Born before the Band-Aid: Accomplished Boise woman celebrates 108th birthday

BOISE – Boise resident Margaret Mortensen received an unconventional birthday gift this month: U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, recognized her big day in Congress.

Mortensen turned 108 last week, making her one of the oldest people in Gem State history. (The oldest Idahoan to live is believed to be Sally Ashman, who died last year at age 111).

Mortensen has led a distinguished life that includes being one of the first female pharmacists in Idaho. She also taught aviation ground school during World War II and raised three children, all while maintaining her signature cleverness, love of learning and sense of humor.

“What is important to me is to have left some happy memories for my children, my grandchildren,” Mortensen told the Idaho Statesman recently, sitting at a table with a reflective Happy Birthday banner shining on the wall. “It’s important to me to be an inspiration to young people that think they have to have the world behind them, with lots of help.”

Mortensen didn’t always have the backing of others or help that was readily available. Born the month the United States entered World War I in 1917 – it ended in 1918 – Mortensen was 12 when the Great Depression started.

She said her mother-in-law described that 20th century era the best: “We were poor, but we didn’t know it, because everybody else was poor.”

Mortensen was one of four female students in her program at Idaho State University’s School of Pharmacy. She graduated in 1938, but not before one of the science professors refused to teach her and the other women.

Mortensen and another student complained, according to her daughter, Ann McClary. Eventually, another staff member taught the women, according to McClary, Mortensen and Idaho State.

After she graduated, Mortensen went to work as a pharmacist in Homedale. One day in 1939, a man named Art came into the drug store after putting in grassland, she recalled. His pants were tied up with string around the ankles to keep the dust out. Mortensen said she was intrigued.

Art owned a dance hall in town, she said, and the next week he asked her to come by – but not as his date. Instead, Mortensen went with Tommy, a young man who worked in the neighboring store, she recalled. Art took them both home, but he took Tommy home first, she said.

“After that, I was his date every Friday night,” Mortensen said.

Mortensen later left to work in New Mexico because of frustration with the local pharmacy board. Art, who ran an aviation business as well, flew down to see her roughly every three weeks when he went to pick up planes he purchased.

They got married in 1941.

“We just kind of knew we were for each other and that was it,” Mortensen said.

During World War II, Mortensen taught ground school – lessons such as working on plane engines, packing a parachute and meteorology. She remembers going to find a map when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941.

When the war ended, Mortensen said, “like everybody else, I went out dancing in the streets.”

In 1944, Mortensen and Art had their first child, Bob.

“I loved it. He was so cute,” she said. “He was smart as a baby.”

Bob, sitting near her at a table in the interview with the Statesman, laughed and asked, “What happened?”

“That didn’t come out the way I meant it,” Mortensen said.

Mortensen and her husband owned multiple drug stores, often selling them every few years to take an extended vacation with their children. Art died in 1987.

The family clearly has fond memories together. As Mortensen talked, her children cut in, sharing stories about their mother’s influence and wit.

For example, McClary and Bob briefly attended the same college: Idaho State. But Mortensen noticed the two weren’t spending time together. So she’d mail the first page of a letter to one child and the second page to the other, forcing them to meet to put the pieces together, the siblings recalled.

And for McClary, her mother’s pioneering role breaking gender barriers had a great impact on her.

“I grew up really strongly in favor of pushing the women’s rights thing,” McClary said.

Mortensen has seen a lot in her life: the invention of Band-Aids, for instance; the first flu vaccine; the COVID-19 pandemic; and more wars than can be counted, including two that really changed the nation, WWII and Vietnam.

She might have passed the century mark several years ago, but Mortensen still has her wits about her.

At age 96, she renewed her driver’s license – in-person – promising to renew it again at age 106, Bob said.

“She damn near did,” he said. “She quit driving at 102.”