Meet Betty Blunt - the High Desert’s newest centenarian BETTY BLUNT IS ONE OF THE HIGH DESERT’S newest centenarians celebrating her milestone birthday on March 5 with 130 loved ones from Southern California and across the U.S.Blunt’s birthday at the Percy Bakker Center in Hesperia included food, friends, family and the sharing of cherished memories, according to Blunt’s daughter, Becky Otwell. Otwell was proud to say that the first thing people noticed about her mother was “the twinkle in her eyes, her shoulder-length silver thick hair and her big happy smile.” Blunt, who uses a walker for balance, still lives an active and independent life and resides in a home behind her daughter and son-in-law in Hesperia. Blunt said she’s in perfectly good health, but admits she is hard of hearing. As for her secret to longevity, Blunt admits she’s been blessed all her life “I do not know why since I haven’t been that good of a person,” Blunt said. “Some say it is because of my occasional vodka straight up martinis, but I think it is because my grandmother taught me about Bible verses.” Blunt said the biggest change she’s seen over the last century is how individuals communicate with each other. She recalls early radio, rotary phones and television sets. “We also had a plastic cover that we put on the front of our black and white TV,” said Blunt, who joked about having a color set because the TV cover was “blue at the top, green at the bottom, with a pale red in the middle.” She grew up on a farm in Ransom, Kansas, with an estimated population of less than 400 in the mid-1920s, Blunt said, “For our fun, we used to run to catch a cow and pull its tail.” “Betty’s grandparents had a wheat farm, so it comes as no surprise that they had 11 children,” Otwell said. “Betty had ten aunts and uncles, one brother, Gene, and one sister, Vera.” While attending Ransom High School, Blunt was a drum majorette with the school band. She stood 5-feet tall when she played center on the girl’s basketball team. She also sang in the high school choir, which earned a trip to the state championship. Blunt recalled how her blacksmith father built the family’s first flushing toilet and RV, which they used to travel for work. “I’ve been working since I was 10-years-old,” Blunt said. “When times were hard and no jobs to be found, my family became what was then called fruit tramps, which meant we traveled to wherever there was work, picking and harvesting.”
After graduating from high school, Blunt’s family traveled to Arizona, where they picked lettuce. There, she met her husband, Milliard, she said with a twinkle in her eye. After a few short dates, the couple eloped and were married on Christmas Eve 1939. When the couple’s son, Douglas, was born, Blunt stayed in the hospital for 27 days. Her daughter, Becky, was born 18 months later. In the mid to late forties Milliard’s parents, Gilbert and Marie, moved from San Diego to Victorville due to her asthma. Joining them on their westward move were Milliard and Betty, and his brother bud. Also, his sister, Kay, and her husband Herman Schlosser, who both worked for Harris Transportation, Millard’s other sister, Patsy, came to Apple Valley when family member Louie Switzer got out of the Navy. Around 1951, Millard and Betty Blunt moved to Victorville, where she worked at the Nu-way Cleaners & Laundry on the corner of Eighth and C Streets. Betty and Millard also worked at the Brunch House on the corner of Seventh Street and C Street in downtown Victorville. The couple moved to Barstow and opened “Blunt’s Spa” restaurant in Barstow, which was open around the clock and catered to truckers. Milliard and Betty moved back to Victorville and opened Blunt Realty in 1963 on the corner of I Avenue and Main Street in Hesperia. “Back then, there were only four real estate offices in Hesperia,” Blunt said. “Houses were around $10,000 and lots were less than $500.” Millard served as president of the company while Betty played the role of vice president, secretary, notary, treasurer “and the gofer,” she said. “In those days, we had to travel down the hill into San Bernardino to close an escrow,” said Blunt, about the couple who were active with the Hesperia Chamber of Commerce, Elks Lodge and Kiwanis Club. During a Victor Valley Board of Realtors dinner in 1967, Blunt joined the lineup of entertainers when she sang “Maria Elena,” a 1932 song dedicated to María Elena Peralta, the wife of the late Mexican President Emilio Portes Gil. Millard also joined a community of investors who opened High Desert Community Bank on Main Street. Blunt also shared her time with her Red Hat Society, who she joined with for many trips abroad. Even though Betty and Millard only had two children, their family grew to 10 grandchildren, including Douglas, Timothy, Milliard and Rebecca Blunt; David, Debi, Kelly and Robin Adams. Danny and Michael Otwell. She now has 17 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren, who she enjoys spending time with. Photos Courtesy Of Becky Otwell
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OF THE THEPULSE HIGH DESERT
