Elsie Maack DeFrance Terrill

Elsie Maack

DeFrance Terrill

January 9, 1922-

May 15, 2017

95 Trips around the Sun

Elsie was born on a farm in Ellendale, North Dakota in 1922, the tenth of 13 children to German immigrants Christian and Ida Maack. During her first 17 trips around the sun, times were tough and money was short, but strong family bonds were forged which endured for decades, with most of the siblings living into their 80s or 90s. As a child, she loved family picnics and barn dances, enjoying early live performances by the young Lawrence Welk.

At 17, she moved to Pony, Montana to join her brothers who were working...