Olive Riley

Olive Riley (20 October 1899 – 12 July 2008) was an Australian centenarian woman, from Woy Woy, New South Wales, believed for a time to have been the world's oldest online personal blogger and YouTube video poster,[1] until American politician and radio talk show hostess Ruth Hamilton of Orlando, Florida was later found to be older and also a blogger.

Olive Riley
Born(1899-10-20)20 October 1899
Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Died12 July 2008(2008-07-12) (aged 108)
Woy Woy, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
OccupationBarmaid
Known forWorld's second oldest blogger for "The Life of Riley" and YouTube user

Videos and blogs

Riley who was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, began her blog titled The Life of Riley (The title of her blog being a name-play on both her surname and the American 1940s radio serial, that was also adapted to television. a film and comic book (The Life of Riley) in February 2007 at the age of 107 and made her final post on 26 June 2008 from her Woy Woy nursing home complaining of a cough about two weeks before she died at the age of 108. She had posted over 70 entries, as well as several video posts on YouTube, in which she discusses both living through World War I and World War II, the years of The Great Depression, raising 3 children and working as a barmaid.[2]

Film documentary

Her blog (or "blob" as she called it) began soon after the release of a film about her, All About Olive, directed by documentary filmmaker Michael Rubbo and released in 2005. Rubbo gave Olive a co-directing credit, making her the oldest director in the world. The blog was suggested by Eric Shackle, a journalist in his late eighties, who was interested in promoting the idea that one is never too old for the internet.

Since Olive could not see well enough to type, Mike set up the blog for her and ran it for next two years with Eric's help, recording her stories, at first on audio and then later on video, to post over 100 YouTube items, all still visible today, as is her archive at mike.mikerubbo.com.[3]

See also

References
  1. "'Oldest' blogger dies, aged 108". BBC News. 14 July 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
  2. Ahmed, Saeed (14 July 2008). "'World's oldest blogger' dies at 108". CNN. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
  3. McKenny, Leesha (2008): "World's oldest blogger loved Swans, a shandy and spinning great yarns", The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2008
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