Collection is open for research.
Gift of Denise Latonis and Sue Hoffman, May 2024 (RL2024-042).
Ilia Alice Cowie-Freitas (née Young) was born in 1912 in Vancouver, Washington. She earned a nursing degree from the nursing school at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon. She then worked at the Barnes Veterans Hospital and Vancouver Memorial Hospital before moving to Arizona. While living in Arizona, she earned a degree in education from Grand Canyon University.
Cowie-Freitas married Marshall B. Cowie (1909-1975) in 1935. The couple had five children, four of whom survived to adulthood. Her second husband was Izaias Freitas (1901-1988). Ilia Cowie-Freitas died in 2001.
Sources: Obituary in the Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), March 15, 2001, page C4; obituary in the Arizona Republic, March 3, 2001, Page B4; vital records via Ancestry.com.
Researcher access to negatives in the collection is limited for preservation purposes; contact library staff to inquire about viewing.
Ilia A. Cowie-Freitas family papers, Coll 1073, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Scrapbook kept by Ilia A. Cowie-Freitas during her time at Emanuel Hospital Nursing School was disassembled for preservation purposes prior to its donation to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of papers of and relating to Ilia A. Cowie-Freitas, a nurse from Vancouver, Washington, and her family. Most papers about Cowie-Freitas in the collection relate to her nursing career. These include pages from a scrapbook of ephemera, correspondence, photographs, and clippings that she kept while attending nursing school at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon; and certificates, photographs, correspondence, and souvenir publications. Family papers in the collection include photographs; correspondence; the marriage certificate for Ilia A. Cowie-Freitas and her first husband, Marshall B. Cowie; and a self-published family history by Nadine A. Mikesell. Family photographs consist of loose prints, two albums, and a few negatives. Most materials in the collection identify Cowie-Freitas either by her first married name, Ilia A. Cowie, or her maiden name, Ilia A. Young. The collection also includes some notes and transcriptions by Cowie-Freitas's granddaughter, Denise Latonis.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.