Elfrida Davis of Mound, MN passed away March 17, 2026. She was born Elfrida Hildegard Strangulas on October 9, 1926 to Jacob and Dorothea Strangulas in Klaipeda, Lithuania.  Her beloved parents preceded her in passing, as well as her brother Alfred Strangulas (lost during WWII), sister Dorothy Green and nephew Stephen Green.  She is survived by children Alana (George) Yorba, Alan B. MacFarlane, Brian (Kalli) Davis, and Bonnie MacFarlane; grandchildren Hanna, Gina, Joel, Ryan, Kyle and Erik; great-grandchildren Jaykob, Kayleb, William and Aurora; and nieces Christine and Barbara.

Elfrida wanted to be laid to rest in Minnesota because it reminded her so much of Lithuania, where she was born and raised and where her parents owned a fish factory and several apartment buildings.  Before WWII Elfrida thought that she would always live in Lithuania.  She went to school one day and found a German soldier in the classroom; he gave her a candy bar and told her that school was closed.  Later she learned that the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty resulted in a separation of her family from her aunts, uncles and cousins who were now in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, while she and her family were in the Third Reich. She was just a young girl of 13 and she lived with her family working at their businesses until January 1945.

In 1945, the Soviet Union overran the German Army in Lithuania and forced Lithuanians and soldiers to flee from Klaipeda (now Memel) to Germany.  Elfrida recalled walking down the street in Gdansk (then Danzig) and noticing a man wearing civilian clothes (nearly all men wore German uniforms). As she passed him in the street he turned and called to her, "The Soviets are just outside the city limits, run down to the harbor! The last ship is departing for Germany."  She ran to the harbor and saw a ship pulling away from the dock. She leaped and was pulled aboard.  Her ship joined a small flotilla of three transport ships and sailed into the Baltic Sea. That night, Soviet submarines sank two of the three ships. She survived and reunited with her parents and sister in Dresden, Germany.

One day, while they were refugees in Dresden, Elfrida and her sister planned to visit the zoo. They took a bus into the city and found a bakery shop.  Dorothy tried to talk Elfrida into spending their rations to buy strudel. Elfrida thought that was a waste of rations and they began to argue. Elfrida finally said 'Fine, I'm going back home. Spend the rations as you like." Dorothy recalled, while chuckling fondly, that Elfrida hit her head on a street sign as she left. That night the Allies bombed Dresden, one of the worst bombings of WWII, and the sisters survived due to an argument over baked goods.

After the bombing the German authorities moved her refugee family to a farm in Bavaria where they were assigned to live in an attic and work for a local farmer. One day Elfrida heard tank noises, and it was then she knew that the war was over. Those noises were the Third Army's tanks led by General George Patton. The Americans took control of the refugees and organized them into refugee camps, where Elfrida and Dorothy started visiting the USO and as young women began to date American officers. Both sisters met and married American soldiers and eventually moved to America, where Elfrida became a naturalized citizen on June 28, 1955.

While living in California in the 1970s, a Christian revival swept California and three of Elfrida's four children found a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Thanks to her oldest daughter, Elfrida told us she had relinquished control of her life to God and asked Jesus to forgive her of all her sins and make her the kind of person He wanted her to be.

In 2000 she moved to Minnesota to be with her youngest son's family. She spent her final five years at Harrison Bay Senior Living where she died peacefully. Elfrida's favorite verse is Proverbs 3:5-6; "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths". One day we will see Elfrida again with joy and happiness in Heaven where there will be no more tears.

A private memorial service will be held at Hillside Cemetery, Angora, MN.