Mrs. Caloma California Shands Douglass, who celebrated her 100th birthday last Oct. 23, died Friday at her home, 1005 South Montreal.

Funeral services will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday in the Geo. A. Brewer Funeral Chapel, 3603 Ross. The Rev. Roy Anderson, pastor of the Brooklyn Avenue Methodist Church, will be in charge. Burial will be in the Hillcrest Cemetery at Forney.

Illness had limited Mrs. Douglass' world in recent years to the four walls of her room and she lived much in the years gone by. A golden circlet on a finger helped bridge the gap of time to events taking place ten decades ago.

On that date, Oct. 23, 1853, the place was the home of the late Dr. and Mrs. H.J. Shands in Summerville, Knoxube County, Miss. The young physician and his household slaves attended the birth of a daughter to be christened Caloma California Shands, in memory of the beautiful little city where Dr. Shands made his 49er gold strike.

A nugget brought back by the doctor was later made into the ring Mrs. Douglass always wore.

The stories of her early days remained fresh with frequent retelling. Stories of her father's good and bad slaves; of the children scampering from house to house chiming "Merry Christmas! Christmas gift!" until each child was handed a peanut and a cookie; and of her tutelage by the late Miss Lycenia Penry in a private school in Mississippi.

There were blacker stories of the grim Civil War days when few enjoyed the coffee which sold for $100 a pound, and of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction.

Other tales were of her father's practice of medicine on horseback, over a territory which kept him from home as long as three weeks at a time.

But her favorite story concerned the family's postwar ox wagon trip from Mississippi to Gilmer, Upshur County. The trip lasted six months. Mrs. Douglass' mother and grandparents rode in the only carriage in the caravan.

Dr. Shands would ride ahead on horseback to find a suitable campsite for the night. The wagon train rested on Sundays. The day was spent reverently and Christian services were conducted with Mrs. Douglass' grandmother leading the singing.

Gilmer was chose as the place to settle because the Looney School, then considered one of the best in Texas, afforded good educational opportunity for Mrs. Douglass, her sister and brothers.

From Gilmer, the family moved to Kaufman. Mrs. Douglass and the late James E. Douglass were married in 1878 and the couple settled in Forney. Mrs. Douglass was active in the Methodist Church and joined the Women's Christian Temperence Union campaign to rid Forney of saloons.

In recent years, Mrs. Douglass had lived with her daughter, Mrs. Lenis Shrum, in Dallas.

She is survived also by three sons, J.E. Douglass of Dallas, N.B. Douglass and S.E. Douglass, both of Forney, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Note: According to the Texas Death Index, Caloma C. Douglass died on April 9, 1954 in Dallas County. She is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery as Callie California Caloma Douglas. Her birth date is October 23, 1853.