ONE of Port Adelaide Football Club’s most loyal supporters has celebrated turning 100 years old.

Elva Baker reached the 100-milestone on Friday, celebrating with close family over dinner at the Somerset Hotel, in Para Hills.

Born in Gawler, on March 12, 1921, Elva was the eldest of six children to parents Wesley Thomas and Catherine Violet Walton.

She grew up on the family farm at Sandy Creek, going first to Barossa Goldfields and then to Sandy Creek schools.

At 18 years old, she went to work at the Turretfield research station, then later at the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) munitions factory, making bullets and shells for the war effort.

Brother John Walton said Elva met her late husband Steve in 1939, while boarding a train at the Gawler Railway Station on her way to work.

She worked in the munitions factory for four-and-a-half years, while Steve served
overseas in the war.

Steve and Elva were married at war’s end in 1946, and moved to the Riverland picking fruit, where they later purchased their first house.

Their daughter Marlene was born at Barmera in 1947.

The couple continued their work with WRE, with Elva as cooking supervisor and Steve a gardener up until retirement age in the 1960s.

“Her hobbies have always been fishing, travelling to Port Lincoln, gardening, needlework and cooking,” John said.

“Also she was very involved in catering for parties and her cake icing was something to see, also catering for the Port Adelaide Football Club where she made many friends and still has.

“When she used to go to the football she would watch the game and come home, and watch it again if they won.”

Steve and Elva bought a house at Salisbury East, in 1971, with Steve passing away in 2013 from cancer.

Despite her age, and a diagnosis of Macular Degeneration in 2010, Elva still lives at home in Salisbury East, along with daughter Marlene.