Olson received the youth organization’s Gulick Award, a recognition given to volunteers or key administrators who help expand the group’s programs and services, according to the national office of today’s Camp Fire USA.
Olson was 92 when she died of a stroke May 25 at a Polson assisted living facility.
“That’s the kind of camping she liked,” said her daughter, Darlene Merritt of San Marcos, Calif. “Camping wasn’t her forte because she missed the comforts of her home. Her method of getting home from a family camping trip was to share a (sleeping) bag with my dad. After one night in the cramped bag, he was ready to leave.”
Born Nov. 20, 1915, in Hall, Olson was the fourth of eight children in a Granite County pioneering family. Her grandfather was the first Granite County sheriff, Merritt said.
Olson grew up working in the Morse Brothers grocery and merchandise store in Hall under the strict eye of her father, Frank Morse, who owned the store. She served customers and stocked shelves during and after her graduation from Drummond High School in 1934.
Her younger sister, Flora Jean Olsson (she and her sister married men with nearly the same last name, save for the additional “s”) of Polson, recalled measuring kerosene and triple-strength vinegar for the ranching families in the area.
“It was quite an experience and unlike a store today. Everything came in bulk and you weighed out the rice and flour and beans and wrapped it twice in wax paper,” she said. “You worked hard stocking shelves and my father was very fussy about cleanliness.”
There was also a post office in the store and Merritt said they have a picture of Olson when she was in her 20s with the U.S. postmaster general at the time.
“A visit from him was a big event for a little town like Hall,” she said.
Her sister, said Olson, was mischievous and could “buffalo” her father.
One day, the family watched through their dining room windows when Fern missed the school bus and came home after curfew. Before her father could open the gate to scold her, Fern turned on the garden hose and told her father to cool off.
“Fern was a character. You never knew what devilment would pop into her head,” her sister said. “She always got away with it. Fern was the one that had Dad’s attention and got away with it.”
She played piano for the dances in the Farmer’s Union Hall and also enjoyed dancing. She and “her crowd” would steal chickens from local ranchers and roast them up in a party.
In those days, the family kids often shared a bed.
“Fern would stake out her territory in the bed with the ironing board,” her sister said. “It was just those foolish, crazy things kids did in those times.”
She married another Granite County local, Emil Olson, on Jan. 21, 1939, in Missoula. They were both 23.
Her husband had experience as an aircraft radioman in the U.S. Navy and he began working for the forerunner of the Federal Aviation Agency.
They spent time in Dillon and Belgrade before they went to Seattle, where Emil Olson trained couples being dispatched to Alaska to make weather observations and coordinate aircraft operations.
After the war, they settled in Missoula. Fern Olson was a full-time homemaker, raising her daughter and son, William. Her husband worked as the chief of the Flight Service Station at the Missoula International Airport.
Merritt said her mother exceled at gardening and doing volunteer activities with children. Her family said she was an expert in soothing fussy babies.
She lived in the Brooks Street home until her mid-80s, cleaning her own home and tending her peonies. She took care of her husband, who died in 1999.
“Taking care of her family was her role,” Merritt said.
Olson moved to Polson to be closer to her son and lived at St. Joseph’s Assisted Living Facility in her final years.
On several visits to see her, Merritt said her mother also enjoyed playing the penny slots at KwaTaqNuk Casino & Resort.
Reporter Pamela J. Podger can be reached at 523-5241 or at pamela.podger@missoulian.com.
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