West Linn’s Ethel Inaba prepares to celebrate a century

The world was a very different place when West Linn’s Ethel Inaba entered it. Born in Hawaii on Nov. 23, 1926 — 33 years before it became a state — Inaba entered a rural culture dominated by agriculture (especially sugar and pineapple) and that, for most people, did not include televisions, telephones or air travel. Since then, she’s lived through the Great Depression, the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II, the Civil Rights Act, the moon landing, the Vietnam War, Watergate, the entirety of the Cold War and the tech revolution that introduced the world to computers, the internet and smartphones. Family, faith and friends Through it all, Inaba has remained focused on what’s most important — family, faith and friends.

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