Olive Harriett Chester Spokane

Olive Harriett (Holtman) Chester, Spokane, is 100 years old today. Born Jan. 2, 1896, in Thornton, Wash., Mrs. Chester has lived in the Inland Northwest for 89 years.

She married Elmer Ferguson in 1913. They moved to southern Idaho and back to Whitman County 11 years later. The couple divorced in 1944. Two years later she married Ben C. Chester and moved into the house where she has lived for 50 years. Mr. Chester died in 1987.

She is active in many organizations and attends national conventions. In 1995 she flew to Michigan for the national convention of Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War and on to Tacoma for a Rebekah Lodge convention.

Mrs. Chester is a homemaker and cans her own home-grown fruits and vegetables. She knits elbow and knee guards for nursing home residents.

She is the mother of Glenn Ferguson, Spokane, and Margaret Hereford, who died in 1967. She has three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.

She attributes her long life to avoiding prescribed medicines and eating anything she wants.

Mrs. Chester’s goal is to see the year 2000, which would have her living in three centuries.

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