Alva was the daughter of Almira Alice "Allie" Shipp and would have been a Shipp at birth. Allie married Lewis Calvin Driver, Alva's stepfather, in June the year after Alva's birth, but he was not Alva's biological father. Alva went by her stepfather's surname Driver as her maiden name throughout her life; however, Driver would not have been her name at birth. It was common practice back then for children to use their stepfather's last name when the mother married after their birth. Her mother and stepfather had several children before her mother's death between 1900 and 1910, and three of Alva's half siblings reached adulthood: John Roy Driver, Katie Driver Cook, and Lester Theodore Driver. People often called Alva by the last name of House, which was the married surname of her aunt Mary Louise and her great aunts Telitha and Eunice. However, it was not Alva's name, nor the surname of her biological father.

Alva married James Henry "Jim" Littrell 20 Mar 1917 in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma; the couple had 4 sons, the first of whom, Stanley, died as an infant. Jim died in 1929 in Harlan County, Kentucky. Alva married Tom Gestes in 1936 in Johnson County, Texas. He was a good stepfather to her sons, who loved and admired him, and a loving grandfather to the nine granddaughters he and she had.

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FORT WORTH - Alva Retta Gestes, a homemaker, died Monday at her Fort Worth home. She was 93.

Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Friday at Brown, Gause-Ware, Owens & Brumley Funeral Directors. Burial will be in Laurel Land Memorial Park in Fort Worth.

Mrs. Gestes was born in Durant, Okla., and had lived in Fort Worth for 47 years. She was a member of Carter Park Church of Christ.

Survivors: Three sons, C.W. Littrell of San Antonio, Harold Littrell of Arkansas and John Littrell of California; and sister, Katie Cook of Fort Worth.

--Published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Thursday, March 12, 1992