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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
June 5, 1986 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:00 
It's June 1986.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:07 
OK, Olive. Let's begin by talking about your marriage to Stephen. You had told me that you 
went to California, met Stephen, and he came-- he followed you to Seattle, and you were married 
just about two weeks later--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:31 
[Inaudible.] 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:31 
--on-- what's the date again?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:36 
September 6, 1926. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:47 
And then after you were married, you were you were working still at Fraser-Paterson? 
MacDougall's? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:58 
Fraser-Paterson. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:58 
In their drapery department. And how long after your marriage did you have your first child? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:05 
About two years.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:07 
And you were living here in Seattle? 
 
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Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:09 
In Highland Park. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  01:12 
I see. And so then tell me a little bit about what your life was like up until.. I know you s-- I 
recall that you told me that during the Depression, that Stephen said that you were going to-- if 
you were going to go hungry, you were going to do it where you were warm [inaudible] [they 
laugh]. You-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  01:35 
Well, this was a couple of-- several years later, and then the Depression hit. And that's what he 
wanted to do, was go south. We did, and it was pretty awful. Well, when we left, it was-- we had 
so much snow, and it was about a foot of snow on the ground, and the pipes were freezing, and 
the brothers were thawing out pipes underneath the house and outside. And I think that's what 
really set my husband that we got to get out of here, you know? And so we just hit the road with 
this trailer and two kids and away we went. And on the way, there was so many people from 
Arkansas, different places, heard that was better in California, and they were on the road, and 
they had everything they possessed in their cars and trucks. A lot of trucks. Most people had 
trucks because they had farms. And then as we went along, the weather was better and better and 
better. It's just a different world all the way down. And he thought that he did go to work in 
Oakland, because he'd worked there before, and the man that he worked for was on relief, and 
there just wasn't any work anywhere. And so we just kept going, and finally ended up in LA 
where we had not thought to go at all. And the motels were not like they are. They were just like 
shantys with tin roofs, and one was right by a railroad track, and the rail train went by every so 
often. If you'd have wanted to sleep, you couldn't have. And those things you [inaudible]... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:28 
Eucalyptus trees. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:30 
The eucalyptus-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  03:31 
[Inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  03:33 
The eucalyptus buds, or berries, whatever they're called, they kept falling on the tin roof, bang-
banging all night. Anyway, I didn't sleep all night. And then we hit the road again and came to 
another one that wasn't any better. Well, anyway, we finally got to LA proper, and Steve went to 
[inaudible] an apartment, and Steve went to look for any signs of work. And when he got to 
wholesale house, they told him that there was a place in [?Heinz?], and apartment went with it. 
So we headed for [?Heinz?], and we were there just less than two weeks when the earthquake hit. 
[?We went through this already.?] 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:19 
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Yeah, yeah. We discussed this when we were doing your biographical information. You told me 
about how it was when the earthquake, and that you lived outdoors, and such like that. What I 
was-- what I'm real interested in is during the time that you lived in California, what was your 
life like? I know that you were part of a family, but what were you thinking?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:46 
Well, I liked it first. You know, it was different in raising your children like-- it's like any place 
else, and there was usually, like, activities [inaudible] the kids to school, and housekeeping, 
sewing. And then we did PTA in school, what the kids did in school, and [inaudible] class as 
Girls-- [?Buck?] Scouts. And then I had joined the-- well, I had been a member of the Royal 
Neighbors of America in Seattle, and then I found that they had one there. So we would go to 
these meetings and luncheons. And then I joined the Eastern Star; my husband had joined the 
Masons. So we were quite busy that way. The kids were in school. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:50 
Were you real active in PTA and [inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:53 
Yes, in PTA, and also Royal Neighbors. Then the Eastern Star and-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:04 
What kinds of things did you do? First of all, what kinds of things did you do? Second of all, 
what made you join those organizations?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:13 
Oh, I don't know. It was just the thing to do. You meet someone, that they'd invite you to-- in, 
and so you did. And then they had their meetings and their luncheons and whatever they do, oh, 
and trips. [Inaudible.] 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:30 
What sorts of things, community projects, were you involved in?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:38 
Well, not anything, because there just wasn't much. People were all trying to get on their feet 
again, and the stores had been pretty much in shambles from the earthquake. Everybody was 
trying to [inaudible] together. And Steve started an upholstery business, and so he was busy all 
the time. And then I helped him with that, too. I would do the sewing to keep things [inaudible]. 
So I was busy, you know, [inaudible]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:16 
So with-- was your-- would you say that your dream was fulfilled? I remember you telling me 
once that all you wanted-- you wanted to be a mother. You wanted to have children. Do you 
think that-- was it everything was cut out for you?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:32 
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Oh, that's the way I wanted it, and that's they way it was. And of course, five years later after the-
- Roy was  born in LA, and I was busier than ever, you know, with a baby.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:48 
You told me that you wanted a another little girl, so that Ruth Marie would--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:52 
Always wanted another girl but I never had her. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:56 
Did you just never find time to have her, or...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:59 
Well, no, my husband said that three was enough. Two was enough, but we had three, so three 
was enough [laughs]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:10 
Well, so, and then, after you-- you lived in LA how many years?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:13 
Well, we didn't live in LA proper, we lived in Compton. And that was about 10 years when we 
moved back to Seattle. I wanted to come back to Seattle. Got so homesick for the water, the 
Sound, and the mountains and to be where I had my family around. We came up through the 
other side of the mountain, through Utah and Arizona, and crossed over Snoqualmie Falls. We 
came back, and then we found a house on Queen Anne and bought it. And--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:06 
Had you sold your business in California, then?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:08 
Oh, yes, we had sold it. And then Steve bought a boat, a 32-foot cruiser, "Nancy", and then we 
went up to San Juans with the whole family, and that was a lot of fun.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:23 
How long did you-- how long did it [inaudible] on the boat to the San Juans?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:27 
We were gone about three weeks. We'd stop at the different islands and fished and had 
barbecues. We did salmon like the Indians do. Took some kind of twigs and made a frame and 
barbecued the salmon, and the kids had a good time chasing all over the islands.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:39 
I bet they were different then than they are now.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:57 
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Well, yeah, they were 9, 15, and 17. No, Robert was 18, because he had just graduated from high 
school, and when we got back, he decided to go into... He couldn't get work unless he would go 
in as apprentice, and he had helped his dad with that upholstery, so he didn't want to go in as an 
apprentice, so he decided he would go into the Coast Guard, and he went down to California and 
joined with his buddy, and they-- so they'd be together, and but they both got sent in a different 
direction, so they didn't get to go together. Robert was sent to go up in Connecticut, and the other 
boy was sent another direction.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  10:49 
Had Stephen been in the Coast Guard? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:52 
Stephen had been in the Coast Guard.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  10:56 
[Inaudible.] How was your relationship with your daughter? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:03 
Well, we've been close all our lives, and it was always fun with her. We always shared 
everything, you know. She was a joy to have around.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:17 
Do you think that she still is? Do you think that the relationship with your daughter was similar 
to the relationship that you had with your mother?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:25 
I think so, because she would tell me all the things that she did and what they did and all-- when 
she started dating, she'd tell me all about everything, and, you know, it was really exciting. And 
she still does that. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:46 
What about your sons, your relationship with your sons, was that...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:50 
Well, that-- they were different because they just went around with their boyfriends and they did 
their thing. We didn't see too much of the boys.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  12:02 
Do you think you're closer to them now than [inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  12:08 
Well, not really. Roy and his family came-- when I went down to California, [?to the strip?], 
why, the very first Sunday, why, Roy and his family came here, spent the day from Arizona. And 
then, just before I left, why, one of my grandsons [inaudible] Hayward, California, and his wife 
and two children came, spent three days and we went to the park, and... 
 
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Linda G. Greiner  12:42 
What-- you'd said when you came back to Seattle, and you had the cruise around the boat, and 
then you came back, and then you got a-- did you get a job after you went cruising through the 
San Juans?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:04 
Yes, I decided-- I had gone down to shop at the Bon, and I met a girl that I had worked with. She 
was in charge, and she says, "Oh," well, she says, "Could you-- would you want to come back to 
work?" and, "We need someone." And I thought, well, why not? So I discussed with my 
husband, and he said, that's what you want to do... Because I didn't have anything to do. The kids 
were on their own, and so I decided to go back to work and worked for three years. And then I 
decided to go in for myself, which I did, and then from there on, I went in business for myself. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  13:48 
During the during the time that you were working with the Bon, where was Stephen? Where did 
he go? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  13:54 
Well, he went up to Alaska, took the boat and went up to Alaska to fish. And he fished part of 
the time, and part of the time he took cruises, [inaudible] cruises. And he also worked on the 
pipeline, because he was up there for about a year [inaudible] came back. Then he went to 
California. And then I sold the house, and...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  14:22 
Were you angry with him for traveling so much, or did you want him to stick around more, or...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  14:28 
Well, to go up to Alaska, I couldn't-- I wouldn't go up there, because that cruise up through the 
Queen Charlotte Straits is very treacherous, and I would get sick on the boat. I didn't like it 
when-- I liked the boat when it was-- when we were anchored, but when we were on the way, 
why, I would be terrified, and I'd go down into the-- one of the bunks and put the pillow over on 
my head and just suffer all the way till we get some place. And so it was no place for me to go to 
Alaska. Besides, I had the business. I couldn't have gone anyway. And I-- if he wanted to go, 
that's what he wanted to do. Thought, "Well, just go and get it out of your system," because he 
had always traveled. And so he did. And when he came back, he still was restless, and he went to 
California. So, "Hey, go," you know.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:02 
From California, did you he go anywhere else?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:28 
Yeah, he went to Arizona, and then back to California. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:34 
So about how long a period was he gone?  
 
Page 7 of 12 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:38 
Oh, about two years. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  15:39 
About two years. So you were pretty much by yours-- well, you had your daughter. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  15:44 
No, she was married by then. She had been to Germany and got married, and then when she 
came back, why, they had their housekeeper here in Seattle. So she was here, and Robert was 
here, and Roy was-- had gone to the service when we lived on Queen Anne when he was 18. 
And so I never hardly ever saw him again, because he stayed in the service until he retired. I 
would only see him occasionally on vacations. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:02 
So about what year was this when you... You started working for the Bon. Stephen was off 
traveling to Alaska, California, and Arizona. Ruth Marie got married.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:41 
And she had two children. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:43 
So about what time frame are we talking about here? What years? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:53 
About 1950. This sort of all happened about that time. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:01 
OK, so while Stephen was gone to Arizona, I believe, you said-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:06 
I sold the house.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:08 
This was the house on Queen Anne? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:10 
The house on Queen Anne. And sold the boat because I had power of attorney, and I have found 
this smaller house and-- where I live now.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:23 
This house? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:24 
Yes. And did a lot of improvements on it. Then I started-- kept my business here, so I was 
working at home [inaudible]. 
 
Page 8 of 12 
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:38 
What did Stephen think about you selling the house and the boat? [Inaudible] Arizona? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:43 
Well, he had given me power of attorney to do whatever I wanted to do, so that's what I did, 
because I didn't want to live in a three bedroom, two story house all by myself. It didn't make 
sense, and I had a chance to buy this one, so I cashed the lady out and moved in. Got rid of some 
of the furniture, a lot of it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:09 
You've done that a lot in your life, then, haven't you? Gotten rid of some of your prized, pride 
and joy pieces of the furniture, and moved on. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:15 
Right, right. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:17 
But how many-- I was trying to think after our discussions... About how many times have you 
moved and sold furniture in your lifetime?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:26 
Well, when we first married and went to California, we sold everything. And then those were-- 
we had furniture in that was my pride and joy, what I wanted to have, like four poster bed and all 
of that, you know? And my first Dav-- [inaudible] Davenport and chair, which just came into-- 
well, people didn't have those things. And I had to give up all that. And we did-- we only got $80 
for a... Because it was Depression, only one person came out from a secondhand place on 1st 
Avenue, and he offered $80; my husband said, "I'll take it," and we had to sell. Of course, $80 
was a lot of money in those days, but however, it was pretty chancy to start off with two children 
and nothing in view and head for California. But when you're younger, you can do things like 
that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:26 
Well, you still did it even as you-- when you came-- you moved back to Seattle, and you still 
sold your stuff or brought part of it with you...  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:33 
Well, we brought all our furniture with us when we came.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:35 
And then you moved again, and you sold a lot of it.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:38 
Oh, I had to sell it because wouldn't fit in this house. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:41 
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[Laughs] What-- I remember also that you were telling me when you did live in California that 
the War started, and that your husband was in business for himself, and that you were helping 
him with his business, and then he had to go into the defense plant for a time.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:59 
Yes, he did.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:00 
And then--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:01 
Then he started a business again.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:04 
Okay, that's what I didn't remember. So he started a business again. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:06 
He bought a lot and had a building built and had [inaudible] in his own place.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:14 
And you also helped him during that time.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:17 
Yes, I helped him with the sewing. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:20 
And then that's eventually the business he sold to buy the boat. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:25 
Yes, that's what he did. We moved up here, why, the business was for sale, and someone made 
him an offer for the boat, and so it was sort of a trade. And then the man took the contract of the 
building. That was part of it. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:47 
OK, so let's go ahead and jump back to what we were talking about before. So you moved into 
this house. You sold a lot of your furniture. Did Stephen know at all what was going-- did you 
know-- had you communicated with him regularly since he left, or...? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  21:04 
No. No. He wrote a couple of times, and I didn't answer. And then, when he had been to Arizona, 
he got back to the... The San Joaquin Valley, anyway. And he called me from there, and wanted 
me to come down. And I said no. So he came up here, and then I later on, I went down there, and 
then we-- my son was in San Pedro-- no, San Diego, and I went down, met him, and we went 
down to San Diego and then into Tijuana, and that's where we were married the second time. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:58 
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So what-- do you remember the date of your second marriage? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:00 
No, I don't.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:04 
The year? Nothing? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:05 
I'd have to look it up. Do you have time for me to look it up? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:08 
Oh, sure, if you want to look it up, go ahead. I can stop the tape.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  22:13 
OK. All right. You were married in Tijuana on the 31st of May, 1958. And you were just telling 
me about that you had to go find the judge. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:30 
It was a Saturday, and we had gone to my son's w-- oh, my son had-- when he got married to this 
Mexican girl, Maria, they had a p-- he was stationed in San Diego, but he'd go across the border, 
and they had an apartment, a nice stucco apartment there, and so we were visiting them, and this 
was on a Saturday, and we had decided to get married. So we were-- the courthouse was closed, 
and so we had to hunt up the judge, and we drove all over before we finally found him, and he 
came down to the courthouse. And that was always a bunch of men standing around. They want 
to be witnesses to whoever gets married. And so this man came, and he was witness. All they do 
that for is to get $10 or whatever. And so we were married, and then we went back to the son's 
house and had dinner. And then the next day we came back to Tracy -- that's where he was 
working -- and then I came back to Seattle, and-- because I had my business to take care of. And 
then a short time later, why... Oh, then I went-- guess I went back there to... I rented the house... I 
rented the house, this house, and went down there and got an apartment there and he worked 
there for-- we were there for about a year, I believe, and then he hurt his finger, and so he wasn't 
working, so we-- and we'd heard from the tenants, and they wanted a rug for the-- wall to wall 
rug. And so we came up and we ordered the rug, and... And we bought a house in Bremerton, the 
half an acre, and I spent a lot of time fixing it up. It needed a lot of work, but it was a cute house, 
and put a new roof on part of it, and painted it outside and inside. My daughter was living at 
Hood Canal with her two children, and she would come over help me paint, and we had a ball. 
And...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  25:45 
What was Stephen doing during this time?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  25:46 
Well, he was working for an upholstery shop there in Bremerton, and then that job sort of 
petered out, and there wasn't enough work, so... And in the meantime, my youngest son was 
there. His-- one of his tours of duty was in Brementon, so he was there, and I think that's one 
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reason why Steve got a job there in Bremerton, was because Roy was there and this house was 
rented anyway, so we bought this place, and then Roy was sent back to Oceanside. He wanted us 
to go with him, and nothing would do, but we would rent that house. We put that house for rent, 
and we left it with a real estate to rent it. And so we got rid of some more furniture. And we had 
a Dodge Dart, and it was a station wagon, and we filled that up with the necessities and headed 
for California. And then we stayed with Roy for a while in Oceanside. He had a double house. 
And then Steve got word about this job in Tracy. [?Guess we went back over that.?] That's how 
we [inaudible] Tracy the second time. So he went-- he-- the man he worked for in Tracy, why, he 
got in contact with him, and so we up and went to Tracy, and on the way, the trailer was load-- 
the station wagon was loaded up with our stuff, and on the freeway, the rear end went out on the 
Dart, and we sat on the freeway -- it was over a bypass, so that we couldn't get out and walk -- 
and we sat there all night till about three o'clock in the morning before anyone stopped. Finally, a 
man coming home from work, he stopped, and he wanted to know if he could help us, and so he 
pushed-- pulled the-- whether he pulled it or pushed it, anyway, he took us to a gas station -- it 
was a long ways away -- and then we sat there waiting for the gas station to open up in the 
morning and had the work done on the Dart and then we headed for Tracy. And now we got an 
apartment in Tracy and then we lived there until we came back to Seattle. That's when he hurt his 
thumb and he had to-- you know, we had time on the hands.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:30 
So you had let your business go just before-- you went down to Tijuana, got married, came back. 
At that time, did you-- you rented the house, and you just kind of put your business aside, and 
then went back down there, and then that's when you went to Bremerton and did all these things 
you just described?  
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:48 
Um, during the time that you were living by yourself, before you remarried Stephen, were you 
ever really frustrated with your situa--? Obviously--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:04 
I was very angry. I was very angry.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:08 
Did you still love him?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:10 
Well, I suppose I did, but I wanted-- I didn't want any more of it. I mean, I think-- I felt like I had 
enough of frustration. So...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:25 
And so then after you remarried, you'd think, like, you would-- do you feel like your relationship 
with Stephen changed?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:31 
Well, in a way, it has changed. It never could be the same, exactly, but it was another start. It was 
all right, but, you know, at that time, why, we were much older and take things as they come. It 
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worked out all right, but then he just got restless again, and wanted to move on, and I couldn't-- 
because I'd started the business, I couldn't just go and then there's the house, what do you do with 
it? We just-- you just don't do those things. Just like the house on Queen Anne. He says, well, he 
wanted me to go to California with him then, when he left. And I says, "Well, we can't! The 
house-- you can't just leave the house like we left the one in-- during the Depression. We just left 
it." And can't do that. I couldn't do that. So somebody had to be there, and I thought, well, if you 
want to go, go, you know? And in fact, he just... In the night, he just decided tol-- no, was it-- he 
just decided to leave. I got up in the morning, and he used to get up early, and he was gone, and 
his keys were on the side of the coffee table. And he was gone. And no note, or anything. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:17 
Just gone, huh? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:19 
He just left. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:19 
Were you real angry when he left? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:22 
Oh, yeah, I was angry and frustrated, you know, what are you gonna do? But anyway, so, that's 
how it was. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:32 
And so then you remarried, and-- 
 