Eve Royle Chisholm

Doll Dresser, 90, Visits Orthopedic

by Mary Elayne Grady

Any way you count it, 100 dozen dolls is a lot of dolls.

The 1,200 figure is the number of dolls Mrs. Eva Chisholm of Fall City has dressed for the Children's Orthopedic Hospital in five years.

One other noteworthy statistic is Mrs. Chisholm's age: She was 90 October 24.

After her birthday, Mrs. Chisholm visited the hospital for the first time and met some of the children and staff who before had known her only through her handiwork.

With her for lunch in the hospital dining room were members of the Orthopedic toy-department staff and two nieces, Mrs. Eva Collins, 910 20th Av. E., and Mrs. Doris Buckton, 912 N. 89th St.

The Dolls for which Mrs. Chisholm sews are donated to the hospital at a rate of 24 dozen a year. Mrs. Wesley Langlow, chairman of the toy department, said they are part of some 10,000 toys distributed each year to the young patients.

Each child at the hospital receives one gift, and a second if he or she has surgery.

In their gay little dresses and matching bonnets, Mrs. Chisholm's dolls are a popular item with the little-girl patients.

"I like to sew," said Mrs. Chisholm, who does her work on her veteran treadle machine. "I've made things for my neighbors' little girls for years."

About five years ago, Mrs. Chisholm decided she had more doll blankets than little girls who needed them. She asked Mrs. Buckton what she could do with the blankets.

Mrs. Buckton, who works in the Orthopedic toy department, had the answer.

At first, Mrs. Chisholm did only part of the doll dressing. However, two years ago, she took over the entire project.

Two of her Fall City neighbors, Mrs. Bernie Howe and Mrs. Alma Stephenson, help make the blankets in which the dolls are wrapped.

Materials for the dresses, bonnets and blankets are supplied by the hospital. Mrs. Buckton delivers the dolls and materials, and Mrs. Chisholm does the rest.

Little bits of lace and tiny ribbons go into the fine styles Mrs. Chisholm creates. Dozens of dolls have not dimmed her sense of design, and each tiny frock is proof of her patience, care and skill.

A resident of Fall City about 55 years, Mrs. Chisholm was born in Illinois. She pioneered in the Snoqualmie Valley with her husband, Alex, who died in 1935.

In between dolls, Mrs. Chisholm still has time to bake and garden and entertain.

"We're always visiting her," Mrs. Collins, her niece, said.

About 1,000 little girls with pretty "get-well" dolls would like to go along.

NOTES:

Mrs. Eva Collins was formerly known as Evaleafy Hansen, daughter of Dill Royle Hansen.

Mrs. Doris Buckton was formerly known as Doris Hansen, daughter of Dill Royle Hansen.

Dill Royle Hansen is Eve Royle Chisholm's sister.

Mrs. Bernie Howe was the wife of Art Howe, uncle to Irene Whitfield Chisholm. Irene's husband Jack Chisholm was Eve Chisholm's nephew and next door neighbor at this time. Mrs. Bernie Howe lived only about a mile away across the Snoqualmie Valley at the end of the David Powell road.

Mrs. Alma Stephenson lived a few doors down from Eva Chisholm on Spring Glen Road.

Spring Glen Road was re-"named" by the county sometime in about the 1970s with an extremely forgettable number. But the name lives on in a trailer court about a hundred yards or so from where the ex-Spring Glen Road leaves the Snoqualmie-Fall City Road (Highway 202).

This was an era of time when "gay" had its original meaning of happy and cheerful.

You'll also notice that this was an era when it was considered safe to publish people's full names, addresses and the names of their children.

Doll Dresser, 90, Visits Orthopedic

Header of Sunday Times page with article

Photo published with the article. (Was originally in color.)

The article.

This unpublished photo was
graciously given to the family
by the Seattle Times photographer.

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Eve & Alex
Chisholm
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