Peter J. Olivas

Graveside funeral services for life-long Lone Pine resident, 
Peter J. Olivas, 85, will be held Saturday, Sept.4, 10 a.m. 
at the Mt. Whitney Cemetery in Lone Pine. The Deacon John 
Burns of the Santa Rosa Catholic Church, the American Legion 
Post 646, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8036 will 
officiate. Full military honors will be given.

Visitation will be held at the Owens Valley Mortuary in Lone 
Pine on Friday, Sept. 3, 2-8 p.m.

Mr. Olivas was born Dec. 29, 1907, in Lone Pine. He was a 
cowboy for 70 years, and had been involved in movie making in 
Lone Pine since 1920 when the area was first used as a 
location in a movie. The movie, starring Fatty Arbuckle, was 
shot in an old adobe building on the east side of U.S. 395. 
It was at that location that Mr. Olivas, then 13 years old, 
obtained his first paying job. He received $2 a day to serve 
as a water boy, a task which required him to ride to the local 
railroad site, fill canteens, then return the water to the 
movie set. He later became an extra for many of the stars, 
working for Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, and John Wayne.  He 
played an East Indian in "Gunga Din", and was well known among 
the movie industry.

As a youth he worked for his father at the Olivas pack station 
during the summer and in the winter months worked in the mines. 
He did not, however, have a love for mining. Mr. Olivas enjoyed 
the wide open spaces, and being a cowboy was his great love in 
life. He worked at that for 70 years and last worked at Kemp 
Ranch.

He spent five years in the U.S. Army during World War II. He 
later became a charter member of the American Legion Post 646. 

Mr. Olivas' parents were some of the first people to settle in 
Lone Pine. His mother Petra, was from the Diaz family, early Lone 
Pine pioneers. Mr. Olivas truly loved the Owens Valley and lived 
with Mt. Whitney at his doorstep.

Survivors include his sisters, Marguerite Wilson of Lone Pine, 
Polly Parker of Lone Pine, Louise Woods of Lone Pine, and 
Christine Foster of Lucerne Valley.

Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
September 3, 1993
Transcribed by Leilauni Holtz

Transcriber's Note: the portion about Petra being of "The Diaz" 
family is not true but was in the paper. Her mother was Andrea 
Elder, wife of Abner Elder former Sheriff. Petra's father was 
Joseph Diaz of Portugal.