Silva was born as Louise Costello in Providence, Rhode Island, on 7 June 1903 as the daughter of Italian immigrants Luigi (Louis) and Lucietta (née Pizzi) Costello. Two of her sisters lived to be nonagenarians, and her mother reached the age of 100. She began partaking in piano lessons aged 8, which propelled a lifelong love of music.

Silva was a factory worker as a young woman. She married Manuel Silva and had a daughter, Dorothy, after which she became a housewife. She was widowed in 1988.

As a centenarian, Silva survived a bout of pneumonia. She lived with her daughter until the age of 104. On her 108th birthday, she played requested songs on an electric keyboard. Her daughter claimed that Silva could remember Buffalo Bill when she was a child.

Silva died in a Cranston, Rhode Island nursing home on 23 May 2015 at the age of 111 years, 350 days.