ARLINGTON — On June 12, Stella Halmo became the third resident of Olympic Place this year to celebrate her 100th birthday.
Halmo was joined by daughters Lurline and Deloris “Dee” Hammer, as well as other friends.
Stella was born to John and Thea Overby and lived in Hannaford, N.D., until she graduated from high school in 1932, after which she moved to Fargo to attend beauty school.
Stella met her future husband, Sidney Halmo, in Hannaford in the ‘30s, but didn’t marry him until they’d both moved to Tacoma in 1937.
“I worked in beauty shops for a few years each in North Dakota and Tacoma,” Stella said. “Sidney was a welder who came out here to find a job.”
Stella and Sidney were wed in Tacoma on Jan. 14, 1960, and their marriage lasted for 60 years, until Sidney’s passing.
“I don’t remember them ever fighting,” Lurline said.
“We just got along,” Stella laughed.
“He was kind and gentle, and she was just a wonderful mom,” Dee said.
Stella has seen the world change dramatically since she rode to school on a horse, but Dee credited her with maintaining much of the same self-suffiency that she had on her family’s farm.
