You want to know a secret to longevity? Try drinking a glass of cranberry juice with a teaspoon of elderberry juice stirred into it every morning.

It apparently works for Elizabeth Grice, who is a young 94 years old. Sharp as a tack and as attractive as the harvest meals she put on the table, she still resides on the family farm by herself with minimal help and can drive. She continues to make pies for the Barber County Fair kitchen. A suggestion is to try her blueberry pie – that's a favorite of many. She said people tell her they like her "flaky pie crust." She attributes the flakiness to using oil.

A member of Hardtner's American Legion Auxiliary, Grice is one of the "poppy" ladies and led the auxiliary many years.

It's not surprising that the Hardtner Chamber of Commerce selected Grice as their Fourth of July Parade Marshal this year. The parade, with the theme "Stand By Me," starts at 10 a.m. Contact Syd Sterling at Yur Place to enter the parade, 620-296-4477.

Following at 11 a.m. is the Veteran's Service at the Methodist Church with veteran Navy commander Bill Smith speaking. Grice will make two pies for the lunch that follows the service.

Traditional activities happen in Achenbach Park all afternoon with turtle races, swimming, free pit BBQ beef sandwiches served about 4 p.m., with the White Elephant Auction beginning at 5 p.m. The fireworks extravaganza to celebrate 60 years begins at 10 p.m.

"As always, we need help with all the Fourth of July activities," Sterling said. The tiny town isn't getting any larger and Hardtner needs more people to help.

Grice was a registered nurse and worked at the Achenbach Hospital in Hardtner, remembering Hardtner's popular physician, Dr. H.Yasuda. She started her nursing career at Wichita in 1942. She was later an RN at the Medicine Lodge Memorial Hospital over 20 years and did private nursing also.

It was as a nurse that she met her future husband Paul when he was in the hospital with a sore throat. She saw him again at a Catholic dance in Kingman.

"We dated maybe for a year after that dance and got married," Grice recalled and said she was 23 at the time. She and Paul had four children who all graduated from Hardtner High School. They are: son Tommy Grice of Dodge City, daughter Ruth Sutton of Hardtner, Diane Grice and Anne Burke.

Her daughter Ruth was with her in Kiowa at Salon 534 during this interview as stylist Ada Colborn did Grice's weekly 'do. Referring to her naturally occurring silver hair, she laughed as she recalled coloring it once. After Paul protested, she never did it again.

The Grices raised their children on the farm. Not surprisingly, she said the couple raised "a big garden" with all the favorite produce like green beans, tomatoes, onions, squash and cucumber. While "Daddy" planted it, she canned.

"My pickled beets won lots of ribbons at the fair," Grice said. She worked in the women's building at the fair many years.

She was more of a cook than a seamstress. Grice said she enjoyed handiwork like embroidery and can darn socks, but made lots of trips to the second hand store in Wichita for the family's clothes.

Grice was active in Hardtner's United Methodist Church and Junior Homemakers. Now she continues to do many things for herself but daughter Ruth goes to the farm at least once a week to help her mom. A "close knit family," her other children are in and out as well.

Remembering her husband's mother, Grice said, "She wasn't a mother-in-law – just another mother." Grice also spoke lovingly of her sister, Margaret Ruth, who died of polio.

Grice's own health looks pretty great for 94 although she is diabetic. Her skin is smooth as silk as she wore a wide-brimmed hat when working outside all those years. Back to her longevity, Grice said she drank alcoholic beverages some through the years, but no longer because of medicine she takes. She described her grandfather as "an herb man," and said, "I've tried to eat healthy."

That hasn't stopped her from cooking her husband's favorite recipes like scalloped corn and Wacky Cake. "Paul liked to fish and I liked to cook his fish," she recalled. She used big cast iron skillets to cook other favorites like mountain oysters.

Like her own mother, Grice raised chickens and said, "We worked hard on the farm." It was typical to pull the chicken's head off with a stick, then scald and pluck it to prepare for cooking.

After Paul died in 1992, she has persevered. Grice said lots of her friends who are widows had fun playing in a Bingo group monthly. She said they enjoyed group meals at Yur Place in Hardtner. "Bob (Sterling) always had a joke for us. It wasn't always clean but it made us laugh! Bob would sing a song and crack us up." She said that Sterling always saw that a group of ladies made it to the Border Line Theatre productions in Kiowa.