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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
April 14, 1986 
Cassette 1, Side 2 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:01 
OK. Today is April 14, 1986. This is a continuation of Olive Armstrong's biographical 
information. Now we're back to the children's names.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:15 
Yeah, Robert Armstrong. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:17 
Robert's [inaudible].  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:18 
July-- yeah, July 22, 1928.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:25 
What's his occupation?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:27 
He's an engineer at Boeing.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:33 
OK, and their father was... Armstrong? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:38 
Stephen.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:38 
Stephen. OK.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:48 
And Marie.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:49 
Marie?  
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:50 
Marie Armstrong. Her name now is... Oh, dear. I just draw blank--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:03 
That's OK. We can go back.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:05 
Yeah, OK. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:06 
No big deal. She-- was she born in Seattle? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:09 
Yeah, she was born in Seattle. Both of them.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:12 
And the date? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:12 
November 23, 1930.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:21 
She have an occupation? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:24 
Well, she's worked in offices. In fact, right now, she's working in an office. Secretary. Her 
husband just died last January.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:40 
Oh, really? Do you have any other children? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:44 
What? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:44 
Do you have other children?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:46 
Roy Armstrong, Roy Michael. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:57 
Born in Seattle? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:59 
No. He was born in LA, Los Angeles.  
Page 3 of 12 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:04 
The date? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:07 
He was November-- September 24, 1935. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  02:21 
His occupation?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  02:26 
He's a medic. He does blood work and X-ray and all that in the hospital in Yuma, Arizona, but 
he had gone through the Navy from the time he was 18 years old. He was in all the wars over 
there, in Vietnam, Japan, Korea. So he retired from the Navy, and then he still works in hospital. 
He works in Indian Hospital in Yuma, Arizona. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:07 
You forgot to give me your daughter's middle name. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:11 
Um, Marie... Well, this is a long story. Her-- she was christened "Ruth Marie", and then she 
changed-- she changed it to just "Marie". 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:26 
So her-- on her birth certificate, it says "Ruth Marie"? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:28 
Mm-hmm. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:30 
And she-- has she-- did she legally change [inaudible]?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:32 
Oh, yes, it's legally changed. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:36 
Then, I'll put "Ruth Marie" down. Any other children?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:40 
No, that's it. I wanted a girl, but I didn't get one. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:50 
You wanted a girl but you didn't get one?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:52 
Yeah. 
Page 4 of 12 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:53 
I thought you had Ruth Marie?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:55 
Well--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:56 
Is she--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:56 
Yeah, that's right, I did.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:58 
Oh, you wanted ano--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:59 
I wanted another one. I wanted a sister for her.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:01 
Oh, I see. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:02 
You know, that's what I wanted to say.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:04 
Oh, I see. Did you have any adopted children or foster children, or-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:08 
No.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:08 
--any other children that became a part in your life?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:16 
OK, back to the education question. How much formal schooling have you had? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:23 
Oh, I just had three years in high school. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:25 
Three years in high school? So you went through grammar school, through high school, but then 
you didn't graduate?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:32 
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No, I didn't graduate, because then when the strike came, we left there, and there was no high 
school where, where we lived, in Hobart. And then the opportunity came to work in a telephone 
company, so I went in, I came to Seattle, and that was the end of my formal education. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:54 
Do you remember how much money you were making when you started working for the phone 
company?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:59 
$16.20 a week. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:01 
$16.20 a week. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:02 
And then after a few weeks, made $18 a week. And believe me, that was a lot of money in those 
days.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:09 
That was-- what year was that? That was 19-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:17 
1920, about 1919-1920.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:20 
[Inaudible], that was a lot of money. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:23 
Yeah, they paid you $16.50, I think it was, to start, you know, to teach you. That was in the days 
of the plugs, you know?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:32 
The switchboard.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:36 
"Number, please." Yeah, that's right [laughs]. But when I went back to work after my mother 
died and my husband died, I didn't want to go in the telephone company because -- which I could 
have -- but I just didn't want to face the black board. And some of the girls stayed till they retired 
and got a pension, but I couldn't see looking at a black board, just sitting on a stool, you know, 
for years and years and years. I just want to do something I could do what I wanted to do, and get 
around. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:12 
Mm-hmm. And so that's when you started working for the draperies and--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:14 
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Yes, uh-huh. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:16 
--MacDougall and then Fraser-Paterson, right. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:19 
Fraser-Paterson. And then I went in for myself, up on Queen Anne Hill, and then we lived up 
there then. And then I had a work room here in the basement, too. And then we moved back to 
California and lived there for a couple of years, and then came back again.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:36 
So when you came back, is that when you got your job at the Bon running elevators?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:40 
No, that was when I-- in the '20s, early '20s, before I was married to my husband. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:48 
Well, so you moved.... You moved to California in the 1930s and then you came back. So you 
held the telephone company job, and the McDougall's, Fraser-Paterson, draperies, and the Bon, 
all before you got married.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:08 
Yes. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:09 
And then you got married. So when you got married, were you working, or did you...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:14 
Well part-- for a while, I worked at the Fraser-Paterson, and then I-- that's when my youngest-- 
or, my oldest boy was born. And then I didn't work after that. Then we went to California, and I 
never worked there. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:27 
And so did you work when you came back? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:30 
Well, when we came back, I did go back to work for them. I met one of the ladies, and she said, 
"Oh, we need help so bad," you know, that, "Would you want to come?" And I thought, "Well, 
why not?" My youngest one was 14 years old then, and no reason why I couldn't go back. And so 
I worked for three years-- three more years in the draperies.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:54 
So how long did you live in California? From 1933 to... You said your youngest one was 14, 
then is that-- does that hold? He was-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:05 
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He was-- when we came back-- in fact, he was 10 years old when we came back. So I don't know 
what that makes it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:12 
1943? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:14 
1946, we came back. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:15 
OK. And then you started working for Fraser-Paterson? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:23 
No, Bon Marché.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:25 
The draperies? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:25 
Mm-hmm. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:36 
How about your interests, crafts, talents, anything that-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:41 
Oh, I do-- did painting. There's one over there. Roses.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:49 
Oil painting! 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:50 
Oil painting, and the one behind us here, and I have several others.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:53 
Do you still paint?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:55 
No, my eyes got bad, and I don't paint anymore. I always liked to draw and paint when I went to 
school. In fact, my dad wanted me to go to art school and university, but on account of that 
strike, why, nothing like that happened, you know? Everybody had to move. That was a neat 
town to live in. That was-- I think about that more than anything else. In Black Diamond, they 
were mostly all foreigners. They all came from some place, the families. There was every 
nationality you could think of, Scotch, Irish, Armenian, German, Polish, Swedish, Finnish, 
Norwegian, anything you can think of, all but Blacks. No Blacks. At that time, they wouldn't 
allow them in. No Japanese. And it was really nice, because we lived in a part of town that was 
the company houses. They-- all the company houses were exactly the same. They were all red, 
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and there was four rows of company houses up on the hill. Have you ever been to Black 
Diamond?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  10:13 
No, I haven't.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:14 
Well, right from the main part of the diamond, you go up the hill, and there was this hill, steep 
hill, and there was four rows of houses with 10 houses, or-- 10 houses in each row, and they were 
all painted red. And the company store was painted red, and a barber shop, and a saloon, of 
course. And then there was the mine there, and then there was the mine in Black Diamond. Then 
later on, why-- and that's where I went to school from. Quite a long walk, but that was always 
fun. Part of the road was through the woods, you know, the county road went through there. And 
sometimes we'd come home for lunch, run back to school again. And... But it was very 
interesting. And the Finnish people had a community there. There was a lot of Finnish people 
came there, and they built a Finnish Hall, and they had a Finnish organization and my folks 
belonged to that, and they would have socials and parties there and a lot of things going-- 
community things going on. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:26 
Did-- was it unusual for your father to encourage your education? You said that that he wanted 
you to go to to art school at the University of Washington? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:38 
Yes, he did. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:39 
Was your father encouraging you as a woman like that all the time?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:43 
Oh yes, oh yes. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:45 
That's [inaudible]--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:45 
In fact, he used to-- he was always reading, reading history, and he knew more about history than 
we did. He used to say to school kids, he said, "You don't learn anything in school." He'd ask us 
questions; we didn't know what it was. So he was always studying and always reading, and he 
spoke English fluently. Picked it up himself from the time he came. See, three of his-- three of 
the brothers in that family, it was a big estate that they had. In those days, in most foreign 
countries, the people that had big farms, they were estates. And his-- he was from a estate. So 
then when, I suppose, the father died or something -- that's what I just learned when I was over 
there -- why, the three youngest brothers took the money from the place when it was sold and 
they came to America. One of them back with the other two estates, the one in Minnesota, whose 
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name was Matt. And then my father ca-- went all over and finally settled in Black Diamond. And 
then he lived here-- lived there till he passed away. But...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:01 
Was your mother equally as enthusiastic about education? Would she--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:09 
No, no, she didn't. Any-- whatever went; she was always agreeable, you know? And her and I 
were very, very close. It was terrible when she died. She died-- she had a stroke, and she died 
when she was so young, you know, 36 years old. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:30 
Oh, she was young.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:31 
No, she was 43, but she got the stroke when she was 36. And that was terrible. But we used to 
talk about a lot of things, you know? We were very close.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:43 
Uh-huh. Did you ever want to go to college, even after you had your children? Did you ever 
hope-- did you ever have that  idea?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:50 
No, I never did. No, I didn't.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:56 
Do you have any other interests or crafts, or...? You said that you liked to-- you paint and you 
like drawing and [inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:04 
No, I always liked to sew. I used to make my daughter's clothes when she was little. And... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:10 
Did you quilt at all? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:13 
No, my daughter does that. No, I did embroidery and cro-- a lot of crocheting and things like 
that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:23 
Did you can? Canned goods, canning food? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:30 
Canning? Oh, all the time. Canned everything you can think of, and pickles, and... In fact, when 
we headed for California in '33, I had-- we had barrels of stuff that I had canned, including 
pickles. And it was a good thing, because when we got down there, my husband thought, "Oh, 
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boy, California, now, you know, everything's gonna be fine." And so he stopped in places where 
he had worked -- he'd traveled a lot, and all over the country -- and, "Well, he can get a job there, 
no problem, you know?" Everybody was on the county or they were not working. So we just 
kept going on and on and on. And finally, we ended up in-- in fact, in Oakland, he thought, 
"Sure", because the last place he worked. And that guy was out of business, and he was on relief. 
And so then we ended up in Cal-- in Los Angeles. So he stopped at a wholesale house and asked 
if there was any-- they knew of any place where he could get a job, that he had his family with 
him, and... you know? I think we had about $30-- $80 left, you know, by the time we got there. 
And they said, "As it just happens, why, there's a man in [?Heinz?], and [?Heinz?], California is 
between LA and Long Beach, and he wants to start an upholstery shop." So he said that, "And 
the apartment's included," it was a beautiful apartment, "and all furnished." So that was just fine, 
and so my husband was setting up his work table with-- in the garage -- he was making it, you 
know, to get started -- and we were there two weeks when the earthquake came. That big 
earthquake.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:37 
What year was that? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:54 
The '33, in Long Beach. And I was getting dinner, it was about around 5:30, and I was in the 
kitchen, my husband was in the kitchen, and Marie was-- oh, I think she was three and a half. 
The kids were five and three when we came down-- we went down. Well, she was about three 
and a half.... I think, yeah, anyway, about that age. And I had made scalloped potatoes, and I had 
them on top of the gas oven. You know, those days they had the stoves with the oven up above? 
And all of a sudden it started to shake and that-- and I looked at my husband, and I said, 
"Earthquake!" And I'd never been in one before, but he had. But anyway, I said, "Earthquake!" 
And that darn [inaudible] grinder flew off of there -- I guess it was a meat grinder -- flew down, 
and my daughter was sitting on the floor playing, and just missed her. So then I picked her up-- 
no, I didn't pick her up. I ran for the front door -- and the living room was a large, large room 
with a barrel ceiling and everything -- and I was just with zigzagging through there, and got to 
the door, and I couldn't open the door. And by that time, my husband picked up the girl and and 
he came, and he opened the door, and we went outside. And then I said, "Where's Robert?" and 
the girl says, "Did Robert do that? Did Robert do that?" And-- the earthquake. And all around, 
chimneys were falling down, and, you know, bricks going all over and the sirens start to blow, 
and all the way-- all at night... We moved out, naturally. And we had this trailer, and it had a-- 
we had a tarp that was on top of all our stuff, so he tacked that down on top of the trailer, and the 
kids slept in the-- got the mattress out of the house and put the mattress in there for the kids to 
sleep on. No, we slept in there, and then the kids slept in the car, one in the front seat and one in 
the back. We stayed outside for about two weeks that we couldn't go back in the apartment, 
because by the time we'd go back in, it'd start to shake again, and so we'd go out, and... And 
finally we got back in.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:35 
Was there much damage?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:37 
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Well, it didn't damage us any. It didn't damage our apartment, but there was houses down all 
over and the downtown part, which was just a few blocks from us, why, the fronts of buildings 
were all downed, and the hotels and the bank and everything. It was a lot of damage. And Long 
Beach was terrible. It was a lot of deaths there. And also in Compton, around-- which is not very 
far from there, where we moved later. And then my husband got a job and worked in LA and 
commuted back to Compton, where we were living. Then, after a couple of years, why, things 
start picking up, and people got to go to work, you know? But there was rows of houses that 
were vacant. People had bought houses, you know, and they lost the house-- houses, and they 
were just standing vacant. And we could have bought any of them for $500, and we didn't have 
$500 [laughs].  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:36 
Did anybody have $500 at that time?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:38 
Well, some people did, but we didn't know any of those people. You either made money those 
days or you just didn't have anything. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:48 
Were there any other crafts, or anything that you did? You've got [inaudible] embroidery and 
canning and... Was there anything that-- anything else that...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:00 
No, outside of raising kids [laughs]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:03 
Oh, that might have been an interest [they laugh]. I think they could consider that as... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:13 
How about any clubs or groups or societies that you...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:19 
Well, I belonged to the Eastern Star, and my husband did, too.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:27 
What [crosstalk]--?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:27 
My husband belonged to the Masons. My father belonged the Masons. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:33 
What is the Eastern Star? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:36 
That's the women's division of Masons.  
 
Page 12 of 12 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:39 
OK.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:43 
And I also belonged to-- still belonged to the Royal Neighbors of America. It's a fraternal lodge, 
insurance.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:53 
Repeat that. "Royal"...  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:54 
Royal Neighbors. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:03 
Anything else?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:05 
No.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:05 
Wallingford Senior Center? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:08 
Yes. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:09 
Yes, yes. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:10 
I am a charter member there. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:18 
If you'd like to take a break or like to quit, just let me know. We can stop at any time.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:23 
Why don't we have a-- why don't we quit, then? 
 