Olive A. Ware

Olive A. Ware

1931-2025

Agawam—Olive A. Ware, 93, died peacefully on September 29 at Heritage Hall Nursing Home. Born November 1, 1931, in Manila Philippines to Oliva and Ira Threet, Olive was raised and educated at Saint Domitilla’s residential Catholic school, following the death of her father when she was five. She remained in the Philippines until the age of twenty-one when a fateful meeting on the steps of the Manila post office changed the trajectory of her life. As the story goes, Olive was dispatched by a girlfriend to meet an American G.I. who was to be the godfather for the friend’s child. The hastily arranged meeting resulted in a whirlwind courtship of thirty-four days. Olive married Carroll E. Ware on August 9, 1952, while he was stationed at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines.

Olive had to adjust to life in a new country as well as the frequent moves required by her husband’s military career, including New Mexico, Germany, New York, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, where the family settled after Carroll retired from the Air Force. She bore seven children and was a stay-at-home mom when they were young. After her own mother came from the Philippines to help with the children, Olive worked part-time in a variety of administrative positions for several different companies.

But it wasn’t until after her youngest daughter reached school age that Olive began full-time work in what would become her career. She started at People’s Savings Bank in 1977 as a teller. Four years later, after taking courses at the American Institute of Banking, she was made Assistant Branch Manager at the bank’s Elmwood Office, which just happened to be across the street from her beloved white house with the wrap around porch on Northampton Street in Holyoke. In 1983, she was promoted to Branch manager and transferred to the bank’s Hampshire Mall office in Hadley. In 1988, she was again promoted when she was elected as the bank’s assistant treasurer. During her professional time as a banker, she was a member of the Savings Bank Women of Massachusetts. Olive retired from the bank in 2002 after 25 years of service.

After her retirement, Olive and Carroll moved to Florida. And although Carroll loved living on a golf course, the Florida sun and distance from her children and grandchildren didn’t work for Olive. In less than two years, the couple moved back to be closer to family. Family remained a significant focus of her later years and steadied her as her husband became ill, necessitating their move to assisted living. She was supremely proud of her children and her grandchildren. She loved babies most of all and enjoyed her many years caring for them and visiting those who lived further away, some of whom knew her as Bama.

Olive was an avid reader and a passionate follower of current events. She was a woman of strong opinions and wasn’t shy about making these known. Her house was always immaculate. She had a plan and an orderly way of doing things and her children learned from an early age not to question that plan. An excellent cook, she was as adept at making Sinigang and egg rolls for a family feast as she was at preparing pineapple cream pie and crown rib roast for a holiday meal.

For the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, which marched right past her home, Olive’s hospitality (and her pistachio cream cake) never failed to attract large numbers of friends and family.

She enjoyed classical music and loved watching musicals and old movies. While in assisted living, she and Carroll participated in game nights, sing-alongs and various social events. They were excellent dancers and continued to jitterbug and swing dance whenever they could, even after both began using walkers.

Olive was a strong force in the lives of her children, grandchildren and extended family. She will be supremely missed. She was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Carroll E. Ware and her son Carroll R. Ware (Carey). She is survived by her six children, Al (RoseAnn), Daniel (Susie), Karen, Patty (George), Shirley (Brian), Kathy, fourteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren, her sister Agnes Taridona, brothers Marion and Milton Panlilio and numerous nieces and nephews.

All are invited to meet for a period of visitation on Saturday November 1st, 2025, from 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM at the Messier Funeral Home, 1944 Northampton St. Holyoke, MA followed by a Liturgy of Christian Burial at 11:30 AM at Blessed Sacrament Church, 1945 Northampton St., Holyoke. Burial will be private at a later date at the Massachusetts Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Agawam. For directions and to leave an online expression of sympathy for the family, please visit www.messierfuneralhome.com