"Then I got it in mind to go to Boston and study music," Hart said. "I got a ride with a man from Logan who was going as far as Chicago. When we got there, he asked me where I wanted to be let off. I said anywhere, and I'd take a taxi to the train station. But he kept driving, and when he finally stopped, there I was in front of the Chicago Music College. So I went in to see if they'd take me. And they did."

After his studies were completed in Chicago, Hart came back to teach school, first in Idaho and then at Cyprus High School in Magna.

He taught music, but he also taught character and values, says his wife, Helen. "That was one reason I fell in love with him." (The Harts have four children.)

For a number of years, he and his brothers owned Hart Bros. Music in Sugar House. A couple of his business innovations include putting sheet music out in open bins so people could look through it ("people bought twice as much music that way") and adding mirror plates to the tops of pianos ("I once sold five pianos in one day"). All the while, he was writing and publishing songs.

Hart sees a couple of reasons for the songs' success, one having to do with music, the other with spirit. "I noticed that people who were writing songs had worn out the key of C and the G7th chord. They had done that to death. I made up my mind to avoid it like a disease."

But mostly, Hart says, his songs have been popular because he didn't really write them. His songs are inspired, he says. "I feel guilty putting my name on them."

This is how it goes: "God gives me an idea to work on, but He won't show up to help me until I've labored on it for three or four months. After I've proved myself willing to work but not up to the task by myself, then he gives it to me."

Hart always felt he was better at the music than the words, but the words have to come first. "Then, while I'm still working on the words, the music starts to come. I used to pray that God would send me someone to write the words, but he never did."

That did not affect Hart's faith one iota, however. "That's how a lot of prayers are answered — with silence. But they are answered." It taught him another lesson, too. "Whatever you persist in doing becomes easier."

Is there a secret to Hart's longevity? "Well, I did grow up on a farm, and I ate mush every day for breakfast."

His family sees much to emulate beyond that, however. "He's always been his own person," says Elna Palmer, his younger sister. "He's not afraid to speak to anyone or about anything."

"He has two speeds, even now," says son Richard, "all involved or exhausted. And although his music is marvelous, so is his missionary spirit."

That was something Hart learned early on. And if he is remembered as much for his faith and his kindness as for his music, that would please him. "When I was younger I studied wrestling, so I wasn't afraid of anyone. But I learned it was better to be a friend. You can change the meanest man in the world, if you can just be a friend."

Be a friend. Overcome impatience. Work to improve one fault at a time. Believe. Those might be the messages of encouragement he'd most like to pass along.

And this one, too, from his latest work: "Why make life hard, when it can become a song?"

Mickey Hart is still singing.

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E-mail: carma@desnews.com