Grace Jemison-Martin, of Battle Ground, celebrated her 103rd birthday surrounded by friends in the Coca Cola Room at Mallard Landing Assisted Living on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
Jemison-Martin worked for The Reflector in the 1950s. While John and Olivia Dodge were the owners, Jemison-Martin wrote stories for the paper as a freelancer, which soon became a full-time job.
"One day, John Dodge turned up at the house and wanted to know if I'd work for them," Jemison-Martin said at her 100th birthday bash in 2023. "It was a one-girl office at the time. I answered the phone, went out to the public, and wrote stories."
Jemison-Martin also wrote a book titled “The History of Battle Ground” in the 1950s, which covers the city’s early inception up until 1953.
Jemison-Martin was born in Portland on Feb. 11, 1923. She was born a month earlier than expected, she told The Reflector at her 100th birthday party. At the time of her birth, a consistent snowfall and freezing temperatures made travel difficult.
When she was 3 months old, her family bought an 80-acre farm along present day Northeast 299th Street.
During that time, the roads were dirt that easily turned to mud. During the move, their truck got stuck in the mud on present-day Highway 503. The house she grew up in was built by a Civil War veteran. It had no electricity, no radio, and Jemison-Martin referred to it as pioneer living at the start.
Jemison-Martin graduated from Battle Ground High School in the class of 1941. When she graduated from high school, Lewisville Park was only a year old.
