Sean C. Morgan
Bertha Malone celebrated her 100th birthday Saturday, Nov. 10.
Malone has lived in the Holley area all her life, where she was raised on an Upper Calapooia ranch and then moved downstream about a mile to another ranch.
She raised turkeys, sheep and beef cattle with her husband Fred Malone, who was a logger. They married Nov. 18, 1931. He died in 1978.
“I loved it,” Malone said. “I just liked to get out. I had to feed them and water them. I really liked to get out.”
Later, she had a house across Highway 228 from Holley Community Church, next to the old Holley Grange Hall, where she was treasurer and helped organize the Holley Fair.
“I’ve belonged to the Holley Church since 1933,” Malone said. She was baptized wearing a dress in the Calapooia River on a December day.
“Fred was on the bank to catch her in case they dropped her,” said niece Teresa Culley.
In her lifetime, Malone has made 132 quilts. She retired from the precinct election board at age 72. She voted for the first time in 1931 – probably for President Franklin Roosevelt, she thinks, adding that if it was a Democrat, she probably voted for him.
She stayed busy well into her 80s, Culley said.
As a member of the Senior Center, Malone used to go there every Wednesday and set tables.
That was when she was 80 years old, Culley said. She did it “because the elderly needed the help.”
Malone delivered food for the Gleaners at age 85, Culley said. She would drive seniors to doctor’s appointments and take them shopping.
“She was older than most of the people she was delivering to,” Culley said.
Malone has watched the Sweet Home area grow.
“It used to be gravel roads and muddy sidewalks, then they got the board sidewalks in Sweet Home and then they got cement,” she said. As Lebanon grew and feed stores opened, she and her husband traded there.
The Malones had no children of their own, but she raised nieces and nephews, Malone said.
“Heavens, I don’t know how many. I had a whole raft of them.”
She had 13 brothers and sisters, two of whom survive: Royal Groshong of Florence, born in 1927; and Ivan, 91, of Sweet Home, who recently moved to Bend to live with his daughter.
Malone said she comes from good healthy stock. She has managed to stay healthy all her life, and just takes “one day at a time.”