105th birthday milestone

Clovis May VonEssen of Woodland, turned 105 years old on Aug. 21, 2018. Born in Canute, Okla., in 1913, she was the oldest of four children. She and her family were cotton farmers. She married her husband, Herbert Von Essen, on Jan. 1, 1930, and left Oklahoma in 1935 during the Dust Bowl, settling in Yakima, according to her granddaughter, Carol Wood. There, they worked in fruit orchards, eventually buying an apple orchard. VonEssen gardened and canned their family’s food and sewed their children’s clothing. She has eight children, 22 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren. VonEssen and her husband retired in Bingen, where she stayed until he died in 1980. She lives with her daughter in Woodland and enjoys gardening, looking at old photo albums and relaxing in her rocking chair.