Mother, 26, Killed In Fall From Horse

A 26-year-old Oakesdale woman died Sunday afternoon when she was thrown from a horse and broke her neck.

Monica L. Oliver was riding with a friend about four miles southwest of Oakesdale when her horse was startled and threw her about 3 p.m., the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office reported Monday.

Oakesdale paramedics, the Garfield ambulance and a medical helicopter responded, but she could not be revived. Coroner Pete Martin pronounced her dead at the scene.

Raised in the Worley, Idaho, area, Oliver grew up riding horses on her grandfather’s Arabian ranch at Rockford Bay, said her sister, Heidi Kelley of Spokane. Divorced about seven years ago, she was living in Oakesdale with her 6-year-old son, Donald Smiley, while working as a delivery driver.

A self-described “redneck,” she was fond of fishing and other outdoor activities. “She was fun,” Kelley recalled Monday. “She loved to go out and kick up her heels.”