As a child in a small town near Beirut, Lebanon, Rose Zamar was growing a selection of vegetables in her garden plot: The 10-year-old tended corn, peas, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, beans, onions and grapes, which she sold to the villagers by the side of the road. This early experience led her to start Olson’s Cherry Stand after she arrived in Sunnyvale in 1931 at age 27.

Rose lived with her sister Caramie and brother-in-law John Sayig, who had a little store on the corner of what is now Taaffe Street and El Camino Real. She started working across the road as a fruit packer at the Olson orchard, where she caught the eye of Ruel Charles Olson, son of the orchard founders Carl Johan and Hannah Olson.

“Your father didn’t have a chance,” she would tell her daughter.

His parents, however, were dead set against a union between the two: Even though they themselves were immigrants, they objected to Rose being a Catholic and to her Middle Eastern origin. Nevertheless, they needed their son to run the family business, and after the couple married in 1933, they lived in an old house on the Olson property.

After the birth of their first grandchild, Jeanette, in 1934, the senior Olsons gradually relented and started visiting the young family. In 1935, Charles John was born, followed by Yvonne in 1937. Rose won her in-laws over with her commitment to hard work in the family business.

Her tiny 4-foot-11, 98-lb. frame did not stop Rose from heavy duties around the orchard and fruit packing operations. She was in charge of the apricot cutting shed and ran the plum picking with local adults and children as cutters and pickers. One thing she had to look out for were the apricot fights the children started and which were, of course, strictly prohibited.

She persuaded Ruel to let her sell fruit in a stand by the roadside, since El Camino Real was a major thoroughfare and offered ample opportunity for business. That was the start of Olson’s Cherry Stand, which quickly became well known all over the area, visited by such famous folks as Ansel Adams and John Steinbeck.

During the season, Rose’s day started at 4 a.m., when she would do the washing and ironing and prepared the meals for the day. At 6 a.m., she was at the growers’ market in San Jose to purchase produce for expanding her stand, which she opened at 8 a.m.. Her workdays often lasted well into the night. Apart from their regular trade, the Olsons also sold prunes to the federal government to feed the troops during WWII.

After the war, Rose, an undocumented immigrant, passed her exam to become a U.S. citizen.

In the 1960s, this region was the world’s largest center for fruit and vegetable industries, and like many other orchardists, the Olsons not only sold fresh fruit at the stand and to canneries, but also dried fruit from their own dehydrators.

Outside of the fruit picking season, life was a bit easier, and Rose enjoyed cooking for her family and friends. She cooked all the meals for the family, a variety of Middle Eastern, Mexican and American dishes. With a full life of family and work, Rose still found time for a rich social life: She was a member of the Sunnyvale Old Timers Club, the St. Martin’s Altar Society, the Young Ladies’ Institute, and the St. Jude Club. Rose and Ruel celebrated their 75th and 80th birthdays, respectively, with a big party in 1979, hosted by their daughter Yvonne’s family and including 100 guests.

The encroachment of modern development did not pass by the Olson’s farm: They first had to sell land to the city of Sunnyvale for the extension of Fair Oaks Avenue from Old San Francisco Road to El Camino Real, despite Ruel’s attempts to prevent it. Next, Mathilda Avenue was continued south through Olson’s orchard, the city claiming public domain. The new stretch of road separated the farmhouse from the barn and its activities and the orchard on the other side, so the house that Rose had built in 1949 was moved to the other side of Mathilda.

Rose only gave up work in the fruit stand in her early 80s, when she began suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, of which she died in 1988. The family continued to run the stand until September 2018, when C.J. Olson’s Cherries marked its final season in business.