Red manicured hands folded and hair pulled back tight, Ruth Hamby sits tall.

Over the years, she’s learned many important things: always look your best, have mutual respect for others, be precise and maintain cleanliness.

But most importantly, “always keep busy,” Hamby says of her secret to staying young at heart.

The Kirkland Lodge resident celebrated her 103rd birthday Tuesday. During the afternoon, friends and staff stopped by the lobby where she sat to dole out hugs, birthday wishes and to chat with her.

Born Oct. 20, 1906, Hamby grew up in the small town of Earlington, Kentucky as the oldest of four.

“I was always busy because my mother always had to have help,” she recalls. “She taught me to cook. My mother believed in everyone setting the table and my father always said grace.”

She also helped her mother to sew and iron with an old-fashioned iron that was heated on the stove.

“We had to fold those handkerchiefs so those four corners were exactly together,” she laughs. “That’s one thing my mother taught us was precision.”

Growing up, Hamby looked forward to the holidays. On Christmas morning, she knew she’d find an orange tucked in her stocking each year, as “we didn’t have oranges every day, you see.”

For Easter, the whole town, which had a “great respect” for church, went to sunrise service and back to church in the afternoon.

Hamby holds up her fists and shows how she held onto the handles of a motor ski when her friend pulled her across the lake in the summertime.

“And he’d turn a quick corner and sometimes I’d fall off and climb on again. But I liked them a lot,” she says.

One winter, she went ice-skating on the same lake with some friends. She recalls one friend who went under the ice and another friend who went in to try and save him.

“We lost both of them,” she looks down. “I always remembered that. I was young and very impressionable and that was a great tragedy.”

Hamby graduated from Earlington High School and was a member of the high school girls’ basketball team, despite her short stature.

In 1927, her hometown sweetheart, Earl, announced to Hamby’s family that he proposed to her and she said yes.

“My father didn’t say a word,” she laughs. “Finally, he said, ‘don’t ever mistreat her – just bring her back home.’ You know what? I have remembered that all my life. I always had a place to go.”

The couple bought their first house for $200 and they later moved to Vancouver, Wash. in 1941 where Earl got a job at the Kaiser shipyards. Hamby helped christen one of the naval war ships that was built there.

When Hamby was 40 years old, her only child, Jack, was born. She stayed home to raise him, which was important, she says.

Later she took a job keeping books for the Vancouver School District and enjoyed a 20-year career there before her retirement in 1972. Her husband died in 1974, just short of their 50th anniversary.

The 103-year-old says the Kirkland Lodge is a good place to be. She’s lived at the premier assisted living community for several years, where she keeps busy with trivia, spelling bees, current events and socializing. She also enjoys being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

“All my life has been good,” Hamby says, adding she has been most happy about her good health. “I learned in youth that it was up to me to make a good life and that’s my philosophy today.”

More information

Kirkland Lodge is located at 6505 Lakeview Dr. N.E. in Kirkland. Call 425-803-6911.