POCATELLO — Riding an elephant, camel, helicopter and motorcycle all while over the age of 100 are just some of the highlights that many Southeast Idaho residents will remember about the life of a local resident who died on Wednesday.

But for Dean Wilde, who’s mother Naomi Wilde died at the age of 108 on Wednesday, her work ethic and positive attitude are the things he loved most about his mom.

“I would have to say she was one of the most positive people, if not the most positive person, you could ever meet,” Dean Wilde said. “And you know, she had a lot of ups and downs in her life just given the timeframe she lived through. But she always made the best of it.”

Born on June 6, 1915, to Hyrum and Loretta Nelson in Cleveland, Idaho, an unincorporated community northeast of Preston, Wilde was the oldest of four children and the oldest girl, Dean said. After her mother died at the age of 13, Wilde would eventually drop out of high school to help raise her younger brothers on the family farm.

It wasn’t easy, said Dean, adding that they didn’t have electricity and the first phone she remembers is a switchboard her grandparents set up.

“She was the oldest in the family so she basically became the mom to her younger siblings,” Dean said. “That wouldn’t have been an easy thing back in the 1920s but she did it.”

Naomi would move to Mink Creek where she met her husband Merlin Wilde and the couple would move to Evanston, Wyoming. When Merlin was drafted into World War II, she moved to Pocatello where she would work as a telephone operator. She lived those two years never knowing if her husband would make it home from the war, Dean said.

“She would get letters from my dad but she never knew if he was alive or not because mail was so slow back then,” Dean said. “But she dealt with all of that with a positive attitude. She would always say, ‘If life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade out of it.’”

When her husband returned from the war two years later the couple settled in the Mink Creek area outside of Preston where they farmed and ranched while raising their three sons. Merlin and Naomi would remain married for almost 66 years before he died in 2007 at the age of 96.

“My dad worked at the post office and they lived on a farm of several hundred acres,” Dean said. “She would learn some bookkeeping skills to help around the farm and was pretty self-educated.”

Naomi would never go back to school, however, but she made it her mission to ensure her sons received their education, Dean added.

“She would never go back to school, but she was insistent that me and my brothers go get our education,” Dean said. “She made sure we all finished college with a degree and we all did it.”

Once she reached the age of retirement, Naomi and her husband loved to travel, Dean said. One trip involved her, Merlin and another couple flying to Portugal to backpack through Spain.

“It was not really an organized trip,” Dean said. “They were backpacking and taking trains to wherever they wanted to go at that moment.”

In addition to picking up golf, Dean said his mother always maintained the most well-manicured lawn and garden he can think of.

“When I look at old photographs of the house we grew up in I am just amazed at her yard,” he said. “She had the best looking flowers around.”

Most of what local residents will remember about Naomi though is her rather extravagant birthday celebrations.

At age 104 she attended the El Korah Shrine circus and rode an elephant. The COVID-19 pandemic struck the following year but that didn’t stop her from celebrating.

The folks at the place she was living, Grace Assisted Living in Pocatello, pulled out all the stops to bring the celebration to her. A drive-by parade of over 100 motorcycles was how she celebrated 105.

The following year, she took a ride in a Portneuf Air Rescue helicopter to celebrate being 106. Riding on the back of a camel was the way she welcomed turning 107 the following year.

This year, she took a ride in a horse-drawn buggy after enjoying a barbecue and ice cream at Grace Assisted Living.

In addition to her three children, Naomi had six grandkids and 14 great grandkids.

If you were to ever ask her about her keys to living a long life, it’s likely she replied with something pithy.

“Diet Pepsi and lots of gambling,” she previously told the Idaho State Journal.

Not just the most positive person he ever met, Dean said he truly admired his mother’s work ethic, so much so that he is hopeful that if his children and grandchildren take anything from her life, he hopes it will be that.

“Her work ethic was definitely something that spilled over to me and my brothers,” he said. “And hopefully it’s something that I pass along to my kids.”