Obituary of Mable Flowdenna Olson

MABLE FLOWDENNA OLSON passed away peacefully at The Lakes in Banning, California on May 14, 2016. Born in Marrowbone, Kentucky on July 15, 1925, the daughter of Lula and Hezie Dubre, she was raised with her sister Lenna, first in Kentucky, and later in Indianapolis, Indiana, where her parents worked at the Claypool Hotel, and where Mable graduated from Indiana Academy in 1942. Mable attended Madison College in Madison, Tennessee, earning her Registered Nurse degree in 1946. After college she began her career in California, working at the White Memorial Hospital as nursing supervisor of the OBGYN clinic, where she met Albert Olson, a senior medical student at Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists. A week after his graduation Dr. Olson became her husband and life-long best friend. They moved to Niles, California, where he worked in private practice and children Linda and Albert Jr. were born. In 1953 they were stationed in Japan for a year while Albert served in the U.S. Army, and in 1954 they relocated to Loma Linda, California, where their 2nd daughter, Janice, was born, and where Mable embarked on a nursing career at Loma Linda Sanitarium & Hospital, Redlands Community Hospital, and then later at Loma Linda University. She worked as part of the nursing staff for various doctors, including Dr. Gordon Thompson and Dr. Chauncey Smith, a private-duty nurse, and then as the nurse in charge of Employee Health Services at Loma Linda University. The family temporarily moved to Alhambra, CA in 1958, and then in 1960 settled in Redlands CA, building a house and living on Terracina Blvd., where the children grew from their elementary through high school years. In addition to her nursing career, she was an amazing full time mom. Her children remember her delicious vegetarian food, the loving, warm, and social atmosphere of their home, the importance she placed on family and friends, and the firm spiritual base she and Albert created for their family. During this period the family spent one year in Washington D.C., with memorable road trips crisscrossing the country to make that move. With the children finally going on to college Mable & Albert moved to Hacienda Heights, where after retiring from nursing Mable spent many productive years as a volunteer Pink Lady at the White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, working as the principal buyer for the hospital gift shop. Mable and Albert took up the great game of golf in the 1980's, and Mable became a very avid and proficient player over the years. When Albert finally retired from medical practice they moved to Sun Lakes, California in 1992, where Mable became a prominent member of the Sun Lakes Ladies Golf Association, bringing her handicap down to the low teens, and hitting at least two certified hole-in-ones on the Sun Lakes championship course. Albert and Mable loved classical music, with one of their favorite activities being regular attendance at L.A. Philharmonic concerts, where they had season tickets for many years. And they also had a passion for travel, covering most of the continental U.S. with their children on family vacations throughout the years, and traveling world-wide in retirement. Mable was predeceased by her husband Albert, and sister Lenna. She is survived by children Linda (David Hodgens), Albert Jr. (Melainie Gee-Olson), and Janice (Cliff Hauser); grandchildren Tiffany, Brian, Casey, and Alaina; and great-granddaughter Sierra. She will be missed dearly by her children, grandchildren, great grandchild, and all those who knew her. A memorial service will be held on Friday, May 27th, 2016 at 11:30 AM at the Riverside National Cemetery.