Elvira Duck

**Elvira “Elviry” Duck** (nee **Coot**), better known as **Grandma Duck**, and sometimes referred to as **Abigail** or **Great-Grandma Duck**, is a female anthropomorphic duck/coot hybrid.

## Description

Grandma Duck is Donald Duck and Della Duck's paternal grandmother, Hortense McDuck, Lulubelle Loon, and Goosetave Gander's mother-in-law, Gladstone Gander's maternal grandmother, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck's maternal great-grandmother on their maternal grandfather's side, and one of the oldest (if not *the* oldest) citizens of Duckburg. Grandma Duck has a large farm in the neighborhood of Quacktown, just outside Duckburg, where in spite of her very old age she still works with punch, with the dubious help of her lazy grandnephew Gus Goose. Grandma is the depository of the history of Duckburg and of the Duck family, and for all intents and purposes acts as the matriarch of the family. In time of crisis, the extended Duck family (composed most of the time of Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck and his nephews, Fethry, Gladstone, Gus, Daisy, and also friends and/or distant relatives Gyro Gearloose, Brigitta, Jubal Pomp, Quackmore and Miss Quackfaster) will assemble at the farm. This is also the default place where any members of said extended family can go to spend some restful holidays, dropping in at any moment.

### Genealogy

#### Relationship to Scrooge

By most accounts, Elvira is Donald Duck's biological grandmother, more specifically the mother of his father, with Scrooge McDuck not being related by blood to Grandma, instead being the brother of Donald's *mother*, Hortense, who married Elvira's aforementioned son.

However, other accounts state that Scrooge and Elvira are in fact closely related; at least one states that they are cousins, but the bulk of these accounts instead shows them to be siblings who grew up together, with Grandma usually the elder sibling, although another account has Scrooge be the older sibling.

When it comes to how Donald Duck could remain her grandson in such a scheme, when one would expect her to be his mother or his aunt, one account has shown Donald explaining that he had been adopted by Scrooge and Grandma, but, with neither wanting to take on the charge of being a full-on parent, they had agreed to behave as an uncle and grandmother respectively. Other accounts simply acknowledge that while Elvira is known as “Grandma Duck”, Donald is in fact her nephew, and she refers to him as such.

Although some accounts show Scrooge and Elvira growing up together in the Duckburg countryside, whether related or not, others place Scrooge, Elvira and Gideon's shared childhood in Scotland. One account curiously states that they are siblings by blood but did not grow up together or even in the same region, only meeting up in adulthood.

#### Relationship to Casey and Humperdink

Although most accounts show that Humperdink Duck, later known as Pa Duck and later still Grandpa Duck, was Elvira's husband, and that the prospector Casey befriended by Scrooge McDuck in the Klondike and who had a claim to Cornelius Coot's estate was Elvira's brother, there exists one dissenting account according to which Casey was Elvira's husband, while Humperdink, the Grandpa Duck whom Donald knew in his childhood, was actually Elvira's brother.

## Behind the scenes

Elvira Duck was first mentioned as "Grandma Duck" in the second strip of *The Wise Little Hen*, with this strip having been released on September the 23rd, 1934. She was only mentioned here and was not physically seen. Her exact identity was rather ambiguous too, as was her relationship Donald Duck, a prominent character in *The Wise Little Hen*, or lack thereof.

Her first appearance was nearly six years later in August 1940 in the comic strip entitled *Buried Money*, though whether or not this counts as a true "physical appearance" is debatable as she only appears in a photograph on Donald's wall. This strip further confirmed that she was indeed a relative of Donald's. Her first true physical appearance came a full nine years almost to the date after her name first appeared in print, in a *Donald Duck* comic strip released on September the 27th, 1943. She appeared in multiple strips afterwards and soon began to star in full-length comics. She has become a major recurring character in *Donald Duck* comics and has even made a few appearances in animation starting with her animated debut in *This Is Your Life, Donald Duck* in 1960.

### Voice Actresses

* June Foray (*This Is Your Life, Donald Duck*)
* Russi Taylor (*Soccermania*)

### Notes and References

1. ↑ *The Invader of Fort Duckburg*, Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree et alt.
2. ↑ This is shown, without further details in the Chart of the Duck Family Tree in *Family Fun*.
3. ↑ *Livestock Show* (1953).
4. ↑ *From Egg to Duck*, *Grandma Duck Oblivious To Her Brother* (**INDUCKS**), *Uncle Scrooge and the Pedaling 80-year-old* (**I TL 442-A**), *Prologue to the Magnificent Three* (**I CWD 39-A**) et alt., as well as several Duck Family Trees: the Finnish Duck Family Tree from 1981, the French Duck Family Tree from 1992, and Johannes A. Grote's Duck Family Tree from 1999, among others.
5. ↑ *Uncle Scrooge and the Sibling Notes* (**INDUCKS**), *Extracts From Grandma Duck's Photo Album* (**HC DD1994-10P**).
6. ↑ *The Silo* (**H 2018-211**)
7. ↑ *From Egg to Duck*.
8. ↑ *Too Much Mush* (**INDUCKS**), *Livestock Show* (**INDUCKS**).
9. ↑ *Good Old Exciting Days* (**INDUCKS**), *Let's Go To School With…* (**INDUCKS**), *Christmas Past* (**INDUCKS**).
10. ↑ *Uncle Scrooge and the Sibling Notes* (**INDUCKS**), *Extracts From Grandma Duck's Photo Album* (**HC DD1994-10P**).
11. ↑ *The Secret of the Decapitated Totem* (**INDUCKS**). The notion likely arose through editorial interference, "cousin" being replaced with "sibling" in an ill-fated effort to maintain regular continuity on the matter that did not take into account the strangeness of the situation..
12. ↑ *Grandma Duck and the Charity Sale*, *The Invader of Fort Duckburg*, Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree et alt.
13. ↑ In *Last Sled to Dawson*.
14. ↑ Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree et alt.
15. ↑ Abril's Duck Family Tree.