Centerfield honors four in their 90s as Harvest Moon grand marshals

Edwards, 93, is the oldest of three children and has been on the go since the day she was born. She and her late husband, Bob, raised three children and count six grandchildren, several great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. She has rarely missed an activity or a sporting event of anyone in her family.

She has traveled the world, especially on cruises. She has served in ward and stake Relief Society presidencies, in Primary and in Young Women. At 69 she volunteered at the 2002 Winter Olympics. And she ran a 5K in her early 70s.

Edwards spent years as postmaster in Centerfield and Mayfield, retiring from the post office when she was in her 70s.

Today she serves with the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. According to festival organizers, she has a reputation for being the first to volunteer for an assignment, and in past years, she remembered every senior in her ward’s high school class with a cash gift. A broken hip has not slowed her down.

Della Bunnell’s roots run deep in Centerfield, where she has lived in the same home on Main Street for 62 years. Born in 1934 to Frank and Myrtle Allred, she grew up as the ninth of 10 children. She is the mother of Scott, Blake, Lynette and Keith.

Over the years, Bunnell worked at several businesses around the valley. Her favorite was ACT (originally Applied Composite Technologies), where she worked with Roland and Julia Christensen.

She hunts and fishes, tends her home and lends a hand where it is needed. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she said she was honored to take part in the Harvest Moon celebration, and especially to sit beside longtime friends.

Rilla Dee Beck was born in 1932 and raised in Sevier County, where she attended school except for her freshman year in Flint, Mich.

She graduated from Richfield High School and went on to Utah State Agricultural College, now Utah State University, as the first person in her family to attend college. She joined the Kappa Delta sorority and majored in home economics.

She came to Gunnison to teach home economics at the high school, work she enjoyed immensely. She was a substitute teacher for many years afterward. She later worked at Utah Power & Light until she retired.

She married Lynn Sorenson and, with him, moved to Axtell, where they raised their family and lived for 35 years. After Lynn died, she married Roland Beck and has lived in Centerfield since.

Beck ‘s hobbies include quilting, sewing, knitting, crocheting, traveling, reading, playing games, scrapbooking and indexing. Her family knows her for German pancakes at breakfast, roast beef and potatoes at dinner, chicken and dumplings, and pies and bread.

Verna Averett was born Nov. 2, 1932, in Centerfield to Mariel and Etta Hansen. The birth was at home on the family farm.

She was the second of 11 children. She grew up feeding and milking cows, cleaning the chicken coop, and thinning and topping sugar beets six days a week, with Sunday set aside for church, rest and sometimes a game.

Averett was baptized at age 8 in the Manti Temple. She graduated from Gunnison Valley High School and married Leo Averett on Sept. 11, 1953, in the Manti Temple. They have three children, Brad, Tammy and Michele, seven grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren with one on the way, and one great-great-granddaughter.

Averett turns 94 in November. She still volunteers at the hospital, attends Daughters of Utah Pioneers meetings and joins in single adult activities.