Olive Christina (Robertson) Hood was born June 22, 1888, in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory. She was the youngest of three girls in a family of five children. Her parents were Alice (Madora) Robertson and Samuel Christy Robertson, who arrived by wagon in Tombstone on Christmas Day 1880. They brought mining machinery from St. Joseph, Missouri, in their wagon along with their family. Sam and Alice were residents of Cochise County the remainder of their lives.

Olive was seven years old when her mother died and eleven years old when her father was murdered.  Sam was shot to death by Sidney Page, son of Justice of the Pearce Jasper Page, in the mining town of Pearce, Arizona Territory, on October 23, 1899. 

The five children were declared wards of the court, but remained in their family home with Ethel Maude, the eldest Robertson child, who was eighteen years old and head of the family.  Olive completed school in Tombstone, and then traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, to live with family friends in order to attend the Peabody Institute. However, Olive became ill and homesick and ended up returning to Tombstone.  According to the Arizona Republic newspaper on March 4, 1963, “Life for the three young Robertson sisters and their two brothers was full of adversity. But they prodded along with fortitude.”

Olive, the shyest and gentlest of the three sisters, surprised everyone when she married Joe Hood in 1906.  Joe was a colorful Western character who later became sheriff of Cochise County. They lived across the Arizona Territory in the towns of Douglas, Tombstone, and Kingman, where they had four sons: John, Robert, Herbert, and Paul.  Olive lived in Kingman until her death.

Olive was an activist for children, raising money with her sister Ethel at a Labor Day get-together for the children of Tombstone and Cochise County, according to the Tombstone Weekly Epitaph dated August 21, 1921.  She served as historian for the Roy Fourr Unit of the American Legion Auxiliary.  The Unit’s goal was to aid World War I orphans.  She also served as Unit Chaplain.

Olive died on October 27, 1970, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Kingman. 

Olive's sisters, Ethel Maud (Robertson) Macia and Edith Alice (Robertson) Barr Macia are also commemorated in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden.

Donor: Betty Newell, niece, August 2008
Photo Located: RGC MS-39, Box H, F-Hood, Olive (Robertson)
Updated:  2/4/2017, Gretchen Hough Eastman