Ramona Spring was born March 18, 1914, in Newman Grove, Neb. She celebrated her 100th birthday on March 18.
She married George Spring on Oct. 20, 1930, and moved to Portland during the Great Depression in 1936. They arrived with two children and $10. The couple shoveled snow to earn a living during their first winter in Oregon.
After moving to Vancouver in 1937, they operated a service station for a short time before buying the Signal station. Ramona, by then a mother of three boys, pumped gas, checked oil and cleaned car windows during the time they owned the station, about 10 years.
The couple operated a Nash dealership, Spring and Olson, in downtown Vancouver in 1948. When they dissolved that business, most of their money was in used cars. The Springs began selling used cars in the Salmon Creek area until about 1956. They also started selling a few small trailers. Soon they were running a recreational vehicle business, which became known as Springs, the Trailer People. Ramona was always involved in the business, cleaning rental trailers, preparing new trailers for delivery and selling new trailers.
