Olive Bassett

OBITUARY

M. Olive Bassett

Muriel Olive Bassett, known as Olive, Mom, Nana, Auntie and Ollie by those who loved her, passed away at age 104 on Monday, March 23, 2026.

She was surrounded by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and, in the days leading up to her last, she’d received visits from long-time friends, family and extended relations who treasured her.

Olive was known for her devoted advocacy to social issues, especially the health, education and resources for seniors and youth. She became a legend in Richmond, where she lived for nearly eight decades from her teens through to her late 90s, when she moved to Vancouver Island to be closer to family in 2014.

She spent more than 50 years volunteering in the Richmond community, including for the Seniors Advisory Council, Seniors Fall Prevention Network, Family Court Committee, Child Protection Network, Richmond Hospital Auxiliary, Metropolitan Board of Health and others, as well as serving as a trustee for the Richmond School Board. She also co-founded Girl Friday Service in the 1960s and taught jazzercise to seniors in her 70s.

For her dedication, Olive was awarded a Margaret Greenhalgh Community Service Award in 1995, an Individual Constellation Award from Volunteer Richmond in 2005 and the Pioneer Award at the Ethel Tibbits Women of Distinction Awards in 2012 with fellow Richmond advocate and longtime friend Jennifer Larsen. At age 93, in 2015, she was presented with an award at the Unlimited Women Awards in Victoria. Olive was formally recognized by Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie for her decades of community service and received a letter from the Governor General of Canada and Queen Elizabeth II for her 100th birthday in 2021.

At age 88, Olive made headlines as Richmond’s oldest torchbearer for the 2010 Olympics, participating in the relay across Lulu Island with a sea of fans following close behind. Prior to that, she’d picked up a brief acting career from 2000 to 2005, appearing in music videos, modelling gigs and ad campaigns — one of which ran in People Magazine — before retiring her efforts to her award-winning garden. She celebrated her 98th birthday by kayaking with her family at her new lakeside home.

Born on July 9, 1921 in Unity, Sask. to parents Walter and Gertrude Pocock, Olive was nicknamed “Spunk” and lived through the dust bowl and “dirty thirties” of the Great Depression with six sisters (she was the seventh in a row) and one brother. She saw the Second World War, the discovery of penicillin, jet planes, men on the moon, the dawn of the internet and worldwide health crises but met hard times with humour, gratitude and knew the value of laughter. She believed being grateful for what we have brings out the best in us and makes any situation lighter.

One such situation happened in 1931 when, at age 10, Olive hopped on a boxcar with her sister and a friend and sent a note home on the dog’s collar that they’d gone to visit a pal in Saskatoon — 150 miles away. They made it 35 miles to Wilkie before an RCMP officer brought them home. The girls were grounded and lost their Saturday nickel for a month but, as the tale goes, all the neighbourhood kids stopped by their fence for weeks to hear the story.

Olive was known for her astounding ability to make everyone feel like the most important person in the room and, in turn, became the most important person to many.

She is survived by son Robert Bassett (Barb), daughter Arlene Pope (James), grandkids Rob (Megan), Dani (Ali), Carlie (Kevin), Lindsay (Aaron), Craig and great grandkids Ethan, Zachary, Lucas, Kaden, Anya, Hensley, Sofi and Amos.

A celebration is being planned for what would have been her 105th birthday on July 9, 2026. Please be in touch with the family for details via inmemoryofolivebassett@gmail.com.