Ex-Stagecoach Driver Dies at 103
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WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Estelle M. Dayley, one of California’s first woman stagecoach drivers, died in a convalescent home Friday. She was 103.
A daughter of a stagecoach driver, she arrived in California in 1888 from her native state of New York. Mrs. Dayley was one of her father’s top cowhands and began driving a stagecoach in her teens in the San Diego area.
In 1959 she married Vern Dayley, her second husband, and the couple later moved to Watsonville, where she was known for baskets and leather work. Mrs. Dayley gave up her 75-year habit of smoking cigarettes at age 90. Until her 100th birthday she was known to enjoy an occasional jigger of straight bourbon.
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