Upbeat attitude cited
as secret to longer life
BY JOHNDUNPHY
Staff Writer

JOHN DUNPHY Mayor Kennedy O’Brien and Assemblyman Joseph Vas honor Sayreville resident Emily Guttadora, who turned 100 Aug. 8, at the Borough Council meeting Aug. 9.

SAYREVILLE — When Emily Guttadora was born, Theodore Roosevelt was president.

The casual observer might not notice her age, but she turned 100 on Aug. 8.

"I don’t look 100," Emily said with a smile on Tuesday.

Born Emily Smolski in Jersey City to George and Mary, Lithuanian and Polish immigrants, respectively, the family soon moved to Kearny, where they would remain for the rest of Emily’s childhood.

The youngest of nine living children, she graduated from Kearny High School in 1922. She was recently honored by the high school for the 82nd anniversary of her graduation.

Emily’s high school and grammar school diplomas were recently discovered in an old spruce chest of hers.

Joan Bird, 67, Emily’s only child, had them put under glass and mounted on the wall, along with congratulatory letters from George W. and Laura Bush, Gov. James E. McGreevey and the Joint Legislative Resolution signed by Sen. Joseph Vitale, Assemblyman Joseph Vas and Assemblyman John Wisniewski, as well as the certificate of recognition signed by Sayreville Mayor Kennedy O’Brien.

Both honors were presented to Emily during an Aug. 9 Borough Council meeting in Sayreville.

"I’m just so proud to say I have a 100-year-old mother," Joan said.

According to Joan, Emily had an easy life, taking an office job for RCA in Harrison after high school and then a better-paying job with Public Service in Newark.

It was there she met her future husband, Lee Guttadora. Prior to meeting Emily, he had been a merchant marine and traveled the world, Joan said. Pictures of the young couple at the beach revealed two people in good shape.

Lee and Emily remained in Kearny until 1967 when they moved to Lakewood.

After Lee died in 1991 at the age of 90, Emily went to live with Joan and her husband, John. But not before mother and daughter went on a trip. It was a Hawaiian vacation originally scheduled for Emily and Lee’s 60th wedding anniversary. Emily, at 89, decided Lee would want Joan to go in his place.

"I don’t know what I’d do without her," Emily said of her daughter. "She’s my crutch."

The truth is, Emily does not walk with any aid or need assistance with everyday functions such as keeping up with her medications. She busies herself reading the newspaper, watching television and following sports. She loves Tiger Woods and the New York Giants, among others, she said.

Her favorite game show, "Jeopardy," actually has a deeper connection to the family. Joan had been a contestant in the 1960s, mirroring Emily’s own previous game show jaunt on "The Price is Right."

Ultimately, Emily won a number of prizes on the long-running game show, including a canoe.

"What were we going to do with a canoe? We lived in Kearny," Joan said.

In addition to her other activities, Emily continues to have a healthy appetite, according to Joan and John, who laugh as they recall the looks on their grandchildren’s faces when Emily eats, as Joan said, "like a trucker."

To look at Emily, one might guess her to be in her 80s — maybe even her early 80s. Her hair is still mostly dark, her eyes still clear and alert, despite being treated for choroidal melanoma, a rare cancer of the eye, when she was 89.

Joan recalls how people who meet Emily are always amazed when they hear how old she is. Even today, Joan said, people cannot believe she is 100.

Emily attributes her longevity to "good genes." Two of her sisters, Clara Maska and Lottie Schultz, lived to be 99 and 100, respectively.

"I wonder, would I reach that age?" Joan asked. "Will I be as genetically fortunate?"

Joan, echoing her mother, credits good genes, as well as a good attitude, for Emily’s longevity.

"You just have to be upbeat all the time or you’ll be in trouble," she said.

Also included on the wall, next to the diplomas, next to the letters congratulating Emily on her 100-year milestone, is a plaque from the International Star Registry, a program that allows people to register stars on official records in honor of someone.

"That [star] will forever be ‘Emily Guttadora’ in the sky," Joan said.

Back on Earth, Emily Guttadora sits quietly, doing word jumbles in the paper and watching television until 11 p.m. every night. Not looking for attention for her centenarian achievement, Emily sums up both how she feels, and her life in one word.

"Good," she said.