Olive Riley: World’s Oldest Blogger Dies At 108

Written by Igor Beuker on July 15th, 2008 |

The World’s oldest blogger Aussie Olive Riley has died this week at age 108 years. She started blogging in February 2007 after a friend suggested the idea and offered to type up the posts on her behalf.

Her blog, The Life of Riley, became an international hit, with readers logging on from the United States to Russia to hear stories about her life.

Mrs Riley’ tales of surviving two world wars and the Depression, bringing up three children on her own and working as a cook in the Australian outback and a barmaid in Sydney, were also nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award in 2007.

In 2007 Olive branched out into video, posting clips of herself talking and singing on YouTube, the video-sharing website.

In her 74th and final post on June 26, she wrote about moving into a nursing home because of her ill health. “I still feel weak and can’t shake off that bad cough,” she said.

See below video where Olive talks about the Unions in Australia, crisp and clear history lessions!

She also described singing “a happy song” with a visitor and said she had “read a whole swag of e-mail messages and comments from my internet friends today”. “I was so pleased to hear from you. Thank you, one and all,” she wrote.

Born in Broken Hill, a mining town in the Australian bush, in 1899, Olive would have turned 109 in October. Her grandson, Darren Stone, said she loved the attention her blogs - or blobs as she once mistakenly called them - brought her. “She enjoyed the notoriety - it kept her mind fresh,” he told Australian newspapers.

“She had people communicating with her from as far away as Russia and America on a continual basis, not just once in a while. “What kept her going was the memories she had, and being able to recall those memories so strongly.”

Bloggers have started posting their own tributes to Mrs Riley. On behalf of our ViralBlog team I would like to thank Olive, may she rest in peace. And we send our sincere condolences to her family.

To marketers that still think blogging is for screenagers only, I would like to say: think again. Internet is about spirit and mindset, about interaction and engagement, about storytelling and conversations. It’s never too late to understand that.

Source: Telegraph