Kern County Obituaries

Ola Harrell Steussy

Submitted by Don Stowell; 13 Feb 2008

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Mojave Desert News; 2 Dec 1996

Ola Steussy � A Desert Life
By William D. Harrel
Ola Harrell Steussy passed away on November 25, 1996 . . . She took with her 72 years of 
living in the Boron area. She was giant among us, and foremost a Mojave Desert pioneer.
Ola was born in 1900 on the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, with only her mother and elder brother 
present for the event. Her father, Charles Harrel (the writer's great grandfather), a frontier 
adventurer and general bum was not present for any of his four children's births. He had, 
however, made the historic run on the Cherokee Strip to stake out a homestead for his family. 
Ola's mother, the former Delia O'Reilly, died at the age of 37.
Ola's father, his daughter and three sons migrated to Los Angeles. While the boys went with her 
father, 16-year-old Ola took a job at a cafe in Los Angeles. She worked at the cafe, and 
occasionally as a photographer's model, until she met Clarence Steussy. They married and 
eventually settled on Clarence's father's alfalfa ranch in 1925 at Muroc (Edwards Air Force Base 
site). There were about six operating ranches around Muroc dry lake before the Army Air 
Force took the land during the Second World War.
While still at Muroc, Ola's youngest brother Chet, contracted red smallpox and was near death. 
Ola went to care for him, disregarding her own health. When she returned to the ranch a few weeks 
later, she found Clarence down with black smallpox. She nursed him back to health.
Because of the newly discovered sodium borax deposit near Kramer Junction (later Amargo, 
then Boron), Ola and Clarence settled a mile south of the borax works on what is now Boron 
Avenue in 1927. Clarence dug a shaft, mining borax and gold.
Ola's home for the first two years was a tent, which rattlesnakes had an affinity to visit 
along with other denizens of the desert. The tent caught on fire and burned to the ground. The 
fire didn't set off the two boxes of dynamite stored under their bed.
By that time, they decided to stay indefinitely on their property, and built their first house. 
Clarence went to work for the new expanding borax company, and drilled a water well. Then 
the Gunns, the Slacks and the Pollocks settled on the property and the tiny settlement was 
called "Steussyville."
Will Harrell (the writer's grandfather), Ola's elder brother, came back from Missouri to the 
Steussy's in 1931 to get on at borax without success, he drowned in a log jam off the Puget Sound, 
north of Seattle in 1933. Louis Harrel (the writer's father) came to Steussy's in 1934, to hire 
on with Pacific Coast Borax. While waiting for the job that never came he covered the five 
story water tank tower at Steussy's with corrugated metal for pocket money. The tower is a 
well-known landmark of the Boron area. Borax employees passed the tower to and from work 
for at least 30 years.
Ola was the first Boron resident my mother and I met in 1935 (I was two-years-old) when we 
came out from Missouri. My father landed a job at Trona. In 1960, Ola backed Louis Harrel in 
a restaurant venture at Four-corners, he was a restaurateur at the corners for 20 years.
Ola took in a young boy to live with them in the mid-thirties and kept him until he joined the 
Marines. Warren Hubbard became a brigadier general in the Marine Corps. The Steussys helped 
many families and people get on their feet down through the years. "Steussyville" was a 
place for homesick G.I.s from Muroc Army Air Base to go during the Second World War.
Ola and Clarence developed a propane business to supply bottled gas to the area. They also built 
up a hardware and appliance business to serve the burgeoning Boron settlements.
In 1958, Clarence died from a propane fire. The overwhelming flames were ignited when a 
propane tank rolled off his truck and sheared a valve. The fire burned their first house, three 
vehicles, sheds and garage. Air Force fire trucks arrived in time to foam down the new house, 
so their new home survived.
Ola and Clarence adopted two babies in late 1939 and the early 1940s, to raise as their 
daughters, Doris and Donna. Donna Steussy Blan lives in Oregon. Doris Steussy Bennett 
lives at "Steussyville," where Ola spent her last days. Ola would have been 97 years in 
January. She was interred with Clarence at Lancaster Community Cemetery on November 29, 
1996. She will be missed and remembered by Boronites young and old.
When my Aunt Ola was about 90, she took myself and two of my grown children out for 
breakfast. About an hour after I returned home, I received a call from my great aunt: She 
apologized for her hairdo not being nice enough.