A Graveside Memorial Service for Elva Ellen Douthat, 95, Bella Vista, AR, will be at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, April 5, 2014, at the Valley Falls Cemetery.

Elva died on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at her home in Bella Vista.

She was born on November 27, 1918 in Newkirk, OK, the daughter of Roy Pratt and Esther Towell Pratt. She graduated from Valley Falls High School and attended Kansas University and the University of Chicago. She graduated from Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary, both in New York City. She received her Masters Degrees from  the University of South Dakota at Vermillion, S.D. and the University of Arkansas.

Elva was ordained a Presbyterian Minister in 1973 and served four churches in Nebraska.     She married Robert Manuel in 1938, in Lawrence, Kansas. He died in 1973. She retired and moved to Bella Vista in 1981. Elva married Richard Douthat in 1987. Richard died in April 1999.

She was preceded in death by four brothers, Millard, Omer, Kenneth and Gerald Pratt, and two sisters, Evalyn Pratt and Veryl Reichart. Her daughter, Janice Manuel, died on January 16, 2014.

She is survived by one son, Lawrence Robert Manuel of California; two daughters, Anita Manuel, Seattle, WA, Helen Motter and husband, Gregory of Bowling Green, Kentucky; seven grandchildren; ten great-grandchildren, one great-great-grandchild and 13 nieces and nephews.

A Mass of the Resurrection was celebrated on December 21, 2013, at St. Bernard Catholic Church with arrangements by the Bella Vista Funeral Home.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Bernard Catholic Church, One St. Bernard Lane, Bella Vista, AR 72715. Mercer Funeral Home in Valley Falls is in charge of local arrangements.