102-year-old woman is oldest voter in the county

Fern Crystal couldn’t recall the name of the Democratic presidential candidate for whom she first voted in 1932, but she does know it was the man who opposed Herbert Hoover.

“Oh, no. It wasn’t Hoover. I really didn’t like him that much. I don’t think anybody did,” Crystal, 102, recalled Tuesday, a week before what will be her 20th National Election Day.

The Democrat Crystal couldn’t remember is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to serve more than two terms.

Crystal, who is a resident of Libby Care Center and is the oldest registered voter in Lincoln County, already has cast her ballot for Tuesday’s General Election.

While Crystal admitted a dislike for Hoover, who was a Republican, she now admits her ballots since have been for the GOP candidate for president. She has cast an absentee ballot already for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

“That (Paul) Ryan is a smart young man,” she said.

Fern comes by her politics naturally, as her mother served as an election judge for 25 years.

“My father was a Democrat, and my mother was a Republican,” Fern said. “I may not have voted for Hoover, but I’ve found Republicans seem to have a better grasp.”

With the help of Fern’s opposition vote, Hoover lost that election in 1932, paving the way for FDR and his New Deal for economic recovery. History has not been kind to Hoover, the one-term president who was beset by the Great Depression that began eight months after he took office.

And now, the quick-witted Fern, who reads and enjoys TV game shows, sees history repeating itself.

“I see a lot of similarities in this guy, Obama, as I did Hoover,” Fern confesses. “Obama doesn’t know what to do in tough economic times, either.”

Fern is a history buff’s delight. Sitting in Room 102 wearing her “I voted” sticker, she fields questions about Presidents Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, easily giving the impression she liked Army Gen. Eisenhower who ascended to the presidency after leading Allied forces during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

Her favorite president, however? It was an easy guess.

“Ronald Reagan, of course,” she quipped, in an almost disbelieving way of why such a question would be asked.

“He turned California around (as governor), and he got the rest of the country back on it’s feet, too, as president,” she said, indicating if there were not term limits he probably would have died in office as did FDR during his fourth term.

“Reagan was a great president,” said Fern who lived in California when the former governor served.

Fern has lived in Lincoln County for 12 years, coming here to be closer to family members who make their home in Troy.

Asked about the secret to her longevity, Fern attributed it to one thing.

“God has blessed me throughout my life. I give all the credit to God,” she said.

Leigh Riggleman, the Lincoln County assistant election administrator, verified Fern’s elite status.

“Yes, we’ve researched her, and we find her to be the oldest registered voter in our county,” Riggleman confirmed.