People

Elarka Marie Towne was born on February 14, 1907 in Saratoga Springs, New York to Arthur E. Towne and Sadie J. (Sarah) Weldon. She studied drama at the University of Iowa and then attended Ithaca College of Music in New York. She studied shorthand and typing at Spencerian College in Cleveland.

In 1925 and 1926, Elarka was Miss Ohio in a beauty contest sponsored by the Conneaut News-Herald. She was elected auditor of Conneaut in 1933 and served two years.

Early in her career, Elarka had been manager of the Fredonia Censor, a newspaper in Fredonia, New York, and had worked for Scripps-Howard there.

She had been a secretary in the show department of Wilding Inc in 1963 until the business that produced industrial and sales films closed. She retired in 1981 as a secretary in the business and finance department of Cleveland State University.

Elarka’s hobby was genealogy, and she belonged to the Society of New England Women and the Society of Mayflower Descendants. She was president of the Cleveland alumnae chapter and province director of Gamma Phi Beta social sorority.

Elarka Towne married Richard Collar Hakanson on 23 November 1933, in Chautauqua County, New York. He was the son of Justus Hakanson and Maud Collar.  They had two children, a son, Richard Harwood, born on November 16, 1943, and a daughter Elarka Sarah (Yuen), born on November 6, 1947. Both attended the Bratenahl School.