LEBANON - It takes only a few moments watching 89-year-old Elaine Wolfe gracefully swing and sway to country music during a line dance class at the Lebanon Senior Center to see how she earned the nickname "swivel hips" from her fellow dancers.

The petite 4-foot-9 Wolfe - she says she used to be 5 feet tall - has been taking dance classes offered by Linn-Benton Community College since 1994 and has missed only one weekly session.

"It was born in me," Wolfe said. "My mother was a very good ballroom dancer. My freshman year of high school I took tap dancing lessons. Other than that, I learned on my own."

Born Elaine Smokey, she still misses her hometown of Craig, Colo. - near Steamboat Springs - where "we have winter nine months of the year and poor sledding for three months." Her family moved to the Portland area during World War II and she was employed as a telegraph operator and as a secretary to the port captain at Swan Island.

'Absolute inspiration'

Wolfe said she can't remember not dancing. Photos show her dressed in a fancy outfit when she was 3 and in a hula skirt during high school. She started up the classes at LBCC at age 74.

"I love to dance," she said. "When I dance, I'm in a world all by myself. I was born with rhythm and not everyone is."

Wolfe said she is the last of the original class members. Some lost interest and others have passed away over the years. But she isn't the only octogenarian in the class. Others include Frankie Gray and Eleanor Patton, according to instructor Vickie Green.

"Elaine is an absolute inspiration to all of us," Green said. "She talks to all of the new classmates and tells then to not give up, to continue to move and work to get their bodies in motion, because they need to understand that movement is important, even though it hurts."

Green said Wolfe's dancing style is "very graceful, very smooth. She gets tired once in a while and she'll rest. We all enjoy being around her because she's so funny."

Wolfe's first husband, Al Crosby, was a career military man and the couple traveled around the world, including spending four years in Paris and three in Tokyo.

He enjoyed dancing, too, and in 1959 when the couple lived in San Pedro, Calif., they were selected to dance on the Lawrence Welk television show.

Wolfe has a printed program featuring photos of each of the show's performers and autographs from many including band leader Welk, jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain, The Lennon Sisters and Jimmy Roberts.

"It was marvelous, wonderful," Wolfe said. "We got to meet Lawrence Welk and he was wonderful. I tried to get a video copy of that show, but it was live, before they taped them."

'Marvelous exercise'

Wolfe's husband passed away after nearly 30 years of marriage and she later married Chester Wolfe, an attorney. The couple lived in Columbia, Mo., until his passing, when Wolfe moved to the Gresham area to be closer to her brother and other family members. She moved to Lebanon 22 years ago and still ives on her own.

Although she makes dancing look effortless, Wolfe cuts out the toes of her dancing slippers to accommodate the arthritis in her feet. A stroke in 2004 has affected her hearing, so she closely watches the instructor's movements.

"God blessed me to keep on line dancing and moving. I'm a very active person," Wolfe said. "It's marvelous exercise."

Wolfe says her favorite music is jazz.

"I'm a great jitterbugger," Wolfe said as she glided across the floor to welcome other dancers. She gets many hugs and greetings as she takes her place in the front row.

Her goal is to be dancing on her 90th birthday next August.

"God willing," Wolfe said with a smile.