Anita Smart celebrated her centennial year Nov. 5

LW BIRTHDAYS

My friend and neighbor Anita Smart turned 100 years old on Nov. 5, 2023 and she has lived a long and very interesting life. She was born in Los Angeles and went to Benjamin Franklin high school in Highland Park. She had three brothers and has outlived them all.

She met her husband, Bob, at a meeting when she was 16 years old and they were married on Sept. 7, 1943.

Bob enrolled at UCLA as an engineering major, but soon he was drafted and spent four years in the Army’s Engineers division. Meanwhile, Anita went to work as a teller in a bank.

When Bob was released from the army, he went to UCLA, resumed his studies and soon graduated. He then went to work for Mobil Oil as a petroleum geologist. They moved around a lot because of Bob’s job, living in several states, including Connecticut, Utah, Texas and Colorado, and ending up in California. Their son Michael was born in 1950 and their daughter Ann was born in 1952.

During those years, Smart was a busy wife and mother, involved in the children’s lives. She was room mother for the PTA and served as PTA president twice.

When the kids were grown, Bob and Anita moved to Stamford, Connecticut, and Anita went to work as a receptionist in a law firm.

Both Bob and Anita were avid golfers and they played every chance they got. In some very beautiful golf courses. They also enjoyed games of cribbage. As a 40th anniversary gift to themselves, they bought a time share in Hawaii and spent every summer there for quite a few years.

Bob and Anita were happily married for 67 years. After Bob died of kidney failure in 2010, Anita sold their beautiful home in San Clemente and moved to Leisure World in 2012 to be closer to her daughter and sonin- law who live in Rossmoor Estates. Smart belongs to the Cribbage and Canasta Clubs, and has made many friends in Leisure World. She is a tiny woman, only 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and enjoys amazingly good health, as well as her nightly cocktail. She plays crossword puzzles daily and goes for a walk most days.

Smart credits her long life to good genes, an active lifestyle and she tries not to worry too much. She is just an amazing woman.

— Joan Rose

Anita Smart