Elaine was born in 1926 in Brookings, South Dakota near the Minnesota border, the oldest child of Virgil Hogg and Irene Kolp who were farmers. She would be followed by brothers Jim, Wendell, and Glenn. The Great Depression hit in 1929 and the Dust Bowl hit even harder in the 1930s. By the mid 1930s the Dust Bowl drove the Hogg family out of South Dakota. They headed west, first to Idaho, then eastern Oregon. In 1938 they settled in Stanfield, Umatilla County, in northeastern Oregon. On 12/7/1941 she and her family listened to the news of Pearl Harbor being bombed. Her mother went to work at the Umatilla Army Ammunition Depot which meant 15 year old, Elaine picked up the responsibilities for cooking, cleaning, churning butter, and doing the laundry. In the summer after her sophomore year, she started working at the ammo depot - a teenage Rosie the Riveter. The following summer, like her mom, she was driving a forklift moving ammo. A year later she applied for a job at a pea cannery and told them she could drive a forklift. Not believing her they ask her to move a pallet of peas - an easy task after she'd been moving bombs. She got the forklift job and supervised German POWs from Fort Walla Walla who were working at the cannery. After the war ended she went to beauty school in Walla Walla.

On a blind date she met William Porter, a young Navy Aviation Ordinanceman on a weekend pass. He was a 5th generation Oregonian whose parents and siblings were farm laborers. Elaine married Bill on 11/11/1946 near Stanfield. She managed a small beauty shop until, being pregnant with her first child, she was too big to fit into her uniform. Bill was a farm hand working for a farmer near Stanfield. He and Elaine became entrepreneurs raising their own large flock of turkeys. Perhaps because of his work with ordinance during war, Bill got a job at the Ammunition Depot and moved up the ranks very quickly becoming a civilian ammunition storage specialist. In 1955 Elaine and Bill with their first 3 children, Frank, Phyllis and Samijean, were stationed at a small Army base in Captieux in southern France where they lived for a couple of years. Son Bill was born in nearby Bousac, France. The family returned to Stanfield for a short time; their youngest son Rick was born, and the family returned to France in 1959. This time they were based in Trois Fountaine Army Ammunition Depot in eastern France. Being a large family they were fortunate to move into a "small" chateau in Robert Espagne a few miles from the base. There were four floors, eleven bedrooms, six fireplaces and 13 acres. In 1966 the family was transferred to Joliet, Illinois. Bill served two tours in Viet Nam before retiring. Elaine developed colon cancer which was surgically removed and never recurred. In 1975 they returned to Oregon. Bill died in Roseburg, Oregon in 2001.

Whatever Elaine did she did it wholeheartedly. As a child (and an adult) she was phenomenally good at marbles and Chinese Checkers. She raised livestock in 4H and won a prize for hog judging in the 4H Pacific International Show in Portland. As an adult she was a skilled bowler and a big fan of the Cubs, Blazers, Ducks and Mariners. It might surprise people to know she was an excellent oil and watercolor artist mostly doing still lifes and landscapes. Like her mother, she was an outstanding crocheter. Each year from 2000 to 2017 she crocheted a stocking cap for each child in the local Head Start program. Her grand total was about 6000 caps for which she was given the Head Start Humanitarian of the Year Award for the northwest region. She worked for many years at Fullerton IV Elementary School as a volunteer aid in the classroom of Jayne Gamble, a dear family friend. An avid birdwatcher, Elaine had a life list of 574 birds. For over a decade, she and several friends volunteered to do a weekly bird study at Diamond Lake (Oregon) for the US Forest Service. She was also a docent, leading school groups on birdwatching trips at the local Duck Pond. Although blindness from macular degeneration put an end to her birdwatching days Elaine stayed active by joining the YMCA where for many years she took a water walking class 3 days a week. Being the social person that she was she said she did "more talking than walking." She carefully monitored political and current events and was a proud liberal Democrat. She was curious and enjoyed intellectual stimulation which led her to be an enthusiastic traveler visiting forty-eight states and 44 countries on 6 continents. However, of most importance to her, by far, were her family and countless friends. In fact the night before she went to the hospital she was happily attending a play with her dear friends from Linus Oakes Retirement Center and planning a trip to watch the total eclipse of the sun. Besides her children she cherished her 11 grandchildren, her great grandchildren, and her sons-and-daughters in-law Paul, John, Cheri, and Dorthe.

No memorial service is planned, but those friends and family who want to honor Elaine are encouraged to consider her life and her passions. Find inspiration from her life and memorialize her in your unique way. You might want to take a walk. (One of her last sentences to her daughter was "You should go for a walk.") You might buy yourself a bird book, visit a national park, join the Y, watch the Ducks (or the ducks), take a trip, go to a play, concert or museum. And whenever you are doing something you enjoy remember Elaine with love.