Ogden woman celebrates 105th birthday, shares tip for healthy living
-
- Ogden resident June Brown celebrated her 105th birthday Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
-
- This 1941 photo shows June Brown, who celebrated her 105th birthday Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
OGDEN — Weber County, Northern Utah and the world at large have all changed dramatically over the last century-plus. And June Brown has experienced much of it over a lifetime spent in the Ogden area.
“Especially before holidays, Ogden City stores were crowded up and down Washington Boulevard,” she recounted to the Standard-Examiner. “They were crowded on the streets with people shopping. But now it seems like you don’t see many people out on the sidewalks.”
Brown celebrated her 105th birthday Tuesday, an occasion that inspired family and friends to throw multiple parties in her honor.
“The family got together,” Brown said. “And that was fun being with all those grandchildren and children.”
The Harrisville native grew up on a farm not far from the senior community where she now lives and later joined what became a long line of educators after studying at Weber College and Utah State University.
She went on to teach for many years, including at Wahlquist Junior High, Lynn School and Lorin Farr Elementary.
“I liked teaching kindergarten better than junior high,” Brown joked. “They were just little kids.”
Brown also married and was a mother to three sons. Her family has since grown to include 23 grandchildren, 63 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren. She sees her family regularly, too; some of them live within a couple of miles on land that was part of her family’s farm.
Asked about her secret for achieving continued health and longevity, Brown points to her days on the farm and the clean, simple food she grew to love there.
“In my growing up days, we had our own food, and it was healthy food. It seems like now they can buy any old thing they want in the grocery stores. Everything all prepared, just come home and put it on the table,” Brown said. “My mother cooked, and she was a good cook, and I appreciated that kind of living when I grew up.”
Added Brown: “We didn’t have a lot of candy growing up, and when we were out playing in the yard, if we wanted something to eat, we’d go out to the garden, pull up a carrot, and wash it and eat it. And we had peas in the garden that were good, and we raised raspberries and strawberries, and that was all good, too.”
Brown’s surviving sons, Brent and Bruce, noted that their mother was always very active, particularly where providing service to others was concerned. And, while she has slowed down a bit, she continues to be as active as she’s able to be now.
“She’d always, at her age, even to 100, she was out helping rake leaves,” Bruce Brown said.