Olive Emma Vieira

Olive Emma (Kuchel) Vieira

Olive Emma (Kuchel) Vieira passed away in Arcata on November 29, 2004.

She was born January 12, 1936, in Defiance, Iowa.

After moving, first to Washington then to Oregon, the family eventually settled in Arcata in 1941 where Olive attended kindergarten at Humboldt State. Except for a short time in Crescent City in 1942, where she started first grade at the old country school north of town, and later moved to a little cabin on the grade school grounds in town. Olive went to school in Arcata. She attended Grammar School and graduated from Arcata High School in 1955.

After attending Humboldt State College, Olive worked for the US Army Ordnance at Fort Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, then for the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Roseburg, Oregon.

Returning to Arcata, Olive met and married Deniz A. Vieira. After his 1968 graduation from College of the Redwoods, they moved to Menlo Park, CA, where, in 1969, at Stanford University Hospital, Olive was one the first individuals in the country to undergo open-heart surgery. Denny retired in 1976 and they moved back to Arcata.

Olive was a charter member of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, Chapter 608, in Eureka, serving as secretary-treasurer and newsletter editor for several years. She was a life member of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, where she served as president for two years and also as chaplain as well as other offices. She was a member of the Ohio Genealogical Society, Gallia County (Ohio) Historical and Genealogical Society, First Families of Ohio and Daughter’s of Union Veterans of the Civil War. She also held a Pioneer Certificate in the Iowa Genealogical Society and was a member of the American/Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society in Walnut, Iowa. She was a member of the St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arcata.

She enjoyed many years of researching her family’s genealogy which included trips across the United States with Denny, visiting family and genealogical archives. Her hobbies included crafts, sewing, flower gardening, playing piano and sometimes the drums, reading and writing stories, poems and music, and helping research family histories.

Olive truly loved her family and friends and enjoyed visiting and telling her stories to anyone who would listen.

She is survived by her nieces, Vickie and her husband Allen Bejda of Locust, New Jersey, Barbara Fresquez of Laramie, Wyoming; her children, Elena and B.J. Fresquez; her sister-in-law, Alice Tosta of Waterford, California; her nephew, Nick Paradise; and several cousins and other relatives and friends whom she holds dear.

She was preceded in death by her parents, William L. (Bill) and Minnie O. (Detillion) Kuchel; her two brothers, Earl and his wife Dorothy Trejbal and Clarence Trejbal; her sister-in-law, Carmella Paradise; and her beloved husband of 35 years, Deniz A. Vieira.

Friends and family are invited to attend services at Paul’s Chapel in Arcata on Friday, December 3, 2004, at 11 am, with interment at Ocean View Cemetery to follow.

Visitations will be held on Thursday, December 2, 2004, from 7 pm to 9 pm at Paul’s Chapel and from 9 am to service time on Friday.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be made to the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Hospice, or to the charity of your choice.

Please sign the guestbook at www.times-standard.com, click on obituaries.