Frances O’Connor, 90, has witnessed many historic moments in American history. Born in 1928, she remembers the Great Depression, life during World War II and watching the lunar landing of Apollo 11. And now on the first day of her ninth decade, O’Connor etched her name in the annals of local history: She is the oldest person to complete the Bend Ale Trail. O’Connor and her family took five months to savor beers at 14 taprooms.

“Beer here is something else,” O’Connor said. “Beer brewing is an art.”

That’s high praise from a lifelong visual artist — and a recent convert to the suds.

Before turning in a completed ale trail passport, O’Connor rang in her 90th birthday with lunch and a beer with her great nephew, Didrik Johnck, and his wife, Cynthia Jacobsen, during lunch at Immersion Brewery.

At the Bend Visitor Center & Gift Shop, O’Connor presented the pamphlet-like passport filled with the stamps. The Visit Bend staff honored O’Connor for being the oldest finisher. She was presented with a $50 gift certificate to Crux Fermentation Project, a Bend Ale Trail-branded Hydro Flask beer growler and Silipints and a T-shirt that reads: Beer vs. Girl.

“That’s cute,” O’Connor said.

The Ale Trail, which Visit Bend launched in June 2010, connects a total of 16 Central Oregon taprooms. Ten are within a mile radius from downtown; six more are in or near Sunriver, Redmond and Sisters. Most people, whether they’re locals or from out of town, will knock off two or three breweries in a weekend, said Nate Wyeth, Visit Bend’s vice president of sales and marketing. Ten taproom stamps earns visitors a Silipint; 14 stamps, a commemorative bottle opener.

“We rarely see people try to attempt all of the Ale Trail in a weekend.

“These are all big beers, and most people are beer connoisseurs,” Wyeth said. “They’re not out to binge drink, they’re out to experiment and find out what they like.”

Latter-day discovery

Throughout her life, O’Connor never cared for watery, commercial beers. Her trip on the Bend Ale Trail taught her there are other varieties worth drinking.

Johnck and Jacobsen often had children in tow when the threesome would venture out. They became repeat visitors to kid-friendly spots like Crux Fermentation Project because it has a yard. The trio opted for beer samplers of 4-ounce pours so they could try a variety. O’Connor discovered she preferred sours and stouts.

As a rule, the matriarch got to finish any beer sample she took a shining to. Johnck and Jacobsen helped O’Connor recall some of her favorites: Wild Ride Brewing’s Tarty to the Party Apricot Sour Ale and Immersion Brewing’s oatmeal-infused Max Stout.

“I like the two ends of the spectrum,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor moved to Bend from Chula Vista, California, six months ago. Johnck and Jacobsen helped her relocate after a fall that fractured her hip. O’Connor now lives in a Central Oregon assisted living facility and enjoys a weekly lunch date with her nephew and niece-in-law.

“She was driving a car, but that was gone. She was living on her own — done. She uses a walker now. So we moved her up here,” said Johnck, 45.

When the trio heard about the Ale Trail, they said, “We can do that!” Johnck remembered. “Eating and drinking are high on the list of family activities.”

While completing the Ale Trail is one for the history books, O’Connor and company intend to fill up another passport soon. Visit Bend will update its Ale Trail with two new taprooms by June; officials are mum on which ones. A new Visit Bend program is in the works. Drinkable Diversion will compliment the ale trail with kombucha breweries, distilleries, wineries and cideries. In addition, the organization is launching a designated driver program that rewards responsibility with special stamps.

“We call it extra credit along the Bend Ale Trail,” Wyeth said. “It gives non-beer-drinkers the chance to play the game and explore our area’s other fermentable drinkables.”

O’Connor has never tried kombucha, which Wyeth explained is a fermented tea.

“Oh, I don’t like tea,” O’Connor said.

“She’s a coffee person,” Jacobsen said.

“That’s the thing,” Johnck said to his great aunt. “You didn’t think you were a beer fan, and here we are. We’ll give you a little bubbly kombucha and see how that rocks your world.” O’Connor chuckled.

“Maybe I should try the new tea,” she said.

A life relived over sips

While O’Connor said her short-term memory isn’t what it used to be, Johnck and Jacobsen have enjoyed asking O’Connor about her long life, memories she enjoys telling in detail.

“She may not remember a beer she drank last week, but we can talk about the job she had at a polio ward in a Boise hospital during World War II before the polio vaccine,” Johnck said.

“The kids were more concerned with me if I had a little injury one day than they were about themselves,” O’Connor said. “It was a wonderful experience.”

“That’s what I think is fun about hanging out with this generation,” Johnck said. “I mean, who do you know who can tell you what the Great Depression was like as a kid? Living through Vietnam, Watergate. She lived in San Francisco in the ’60s.”

“I hated the ’60s,” she said with a grin. She entered the decade in her 30s. “I’m not a hippie.”

Jacobsen said she has enjoyed discovering O’Connor’s subtle sense of humor.

“We make each other laugh,” she said. “If you only see someone once or twice a year, when you say something, you don’t know whether you’re going to offend them or make them laugh. We know each other better now. We feel more like family than just acquaintances. We joke around a lot.”

When not spending time with Johnck and Jacobsen, O’Connor said she has been making plans for an art studio in her home at Touchmark at Mount Bachelor Village.

She favors painting landscapes and flowers. Central Oregon’s scenery inspires her.

Through windows, she can see “trees, clouds and a little speck of water,” Johnck said, alluding to the Deschutes River.

During the Ale Trail, when the trio took her to Three Creeks Brewing near Sisters, she told them to stop.

The Three Sisters and Mount Washington stood behind the row of stallion statuary along U.S. Highway 20.

O’Connor said “Just pull over, set me out there on that field. I want to draw that scene,” Johnck said.

He’ll take his great aunt there after it warms up, he added.

In the meantime, Jacobsen asked O’Connor if she would make a still life of beer.

“Oh, I’ll do that for you!” O’Connor said with a laugh.

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com