Winona Weber  27:52 
You know, your brothers and your cousins and everything? 
 
Ella Frank  27:54 
Yeah, they're all over there. 
 
Winona Weber  27:56 
Oh, I see. 
 
Ella Frank  27:56 
[Inaudible.] My brother is married to, um. Well, they're related to them. Charleys--not your 
family. It's another Charley. She was a Charley. But Benny Charley--  
 
Winona Weber  28:17 
Yeah, the Charleys at Taholah? 
 
Ella Frank  28:18 
Yeah--[crosstalk] 
 
Winona Weber  28:19 
Oh, I see. 
 
Ella Frank  28:20 
That's who she was. 
Page 21 of 24 
 
 
Winona Weber  28:22 
Oh, I see. Hmm! 
 
Ella Frank  28:28 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Winona Weber  28:28 
Yeah. 
 
Ella Frank  28:29 
That Benny Charley was one of--the--the younger ones. Benny Charley's father is my sister-in-
law's brother. So--Nancy. I call her my 'granddaughter,' she calls me 'grandmother.' So the only 
grandmother she's got is me.  
 
Winona Weber  28:48 
Yeah?  
 
Ella Frank  28:48 
So she's really my great-niece. I always say she's my granddaughter, and um, she thinks the 
Charleys that she's related to is you guys over here and I just got it straight last night. I said they 
said different Charley they're at Shoalwater Bay, and then what she's related to is, they're Upper 
Chehalis. They were Upper Chehalis.  
 
Winona Weber  29:13 
Oh, I see.  
 
Ella Frank  29:16 
So she didn't know that until last night. She says, "I'm gonna have to start writing that stuff 
down." [Chuckles.] 
 
Winona Weber  29:23 
Really?  
 
Ella Frank  29:24 
She says, "When you're gone, I'm won't have nobody to ask"--[They laugh.] --"Get it straight." 
Really--real cheerful. [They laugh.] 
 
Winona Weber  29:33 
I've got a niece that's related to those Charleys.  
 
Ella Frank  29:36 
Over there.  
 
Winona Weber  29:37 
Page 22 of 24 
 
In Taholah. My little brother, [inaudible] Charley, they're married, and they've got a little girl. 
God, she is just smart.  
 
Ella Frank  29:48 
They are smart, though. 
 
Winona Weber  29:50 
She is.  
 
Ella Frank  29:51 
She is really--Benny's grandson in [?O Place?]. I haven't seen his name lately. He plays for--
[Inaudible crosstalk]  
 
Winona Weber  30:03 
[?Pammy?]-- 
 
Ella Frank  30:04 
--Yeah.  
 
Winona Weber  30:05 
He--I saw him [inaudible]--He broke his thumb.  
 
Ella Frank  30:07 
Oh, I knew that it was something?--[crosstalk] 
 
Winona Weber  30:08 
He broke his thumb. 
 
Ella Frank  30:10 
Because I looked around at--not that week, it was Saturday--said [inaudible].  
 
Winona Weber  30:14 
Uh-huh [affirmative]. 
 
Ella Frank  30:16 
And they didn't mention that he's always in there. 
 
Winona Weber  30:19 
Yeah [affirmative]. He's a real--real good athlete. 
 
Ella Frank  30:21 
Mm, boy is. He's good at everything. [Inaudible] grandson of mine, he's, uh, plays for the Wilson 
Rangers--[crosstalk] 
 
Winona Weber  30:30 
Oh, I see!  
Page 23 of 24 
 
 
Ella Frank  30:31 
Uh today, he played in Wishkah. God, I wish I could've seen him. 
 
Winona Weber  30:37 
Oh [sympathetic]! 
 
Ella Frank  30:38 
He's over six feet tall, he's a big boy. 
 
Winona Weber  30:43 
Mhm [affirmative].  
 
Ella Frank  30:43 
He just turned 18 a week ago Saturday, a week ago today. Wait a minute. Is today Saturday? 
 
Winona Weber  30:51 
Yeah, today is Saturday.  
 
Ella Frank  30:52 
Yeah, last Saturday, turned 18.  
 
Winona Weber  30:56 
Whose son is he?  
 
Ella Frank  30:57 
Mel's My youngest boy. 
 
Winona Weber  30:59 
Oh, Mel Frank, yeah. I thought he might have been [inaudible]. 
 
Ella Frank  31:04 
No, Mel's his father. 
 
Winona Weber  31:05 
Oh! 
 
Ella Frank  31:12 
And his sister made All-American, you know. 
 
Winona Weber  31:16 
In what?  
 
Ella Frank  31:17 
In basketball. 
 
Page 24 of 24 
 
Winona Weber  31:18 
Oh, really? That's great!  
 
Ella Frank  31:19 
And both of them gets the highest grade that--that school year.   
 
Winona Weber  31:25 
Huh! 
 
Ella Frank  31:26 
So I'm really glad for them. 
 
Winona Weber  31:28 
Really! That's great! 
 
Ella Frank  31:35 
[Inaudible.] 
 
 
 
 
 