Elsie Erickson Pickles this past week turned 105 and also celebrated her 87th class reunion from Hoquiam High School’s class of 1938.

As a loyal Grizzly, she enjoyed organizing Hoquiam High School class reunions for many years. She is believed to be the sole survivor of the class of 1938 so she can reminisce and have a class reunion daily, according to her son Bob Pickles.

Elsie grew up in North Hoquiam where her grandfather, George Franklin Burns, plotted what is still known as the “Burns Addition.” In the 1920s and 1930s the family had six homes on the plotted land and had their own water system. The small dam for the water system would be below the northwest corner of the Hoquiam cemetery.

Four generations of the Burns family went to Lincoln Elementary. Elsie’s daughter, Virginia Pickles Focht Twedt, and son, Bob Pickles, went to Lincoln and graduated from Hoquiam High School. Virginia resided in Montesano for many years and now resides in Olympia. Bob resides in Sun City, Arizona after many years in Allyn.

Elsie fondly remembers her work as a “Betty the Bucker” building B29s for Boeing during World War II. The Boeing plant was located at the corner of 7th and K streets in Hoquiam. In 1959, she went to work at JC Penny to put her husband, Bill, through Grays Harbor College and then Western Washington University. She finished her career as Credit Manager for JC Penny in Olympia.

The shy lady came out of her shell and made many friends traveling the world — Asia, Europe, South America, Indonesia, Scandinavia and enjoyed, most of all, visiting friends in Australia.

She now resides at the John Charles Adult Family Home in Olympia and keeps everyone entertained with her quick humor.

She attributes her long life to “not smoking, very moderate drinking and not cussing” — well maybe only a little.