Rupert Idaho

I was born in Rupert, Idaho. My Grandma Ella May Dockstader also lived there at 501 Second Street. She was a midwife delivering over 500 babies in her home, including me. I went to grade school in Rupert. We lived there until shortly after my bother Curtis Russell Christensen was killed. I was about eight years old.

Around the age of eight we moved to Napa, Idaho to a 80 acre farm. It had a beautiful home and my mother had a wonderful flower garden as big as our vegetable garden. We had cows, sheep, chickens, alfalfa, wheat, an orchard of fruit trees and sugar beets. When were harvesting sugar beets we'd throw the beets on a truck bed. I was too little to toss them up so they had me drive the truck. Daddy would put me on the seat and tell me to stay with in the rows. At the end of the row Daddy would jump in the truck and turn it down the next row.

What's in a name?

My maiden name is Olive Ella Christensen. Christensen is Danish. My grandfather Fredrick Christensen was born April 2 1880 in Frederickshavn, Hjorring, Denmark. Fredrick's wife, Anna Safrone Andreasen, dad was from Denmark and mother from Sweden. Anna was a first gerneration American born in Box Elder Utah. My father Gilbert Marinus Christensen(photo) was first generation American on his fathers side.

I had a few nicknames growing up. I was small and very thin with white hair and they called me "midg" short for midget. At times I was called "Olie" short for Olive. At school my friends would call me "Chris" because of Christensen but my favorite nickname was by my brother Gilbert. He would call me "PollyWog!"