Shared by Fran Hunter to Ola Community Newsletter Facebook group:

Messenger-Index, November 15, 1973:

"Ed Schultz Retires After 28 Years Service at Ola

Ed Schultz of Ola announced retirement plans and the sale of the Ola store to Elaine Waldner (Mrs. George), also of Ola.

Serving as Ola postmaster for 28 years, Schultz will turn over the postal unit on Nov. 23 to Mrs. Waldner, who is serving as administrative aid until her appointment as postmistress is confirmed.

The postoffice and store serves the farming community in Gem County, and for nearly a century has been the center of Ola.

Mrs. Waldner has purchased the store and Schultz home, located near the station.

The community, joined by some 200 friends from Emmett, Sweet and Boise, honored the retiring postmaster and his wife, Gladys, at a dinner party Sunday. Gifts to the couple included a painting of the Ola store by Edith Ness.

Mrs. Schultz has been active in both Emmett and Ola community affairs, and has assisted her husband in the store and postoffice.

The couple will spend Christmas at Garden Grove, Calif., with relatives, and plan to "follow the sun" in their camper. Their son, Richard, and family lives in California, and their daughter, Elaine Lee, and family are stationed in Germany. The couple has six grand-children.

Dubbed "Mayor of Ola" by newspaper friends, Schultz is looking forward to a "gypsy life," but finds it difficult to say "goodbye" to Ola.

Carroll Baird, first settler in Ola, was the first postmaster. The town was called Bairdsville at that time, and later named "Ola" after a Swede who passed through the area.

The Baird family arrived in the area in 1863. The post office was discontinued in 1897, records show, and later re-established."

Ola Merc, late 1980's

Ola Merc, late 1980's



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