East County Resident Turns 108

When Opal Thompson was born, William McKinley was president, her home, now known as the state of Oklahoma, was still Indian Territory and the first American built automobile was purchased in Pennsylvania. Last week Thompson celebrated her 108 birthday. Over her lifetime she has watched 20 presidents begin their term in office and had the chance to vote for the first time with other women in 1920.
Thompson’s parents homesteaded on their Oklahoma 160-acre property in 1889 living along side the Indians. “I wished I’d asked more questions of my parents about that time,” Thompson said. She was a middle daughter of 12 children, growing up mostly in the middle of her seven brothers. She still remembers fondly growing up around the boys and helping to carry their lunch pails to school. She remembers being a very studious girl, who worked hard cleaning the desks, board and erasers after school and attending every day without being tardy or absent.
In 1924 she married Richard “Tommy” Thompson, a fireman on the Santa Fe Railroad and professional wrestler. “At the time, Tommy had really bad eyes from something he got during wrestling and he wanted to pass the engineer’s test so I took him to San Francisco to see a special doctor,” Thompson said of what brought her to California.
After moving to California the Thompson’s settled in Long Beach where Opal purchased a restaurant from the owner where she was working as a waitress. Later she gave up the restaurant just around the time her son was born.
In 1930, Thompson’s husband was offered a job by the new warden at Folsom Prison and the couple moved to the Folsom area, living outside the prison for two years and inside for five. During her time living at the prison, prisoners were on hand as cleaning and cooking staff for the guards. Thompson remembers on famous character, Lloyd Sampsell, who the press dubbed as the Black Yacht Bandit. Sampsell was convicted of robbing banks and then fleeing on his yacht. “He came from a very wealthy family, I remember. He used to cook for us on Sunday mornings. He was a very good cook,” Thompson said.
She remembered how one evening Sampsell slipped away from the prison and worried her husband enough to contact the warden. “The warden was all man,” Thompson remembered. “He was six foot six and very tough.”
In 1937, Thompson overheard some of the inmates talking about an escape plan and he informed the warden about the problem. “Warden Larkin told Tommy not to worry about it, he would take care of it and sent Tommy back to the work farm where he was a guard on the weekend,” she explained.
Later that day the attempt was made and Warden Clarence Larkin, perished along with Officer Harry Martin and several inmates. Thompson said that she remembers her husband being asked to lie by officials about the incident. He refused and was fired from his job.
The Thompsons moved back to Long Beach area soon after Tommy’s dismissal and then Opal took a job as a sales clerk in a health food store where she worked for more than 30 years. During that time she learned a lot about vitamins and even tried some of them herself. Some she liked and some she didn’t. “We couldn’t recommend anything to the people when they walked in, but they always wanted us too. I would say I heard it worked or I’ve tried it,” she said.
Thompson remembers the first car she ever drove, before even having her driver’s license was a crank model. The first time she ever tried cranking it to turn it on, she sprained her ankle. She went on to keep her drivers license until she was well over 100, still driving around the area.
During her lifetime Thompson always attended Christian church and taught Sunday school. She loves to make placemats out of greeting cards and contact paper and give it to friends and family. To keep her mind keen she loves to do word searches and reads the newspaper. She raised one son, has one grandchild, and one great grandchild as well as a larger extended family.
When asked why she is still here on earth at 108, Thompson said. “God must have a plan for me.”

Note: After this story ran, Thompson's niece contacted me and said some of the dates were incorrect, which quite possible is so. I tried to look back in history before I published the story and found records on Warden Clarence Larkin and his time at Folsom Prison, which was from 1930 to 1937. The warden was killed in 1937 at the prison break attempt. I worked with the dates that Opal Thompson gave me around that time, but it was so long ago and so many things happen in one lifetime it was hard to keep straight. Thompson's niece asked if Opal was around again next year at her 109th birthday if I would interview her again. Let me just say that it would be an honor. I hope I'm that together if I'm to still here to tell a story at 108.