One chilly night in March 2002, she fell on her front porch, couldn't get up, and stayed there for 1 1/2 hours. She says a high school student getting off a school bus after a night activity saved her life.

"She heard me hollerin', bless her heart," Thomas says. "And she yelled, 'I'm coming, I'm coming.' And don't you think I was tickled to hear that voice."

A doctor told her she wouldn't have survived another hour on the porch. She spent two weeks in the hospital.

Famous visitors

Amid such trials, running Thomas Grocery on her own for the past 30 years has also brought Thomas some small-town excitement.

There was the time movie star Wilford Brimley, who was staying with a friend at a ranch near Sterling, exchanged dogs with her.

Thomas had told people she wanted a dog. One day, Brimley and the rancher came in and gave Thomas a dog named Old John. But the dog didn't work out, Thomas says. It was a ranch dog, not a house dog, and "just never was contented."

So later, Brimley came in "dressed like any other farmer." He offered to take Old John back so the dog could live out its days on the ranch and to give Thomas a puppy in exchange.

Another time, Karl Malone came in and bought fishing equipment. After the Jazz player left, one of the customers wanted to know why Thomas didn't ask for his autograph. "And I said, 'I imagine he's sick of all that. I think he'd like a little bit of normal, everyday treatment. And that's what he got."'

The past 30 years have even brought some recognition. She starred in a Cream O'Weber TV commercial, one of a series featuring Utah store owners talking about why they carried Cream O'Weber products. Thomas Grocery has carried Anheiser Busch products for pretty much the whole time it's been in business, Thomas says, and last summer, "the big wigs, the big big wigs, the owners" from Anheiser Busch visited her.

Thomas's biggest honor came in 1990, when she was 86. Snow College, located 15 miles up the road in Ephraim, bestowed a "distinguished service award" on her at a football game. "I got a standing ovation from the grandstand," she says.

Thomas's youngest son died at 57. She has a daughter, 74, living in Clearfield, and a son, 71, in Richfield. She also has 10 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.

Since her hip surgery 20 years ago, she's had employees covering some of the store hours. Typically, she rests for a few hours in the afternoon and comes back to close. But when employees have had to be off, she's covered all the store hours herself. "And I fared just fine," she says.

In fact, self-sufficiency is what Thomas Grocery is all about. "I've always been a person that never saved up money," she says. "I would help somebody else if they needed help, and I've done that through all the years."

While her Social Security goes up just a little, her Medicare contributions go up quite a bit, she says. "To pay a lot of these things, (such as) my medicine, I keep going," she says. "I've always wanted to stand on my own feet, not have somebody else pay my way. Never wanted to do that."

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E-mail: suzanne@sanpetemessenger.com