Clarice Pearson lived under 20 presidents in her lifetime

Clarice Pearson of Corvallis, one of the oldest people in the world, died Sunday at the age of 110 years, three months and five days.

In December, at her 110th birthday party, the bright-eyed Pearson remarked on the downturn in the economy from the perspective of a farm wife who was raising two sons during the Great Depression of the 1930s: "Those come around from time to time. You have to take it as it comes."

Pearson's life began at the end of the 18th century in Portland as Clara Francis Hurner, who was named for her mother's ancestor, Clara Barton, the founder of The American Red Cross.

Clara Hurner was the daughter of a Swiss emigrant and his wife, who came to Oregon by wagon train. She married the boy next door, Emil Pearson, in 1919, after he returned from service in World War I. She began using Clarice as her first name about that time.

All her life, she worked hard and planned well. For example, she saved the money she earned as a part-time telephone operator in high school to buy good furniture. She and Emil used it at the farm they had in Carlton, where she remained - even after his death in 1993 - until she was 101 years old. She still had that furniture when she died.

Asked often to what she credited her long life, Pearson said it was good food and hard work. She knew both. She rose before dawn to milk cows, often preparing meals for up to 20 farmhands. At harvest or planting, she also worked in the fields.

When the work was done, she and Emil enjoyed traveling. They visited all 50 states and more than 60 countries, including China, Iran, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. She visited her husband's Swedish relatives and even met with a tribal chief in Africa.

Pearson also worked outside the farm. Having attended business college, she became the first teller at Carlton State and Savings Bank.

Clarice Pearson was a pioneer in another way. She was among a rare but growing demographic of "super-centenarians" - people who have lived at least 110 years. She lived under 20 presidents during her lifetime. She said in December that her favorite was Dwight D. Eisenhower.