Title
Diane Anderson Tarpoff Oral History
Description
The following is taken directly from the AMS/Lansing 150 website:
Interviewer
R E Olds an Auto Industry Pioneer played a major role in the automobile industry in Lansing, beginning in 1896 with his gas-powered machine, and filtering down through the years. Diane Anderson Tarpoff, Lansing native, Michigan State University graduate, Lansing Public School teacher, and community leader, is the great-granddaughter of R E Olds, the granddaughter of Gladys Olds Anderson, and daughter of Olds Anderson. She joins us to reflect on Oles and his impact on Lansing’s heritage. Diane, as a descendent of R E Olds, would you share some of your early memories of the family? How they lived, where they lived, and so forth.
Diane Anderson Tarpoff
Well, being a native of Lansing, my memories are of many things that happened right here in town, and basically, the memories, where the family lived was 720 South Washington, a beautiful old home that Ari Oles built, and that later on, my grandmother, who we called Gaga, Gladys Oles Anderson, lived until very late in her life. Well, actually, until the highway system decided to make 496, which went right through the property. So that was 1976, but up until then, our family gatherings were at that home that was on South Washington that was between St. Joe and Main Street. A block. But at any rate, it was a beautiful home, an absolutely exquisite home that she did beautifully. It had an elevator, a caged elevator; I remember, as a child, going up and down the three floors of the home. We spent our Christmases there, of course, and all holidays were spent there. Every Sunday, we would go to my grandmother's for dinner; that was a tradition. It had a beautiful reflecting pool in the yard, a knee-deep pool, not a deep pool. She was a wonderful gardener, and I believe she was involved in the Lansing Gardening Club in her life. Another memory that I have is, on Saturdays, she would take me, and sometimes my younger sisters, to the movies. And we loved going to the Michigan Theatre with the arcade. But the problem was, we would come to the house, Mom or Dad would drop us off at 7:20, and she would, we would go to the Michigan Theatre in a chauffeured car. And it was so embarrassing to me. I would slink down in the back because I didn’t want to get out with the chauffer opening the door. And my grandmother would get out, and I would slink out behind her because oftentimes, the movie would be a line that would go all the way out through the arcade onto the street, so that they would see me coming out from this chauffeured car. But that was how she travelled. She was very elegant, always dressed to the nines. And we would go to the movies together. It’s just sort of hard to imagine, for a woman of such grace and grandeur, to be going to the Saturday morning matinees with her granddaughter. We would take a yearly trip with the entire family, which included five children, or five grandchildren, from my mother and father, and we would go to really wonderful places, like the Bahamas or out to a dude ranch. We traveled all over, and it was always with my grandmother as the matriarch. She would sit at the head of the table at any restaurant. And the thing that I probably remember most, which is, when we traveled by train or by plane, is, we always wanted to look in her passport, where she carried her passport, which was a beautiful leather passport case, and inside she would have hundred dollar bills, and us, who would never have that in our experience, that was such an amazing thing, to see a hundred dollar bill, and she would have, of course, many of them sitting in this passport case. Summers we would go to Charlevoix. She had bought a piece of property, fifteen acres, on the north side of Charlevoix, and made it into, it had two very rustic cottages, one a home on the bluff where she would stay all summer. She had a live-in help and then a cottage down by the lake. Nothing fancy whatsoever. And she loved to live up there. She was a great conservationist. She had, probably the most significant thing in my memory, was Wooldemar, which was a piece of property out on the river, out on the Grand River, that was property that she gave to Nature Way to create a conservation piece of land that could be used for students, or any children and adults, but mostly for students in the Lansing schools and the surrounding schools they could learn more about nature. She was a great conservationist, something that was very important to her. And Charlevoix was a part of that. Everything was to be kept natural at Charlevoix; there was no development. We always went up there to have a wonderful time, but everything was kept natural. You know, I my memories of her are that she used to give her name to many things in Lansing. She would lend her name to many charitable organizations. She was one of the founding members of the Junior League of Lansing, of which I am a legacy and came down as a third-generation member and past-president of. That was something in the family that was important. The Junior League is a women’s organization that trains women in Lansing to be effective volunteers and community leaders, and certainly where I received the skills that I have to use in the areas in the community that could use my help. The YWCA was another one of her causes that was very important to her. She worked at the National Level, at the World Level, but she supported the local Y considerably, with many of the needs for new facilities, equipment. I do remember she was very much involved there. Another piece that she was involved with is that she had land, and she would give land, give it or sell it at a very nominal price, to organizations that maybe could use it. One that she gave to was the Lansing schools, was Eversall, which was out southwest of town on a lake. She gave the property to the Lansing schools to make Camp Eversall, which the Lansing schools use to this day. And it is a nature camp. They go out year-round, classes go out for a week and spend that time doing all knids of observation and studies. And that was brought by her efforts. The other thing, I think, that my memory of my grandmother was, was as head of Ransom Fidelity, which was started by my great-grandfather as a foundation. It was called the Ransom Fidelity Company, but it was a foundation, a non-profit, private foundation. It was the first foundation in the state of Michigan. It was started in 1914 and we are currently members of, and have been for many years, of the Council of Michigan Foundations, which is an association of all the foundations, and that’s how we found out that we were the oldest in the state for private family foundation. Ari Olle started that as a way he could make charitable contributions in the city. My grandmother, when I was young, was the one who was the head of it. Years later, she passed it on to my father, who until his death in 2003 was the president. My mother is now currently the president. We’ve changed the name to reflect the donor from Ransom Fidelity back to the Ari Olds Foundation, because we felt that Lansing’s History was more important to keep the name, since the name was being lost in many other areas with Oldsmobile being discontinued. So it is the Ari Olds Foundation. My grandmother was wonderful at giving money, seed money, when people would come to her and to my father for small needs such as seed money for the 100 year restoration of the Capital in 1979. She gave money for the beginning of that non-profit group to restore the Capital. She also gave money to the Women’s Club. In fact, my great-grandfather was the one who helped the Women’s Club become an entity that still continues today with the building they had on Ottawa Street. To that question, my memories of my grandmother were wonderful. We loved running around the house in 720, it was a mansion, and it was absolutely beautiful, running up and down the stairs. It had a ballroom on the second floor as well as on the third floor. I could go on about that house.
Interviewer
And I remember, didn’t they have a rotating… for the automobile in the garage?
Diane Anderson Tarpoff
Oh, in the garage. My great-grandfather made a major rotating disc so that the car would go in, and then you would push it around and go in this way, because it was too small. And we would go, as children, and make it like a merry-go-round, see how fast we could get this huge disc. It was lots of fun.
Interviewer
Those were wonderful memories, Diane, and we can see how Oldsmobile began, way back in 1896, has filtered down through the Lansing community through the many gifts that continue to be given through the foundation. And thank you for sharing.
Interviewer
R E Olds an Auto Industry Pioneer played a major role in the automobile industry in Lansing, beginning in 1896 with his gas-powered machine, and filtering down through the years. Diane Anderson Tarpoff, Lansing native, Michigan State University graduate, Lansing Public School teacher, and community leader, is the great-granddaughter of R E Olds, the granddaughter of Gladys Olds Anderson, and daughter of Olds Anderson. She joins us to reflect on Oles and his impact on Lansing’s heritage. Diane, as a descendent of R E Olds, would you share some of your early memories of the family? How they lived, where they lived, and so forth.
Diane Anderson Tarpoff
Well, being a native of Lansing, my memories are of many things that happened right here in town, and basically, the memories, where the family lived was 720 South Washington, a beautiful old home that Ari Oles built, and that later on, my grandmother, who we called Gaga, Gladys Oles Anderson, lived until very late in her life. Well, actually, until the highway system decided to make 496, which went right through the property. So that was 1976, but up until then, our family gatherings were at that home that was on South Washington that was between St. Joe and Main Street. A block. But at any rate, it was a beautiful home, an absolutely exquisite home that she did beautifully. It had an elevator, a caged elevator; I remember, as a child, going up and down the three floors of the home. We spent our Christmases there, of course, and all holidays were spent there. Every Sunday, we would go to my grandmother's for dinner; that was a tradition. It had a beautiful reflecting pool in the yard, a knee-deep pool, not a deep pool. She was a wonderful gardener, and I believe she was involved in the Lansing Gardening Club in her life. Another memory that I have is, on Saturdays, she would take me, and sometimes my younger sisters, to the movies. And we loved going to the Michigan Theatre with the arcade. But the problem was, we would come to the house, Mom or Dad would drop us off at 7:20, and she would, we would go to the Michigan Theatre in a chauffeured car. And it was so embarrassing to me. I would slink down in the back because I didn’t want to get out with the chauffer opening the door. And my grandmother would get out, and I would slink out behind her because oftentimes, the movie would be a line that would go all the way out through the arcade onto the street, so that they would see me coming out from this chauffeured car. But that was how she travelled. She was very elegant, always dressed to the nines. And we would go to the movies together. It’s just sort of hard to imagine, for a woman of such grace and grandeur, to be going to the Saturday morning matinees with her granddaughter. We would take a yearly trip with the entire family, which included five children, or five grandchildren, from my mother and father, and we would go to really wonderful places, like the Bahamas or out to a dude ranch. We traveled all over, and it was always with my grandmother as the matriarch. She would sit at the head of the table at any restaurant. And the thing that I probably remember most, which is, when we traveled by train or by plane, is, we always wanted to look in her passport, where she carried her passport, which was a beautiful leather passport case, and inside she would have hundred dollar bills, and us, who would never have that in our experience, that was such an amazing thing, to see a hundred dollar bill, and she would have, of course, many of them sitting in this passport case. Summers we would go to Charlevoix. She had bought a piece of property, fifteen acres, on the north side of Charlevoix, and made it into, it had two very rustic cottages, one a home on the bluff where she would stay all summer. She had a live-in help and then a cottage down by the lake. Nothing fancy whatsoever. And she loved to live up there. She was a great conservationist. She had, probably the most significant thing in my memory, was Wooldemar, which was a piece of property out on the river, out on the Grand River, that was property that she gave to Nature Way to create a conservation piece of land that could be used for students, or any children and adults, but mostly for students in the Lansing schools and the surrounding schools they could learn more about nature. She was a great conservationist, something that was very important to her. And Charlevoix was a part of that. Everything was to be kept natural at Charlevoix; there was no development. We always went up there to have a wonderful time, but everything was kept natural. You know, I my memories of her are that she used to give her name to many things in Lansing. She would lend her name to many charitable organizations. She was one of the founding members of the Junior League of Lansing, of which I am a legacy and came down as a third-generation member and past-president of. That was something in the family that was important. The Junior League is a women’s organization that trains women in Lansing to be effective volunteers and community leaders, and certainly where I received the skills that I have to use in the areas in the community that could use my help. The YWCA was another one of her causes that was very important to her. She worked at the National Level, at the World Level, but she supported the local Y considerably, with many of the needs for new facilities, equipment. I do remember she was very much involved there. Another piece that she was involved with is that she had land, and she would give land, give it or sell it at a very nominal price, to organizations that maybe could use it. One that she gave to was the Lansing schools, was Eversall, which was out southwest of town on a lake. She gave the property to the Lansing schools to make Camp Eversall, which the Lansing schools use to this day. And it is a nature camp. They go out year-round, classes go out for a week and spend that time doing all knids of observation and studies. And that was brought by her efforts. The other thing, I think, that my memory of my grandmother was, was as head of Ransom Fidelity, which was started by my great-grandfather as a foundation. It was called the Ransom Fidelity Company, but it was a foundation, a non-profit, private foundation. It was the first foundation in the state of Michigan. It was started in 1914 and we are currently members of, and have been for many years, of the Council of Michigan Foundations, which is an association of all the foundations, and that’s how we found out that we were the oldest in the state for private family foundation. Ari Olle started that as a way he could make charitable contributions in the city. My grandmother, when I was young, was the one who was the head of it. Years later, she passed it on to my father, who until his death in 2003 was the president. My mother is now currently the president. We’ve changed the name to reflect the donor from Ransom Fidelity back to the Ari Olds Foundation, because we felt that Lansing’s History was more important to keep the name, since the name was being lost in many other areas with Oldsmobile being discontinued. So it is the Ari Olds Foundation. My grandmother was wonderful at giving money, seed money, when people would come to her and to my father for small needs such as seed money for the 100 year restoration of the Capital in 1979. She gave money for the beginning of that non-profit group to restore the Capital. She also gave money to the Women’s Club. In fact, my great-grandfather was the one who helped the Women’s Club become an entity that still continues today with the building they had on Ottawa Street. To that question, my memories of my grandmother were wonderful. We loved running around the house in 720, it was a mansion, and it was absolutely beautiful, running up and down the stairs. It had a ballroom on the second floor as well as on the third floor. I could go on about that house.
Interviewer
And I remember, didn’t they have a rotating… for the automobile in the garage?
Diane Anderson Tarpoff
Oh, in the garage. My great-grandfather made a major rotating disc so that the car would go in, and then you would push it around and go in this way, because it was too small. And we would go, as children, and make it like a merry-go-round, see how fast we could get this huge disc. It was lots of fun.
Interviewer
Those were wonderful memories, Diane, and we can see how Oldsmobile began, way back in 1896, has filtered down through the Lansing community through the many gifts that continue to be given through the foundation. And thank you for sharing.