BIOGRAPHY

Toller was born as Vesta Mozel Blackerby in Wheeler, Texas, USA, on 30 December 1910. She was the fourth child born to parents Robert E. Blackerby and Ruby Mae Horton. Her siblings included Mabel Manion, Erma Steele, Horton Blackerby, Robert Blackerby and Ida Sue Foster Pachoreck. When she was a small child, the family moved to Branson, Colorado. Her father was a doctor, and the earliest memory she had was visiting mining camps with her father and watching him tend to various injuries, mostly in the Four Corners area.

After graduating from Raton High School, she went on to earn her teaching degree from the Colorado Teachers College in Greeley. She taught various subjects to junior high schoolers for several years. In 1937, she married Charles Toller. The couple had three children: Terry Toller, Charla Mumma and Robert Ernest (Ret) Toller. The family lived in Raton, New Mexico, where her husband served some time as mayor. She spent many years working as a bookkeeper for Toller Pontiac and Miners Colfax Hospital. For much of her life, she was heavily involved in her church – volunteering with the children and teaching Sunday school. Her daughter died in a car crash in 1979.

Her husband passed away at the age of 93, after more than 60 years of marriage. She stopped driving at the age of 97. At the age of 98, after living alone for some time, she moved to Colorado to live with her sister, Ida Sue Pachroek. Toller spent her last years in Tucson, Arizona, living with her son Robert Ernest Toller for several years before he passed away in 2018. Upon his death, she moved into Waverly House.

Toller passed away in Tucson, Arizona, USA, on 9 March 2021, at the age of 110 years, 69 days. She was survived by two grandchildren.

RECOGNITION

At the time of death, she was the oldest living person in the U.S. state of Arizona.

ATTRIBUTION

* “‘There’s no secret to it’: Tucson woman just celebrated her 109th birthday” – Arizona Daily Star, 7 January 2020

* “In Loving Memory of Vesta Mozel Toller” – KRTN Enchanted Air Radio, 20 April 2021

GALLERY

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