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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2018)
2A ❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2018 ❚ APPEAL TRIBUNE K1 Life Continued from Page 1A whole world,” said Marialice Olivo, the oldest. “She is gracious, she is loving, she is smart.” “I had a T-shirt that said, ‘Have no fear, Mom’s here,' and I still believe it,” said William, No. 7, toasting his mom, “You’re a saint, no matter what.” “You loved me whether I was good or bad,” added Christine Wade, No. 6. “She was mostly bad!” chimed in Bar- bara Cagle, No. 13, and everyone laughed. Jokes and one-liners crackled around the room, as the kids laughingly competed for their mom’s attention. “We love each other like crazy,” Bar- bara said. “Growing up, we all wanted to impress Mom.” To the good-natured jeers of her sib- lings, Jerilyn Doten, No. 9, read a poem to her rhyme-loving mother with the re- peating phrase, “My mother liked me best,” at the end of each quatrain, but ending with an admission at the end, “She had to each of us identically con- fessed!” By all accounts, Rose Olivo never set out to break any records or turn any heads. She was simply a dedicated Catholic mom with a kind of love for children and resilience that allowed her to survive and thrive as the matriarch of her family. “She is a very calm person,” Barbara said. “She will enter this calm spirit from reading, and (by) also reading the Bible. In that calmness, she’s able to think things through and make the right deci- sion. She has always been this way.” Rose was born to Joseph and Lydia Nunez in 1918, in a small mining town in Arizona. Her father was a miner and as- sayer who spent many years working at Penn Copper Mine in Campo Seco, Calif. Originally from Spain, Joseph gained his U.S. citizenship later, in 1933. Following her mother’s death, when Rose was 4, she was separated from her older brother and younger sister and raised by a foster mother. Stories from this difficult time in her life are few, as she’s a master of “living in the moment” and “moving on,” said Barbara, who published a book about her mother’s life in 2008. It was through Rose’s older brother, raised nearby by another family in San Jose, that she met Nello Olivo, a young man of Italian heritage. She was a good student with a keen memory and a love Rose and Nello Olivo had 16 children. Rose turned 100 this year. PHOTO COURTESY OF BARBARA CAGLE for reading. He was a few years older, a student at a vocational school, and skilled at playing the accordion. The couple eloped in 1935; he was 23, she was 17 and already graduated from high school. At first, they lived with family members and sold enchiladas on the side to make ends meet. Their first child, Marialice, was born in 1937, and their second, Jeanie, came along soon after they bought their first house, a small five-bedroom home with an over- size lot, for $2,500. Nello worked as a plumber and did other repair jobs to fund his growing family. As more babies arrived, he made a habit of dropping by restaurants on his way home from work, to see if there were any leftovers. The couple gardened and harvested fruit off their property’s trees. “They prayed a lot. I remember they prayed over bills,” Barbara said. Rose often turned to her church lead- ership for advice, and it was a priest’s promise that all her children could at- tend school at St. Joseph Academy for just $10 per month that allowed her fam- ily to get the parochial education she so desired. Barbara remembers her mother paying off the kids’ education at St. Jo- seph and Notre Dame High School many www.legacyhealth.org/womenshealthclinic years after they’d graduated. Rose’s time was limited, but she did eventually head up the school’s parent club – called the Mothers Guild – and regularly helped with projects and homework. At home, apparently one in- fraction she wouldn’t overlook, no mat- ter what , was cussing. Typically the of- fender was sentenced to eating a tea- spoon of pepper. “I don’t believe it accomplishes any- thing by swearing except to lower your- self,” she once wrote. A lifelong lover of the written word, she liked to write letters to her children as they passed through the stages of life and left home to travel, join the military or get married. Five of the Olivo boys followed Nello into his plumbing business. Started in 1970 as Alco Plumbing, their father’s company grew, with their help, to be- come Novotec, Inc., a successful plumb- ing and process piping company with four locations in the Bay Area. Now Nello Jr., or “Sonny,” is president and general manager of the company, as well as a winery owner. Back in the day, “Mom was Dad’s bookkeeper,” Barbara said. “She could remember 10 phone numbers and mes- sages to give to Dad while holding a ba- Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309 To Place an Ad Phone: 503-873-8385 Classifieds: call 503-399-6789 Retail: call 503-399-6728 Legal: call 503-399-6791 Fax: 503-399-6706 Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com No. 1 on your ‘to-do’ list Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com Staff President Ryan Kedzierski 503-399-6648 rkedzierski@gannett.com Advertising Terri McArthur 503-399-6630 tmcarthur@Salem.gannett.com Busy women take care of everyone else first. Take the time to put yourself first when it comes to your health. Deadlines Legacy Health has four women’s clinics nearby, where experts, including midwives, can help get you ready for life’s changes, from pregnancy to menopause. News: 4 p.m. Thursday Letters: 4 p.m. Thursday Obituaries: 11 a.m. Friday Display Advertising: 4 p.m. Wednesday Legals: 3 p.m. Wednesday Classifieds: 4 p.m. Friday News Tips The Appeal Tribune encourages suggestions for local stories. Email the newsroom, submit letters to the editor and send announcements to sanews@salem.gannett.com or call 503-399-6773. We can help you with: by in her arms. She didn’t have any time to write down the message or numbers, so she would simply remember them.” Nello died in 2003, at age 87, just a few months after his and Rose’s young- est child, Steve, died of cancer. The re- maining 15 children – all senior citizens now – remain. Many have been able to attend family reunions that started back in 1987. Jeanie Olivo, No. 2, a trained CPA, has been her mom’s companion and travel- ing partner for many years now. Nearly four years ago, mom moved from San Jose to Oregon, also home to Rose’s daughter Virginia Teeney, No. 5. Rose has certainly slowed down in the last few years, but her answering machine at home belies this, stating she’s out “having a good time” if she’s not answering the phone. She still likes to read, play computer games, and do crossword puzzles. Apparently, she’s a force to be reck- oned with on the Scrabble board. “Today is my 100th birthday,” she said at her party, dark eyes sparkling impishly against her impossibly smooth skin. “But this is also my 100th birth year, and I plan on celebrating any day I feel like it all year long.” • Birth control Missed Delivery? 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