Page 1 of 10 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Olive Lempi Paavola Armstrong 
June 5, 1986 
Cassette 3, Side 2 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  00:02 
Got to 1960, when you and Stephen moved back here -- what you said was permanent -- and so 
it's 1986, so we have about 26 years to account for. He died in 1981. So maybe instead of you 
trying to rack your brain to try to figure out exactly what happened, maybe you could just think 
about what your life has been like. What sorts of things were important to you? In 1960, some of 
the some of the things that were going on, Vietnam was something that was coming up; 
Eisenhower and Kennedy were the Presidents; the hippies; the Black movement, Civil Rights 
movement began. Did any of those things have any sort of effect on you, or...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  00:55 
Well, the war did in the fact that Roy was in the Navy, and he was a corpsmen then and he had to 
go to Viet-- first he went to Korea, and while-- he had gotten married, and -- to this Mexican girl, 
Maria -- and he had to go to Korea, so -- and she had a little boy by a former marriage -- and so 
we decided that she should come up here stay with us. So she came and stayed with us in this 
house, and we had Richard, and then eventually, why, Jerry was born. He was born in Fort 
Lawton Hospital. I got to carry him home in the car, the first time. And so he was about a year 
old, a baby, when Roy came back from Vietnam-- or, from Korea. And then he had a choice of 
either going back into the Navy or trying to do something on his own. So they found an 
apartment here in Seattle, and he tried to get work here, but-- in the hospitals, but because he 
didn't have a college thing for his work as a corpsman -- they take care of all the people that are 
hurt, whatever -- couldn't get a job in the hospitals, so he finally gave up on that and decided he 
would go back in to the Navy, which he did. He came up to the house I was working and he says, 
"Well, I can't seem to get a job, so I guess I'll just let the Navy take me." It was so funny. Says, "I 
guess, ah, they can take me." And so he went back in the Navy and stayed in there until he 
retired. In fact, he stayed longer than retiring in the Navy, because by that time, he very valuable 
in the hospital, working in the blood [inaudible].  And then he got into X-ray, so he was very 
valuable to them. But the Vietnam thing, they were down there in California, and that was very-- 
that was very, very hard, because he was right on the front lines there all the time, and conditions 
were terrible in Vietnam. He wouldn't know how to talk about it, but the bugs and the snakes and 
jungles and dying and all that, it was quite a trauma for him. He just never talked about it. We 
just knew that things like that happened.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:11 
Page 2 of 10 
 
What were you doing during this time, about 1965? Did you work at all? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:20 
Yes, I worked. We both worked here. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:32 
Were you involved in any sort of...?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:34 
No, I wasn't involved with anything. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:38 
Not Eastern Star, or anything?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:39 
No, I just didn't have time to do all that, so I just dropped out of all that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  04:50 
So you were mostly just busy working [inaudible]-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  04:52 
Busy working. And then my oldest son was-- is here in Seattle, and he had the three children, 
and my brother lives in-- lived in Renton, and, oh, just the usual things that go on.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  05:08 
What was it like for you when you had your grandkids, when your children started having 
children? What did what did you think? 'Cause you told me that it was-- one of the things that 
you wanted to do was have kids, that that's just what you wanted to do, was raise a family. 
[Inaudible] how were you feeling [inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  05:33 
Well, it was exciting each time and to see them periodically and how they grew. And right now, 
why, today, we're-- any minute, I'm going to hear we have another. David will have his second 
one. She's hoping for-- they both were hoping for a girl, because they had a boy. So we'll wait 
and see before the day's up what we get. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:04 
What-- if there was anything that-- do you wish anything for your grandkids, anything beyond 
what you wish for your children [inaudible]? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  06:13 
No, because they-- their parents, they have their decisions and hopes for their children, and 
there's nothing that a grandparent... We just accept them the way they are, what they do, it just is-
- it's not like your own kids, at all. I'm always excited about what they do and things like that and 
visiting them. 
 
Page 3 of 10 
 
Linda G. Greiner  06:41 
One of the things that I that I noticed when I was doing your biographical information was that a 
lot of-- within the family, seems to have family names. Everybody's named after-- there's a 
Stephen, or there's a Junior, or there's a... It seems to be a pretty big tradition in your family 
[inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:03 
Well, the Stephens started-- [?came in?] here and there. I think Stephen is a pretty name, 
anyway.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:09 
Oh, yeah. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  07:12 
Roy's youngest one now is Kevin Stephen. When he was born, his dad called me, and I said-- he 
said, "His name is Kevin." I said, "What's his middle name?" He says, "Well, we haven't decided 
on that yet." And I said, "Why don't you name him Stephen?" Kevin Stephen isn't bad, so he's 
Kevin Stephen. I don't know what this one's going to be. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  07:54 
What sorts of things do you remember that really stick out in your mind about who Olive 
Armstrong is? What... Do you have anything [inaudible] the way you would classify yourself, or 
the way you would think about yourself? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  08:14 
Um [inaudible]. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  08:34 
If you wanted to tell the people that you love something -- and assuming that they listen to this a 
few years from now -- what do you think you'd tell them? What would be some bits of advice 
that you might have for anybody and/or your loved ones that you'd like them to remember-- and 
remember you for? Can you think of anything? Just through your life experiences, the 
information that you'd like to pass on that if you never had the chance to tell somebody 
[inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:19 
Well, the most that I could ask for them is to-- just to be happy, and make the best of whatever 
situation they ever get into. There's nothing else you can do, anyway. But just mainly just be 
happy and... [Inaudible]. They're gonna do what they do anyway-- 
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:51 
Yeah, that's true. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  09:52 
--just the same as I did.  
 
Page 4 of 10 
 
Linda G. Greiner  09:55 
Well, what kinds of things  have been important in your life, looking back, that have been 
important to you? I know that you told me about the cat that you once had, and [inaudible] [?was 
present?] how sad you were.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  10:10 
Oh, we always had lots of cats. My folks had cats. There was always a cat sleeping on 
everybody's bed. We always had dogs, but not in the house. And Robert [inaudible]. He had the 
most pets in California. I guess they were pets. We had dogs and cats. One dog that he had, 
Robert had [?why?] in Compton when they were at school, and that-- boys would do their own 
playing, you know, they ran around, and we had a big backyard. There was all kinds of projects 
going on that the boys did. And one day, when I came home from somewhere, I come in the 
front door and hear Robert-- and another boy runs over to me and says, "Oh no, no, look and see 
what I've got. It's a surprise." And I walked through the-- and he says, "Put your hands over your 
eyes. You can't see yet." I go out to the back door, and he says, "Now you can look." And here's 
this dog, and it was a big, white and black dog. And the dog was [inaudible] and shaking all 
over. His tail was wagging. And the dog was shaking all over and laughing. And I declared that 
dog was laughing, and he just kept-- he says, "Mommy, can I keep it? Can I keep it?" [Laughs] 
What are you gonna do when the dog's laughing and shaking all over? [They laugh.]  
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:37 
So did you keep the dog?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:38 
So we kept the dog, and he was a lot of fun. He really was. And then we had a little dog. It was... 
 
Linda G. Greiner  11:48 
The dachshund? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  11:49 
A dachshund, little brown dachshund. He was real sweet. And that dachshund kept having 
puppies and puppies, you know, and they were all different looking dogs besides dachsunds, and 
one of them was called-- it looked, like [?a corgi?], the bigger dog. It was white. It looked like 
one of those dogs that they adver-- used to advertise for photographs, white with a-- one black 
eye, you know? He could have been a show dog. He was about a foot high. And he would follow 
my youngest son over the six foot fence, wire fence. When that boy wanted to leave, he left, and 
he'd climb over that fence, and the dog went after him, you know, with his feet, and they both 
would jump off on the other side and take off wherever they were going. So we had dogs and we 
had cats. We had so many cats off and on. And the terrible thing about the cats was they 
eventually get run over and Steve would say, "No more cats!" And then Marie would bring home 
a cat and put it on his lap, so we had another cat. And then at the time, when we were in Tracy, at 
the apartment in Tracy, when Steve was working there, and I went down there after we married, 
and my daughter had moved to California, and she had her cats with her, and one of them had 
kittens. So I had to have one of the kittens, and so I weaned it. Took it to the apartment -- we 
weren't supposed to have pets or kids. I took it to the apartment under my coat and got it a litter 
box in the bathroom and trained it and had the cat there and raised it until we moved back to 
Page 5 of 10 
 
Seattle, and the cat had never been outside, and so when we took it out, why, it was terrified, and 
it cried all the way to Seattle. The only time it stopped crying was when we'd come to a motel, 
and then I carried in under my jacket and get settled in a motel, and then the cat was all right. 
Everything was OK with the cat. And back in the car when we'd leave again, until we got here. 
The cat was 14 years old by then when it died. It had a tumor, so we had to have it put to sleep. 
And that was very traumatic for me, and it was for Steve too, because he liked the cat. I know 
when we just made an appointment with the doctor, why, the cat was on a chair and Steve picked 
it up and held him, he says -- I never will forget it -- he says, "I like you." And then I would start 
to cry. And then we took the cat in the car. Of course, the cat always cried in the car, and I was 
petting it feeling like I wouldn't bring him back. So when a doctor examined him, why, she said -
- she had it on the table -- she said, "We'll have to keep it overnight and so that I can examine 
him." She says, "I have a feeling that it might have a tumor." So she says, "I'll call you in the 
morning." So she called in the morning, and I was very apprehensive. I wouldn't answer the 
phone. Steve answered the phone, and the doctor said that it had a tumor. And she says, "I 
drained a cup of water out of his chest." And she says, "He'll be alright for a while, for about a 
month," but she said it would come back, would fill up again. She says, "What you want me to 
do?" And I-- Steve turned to me, I got the gist of the conversation, and he was kind of implying, 
you know, "What do you want to do?" And I shook my head, that it better-- we couldn't go 
through that again and watch the cat suffer, because it was-- it would go kind of yawn, you 
know, was taking its-- catching its breath every so often. And eventually it would have died by 
itself. So we had to let her put it to sleep. Of course, I bawled for a couple of weeks off and on, 
you know, felt real bad. And so it's just like a human being, you know? 
 
Linda G. Greiner  16:26 
What year was that? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  16:27 
[Inaudible] around '70, around that time. So I didn't want any more cats. I did babysit a cat here a 
while back, because my daughter, when she came from-- my granddaughter came from Alaska, 
and they had a cat that they had from a baby, and everywhere they went, the cat went, too, and 
got its shots and-- I guess we're all cat people. And so-- and he was-- he got a job-- my 
[?daughter in law's?] husband got a job in California, so they moved down there and till they got 
settled, why, I kept the cat here, and then they picked it up. They offered the cat to me, and I got 
really fond of it, but I didn't-- I just didn't want to go through that again. So I said, no, I wouldn't 
keep it. And so then they took the cat. Well, I don't want any more pets. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:38 
When did Stephen get sick? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:46 
Well, that came on gradually. He had emphysema, and...  
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:53 
Did he smoke?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:55 
Page 6 of 10 
 
He smoked incessantly. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  17:57 
Really? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  17:57 
And he tried to stop, but he just didn't have the will for it, I guess. I guess it's a-- smoking is a 
terrible thing that no one should ever start. When I see kids going by here on their way to school 
and they're smoking, and -- kids that couldn't be more than 10 or 11 years old -- and if they 
would only listen, but they don't listen. Kids don't listen. It's a smart thing to do, and they go by 
their peers, and then they just get hooked on it and when they get older, and then they get 
emphysema or whatever and they can't quit, it's a terrible thing. It's hard for people to live with 
people that smoke, unless they both smoke.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  18:44 
Did you ever smoke?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  18:45 
No, I didn't, I never smoked. But I objected to it, but... At first I didn't, because it seemed like all 
the men smoked. Kids all started to smoke. But later on, why, it did affect me. And, you know, 
your curtains get dirty, and, you know, there's smoke everywhere. It's a very bad habit.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:11 
Well-- 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:11 
And then he got emphysema and heart trouble, and he had to call the aid car several times. He 
was in and out of the hospital. And then, of course, the last time, why, that was it. It was a hard 
way to go.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:33 
So he suffered with emphysema for about how many years? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:36 
Well, it was really bad there for about three years. He was in the hospital.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  19:45 
And how were you doing during this time? Was it [crosstalk]--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  19:47 
Well, it was a terrible thing to live with someone that you knew that they were-- they wouldn't be 
here very much longer. It's an awful hard way to live. Then when it happened, well, of course, 
that's [inaudible] trauma--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:06 
How--  
Page 7 of 10 
 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:07 
--and then you have to carry on. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  20:09 
How has your health been throughout your life? Have you always been--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  20:13 
I've been pretty healthy. I have a heart condition now, and I have to have-- be on medication, but 
I can't do but-- what really bothers me is I can't do the things that I-- I've always worked hard. I 
always liked to work in the yard, and when I'd start working in the yard, I'd have to work till I'd 
be exhausted, until something was done, you know, and I enjoyed it. And when you get so that 
you can't do that, you have to depend on someone else to do it. Most of the time-- you can't get 
the kids in the neighborhood to cut your lawn, and you really can't afford to have a gardener, and 
so then Robert will come over and do it occasionally and in between time, it gets pretty shabby, 
you know. In fact, when I got back from California this time, he had a lawn mower with him 
because he knew it needed cutting again, so he cut the front and the back and today, I think I'll 
go out there and see if I can get a few weeds up. But I can't really do that, and I get exhausted 
and out of breath, and you gets kind of fearful that you shouldn't be doing this. But I get around. 
I do a lot of shopping, and-- mostly just looking.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  21:33 
So what-- I'm interested to know what it-- what's life been like for you since your husband died? 
I mean, you started-- when you were young, you started out with mom and dad and your dog and 
your brothers, and we went through your life, and you lived by yourself, had friends, and then 
you married, and then you lost your husband, and then you lived by yourself again. And then you 
met Stephen and you were with him for a while, and then you lived by yourself for a while, 
because Stephen was gone, and then he was back, and now you're by yourself again, because 
Stephen has died. What-- what's it like-- what's life like now for you? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  22:11 
Well, Stephen and I-- before he died, several years before that, it was about '76, the Senior 
Center started over here in Wallingford, and it's a very nice building. The building was-- it takes 
several acres, goes from block to block, maybe two blocks wide. And it's a big brick building, 
brick and stone, and it was a Catholic home for girls in the days when they had those. And they 
they finally couldn't handle it anymore, and it was up for whatever reason. So the city, there was 
talk about it could be a shopping center and people objected to that, and-- [?it was off the road?]. 
And finally the city bought it, and it's -- what do they call it? It-- the city bought it. And so then 
they started a senior center upstairs in the small quarters. And finally, they got enough money to 
get started to took out a basement area and had that all done over. It's just beautiful. It just really 
is. It has  several rooms. And different companies help, like Boeing and the telephone company, 
and whoever to get it equipped, like dividers and the whole thing, a new kitchen. Got it wired for 
electricity for the kitchen, which had to go underground through the park. It's a beautiful park 
area. It is a park. And now they have children's area there, children's playground, and they have-- 
it's gardens and flowers. And they even have a garden for people-- seniors if they want to have a 
garden there, why you can have vegetables [inaudible]. 
Page 8 of 10 
 
 
Linda G. Greiner  24:28 
So you've been involved with Wallingford Senior Center since it began there, pretty much? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  24:32 
Yes. Yeah, we were from the start. And I go-- when I-- I usually go twice a week, Wednesday 
and Friday, and then they have a panc-- once a month, they have a pancake breakfast that's for 
the public, and that's one way to raise money. They estimate to have as many as 400 people go 
there from 10 o'clock in the morning till I think it's 2:00. And then they have a pancake breakfast 
once a month. It's always the same sequence. And once a month, they have a potluck for the 
members that want to come. And so there's always activity. And we have many activities there. 
They have dancing classes and health classes and writing classes, and I couldn't begin to name 
all the things that's going-- there's classes going on there all the time. So it's really a very, very 
nice place, and I mostly go for the luncheons and the... I used to take painting there, until I no 
longer could take painting on account of my eyes and... So that was a-- it's a lot of activity there 
for seniors.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:09 
So would you say that with the Senior Center, it's been a real big part of your life?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:15 
Oh, yes, it has, really has. And you meet a lot of people that you would not have met otherwise, 
unless maybe you go to church, meet people there, and I don't do that. So that's where you meet 
people. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:30 
Do you-- are you still involved with Eastern Star?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:35 
No, I let that go by the wayside. And then when I started my business, I just didn't have time to 
go. So I don't do that anymore.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:46 
So beyond the Wallingford Senior Center, what else do you do? What other--  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:53 
Well--  
 
Linda G. Greiner  26:53 
What's your life like?  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  26:54 
--just go out, visit the kids, and birthdays, and Mother's Day, and off and on. And go out and 
visit my son, or I have them over here, and then the grandchildren, they come, and it's just-- 
mostly just a family affair. Now they're scattering out to different areas. One grandchild is in 
Fremont, California, now, one in Hayward, California, and a daughter now is in San Diego, and 
Page 9 of 10 
 
one grandson, and one grandson is in North Bend. So I really don't get to see them a lot, except I 
just took this trip down to California and-- to visit my daughter and then my son from Yuma, 
Arizona, and his family. Some of his family, came there stay the day. And the grandson in 
Hayward, his-- and his family came last weekend, and-- so I got to see all of them on this trip. 
And of course Robert's here. And now we're about to have another baby in the family. So it's just 
family things going on, and the friends that I've met, we go out to lunch, things like that 
[inaudible]. Nothing exciting. Go downtown, go down to Civic Center, whatever's going on. Go 
to opera or things like that.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  28:50 
Do you get many visitors? Or are you the one that mostly does the going? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  28:56 
I mostly go. I don't entertain anymore hardly at all. And it's just going [inaudible]. And going up 
to my girlfriends, [?so-called?] girls, we're all girls.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:15 
So, do you ever get--? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:17 
I got to see [?Zorba?] down there in California.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:20 
Oh, really. Oh, well that's-- geez. Do you ever get lonely? 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:26 
No, I don't get lonely. I really don't.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  29:30 
What do you think the secret to that is? A lot of [?seniors?] get lonely [?when they're?]... 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  29:36 
A lot of people do. They get restless, but I don't. I just like the little house, and I putter around 
and do things, and would do more if I could. Right now, I wished I could take these curtains 
down, because I can wash these, you know, they're dacron. I can wash these in washing machine, 
and I iron them and long fold them, and-- because that was my job, and hang them up again, and 
that would be it, but I can't climb on a ladder anymore. And believe me, I climbed on a lot of 
ladders.  
 
Linda G. Greiner  30:10 
I'm sure, in the drapery business.  
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  30:12 
This one house that we just-- well, not the first house on Queen Anne, but the first house on 
Queen Anne, it had a beautiful staircase that wound around and was all carpeted, and the ceiling 
in the staircase needed painting, so not-- and I'm no painter, so I got the outside ladder and put it 
Page 10 of 10 
 
up ahead of the stairs on a couple of books and positioned it up to the highest place in the 
stairwell, and I climbed up there, walked up there like a monkey with my paint bucket and hung 
it on and with my brush, I painted the ceiling where it goes around, and the sides and everything. 
When I think about that now, I shudder that I could have killed myself falling off of there, but it 
never occurred to me that I would fall off a ladder. 
 
Linda G. Greiner  31:11 
Oh, I'm sure not. Yeah, not [inaudible]. 
 
Olive Lempi Armstrong  31:14 
And my mother said that when I was a baby in Finland, she says I walked when I was nine 
months old, so--and somebody was painting on the house, or doing some roofing or something 
on the two story house. And she said-- I guess it was someplace I was visiting, I don't know. But 
anyway, before she knew it, I was running around-- 
 