Waking up at 4 o’clock every morning to tend a garden, working hard, and not drinking alcohol or smoking are the keys to a long life, according to one Grantsville resident who knows whereof she speaks.

Laura Hunt will celebrate her 100th birthday at the end of the month.

“I’m doing pretty well for my age, but if I wasn’t so deaf I’d be better,” said Hunt, the oldest resident in Grantsville.

Hunt was born in Caineville, Utah, on July 28, 1908, to Alfred and Elsie Ostberg. Her father was an immigrant from Sweden and her mother was raised in Utah.

Growing up, Hunt’s house didn’t have running water and the family got about by horse and buggy. As a child, Hunt was responsible for hauling water from a nearby river to the cistern made by her father for storing water. She also helped her sister with the laundry.

“We’d get up in the morning and scrub the clothes with the scrubbing board,” Hunt said. “Sometimes in the winter we’d nearly freeze our fingers hanging the wet clothes on the line.”

Hunt had five brothers and four sisters. Two of Hunt’s sisters were able to attend high school, but Hunt’s family didn’t have enough money for her to advance past the eighth grade. She married at 17. With her husband, Floyd Hunt, she raised five daughters on a saw mill in Torrey, Utah, which was also the first saw mill in Wayne County, she said.

“We had the first television and telephone in Torrey,” said Hunt. “I may have been shocked at that technology at the time, but I’m not anymore. They can do anything nowadays.”

Observing life over a century has given Hunt a broader perspective than most. She believes youth today have less respect for their elders, perhaps because of the distractions of modern life.

“We didn’t have electric lights, and we didn’t have cars so we could chase all over town,” Hunt said. “We went to dances and played games like jacks, fox and geese, hopscotch and kick the can.”

When her husband passed away in 1976, Hunt moved in with her oldest daughter, who was still living in Torrey, but didn’t stop her active lifestyle. She raised pigs, sheep and chicken and made her own molasses. She also served as Torrey’s Post Master for eight years.

She nearly died after a bad case of pneumonia about five years ago. After recovering, she moved to Grantsville to live with her daughter Laverne Hunt.

Although Hunt doesn’t believe small towns necessarily promote longer life, she enjoys living in Grantsville. She’s made a few friends, despite not being able to get around as easily as she used to in earlier years.

“Grantsville’s a lot bigger than Torrey, but the people are just as nice,” Hunt said.

Hunt remembers most of the 20th century. She was only 6 years old when World War I broke out, and she still remembers helping her mother sew stockings for the soldiers. She also vividly remembers struggling to have enough food during the Great Depression.

Living through these great historical events has given Hunt a focus on the micro rather than the macro.

“Raising my children and being with my family brings me the most joy out of anything I do,” Hunt said. “I’ve lived a full life with my family.”

Hunt has 23 grandchildren, 62 great-grandchildren, 113 great-great-grandchildren and two great-great-great-grandchildren.

There will be an open house to honor her 100th birthday in Torrey at the Torrey Pavilion on Saturday, July 19, from 5-7 p.m. The family requests no gifts.

ntripp@tooeletranscript.com