Emelie Olson

Emelie Olson

Age 85, died at home on Sept. 15 after a long illness. She was born and raised on a farm by the Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota near the Manitoba border. She received an undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and a graduate degree in socio-cultural anthropology from UCLA. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960s in a village in southwestern Turkey, where she maintained lifelong friendships. For thirty years she was a teacher at Whittier College in California. She spent sabbaticals doing field research in Turkey and in southern India. Emelie was an avid gardener, committed to native plants and sustainability. A "green burial" occurred at the Las Cruces Camposanto in Taos, where her remains are feeding the microorganisms in the soil. Surviving are her husband of forty-six years (Glenn Yocum), two brothers in Minnesota (one on the family farm), a brother in central Oregon, a daughter (Aysha Prather) and two grandsons in Oklahoma, a stepson in Kingman, AZ, a stepdaughter and grandson in Los Angeles, and here in Taos her devoted caregivers (Sabrina, Wendy, Manuela, and Lina), the caring hospice staff at Mountain Home Health Care, a cat (Lynx), and two chickens (Louise and Arlene). A small memorial gathering for family and old friends will happen later TBA. No cut flowers please, but quietly planting a tree would be a fitting gesture in her memory. Memorial gifts may be made to Taos Feral Feline Friends or to Rivers and Birds.