Spry, Stout lady marks milestone

PROVO — Iris Stout grimaced as the doctor scrawled his signature across the bottom of yet another prescription slip.

"I don't want to take all these pills," she said. "I'm not going to live forever, you know."

He just smiled. "Honey, you already have."

That was five years ago. Saturday Stout celebrated her 100th birthday.

"I never thought I would make it to 100," she said. "I'm a little embarrassed, you know, because I'm sort of a curiosity. But I'm grateful."

Stout said she holds a doctor's office record for "longest to survive on a pacemaker." But besides that and a partial hearing loss due to a bout of shingles, the Provo grandmother reported feeling pretty spry.

"None of the neighbors knew her age until three or four years ago," said Stout's youngest daughter, Mary Kay Stout, who manages a consulting business in Los Angeles. "She's always visiting the sick and elderly, making dinner for people. No one had any idea she was so elderly herself."

It wouldn't be hard, though, to mistake Iris Stout for a younger woman.

"I love pretty clothes," she said. "I say if you look your best, you act your best."

Stout sat poised and confident Friday on the edge of her living room couch, perfectly polished fingers folded quietly in her lap. Wearing a trendy sweater set, brown curls expertly arranged, she looked ready to meet the president of the United States.

But Stout's already done that.

As a young woman, Stout, who was born and raised in Centerville, caught a bus to Washington, D.C., where she was elected the first woman president of the Utah State Society. She represented Utah at political functions and snagged several invitations to the White House.

Although she describes herself as "shy and backward," Stout led the life of a socialite. She traveled the world, met the queen of England and fraternized with country-music star and actor Gene Autry.

"I've had my fair share of good luck," she said.

Most who know Stout, however, don't chalk her success up to good luck.

"She is disciplined, she focuses on goals and she makes things happen," said Helen Claire Sievers, Stout's oldest daughter, who is executive director of the nonprofit organization World Teach.

Stout's discipline is illustrated by her work history.