Chapter 19
Biographical Profiles of Hal’s Siblings
My parents had eight children; six boys and two girls. I am the youngest. This chapter profiles the lives of my siblings and their spouses: William Oleen (1922-1944); Nona (1924-2013); Lloyd (1925-2005); Delphia (1927-2019); Vernon Odell (1929-2004); Cleo R (1932-present) and Thomas R (December 25, 1934 - January 6, 1935). The family lived on a 200-acre farm in Stone, Idaho until they moved their primary residence to east Tremonton, Utah where they purchased a 4-acre ranchette in 1939. They commuted to Stone to work the farm during the crop-growing season. My father died in 1951 and mother sold the farm; purchased a small dairy farm in Corinne, Utah.
Index
William Oleen (Bill)
• Eldest child – unusual name - remarkable person
• You’re taking rattles from live rattlesnakes and letting them go?
• My parents paid room and board - Oleen and Nona attend high school
• Family moves to Tremonton, Utah
• Oleen is elected BRHS student body president.
• Higher education – Utah State (University)
• United States enters WWII
• Oleen’s pilot training - ROTC at Utah State
• Oleen; role model - carried me on his shoulders
• Flight training - Camp Forrest Tennessee - B-24 Liberator training base
• Oleen (Bill) and Betty Mae meet, fall in love and marry – Tennessee
• Additional training – Pueblo Army Airfield (Colorado)
• We went to Pueblo to see Oleen off
• “Lieutenant Bunderson, I would fly with you anywhere.”
• First Lieutenant William Oleen Bunderson was killed December 23, 1944
• Official confirmation - Oleen was killed in action
• Unofficial visit to Betty Mae - fellow airman - how Oleen died
• Oleen’s son, William Lawrence - born posthumously
• Betty Mae’s second marriage, Gene Bullough
Nona
• Nona’s oral history – preserved stories of three generations
• Remarkable lady – born in an unremarkable place
• Nona learned to run before she could walk
• I can walk that pole fence
• Nona was baptized in a creek
• Nona starts school in a one-room schoolhouse
• The Great Depression - hard on everyone, even the little kids
• Nona’s hard transition – one room school to a classroom for every subject
• “Make books your friends”
• “Hey, Stoney aint so dumb after all.”
• Nona’s dream – become a registered nurse
• WWII caused a huge demand for registered nurses
• Nona’s academic performance - excellent
• The surgeon put amputated leg in my arms - I about passed out
• Nona graduates – Registered nurse and 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army
• Nona meets and marries James Barker Knighton (Jim)
• Newly married, Jim called on two-year Church mission – Denver
• Nona - Box Elder County Public Health Nurse
• Nona gives birth to her and Jim’s first child – complications
• Jim returns from his Church mission - 1949
• Eight years of accomplishment and change – four children - (1950-1957)
• Jim – innovative research chemist – transfer to Chicago – Ranae is born
• Transfer - New Jersey – David and Paul are born
• “That looks like a Jersey cut”
• A woman on a New York City street - “All fur coat and no knickers”
• “Let’s trade jobs – you wash; I’ll honk”
• Jim changes employers – move to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois
• Move - New Jersey to Illinois - time with Grandma Bunderson
• Can’t find a suitable home to buy – we need to build
• Church bake sale - the Knighton “Donut House”
• Knighton family - volunteer janitors
• Lisa (1962) and Lynette (1964) are born in Joliot
• Premortal Lynette visited her mother - “Momma you promised”
• Provident living pays off – Nona left the store and used her food storage
• “Marie can bake cookies!”
• Jim transfers – the family moves to Boulder, Colorado
• Another transfer – Jim, Nona, Lisa and Lynette move to Livermore, CA - 1983
• Nona - Oakland Temple ordinance worker – prayers answered
• Jim’s health issues – his liver
• Jim retires – age 65 – He and Nona move to Salt Lake City
• Lisa and Dale marry – only time entire family was together in a Temple
• Jim - multiple surgeries – passes away, September 11, 1962 – age 68
• Jim needed Nona to go, so he could go
• Nona achieves another goal – 20 years of Temple service
• Nona and Jim’s eldest son, James B. - lives with Nona – dies there
• Nona’s 80th birthday party – total surprise
• Age 83, Nona recounts life stories to Marie who records and transcribes - priceless
• Nona moves into an assisted living facility in Denver
• Nona passes away, July 30, 2013 in Denver – buried next to Jim - Salt Lake City
Lloyd Roe
• Lloyd – born in the farmhouse
• “Give me napentot, nelse I die.”
• Graduated from high school (1943) – WWII raging – enlisted in the Navy
• Invasion of Japanese main islands ordered – heavy losses expected
• Convoy in hurricane – deck officer froze – Lloyd filled leadership void
• Lloyd’s convoy landed as occupying – not invading force
• Lloyd begins college - September, 1945
• Lloyd bought surplus army equipment - a haystack on the highway
• Lloyd bought a small combine – harvest our grain and neighbors too
• Serious injury or death averted – Lloyd prayed - kept a cool head
• Lloyd and Oris’s - joint venture – 8-row sugar beet thinner
• Remarkable faith – Lloyd, 24, chooses to serve Church mission
• While Lloyd on mission – mother sold and bought property
• Lloyd meets his eternal companion while on his mission – Lilian Christensen
• Lloyd and Lilian’s seven children
• “I scared the pheasant so bad, it jumped right out of its skin”
• “Get me out of this garbage can”
• Lloyd’s career - Thiokol Chemical Corporation – 31 years
• Lloyd got jobs for Cleo and me
• Lloyd and Lilian – Full-time couple mission and Temple ordinance workers
• Lilian and Nazi German occupation of Norway - WWII
• Lloyd and Lilian pass away
Delphia
• Delphia is born in the family farmhouse
• Delphia was my personal caregiver – her doll buggy my limo
• Oh Nona, let’s give it one more breath
• “The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor”
• Delphia graduates from BRHS in 1945 – her first full-time job
• I know who my sister likes best
• World War II ends – Oris is spared fighting in the war with Japan
• Oris arrives back in America
• Oris begins college
• Oris and Delphia’s first date was, um, complicated
• Oris and Delphia marry – then elope
• Lloyd and Oris’s joint venture - 8-rows at a time sugar beet thinner
• Bobby, Judy and Janet are born – Oris graduates
• Oris secures a great job, but the location is problematic
• Acclimating into the Monticello community
• Tragic loss – 3-year-old Bobby dies
• Four years in Monticello, they have to move
• Brian is born in Tremonton
• The family moves to Salam, Oregon - September, 1955
• Fourteen months in Salem, Oris transferred to Lakeview, Oregon
• Lakeview - Vickie is born – Church service – measles quarantine
• Oris - one-year sabbatical - 1963 – Utah State - MS in sociology
• Family moves to Madras in 1966
• Delphia, community organizer
• Oris is called to be a Bishop – Delphia teaches early morning seminary
• Judy and Janet marry
• “Del’s Draperies” begins – help children’s college education
• Oris and Delphia’s final move – Transfer to Ontario, Oregon
• Settling into the Ontario community
• Brian and Vicky are married
• Delphia – repeat performance - our Georgia and Idaho homes
• Oris retires from OSU – second career TVCC
• Oris’s third career – Malheur ESD
• Delphia – manager Church Garment Center in Ontario.
• First Church mission – Leeds, England (1992-1993).
• Second Church mission – Micronesia, Guam (1993-1995)
• Third Church mission – Philippines - Quezon City (1997-1999)
• Fourth and final Church mission – Salt Lake Family History (2002-2003).
• Growing Older together
• Delphia passes away
Vernon Odell
• Quasi frontier environment – born in our farmhouse
• Vernon’s best childhood friend was our cousin, Elroy Cutler
• Hauling barrels of spring water from Deep Creek
• Five-year-old Vernon’s first big trip
• Harvesting dry juniper logs for firewood and fence posts
• God’s prophet is coming to Arbon, Idaho
• I prayed and found the cows
• Vernon walked the pole fence and cut on barbed wire
• “I watched my Dad break wild horses”
• Vernon learns to drive setting on his father’s lap
• Harvesting grain – Vernon was the “stacker”
• Harvesting hay – Vernon was the “derrick boy”
• Four boys led 20 workhorses to water
• Vernon’s spiritual experiences
• Elementary school transition – from Stone to Tremonton
• Working for other farmers
• Vernon – remarkable diverse interests in high school
• Vernon, the eldest boy at home
• Vernon’s first health issue – a persistent nose bleed
• Nearly killed by lightning
• Vernon bought a gift for Daddy, that Daddy wouldn’t buy for himself
• Vernon and Rita’s courtship
• Married during a blizzard
• Vernon and Rita’s first home – early TV
• Temple marriage
• Vernon and Rita’s seven children
• Employment - Utah General Depot
• Gould National Batteries.
• Mountain States Equipment
• Thiokol - family moves to Corinne
• Farm in Lewiston, Utah
• Tragedy – Vernon seriously injured training their horse, “Princess”
• Vernon and Rita’s passing
(Additional stories and info to come from Vernon and Rita’s children)
Cleo R
• Cleo – sixth child born in Stone farmhouse
• Cleo’s athletic reputation – opened doors for me
• Cleo deferred from Army draft to run the farm – two years
• Cleo age 19 – Daddy dies – Cleo stepped-up
• Cleo is drafted into the Army – stationed in California
• Promoted Corporal, Company Clerk and radar operator
• Cleo sends half his Army pay to mother.
• Cleo’s nickname – from “Bundy” to “Big Bundy”
• Cleo’s many African-American friends
• March Field – shooting competition – fast flying drones
• Cleo’s radar skills tested – What if San Clemente Radar Station goes down?
• I wish I had a Division of men like you
• Cleo returns to civilian life
• Cleo and Shirley Ann Kunzler marry
• Cleo and Shirley’s homes
• The farm is sold
• Cleo’s career
(Stories to come – possibly including events surrounding):
• Annette is born February 14, 1959 –
• Diana is born June 22, 1960 –
• Peggy Lee is born November 3, 1961
• Michael Cleo is born April 1, 1966
• Curtis K is born February 18, 1972
• Chris William is born May 12, 1974
• The family sells their Tremonton home – move to and renovate the home where Cleo grew up.
• Shirley’s Church Service
• Cleo’s serves as a Bishop (dates) – other Church Service ___________
• Cleo falls from the roof of the barn – near death – his work in mortality is not finished.
• Cleo and Shirley called to head the Bear River Stake Genealogy Library (19__ - 19__)
• Cleo Branch President and Shirley - called to serve at the Bear River Valley Care Center, a large nursing home in Tremonton (200 to 20_ patients.)
• Cleo and Shirley’s posterity: five children, __grandchildren, ___ great-grandchildren and __ great, great-grandchildren.
Thomas R
• The last child born in the Stone farmhouse
• Tragedy – Thomas dies
• Thomas buried - much grief
William Oleen (Bill)
In his 22 years, Oleen was elected high school student body president; had three years of college and pilot training; married Betty Mae Sheldon; pilot of B-24 Liberator bomber in WWII; stationed in Italy - flew 28 combat missions against Nazi Germany before his death – their son, Bill, was born posthumously
Eldest child - unusual name - remarkable person – William Oleen (1922-1944) was born August 12, 1922 in the family’s farmhouse in Stone. The name “Oleen” is unusual – Scottish-English origin meaning “dignified and capable.” His friends and his wife, Betty Mae, called him “Bill.”
You’re taking rattles from live rattlesnakes and letting them go? As a boy, Oleen’s cousins were his neighbors and closest friends. Oleen and his cousin, Russell Roe, had the summer job of being cowboys; watching over their family’s milk cows grazing on the grass growing in the foothills.
Apparently bored, the boys come up with an idea to amuse themselves. They would cut long willow sticks that had a branching fork on the end and go hunting for Prairie Rattlesnakes. The snakes feed on small mammals that burrow under the sagebrush and other native shrubs and small birds nesting in the branches.
The, boys got on their horses and rode through the brush listening for rattlesnakes. When they heard a snake’s rattle, they worked as a team. One used his forked stick to hold the coiled snake to the ground while the other placed his fork just behind the snake’s head so it couldn’t bite them. After they broke-off the snake’s rattles and put them into their container, they released the poisonous reptile. The frightened serpent slithered away to hide in a rodent hole.
Oleen kept his collection in a four-inch tall Calumet Baking Power can placed on a shelf in the granary. One morning, my father saw the can, took off the lid and looked inside – he was “dumfounded.” The can contained about 20 rattles. He took the can to the house, placed it in the center of the kitchen table and called a family council. Nona said when Oleen arrived and saw the can, “he cringed.” Daddy asked him to explain.
When Oleen’s confession was complete, Daddy used it as an object lesson to explain; a rattlesnake without its rattles to shake as a warning can be more deadly; can strike without notice. That ended Oleen and Russell’s secret adventure. They never played with rattlesnakes again – a valuable lesson for all.
Commentary – Nona said that whenever there was something important to discuss, Daddy called a family council.
Rattlesnakes are deadly poisonous reptiles. When disturbed or threatened, the snake coils its body and draws back its head ready to strike and shakes the tip of its tail - the rattles make a distinctive sound to warn intruders away. The snake can strike and bite up to half its body length. The snake’s long fangs are hollow. When it bites, it injects a burst of deadly venom through passageways in its fangs into whoever or whatever it bites.
The snake grows an additional button or rattle at the base of its tail when it sheds its skin – generally, once a year. When slithering on the ground, its tail is up to avid breaking its rattles.
The Prairie rattlesnake, is one of 36 species of rattlesnakes and is indigenous to the upper mountain states, including Idaho. It can grow to a length of four feet. In comparison, the diamondback rattlesnake, indigenous to the Southwest, can grow to eight feet.
My parents paid room and board – Oleen and Nona attend high school - My parents wanted their children to have what they did not have; a good education. After graduating from Stone’s one-room elementary school in 1936, my parents enrolled Oleen in one of the closest high schools available; Bear River High School (BRHS), 40 miles east in Tremonton, Utah – and arranged for him to room and board with a family who lived within the school bus route.
Ezra and Marie Harris (relationship, if any, is unknown) had no children at home and lived in Bothwell, seven miles west of BRHS; the school-bus went by their home. The Harris’s were faithful members of the Church and treated Oleen like he was one of their own; a very gracious couple; a perfect fit.
Oleen was a handsome boy with an outgoing personality – he made friends easily. He had a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel and was planning to serve a Church mission - WWII changed everything.
Three years later, Nona started high school and lived with the Harris’s under the same financial arrangement as Oleen. The Harris’s became some of the family’s closest friends. (Chapter 1, Oleen and Nona’s boarding hosts - Ezra’s remarkable “divining rod”)
Family moves to Tremonton, Utah – In order to keep their family together while their children attended high school and provide a better quality of life, my parents purchased a 4-acre ranchette about two miles east of Tremonton in 1939. (Chapter 18)
Oleen is elected BRHS student body president – At the beginning of Oleen’s senior year in 1939, the BRHS student body elected him their president. It is remarkable that someone from the small hamlet of Stone could have received that honor. It speaks highly of Oleen’s indomitable spirit, affable, outgoing personality and communication skills.
Commentary – In contrast, when Nona started at BRHS, some students ridiculed her; calling her “Stoney.” However, she won them over with her intellect (excellent student and hard worker), pleasant disposition, kindness and warm personality. (see Nona, below).
Higher education – Utah State (University) – After graduating from high school, Oleen enrolled at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan (USU - renamed Utah State University in 1957).
Oleen wanted to be an airplane pilot. The U.S. Army Military Science program (ROTC – Reserve Officer Training Corps) had been on the USU campus for decades and had a pilot training component (Army Air Corps), that included coursework on campus and hands-on pilot training at the nearby Logan Airport. Students who signed up for the program received military pay and the cost of their education.
Oleen enrolled in the Army Air Corps ROTC and with a few friends rented a house off-campus. My parents traveled to Logan each week; taking a box of food to him; bottled fruits, vegetables and meats from our cellar and bread and pastries that mother baked. They often took me with them. (Chapter 1).
United States enters WWII – Oleen was 20 years old and attending USU when the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory on December 7, 1941. The following day, the U.S. declared war on Japan. On December 10, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war against the United States - Congress reciprocated the following day.
Oleen’s pilot training – ROTC at Utah State - The war may not have changed Oleen’s curriculum at USU, but it certainly changed the emphasis in his ROTC training; there was an immediate and pressing need for airplane pilots.
Oleen was excited to serve and our family was excited for him. On at least one occasion, he flew his single engine trainer over the mountains between Logan and Tremonton. At a prearranged time, he flew several hundred feet above our house waving the wings of his plane. I remember we all run outside to wave back.
Oleen wanted to be a fighter pilot. However, his commanders felt differently. After he completed his college coursework, he tested-out and they assigned him to the difficult heavy-bomber pilot-training program.
Oleen - role model - carried me on his shoulders - Saturday evening, Vernon and Cleo each had 14-cents, the cost of a movie ticket. They had walked to the Tremonton movie theater to see the John Wayne movie “Flying Tigers.” My parents thought I was too small to walk that distance with them; I had to stay home. I was crushed; I was 4-years old – I was big enough – if someone would give me 14 cents.
I was setting on the floor in the corner of our kitchen pouting when Oleen arrived home from Utah State. When he discovered my problem, he (remarkably) put me on his shoulders and carried me nearly two miles to the movie theater; telling stories all the way.
Commentary – Flying Tigers was the name given to U.S. pilots volunteering to fly P-40 fighter planes in defense of China against invading Japanese bombers in 1941-1942. The P-40’s had shark eyes and teeth painted on the nose of each plane.
Flight training - Camp Forrest Tennessee – B-24 Liberator training base – When Oleen completed his ROTC training at USU, he was assigned to Camp Forrest (now Arnold Air Force Base) for B-24 Liberator Bomber flight training. Because of its wing design, the B-24 developed a reputation of being a difficult bomber to fly.
Oleen (Bill) and Betty Mae meet, fall in love and marry - Tennessee - While Oleen, now nicknamed Bill, was at Camp Forrest, he met Elizabeth “Betty” Mae Sheldon (1925-2008). Betty Mae was a professional dancer and was likely part of a USO troop performing at the base. Betty Mae was born in Sacramento, CA, but had been living in Ogden, Utah. They fell in love and were married civilly on April 21, 1944 in Tennessee.
Additional training - Pueblo Army Airfield (Colorado) - In the spring of 1944, Bill’s “Bombardment Group” was reassigned to Pueblo Army Airfield - B-24 Advanced Flying School. The Army allowed wives to be with their husbands and Betty Mae and Oleen were provided housing on the Base.
We went to Pueblo to see Oleen off - With their training completed, Oleen’s Bombardment Group were ordered to fly their aircraft to an Italian air base which the allies had captured.
Knowing the high mortality rate for aviators, Army Air Force command invited the families of airmen in Oleen’s bomber group to come to Pueblo to see their loved ones off. My father, Nona and me drove our car 700 miles to join Oleen and Betty Mae at the airbase. It was the last time we would see Oleen in mortality.
Commentary – I was eight-years-old, but I could still feel people’s anger against the axis powers that inflicted their Satan-influenced evil upon the world. The Air Force had placed disarmed 500-pound bombs on the tarmac with signs inviting people to write on the bomb their message to Hitler; a piece of chalk hung from a string on each bomb. With Nona’s help, I wrote “To Hitler – Compliments of America.”
“Lieutenant Bunderson, I would fly with you anywhere” – It is noteworthy that Oleen was an exceptional pilot of a very difficult airplane to fly. He wrote in one of his letters that his commanding officer was a passenger in the cockpit on one mission. During the bombing run, Oleen’s plane was hit by enemy ground fire, at least one engine lost power - he had to drop out of formation - trailing further and further behind the other bombers returning to base; prey to enemy fighters looking for stragglers. Oleen deftly used defensive measures, including maneuvering his crippled aircraft through patches of cloud cover, successfully hiding from Nazi predator fighters until U.S. fighter escort arrived. Upon landing, his commanding officer said, “Lieutenant Bunderson, I would fly with you anywhere.”
Commentary – Cleo discussed Olean’s service record of 28 successful bombing missions with an officer at Hill Air Force Base. The officer told Cleo that in today’s Air Force, a bomber pilot who had flown that many combat missions would be eligible for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.
First Lieutenant William Oleen Bunderson was killed December 23, 1944 – My parents did not have a telephone in our home. They arranged with a neighbor, the Kay family, to use their telephone in emergencies. Betty Mae had their phone number and called. On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1944, one of the Kay children ran 400 yards through the open field that separated our homes to tell us that Betty Mae was holding with an urgent message.
Daddy hurried to the Kay home to take the call. When he returned – I remember him coming in the front door of our home with his chin quivering – holding back the tears. Betty Mae said, “The War Department called and told her Oleen was missing-in-action.”
Commentary - Oleen had sent Christmas gifts for all, including what every boy wanted, BB guns for Vernon, Cleo and me. We opened and enjoyed the gifts but knowing he was missing in action and presumed dead; it was a very sad Christmas indeed.
Official confirmation - Oleen was killed in action - The War Department informed Betty Mae that Oleen was a passenger in a B-24 en route to another airbase to get a new B-24 to replace his plane that was shot-up too badly from his last mission. The plane in which he was a passenger was shot down by Nazi fighter planes.
Commentary - Oleen was 22 years old and had successfully flown 28 combat missions when he died. The Army Air Corp policy at that time allowed aviators to go home after 30 missions. The war with Nazi Germany ended with Hitler’s suicide and the country’s unconditional surrender to the United States and its allies on May 8, 1945 – five months after Oleen’s death.
We were devastated by Oleen (Bill’s) death! However, it could have been much worse. When U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorized dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively; Lloyd was a Marine Medic on a troop ship (convoy) headed to invade the main islands of Japan. Jim, Nona’s future husband, who had been flying B-26 bombers over Nazi Germany had been reassigned to a Pacific air base to bomb Japan. Oris, Delphia’s future husband was on an Army base in the Philippines preparing for the big invasion. Nona, was completing her registered-nurse training – commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army – not yet assigned.
Unofficial visit to Betty Mae – fellow airman – how Oleen died - Oleen’s friend, First Lieutenant Charles “Chuck” McElroy, wrote a letter to Betty Mae following Oleen’s passing. He said, “The weather was miserable and I wanted to go to town … Bunde (Oleen or Bill) was … to go to another base to pick up a new ship … several men wanted to go on the same flight … to see a different base.”
He said, “When they didn’t come back that night, we thought they had stayed at the other base due to the weather. The next day, we (learned) … the plane crashed into the mountains with no survivors. They never made it to the other base.” He said that he could not add any more information due to Army censorship, “but there was no hope, as all of the bodies have been identified.” He said he was expecting leave in three months and would visit her.
He kept his promise and visited Betty Mae. He told her things he was not allowed to say in his letter; in sum, “The plane “Bill” was riding was seen by patrolling Nazi fighters and shot down.”
Oleen’s son, William Lawrence - born posthumously – Oleen’s son, William Lawrence (Bill) Bunderson was born in 1945, one month to the day after his father was killed.
Commentary – Sadly, Bill would grow up without actually knowing and being mentored and taught by his remarkable father who had accomplished so much during his short life.
Betty Mae’s second marriage – Gene Bullough - Betty Mae married Eugene “Gene” Ernest Bullough (1921-2004) on April 22, 1946 (their civil marriage was later solemnized in one of the Church’s Temples). She and Gene had two children, Frederick Earl and Diane (1949-2006). The family lived most of their lives in the Sacramento, California area. When Bill was older, Gene offered to legally adopt him but Bill declined, he wanted to keep his father’s surname.
Betty Mae had a dance studio and with Gene’s help, taught aerobics to seniors. Circa 2006, two years after Gene passed away, Betty Mae contracted ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). ALS does not affect mind and memory, but gradually takes away a person’s motor control.
Every Sunday, Betty May’s son Bill, drove 80 miles between his home in San Rafael to Betty Mae’s care facility in Sacramento to be with her and drive her to her Church meetings. Betty Mae passed away April 24, 2008, in Sacramento - age 83.
Commentary - Mary Kay and I flew to Sacramento to attend her graveside ceremony and the memorial service held at her ward meetinghouse. It was apparent to us that many people respected and loved Betty Mae.
Nona
Registered nurse - 2nd Lieutenant in US Army - County nurse - Married to Jim Knighton (WWII B-26 bomber pilot, atomic scientist - Church leader) - Parents of ten children - at 2007; 43 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren. Role-models - inspired me to start college at age 24.
Nona’s oral history – preserved stories of three generations – Many stories in chapters 18-20 are a result of Nona (1924-2013) dictating her oral history to her eldest daughter, Marie Alldredge. Marie, a professional educator in her own right, interviewed her mother in an organized and disciplined manner - recording and later transcribing her responses.
In her oral history, Nona recounted her experiences when growing up in Stone – stories that crossed three generations.
Commentary – Nona and Marie’s efforts made it possible to for us to better know these people; their persona; we can learn from their examples - make better choices for ourselves.
Remarkable lady born in an unremarkable place - Nona was born on April 17, 1924, in our Stone, Idaho farmhouse. Many of the quality-of-life conveniences available in more populated communities just 40-miles away were not available in Stone. There was no electricity, therefore no refrigeration, flush toilets, water heaters, clothes washing machines, radios, electric lights, indoor plumbing, etc.
Nona learned to run before she could walk – Our mother told me that when Nona was about 18 months old, she still was not walking. She and my father were concerned. One day, mother took Nona with her to help Daddy separate a new-born calf from its mother. She sat Nona on a log while she and dad put the calf in a pen. Meanwhile, the frantic cow was running in the barnyard. Mother said that before she could do anything, she saw the cow ran up behind Nona, put her nose to Nona’s back and bellowed (mooed) loudly. Mother said Nona, was terrified - she literally stood on her feet and ran to the house. Continued attempts to get Nona to walk proved unsuccessful - until a few months later. Nona ran before she learned to walk.
I can walk the pole fence - As a young girl, Nona was impressed how well Oleen walked the corral’s 5-foot high pole fence lines without falling. Even though she was younger and much shorter than Oleen, she wanted to do the same. The fence line was built in 8-foot sections, pine poles were nailed to juniper wood posts.
With courage and determination, Nona crawled up on the fence. She thought she would walk one section at a time. However, she could only take a couple of steps before falling off. Undaunted, she got up and tried again and again.
She said she was really excited when she could keep her balance, walking a full section of fence without falling. She then tried to walk two sections. This continued until by the end of summer, she walked the entire corral fence line without falling. She said Oleen watched her and was really impressed. Daddy praised her for her remarkable accomplishment
Commentary – Nona did not record mother’s reaction. However, I suspect watching her little girl, arms outstretched to keep her balance, walking the entire distance of the corral fence would have given her real concern – bones could have been broken.
Walking the pole fence was daunting for a little girl. But she did it - exhibiting character traits that continued throughout her life. She learned to do hard things; never gave up!
Nona was baptized in a creek – Nona was baptized when she was eight years old. She said that there was another young girl baptized at the same time. She was wearing a gown mother had made out of flannel – it had long sleeves; the dress went to her ankles. Bishop Cottle interviewed both girls and discussed the purpose and need for baptism as they sat on the grassy banks of Deep Creek where the ordinance would take place. She said, “My dad was in the water and took me by the hand so that I wouldn’t slip.”
After the baptism, they walked back to the Cottle home where Sister Cottle had a plate of fresh baked cookies waiting. Nona said that she was confirmed a member of the Church the next day in Church – “I felt like I was really grown-up when I walked up (in front of all those people) to be confirmed. My dad confirmed me. I had a new dress for the confirmation.”
Commentary – All of the children, except Cleo and I were baptized in that same creek. Our father baptized Cleo and me in the Bear River High School swimming pool. Today, most stake center meetinghouse buildings have baptismal fonts.
Nona starts school in a one-room schoolhouse - Nona was seven years old when she started elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse called the “Curlew Valley School” (It is not known why she did not start at the normal age of six). There were approximately 30 students at the school; eight grades running concurrently with one teacher, Miss Mifflin. Nona said she had extremely long hair. There were four students in Nona’s grade level.
Many children rode family horses to school, children from the same family sometimes rode the same horse, one behind the other. Nona said when she started school, the bigger kids picked-on the younger ones. She liked school but hated the bullying.
The Great Depression - hard on everyone, even the little kids – When Nona was nine (1933), she said because her parents were farmers and the family raised and preserved their food – no one went hungry, but they had very little money for anything else.
Nona said she had outgrown her few clothes. Since girls were expected to wear dresses to school and Church, mother said she would make a new dress for her. However, she didn’t have enough of one fabric to fit the pattern; she only had two pieces of cloth, black and yellow.
There was no money to buy more fabric, so under the “make do or do without” philosophy of the day, mother set out to fashion a dress out of the two fabrics. But she did not have enough fabric to make the dress pretty like Nona wanted; straight, not puffed sleeves; straight, not gathered skirt; no collar. Nona said, she “was embarrassed to wear it; but no alternative.”
On the last day of school, Nona came home, took off the dress, put on her shirt and overalls and buried the dress at the bottom of the fabric scrap bin (a storage container for used articles of clothing that were ultimately cut and braided rugs - or cut into blocks for making decorative quilt tops. Unwilling to produce the dress for washing the next Saturday, Nona had to stay home from Church - she had no dress to wear.
Mother undoubtedly knew exactly what had happened, but rather than confronting little Nona and making her feel worse, she appealed to her sister Edna. Nona’s Aunt Edna had two worn women’s dresses with enough usable fabric to cut and sew a full dress for Nona – something she could wear to church and school and not feel embarrassed.
A few months later, mother purchased a few yards of colorful fabric and made Nona a new dress. Nona said, “What a thrill for me to put on a new dress” - soft colors, puffed sleeves, a gathered skirt and a collar.
Hard transition – one room school to a classroom for every subject – Nona’s transition from Curlew Valley Elementary to Bear River High School was difficult; made tolerable because her big brother was also there.
She joined Oleen in boarding with Ezra and Marie Harris in Bothwell. Nona was a freshman and Oleen a senior in the fall of 1939. On her first day, Oleen showed her around school, including the auditorium where the freshmen were assigned to assemble for orientation.
With pencil and notebook in hand, 14-year old Nona set down quietly and alone in the likely 500-seat auditorium – her class size was likely around 100. She said, “I felt petrified. I didn’t have a friend. I was shy and couldn’t talk to people. I just wanted to go home (to Stone) so bad, I could hardly stand it.”
“Make books your friends” – Nona was dealing with two life-changing events at the same time; not living at home and transiting from a small school and student body to a large multi-classroom facility with hundreds of students. Nona said, “My parents felt sorry for me.”
Her feelings of not fitting in were exacerbated by student bullying. Some of the boys “hurtfully” called her “Stoney” – because her home was in the frontier-like area of Stone.
Nona said she kept her painful feelings to herself. One night lying in her bed at the Harris’s home; trying to decide what to do, an audible voice came into my mind; “Make books your friends.” The words echoed in my mind; “a thought that I (could) not erase;” a turning point.
After that experience, Nona focused on being a disciplined student; completing all of her homework perfectly. She said, modestly, “I did well in my tests and written work.” One teacher apparently saw her circumstance and encouraged her.
“Hey Stoney ain’t so dumb after all.” – Nona’s intellect was on full display when the teacher in one class asked a question that no student knew the answer. Nona said she knew, but waited. Finely when no other hands were raised; she hesitantly raised her hand and timidly said, “I know the answer.” The teacher said, “Nona, tell them.” Nona then gave the correct answer. A boy setting in back blurted out, “Hey, Stoney! She ain’t so dumb after all.”
Nona said, that hurtful backhanded compliment caused her to “melt back into my desk.” However, her reputation for being very smart began to break down barriers. Before the Christmas break, she had developed many friends and her high school experience began to be a pleasure.
Commentary – Books did become Nona’s friends. With divine help and self-will, her shyness turned into confidence; her timid voice turned into one that articulated her ideas clearly and convincingly; her weak things indeed became strong (Either 12:27). Nona silenced rudeness with kindness and intellect.
By the time the family moved to Tremonton, Nona had established many friends. In a metaphor; the blond, silkworm butterfly had emerged from her cocoon. When Nona graduated from high school, Lloyd was a junior and Delphia a freshman.
Nona is an excellent role-model. Her life illustrates that each person is of great worth. The Lord is involved in the detail of each person’s life; to the extent they allow it
Nona’s dream – become a registered nurse – Nona was a senior in high school when the United States entered WWII in December 1941. She graduated in May the following year and worked at the Tremonton hardware store, saving her money to start school in the Dee Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Ogden (now, Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital).
WWII caused a huge demand for registered nurses - Thousands of soldiers injured in the war caused a huge need for registered nurses. Congress passed the Nurses Training (Bolton) Act in June, 1943; appropriating funds to produce thousands of registered nurses for the military.
Under the Act, accredited hospitals and colleges received federal grants to administer the program. Women who enrolled in the (Army) Cadet Nurse Corps (CNC), a year-round, 30-month school (normally 36 months lapse time), received Army pay, free education, room and board and fashionable uniforms, summer and winter clothing. Graduates were commissioned 2nd Lieutenants in the Army Nurse Corps (ANC); required to serve in military or public health.
After Japan surrendered in September, 1945, President Truman phased out the CNC program over three years; no new admissions; those already enrolled, which included Nona, would be allowed to graduate and awarded their Army officer commission.
The Dee School of Nursing, in conjunction with Weber College (now Weber State University) were accredited for the CNC program. Nona enrolled as soon as the program was offered, likely in 1944. She said the students wore white uniforms and attended classes’ year-round; with a two-week furlough in July. She had classroom work at Weber College in the mornings and reported for hospital floor-duty and practical training in the afternoon – generally a 48-hour week.
Nona’s academic performance - excellent - Nona modestly said she had “especially good grades.” In actuality, she received the black stripe on the hat of her nurse’s uniform in six months, a promotion earned based on academic achievement. When she graduated in 1947, she tested at the top of her class.
Cleo remembers Nona working at the Bushnell Military Hospital in Brigham City. The Bushnell Hospital was built by the military at the beginning of WWII for the care of thousands of wounded soldiers and sailors. CNC nurses were likely trained and served at the Bushnell Military Hospital as well as the Dee Hospital; commuting 20 miles one-way on the Bamberger Train that provided transportation to many cities in northern Utah.
The surgeon put the man’s amputated leg in my arms - I about passed out - Nona was participating in a surgical operation where the doctor amputated a man’s leg. After separating the leg from the soldier’s body, the surgeon asked Nona to extend her arms; onto which he laid the amputated leg and asked her to put it in the container across the room while he closed the wound. Nona said, “I about passed out.”
Nona graduates – Registered nurse and 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army - Nona’s “Registered Nurse” certificate was issued by the State of Utah on August 4, 1947. It is unclear whether Weber College also issued a Nursing degree to Nona and her classmates.
Because the war was over, Nona likely entered the Army Nurse Corps and received her officer commission and then was honorably discharged. Released from military service, Nona went to work for Box Elder County as their County Nurse (Tremonton is in Box Elder County).
Commentary – The military gave Nona a performance rating of “excellent.” We have no written record designating Nona as a member of the Army Nurse Corps, however her records include a picture of her in uniform wearing 2nd Lieutenant bars.
Nona meets and marries James Barker Knighton (Jim) – Jim’s parents, Daniel William and Minerva Leantine Barker Knighton lived in a stately home near Five-points in North Ogdon.
During the war, Jim was a pilot of a B-26 Marauder medium bomber (crew of six) stationed in England; with bombing missions over France and Germany. When Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945, Jim’s bomber squadron was reassigned to the war with Imperial Japan that was still raging in the Pacific. He would be stationed on a recently conquered island air base; likely Okinawa or Iwo Jima.
He was en route when, U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 respectively. Japan’s emperor surrendered six days later. Jim’s group was redirected back to the states and mustered out.
Jim returned home in early September and resumed his studies at Weber College. Nona was in Ogden completing her training to become a registered nurse in the Army’s CNC program.
Through a mutual friend, Nona and Jim went on a blind date; Nona’s first and last. They were married in the Lord’s Logan Temple on July 1, 1947. Nona received her Registered Nurse certificate and Army officer commission the following month.
Commentary – It is ironic that the uranium and plutonium-based materials used in the two bombs that ended the war with Japan, likely saving Jim’s life; were the materials that formed the underlying basis for his livelihood. Jim spent most of his career as an atomic scientist, performing research with spent plutonium – used for peaceful purposes. Jim has more than 25 patents in his name.
Jim’s parents, Daniel and Leantine, lived Christ-centered lives. I was a pre-teen when I first visited their home for the dinner they prepared. I can still see them in my mind’s eye, greeting each one of my family; struck by their quiet, kind, warm and peaceful demeanor; their home felt good. I later recognized it was not the home, but the influence of the Holy Spirit in their home. Clearly, Daniel and Leantine Knighton lived impeccable lives of goodness.
Newly married - Jim called on two-year Church mission - Denver - Jim’s received a call to serve a Church mission just two years after being discharged from the Army Air Corps and three months after he and Nona were married.
Elder David O. McKay, Second Councilor to the Prophet, George Albert Smith, interviewed Jim and Nona for a half hour. Jim was asked to serve two years in the Western States Mission, headquartered in Denver (October, 1947-1949).
Elder McKay asked Nona, “Are you willing to support your husband on this Mission?” Nona said, “Yes.” Whereupon Jim said he would accept the call. Jim mused, “How can I expect my sons to go on a mission if I don’t go.”
Jim left for Denver and Nona returned to live with our parents in Tremonton. She was expecting their first child and had made plans to work. Our mother, Irene, said she would care for the baby while Nona was at work.
Commentary – It is hard to imagine the enormous faith in Jesus Christ and courage it took for Jim and Nona to accept (their) mission call. Reminiscent of the ancient apostles to “Come follow me” (Matthew 4: 19); and in the early days of the Restored Gospel (mid 1800s) when Apostles and others; husbands leaving their destitute families to serve missions (Example: “Brigham Young – The Early Years”).
Nona likely began working for Box Elder County as the County Health Nurse immediately after Jim left for his mission.
Nona, Box Elder County Public Health Nurse – Nona was employed by Box Elder County during the two years Jim was on his mission. As the county health nurse, Nona filled her Army CNC commitment of “military or civilian nursing” service. With part of her earnings, she bought a car and commuted (16 miles) from Tremonton to her office in Brigham City (county seat) and other communities in the county.
Nona gives birth to her and Jim’s first child – complications - Nona gave birth to her and Jim’s first son, James Bunderson Knighton (James B.), on March 24, 1948.
However, there were medical complications. After James B. was born, Nona experienced significant pain - she had to have an appendectomy and removal of an infected ovary.
When Jim was notified he had a healthy son but his wife needed surgery, he received leave time to come home. After the successful operation, Jim returned to finish his mission.
Commentary – Jim and Nona said that Jim returning to Colorado to finish his mission was one of the hardest tests they ever experienced. But they did it because they knew if they exercised their faith and complete their commitment to the Lord, everything would work out. They were right.
Jim and Nona followed the pattern of giving their sons the middle name of “Bunderson.” Their daughters had no middle name.
Jim returns home from his mission - 1949 – For a few months following Jim’s return from his mission, he and Nona rented an apartment in Tremonton. There, Nona continued her employment and Jim also got a job – both of them working to earn money for school while mother cared for their baby, James B.
Jim’s military service entitled him to receive financial for his education under the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, informally; the “G.I. Bill.” That fall, they moved to Ogdon where Jim graduated from Weber College. He then he enrolled in the chemical engineering program at the University of Utah (U of U).
Eight-years of accomplishment and change – four children - (1950-1957) – Jim and Nona rented a home in Salt Lake City. Jim enrolled in the U of U night school program and worked full-time in the lab at American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) in Magna, 14 miles east of Salt Lake City. ASARCO was the smelting facility that processed the ore mined from the huge open-pit Kennecott Copper Mine.
Nona was pregnant with Marie when Jim graduated from the U of U. She and Jim decided it would be best if she went to Tremonton for her delivery – she knew the doctors and her mother, Irene, would care for James B. Marie was born in 1951.
The next three children were born in Salt Lake City; William Bunderson “Bill,” (1952), Carolyn (1953) and Katheryn “Kathy” (1954). Their grandmother, Minerva Knighton, passed away just before Kathy was born.
Nona found part-time employment as an emergency room registered nurse – saving her wages for a down payment on their house. Jim and Nona purchased their first home in Magna.
Commentary – What Jim and Nona accomplished during these eight-years is astonishing. In sum, Nona bore four children and worked part time as a registered nurse. Jim completed his university education while working full-time. Just orchestrating the care for ultimately five children between their busy schedules had to be daunting. It was likely during this time they started the “Buddy System;” where an older child was assigned to help a younger one.
Our Father in Heaven and Our Savior Jesus Christ loves us and will help us achieve every worthy goal. We often fail to notice their involvement in our lives until after the trial - and we look back introspectively – then we see God’s hand in our success. “There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” (D&C 130: 20-21)
Jim, innovative research chemist – transfer to Chicago – Renae is born – About a year after they settled into their new home, ASARCO arranged for Jim to continue his research for two years in Chicago with Argonne National Laboratory - operated by the University of Chicago. A clear acknowledgement that Jim was an outstanding research chemist and on the fast track to a successful career with the company. Jim and Nona agreed to the company-paid move, ultimately renting a home in Brookfield, Illinois where Renae was born in 1957.
Transfer - New Jersey - David and Paul are born - After two years in Illinois, Jim’s company transferred him to its New Brunswick, New Jersey facility for an additional two years. Jim and Nona purchased a home. David Bunderson (1959) and Paul Bunderson (1960) were born in New Jersey.
Commentary – I was serving my Church mission, principally in Illinois and Wisconsin (September 1958-1960) when Nona and Jim were in New Jersey and Illinois. My monthly out-of-pocket expenses was $120. I had saved enough to finance part of my mission and received the balance from the farm, ward members and in the last year, Nona and Jim began sending $20 a month to me – money I knew they needed for their family.
A few days before I returned home, they sent $100 to me with a note, “Go to school.” It was September. The fall quarter at Utah State was starting. My marvelous sister and brother-in-law, whom I love dearly, gave me wise counsel and the money I would need to get started. With that $100 and $58 of travel-home money I did not use because the parents of another released missionary gave me a ride home - I had just enough money for tuition and books - fall quarter. I immediately enrolled at Utah State University. (Chapters 1 and 16).
“That looks like a Jersey cut” - While in New Jersey, Jim was invited to go to New York City to make a presentation to a group of scientists and officials on a project he was working. Realizing he did not have time for a haircut, he asked Nona to give him a trim - he would have time to see a barber when he arrived at the hotel. As Jim set down in the barber chair, the barber asked, “Where are you from?” Jim said, “New Jersey.” The barber said, “That looks like a Jersey cut.”
A woman on a New York City street - “All fur coat and no knickers” – Wanting to give their children an experience in the “big city,” Jim and Nona dressed their children and drove 35 miles from their New Brunswick home to New York City. As this neat, nicely-dressed family were window-shopping and sightseeing, they were passed by a handsomely dressed woman wearing a fur neck warmer and clothes that looked like she just stepped out of an elite store on Fifth Avenue. The woman walked by, turned and confronted Nona; “Is this all one family?” Nona responded, “Yes.” The woman, with an expression and voice intended to “sting like poisonous venom, sneered Ohhhh!” and walked off in disgust.
Commentary- Being profiled by arrogant and intolerant people was not new to Jim and Nona. However, this case was unusual because of its exceptional rudeness and source – it came from a complete stranger, quick to judge and with an obvious intention to offend.
The woman’s outward appearances suggested that she was a lady of refinement, graciousness and bearing - but her actions and words betrayed her; something the British call, “All fur coat and no knickers (undergarments).” In her dress and demeanor, she was also out of touch with what the Lord told his prophet Samuel when directing him to anoint David, King of Israel, “… man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” (I Samuel 16: 7).
“Let’s trade jobs – you wash; I’ll honk” - Getting all the children ready for church was a challenge. Nona had organized the children into a “buddy system” – each older child was assigned to watch-out for and help a younger child – with varying degrees of success. Overseeing the process, inspecting, answering questions and ultimately getting the family ready rested primarily on Nona.
The family home was several miles from the church meetinghouse. On Sundays, Jim’s Church responsibilities required he leave home early; then return to pick-up the family.
On one occasion, Jim drove up and was waiting in the car while the rest of the family were finishing getting ready. Apparently feeling some urgency, Jim began beeping the horn. After a few minutes, Nona walked outside, opened the car door, handed Jim a wet washcloth and calmly said, “Let’s trade jobs, you wash and I’ll honk.” An embarrassed Jim walked with his sweetheart back into the house to help get the kids ready for church.
Jim changes employers – move to Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois – Changes at ASARCO encouraged Jim to send a job inquiry to his former associates at Argonne National Laboratory circa June, 1960. They immediately called him with a job offer that included his moving costs back to Joliot, Illinois (Twelve miles from the laboratory facility in Lemont). Jim would be doing nuclear research – principally using plutonium fuel for peaceful purposes. Over his career, Jim’s was the inventor of over 25 nuclear energy patents – plutonium.
Move - New Jersey to Illinois – time with Grandma Bunderson – Jim and Nona were amazed – they sold their New Brunswick home in a week. Problem - no place to live. They moved their household goods to a Joliot storage facility. Jim had a couple of weeks before he had to report for work so they took their family to Tremonton. They traveled separately, Paul was only 14 days old when Nona, David and Renae boarded a plane on July 28, 1960. Jim and the other children made the trip in their car. Jim could only spend a week before returning to Illinois where he lived in an apartment and after work hours looked for a house.
Meanwhile in Tremonton, “Grandma Bunderson took it upon herself to teach her grandchildren about life on the farm. She showed them how to gather eggs, scald and pluck the feathers off chickens they would prepare for their next meal, pick currents and raspberries for making jam, drying apricots and feeding the farm animals.
She taught them how to dry clothes without an electric dryer – hanging them outside on a clothesline – “bed sheets to the front for people driving by to see, towels and underclothes to the back – where people driving by could not see.”
Flood irrigating the lawn around the house with water brought in from the mountains through canals and irrigation ditches – cool running water that was three inches deep before soaking into the lawn and two feet deep in the ditch at front of the house. A delightful shady place for children to run through the water on a hot summer day or wade and splash in the deeper water of the irrigation ditch; “a fun and educational visit for all.”
“Can’t find a suitable home to buy – we need to build” – Jim returned to Illinois alone. Their plan was for Jim to find and purchase a house large enough for their growing family. However, he was not able to find anything suitable. Jim and Nona decided they should build a new home or their own design. Jim would find and buy a building lot in a neighborhood he liked and find a home to rent during construction. Several months later, they moved into their new home.
Church bake sale – the Knighton “Donut House” - The Church congregation in Joliot was holding services in the rented a Seventh Day Adventist church building when the Knighton family arrived. Jim was called to be the Branch President. Under his direction, Church members began raising money, $15,000, for the building fund.
Their lead fundraiser activity was weekly bake sales. Fresh glazed donuts were in high demand; the Knighton home became the bakery. Church members helping bake and deliver the orders called it, “The Donut House.”
Nona and Jim organized assembly-line production in their home for making donuts (mix the dough, roll and cut, deep-frying, glazing and packaging). The youth took the fresh donuts to the doors of customers on an ever expanding, word-of-mouth generated delivery route. Branch members had great fun – and many neighbor-customers wanted to help build the church - they became dear friends.
Commentary - The new church building was built in three phases – a construction method commonly used by the Church in those days. The first phase (the phase under construction when the Knighton’s were in Joliot) was half of the multipurpose cultural hall with side classrooms, restroom and kitchen. The phases that came later were the front of the building; chapel with offices and classrooms on the side. The last phase included the Relief Society room, additional classrooms and extension of the cultural hall.
In those years, local branch members were required to raise some of the construction costs of new chapels - with the balance provided from general tithing funds. Today no locally raised funds and construction labor are required - all construction costs are paid out of the Church’s general tithing funds.
Knighton family - volunteer janitors – The new Church meetinghouse was only a block and a half from the Knighton home. Jim was the branch president. He and Nona and the older children volunteered to make sure the facility was properly cared for. Each Saturday morning for several years, Jim and the older children cleaned the building, mowed the lawn in the summer and removed the snow off the walkways in the winter.
Lisa (1962) and Lynette (1964) are born in Joliot – When Lisa and Lynette were born, they joined Renae as being able to say Illinois is their native state. Five of the Knighton children were born in Utah and two in New Jersey.
Premortal Lynette visited her mother - “Mama, you promised!” – After Nona gave birth to Lisa, their ninth child, she was beset with a several health problems, including blood clots in her legs, gallbladder-removal and pain in her female organs. Nona’s health issues added to her stress of essentially having to run the household – caring for nine children and fulfilling her Church callings. Jim’s time at home was limited because of his work-related overtime and travel. He was gone on Sunday’s and some weeknights due to his Church responsibilities.
One night, Nona couldn’t sleep because she “felt so tired and miserable.” She said, “I almost convinced myself that I would have … no more children;” undergoing the surgical procedures that could take away her abdominal pain.
Nona said the next day, she sat at the end of her dining room table, “with my hands on either side of my head trying to figure out what to do.” She said that she no sooner concluded she would go ahead with the surgery; when the voice of a little girl came into her mind, as clear as could be; “Mama, you promised.” Nona said, as she sat there, the little voice kept repeating (echoing) in my mind; “Mama, you promised!”
She discussed her experience with Jim. He asked, “So what have you decided to do.” Nona said, “If I made a promise, I will keep it.” She told Jim they would have another child, it would be a little girl. Three months later, Nona was pregnant. A year later, Lynette was born. Thus, Nona knew the gender of her future baby before Lynette was conceived.
When little blond hair Lynette was old enough to walk and talk, Nona said, “It was the same (little) voice I heard in my mind when I sat at my dining room table praying for guidance.”
Commentary – Sequel - A few months after the Meridian Idaho Temple was dedicated in 2017, I was preparing to officiate in a proxy sealing session - one couple was already in the room. The woman, who was pregnant, said I was the reason they chose to have the child she was carrying. Taken aback, I asked her to explain. She said I officiated in a sealing session they attended in the Boise Temple about a year earlier. During that session, I told the forgoing story about Nona and Lynette; “Mama, you promised,” and added an event about Lynette that happened a few decades later.
I said that Lynette, now married to a worthy man and a mother, came from out-of-state to attend a funeral of a family member, a funeral that I also attended. Learning that Mary Kay had passed away two years earlier, she found me in the crowd and gave me a hug; exclaiming, “Uncle Harold, I didn’t know Aunt Mary had died.” I reflected; if Lynette had not received permission in the pre-mortal world to visit her mother; I would not have been able to receive a hug from my beautiful niece – who still has “a little voice.”
“All human beings – male and female – are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His Plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine Plan of Happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” (The Family, a Proclamation to the World - 1995).
Provident living pays off – Nona left the store and used her food storage – Nona recounts a winter in Joliot wherein the city was hit with a terrible snowstorm. Driving and walking was difficult – freight trucks were stranded. People stormed the grocery stores – buying everything available – shelves emptied fast; store managers rationed critical food items.
Nona said that she went shopping at a large grocery store located nearby and noticed signs – “Only one gallon of milk per customer.” As she was walking down an aisle, she noticed a woman pushing a grocery cart carrying her baby and her purchases, including a gallon of milk.
Suddenly, a man darted into the aisle, grabbed the milk from the woman’s cart and ran. The woman screamed – there was a commotion.
Nona said, “It was pathetic to see the man grab the plastic bottle of milk from a woman with a baby.” She thought, “I really don’t need to shop for anything – I’m going home and use my food storage.”
Commentary - Presumably, there was no more milk on the shelf and the man put the milk he stole into the cart of an accomplice in another aisle.
Nona and Jim followed the counsel of God’s living prophets and had a supply of food at home for emergencies – a supply that could last for several months, if necessary. They were prepared and did not fear. (D&C 38: 30)
“Marie can bake cookies!” – The majority of residents in the city of Joliot were of the Roman Catholic faith; large families were common. However, in the Knighton’s neighborhood, most families were small with one or two children. When the Knighton’s arrived, people took notice of their large family. However, what really set them apart was the character, work ethic and skills of the children. Nona and Jim taught their children to be self-reliant.
Some of Marie’s visiting classmates were amazed to see her baking cookies at home. They had never seen anything quite like it, their mothers never baked breads, cookies and pastries. When Marie served them fresh-baked cookies they “ate a lot and took some home.” The girls told their mothers, “Marie cans bake cookies!”
Marie’s cookies opened the door for Nona, Jim and the children gaining many new neighborhood friends. Years later when the Knighton family moved to Colorado, these neighbors turned-out to say goodbye; they were sorry to see them go.
Jim transfers – the family moves to Boulder, Colorado – Jim’s reputation as an outstanding nuclear research scientist prompted officials at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (now the U.S. Department of Energy - DOE) to offer Jim a job at their Rocky Flats facility near Boulder, Colorado. The family arrived in 1969 and lived there 14 years – All of the children, except Jim Junior and Marie who graduated from high school in Joliet, graduated from high school while living in Boulder.
Like the other cities they lived, they developed many friends. But there were health issues too. Jim was diagnosed with a liver problem. But continued to work full-time. He and Nona also successfully handled demanding Church callings. Nona was called to be the Ward Relief Society President and later the Stake Relief Society President - Jim served on the Stake High Council for several years.
During the 14 years they lived in Boulder, their son Bill was called on a mission to Peru. Marie transferred from BYU to the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) where she graduated and married Mark Alldredge. Bill returned from his mission, enrolled at CU where he met and married Aline Marlin. Carolyn went to school at BYU where she met and married Lanny Loveday. Kathy went to CU where she met and married Tom Haynie. James B. (Jim Junior) met and married Patricia Jene Gibson, Renae met and married Guy William Powell, David married Lynn DeVito and Paul married Julie Winn.
Another transfer – Jim, Nona, Lisa and Lynette move to Livermore, CA - 1983 – Jim was offered employment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at Livermore, California, another federal research facility. This facility was managed by the University of California - four private companies; Bechtel, Babcock and Wilcox, URS and Battelle under contract with DOE.
Nona said it was hard to move away from their children and grandchildren in Colorado. However, they quickly found new friends in Livermore. Lisa was called to serve a mission and Lynette left for BYU where she met and married Walter Fisk.
Nona - Oakland Temple ordinance worker – prayers answered – Nona worked at the Temple until they moved to Salt Lake City - six years. She said that she had many “wonderful experiences,” but driving the freeways was a concern.
The Temple was 25-miles from their home; the freeway traffic was often heavy. She prayed that there would be plenty of space between her car and the next vehicle – front and back. Her prayers were answered. It may have been a small thing, but she said that it, “was a great blessing to me.”
Jim’s health issues – his liver - Jim immersed himself in his work, however, his health issues were problematic. He needed a liver transplant, but none was available for him in California.
Commentary - Through the 1970s, liver transplant operations were deemed experimental. They became more common with a high percentage of success in the 1980’s when Jim needed the organ and procedure. However, under California medical care requirements, Jim did not qualify for listing on the patient transplant registry because of his retirement age. A play on words; “There is no liver for Jim in “Livermore?”
Jim’s retires - age 65 – he and Nona move to Salt Lake City - Nona and Jim’s children, Kathy and Tom Haynie inquired and found Jim’s age was not a barrier for receiving a liver transplant in Utah - at LDS Hospital.
Jim, recognizing his serious health problem and wanting to make sure Nona was cared for after his death, he and Nona decided to move closer to Salt Lake City. Fortunately, there was a beautiful home for sale across the street from Kathy and Tom. Jim and Nona bought and remodeled the home - elevated the sunken living room floor to make it safer for older people to walk and finished the basement with a living room and extra bedrooms.
Lisa and Dale marry – Only time entire family was together in a Temple - -Their move to Salt Lake was made easier because of the warm relationships Tom and Kathy had developed. Their friends immediately became Nona and Jim’s friends. Additionally, their Bishop, Dick Buist, was an old friend of mine – a former employee at Arthur Andersen & Co.
While they were living in Salt Lake, their daughter Lisa met Dale Dunlap – they were married in the Salt Lake Temple. This marriage was a momentous occasion for the family. Nona said, “It was the first time that she and Jim had all of their children in the Temple at the same time.”
Jim - multiple surgeries – passes away September 11, 1992, age 68 - Jim received a liver transplant in April 1990 – but it failed two months later. A second transplant was successful. However, Jim’s recovery was difficult and prolonged. He was released to go home, but required frequent doctor visits to monitor his progress. Further tests disclosed that Jim had prostate cancer and heart problems, both requiring surgery. Nona and Jim’s children provided considerable assistance, but Jim could see that his extended and acute health problems was taking a toll on Nona. Her knowledge and skills as a registered nurse were valuable, but it could not compensate for her worry and the emotional and physical strain she was experiencing in her aging body.
Commentary – Even though there were great precautions, Jim was likely exposed to radiation while doing his atomic energy research – a likely cause of his cancer and organ damage.
Jim needed Nona to go, so he could go - Jim and their children encouraged Nona to spend a few days with Mary Kay and me in Idaho to rest. Their children could handle Jim’s needs.
However, Nona was only with us two (relaxing) days when she received a telephone call. Jim had suffered a heart attack and died – September 11, 1992. Nona flew back home that day.
Commentary - It was as though Jim had planned it. His love for Nona was so great; he needed her to go so he could go.
Nona achieves another goal - 20 years of Temple service - Nona said one of the first things she did after Jim died was to volunteer as an ordinance worker in the nearby Jordon River Temple – she served there for 14 years. Adding her six years at the Oakland Temple, she completed her goal of 20 years of Temple service. She said working in the Temple was a great blessing.
Nona and Jim’s eldest son, James B., lives with Nona – dies there – James B. (Jim) and his wife, Patricia Jene Gibson, divorced. It was mutually convenient for him to move into his mother’s home. Jim helped care for the home and slept in a basement bedroom. Unfortunately, he had multiple health problems, including a stroke. He passed away in 2007, age 59.
Nona’s 80th birthday party – total surprise – Nona’s sister-in law, LaNor (married to Jim’s brother Keith), invited Nona to lunch on her 80th birthday, April 17, 2004. Nona agreed – the trap was set.
On the way home after lunch, LaNor told Nona she needed to stop at the church and meet some other women – she asked Nona to go in with her. Nona saw the parking lot was full. When they walked into the foyer, they could hear singing coming from the cultural hall. Nona suggested they take the back way into the Relief Society room. Nona said LaNor took her by the arm and said, “You are not going in the back door, this is your party” and escorted Nona into the decorated hall filled with happy people that turned to face Nona while applauding and singing Happy Birthday.
Nona said, “I was overwhelmed and could not control my tears.” Through tear-filled eyes she saw that all of her children and most of her grandchildren and great grandchildren were present. Her brothers and sister and their spouses were there. Many of her friends at Church and the neighborhood as well as some of her old friends from Illinois and Colorado were present. Her family “provided wonderful food,” Nona said, “It was the first real birthday party I ever had.”
Age 83, Nona recounts life stories to Marie who records and transcribes – priceless - Nona recounted many of her life stories in 2007 while in Colorado attending her grandson, Joe Haynie’s wedding. While there, she became ill and was admitted to a hospital. While Nona was recuperating, her daughter Marie, suggested they spend the time recounting Nona’s life experiences – Marie interviewed, recorded and typed as Nona told the stories.
Nona concluded her remarks to Marie by noting it had been 15 years since her husband passed away (Nona would live an additional six years). She said, “I have filled my time with family, Church, friends, the Temple, my garden and house. I now have 43 grandchildren and 25 great grandchildren. I have been able to travel to visit them and be present at most weddings, graduations and events, including a trip to visit Kathy and Tom when they lived in Brazil.”
Commentary – Kathy said her mother lived so close to the Lord, she could sense when her children were suffering. When Tom was diagnosed with cancer and undergoing multiple surgeries and cancer treatments, “Mom was always able to discern – and called me just when I needed her most.”
Nona moves into an assisted living facility in Denver - During the last six years of Nona’s life her body was generally strong, however she was suffering from dementia that was getting progressively worse – requiring specialized care. She was admitted into a beautiful assisted living facility near Denver where she had her own furnished apartment. Members of her family visited frequently. Mary Kay and I also traveled to Colorado to visit her. We were impressed with the beauty of the facility and the high quality of care she received.
Nona passes away July 30, 2013 in Denver - buried next to Jim - Salt Lake City – Nona passed away peacefully while living in the assisted-living facility. Everything had been prearranged to transport her body to Salt Lake City.
Commentary - Nona passed away peacefully and is now with her eternal companion in the world of spirits; the two of them teaching the pristine Gospel of Jesus Christ, furthering God’s purposes and awaiting their resurrection. (D&C 138 and Appendix 1).
Mary Kay and I attended Nona’s funeral in Salt Lake – not knowing or expecting that four months later, Mary Kay would also pass away. (Chapter 8).
Lloyd Roe
Enlisted in Navy - Marine Medic (WWII). Science major at Utah State - GI Bill. Age 24 began
2 ½ year Church mission to Norway. Married Lillian Christiansen. Worked on family farm.
Career: Thiokol Chemical. Father of seven; two girls and five boys. At Lilian’s passing in 2016: 25 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Lloyd – born in the farmhouse - Lloyd was born November 20, 1925 in the family’s farmhouse in Stone. He is Billy and Irene’s only child whose middle name is his mother’s full maiden name. Vernon’s middle name is Odell. The initial “R” for Cleo, Thomas and me. Nona and Delphia have no middle name.
“Give me napentot, nelse I die” - Each summer, my mother and dad drove to Willard, Utah; a town south of Brigham City, to buy fruit for canning.
My parents returned home from these trips with the small trunk and back seat of their car filled with several bushels of fresh fruit; an exciting time for the children. Everyone had a delicacy and lots of beautiful fresh fruit to eat.
Mother’s problem was controlling how much fruit each child consumed - needed the fruit to can. Three-year-old, Lloyd took a special liking for apricots. When mother said no more; little Lloyd protested, “Give me napentot, nelse I die.”
Commentary - Willard is high; 4,350 ft. However, because of its position on the west-facing side of the Wasatch Mountains, its climate is moderate, less susceptible to killing frost when the trees are in bloom; particularly suited for growing all types of stone fruits, pears and apples.
Graduated from high school (1943) – WWII raging – enlisted in the Navy - Oleen was training to become a B-24 Liberator bomber pilot when Lloyd enlisted in the Navy. When the Empire of Japan bombed Peral Harbor in 1941, the Marines were under the Department of the Navy. Lloyd was training in California when a Naval officer addressed his entire unit of Seaman Recruits and told them that their orders had changed; they were being transferred to the Marines and would be trained to become Medics.
Lloyd’s unit received their medical training at the 600-bed, Mare Island Naval Hospital just north of San Francisco.
Commentary - The shortage of medical personnel was caused by the terrible battles on the islands of the Pacific. On the battlefront, fanatical Japanese solders violated Geneva Convention agreements and committed “Crimes against Humanity.” They targeted medics who were often unarmed and wore helmets with a bright red cross on a white circle. They apparently determined that for every medic they killed or wounded, several wounded soldiers would be out of action or die. If a Medic tried to help a wounded Japanese soldier, he may find it a ruse; a hidden hand grenade to commit suicide and take-out anyone nearby.
Invasion of Japanese main islands ordered – heavy losses expected - At the conclusion of Lloyd’s (paramedic) training, the Medics were assigned to specific marine combat units; with orders to invade the main islands of Japan.
However, while Lloyd’s convoy was in route, U.S. President Harry S. Truman approved dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The two cities were obliterated.
In an obvious land-grab, Russia declared war against Japan immediately after the bombs were dropped and overran Japanese-held Manchuria. Faced with annihilation, Japan’s emperor Hirohito announced the country’s surrender over the Japanese radio on August 15, 1945. The Japanese government formally surrendered to the U.S. and its allies on September 2, 1945.
Commentary - At the time of the planned invasion of Japan’s main islands, two of the three Axis powers, Germany and Italy, had already unconditionally surrendered – and most of Japan’s outlying island bases had been conquered. However, Japan’s fanatical military leaders and emperor wanted their soldiers and citizens to fight to the death – in apparent Samurai style. The U.S. military projected the invasion of the main island alone would cost up to 500,000 American lives. The greatest loss of American lives since the Civil War.
Convoy in hurricane - deck officer froze – Lloyd filled leadership void - At the time Japan surrendered, Lloyd was part of a large convoy of troop ships headed for the planned invasion of Japan. Lloyd said the convoy was hit by a fierce Pacific hurricane – “large ships seemed to be tossed like matchsticks.” Lloyd said the young naval officer over his area was so afraid that he mentally froze and was physically incapable of giving orders. Lloyd said that in that chaotic moment, he filled-in. The sailors and marines in his area saw his Medic uniform and responded affirmatively to his orders – the ship rode-out the storm.
Commentary – I witnessed how fear can literally immobilize someone when I was a high school senior. On a school project, the boys were to haul whitewash up the steep mountain and paint the schools huge “BR” on the side of the mountain. I observed one boy higher-up the hill swinging a four-foot long dead snake over his head and hurl it at another boy who showed-up very late and was laughing as he walked up the hill. The boy walking up the hill was terrified of snakes. When he saw the other boy swinging the snake over his head to throw at him, he tried to run, but he physically could not get his legs to move, they were like jelly; he fell down, got up and fell down again as the snake, whipping around through the air, hit him and fell at his feet.
Lloyd’s convoy landed as an occupying - not invading army - Rather than entering Japan as an invading army, Lloyd’s convoy of troops walked onto Japanese soil as an occupying force. Japanese military literally laid down their weapons and armaments in piles. Since the Japanese war equipment was slated for destruction, U.S. soldiers were allowed to take and mail home certain confiscated equipment as souvenirs. Lloyd’s mailings included a Japanese rifle, bayonet and parade sword.
Commentary - As a 9-year old boy, I thought the Japanese military relics Lloyd sent home were really cool.
The atomic bombs that ended the war likely saved the lives of others of my family. When Lloyd stepped on Japanese soil, Nona was training to be an Army nurse. Oris was in the Philippines as part of the planned invasion force. (See Delphia, below). Jim, flying B-26 bombers over France and Germany was reassigned to fight in the war with Japan. (See Nona, above).
Lloyd begins college - September 1945 – Lloyd returned home from Japan, trained as a paramedic. With the G.I. Bill to pay his education, he and his good friend, Wendell White, enrolled in the pre-med science curriculum at Utah State.
Commentary – Wendell continued his medical training and became an orthodontist. Twenty-five years later, Mary Kay and I drove from Los Angeles to Tremonton so that Wendell could surgically remove my wisdom teeth that had become impacted. Mother, who was the Tremonton Hospital chef, arranged everything. Wendell performed the operation in the hospital. I hoped to enjoy mother’s cooking; but didn’t think – no solid food.
Lloyd bought surplus army equipment - a haystack on the highway - Lloyd wanted to help Daddy on the farm and earn money. The military was selling surplus equipment for a fraction of cost – veterans had priority. Daddy wanted to bring his range cattle to Tremonton for the winter. However, the hay was in Stone. Problem solved - Lloyd bought an almost new surplus 4-wheel drive, six-wheel army truck - front-end wench and canvas cab and a hitch for pulling the heavy two-wheel trailer he bought. The trailer had been used for carrying cannon barrels.
Lloyd took welding and carpentry classes in high school. He used those skills to retrofit the truck and trailer with wooden beds suitable for hauling hay, sugar beets and corn. He earned money by hauling farmer’s sugar beets and sweet corn to the factories. He could Daddy haul the hay from Stone to Tremonton in just a few trips. The 4-wheel drive sometimes made all the difference in wet fields. Lloyd first hauled loose hay, later baled. When he hauled loose hay, neighbors said it looked like a haystack moving down the highway.
Lloyd bought a combine – harvested our grain and the neighbors too – The going rate for commercial harvest of grain was $6 an acre. Lloyd bought a six-foot wide cutting bar combine, pulled by a tractor for $1,000. He figured if he could find the work, he could earn enough to pay for the combine in a year or two. He would use his mechanic skills to kept the fickle machine working.
Lloyd combined small fields of grain around Tremonton and Stone. Lloyd pulled the combine with our father’s three-wheeled Oliver Tractor. Driving 40-miles over the mountain road that separated the communities was potentially dangerous.
Serious injury or death averted - Lloyd prayed - kept a cool head – Lloyd related his harrowing experience on his first trip to Stone; when driving down the steep three-miles-long Blue Creek Hill. The combine began to push the tractor faster and faster. With the increasing speed, the smaller front free-wheeling tires began to bounce, reducing his ability to steer the tractor.
He couldn’t apply the brakes to slow the vehicle because the tractor brakes were one-wheeled; a foot petal for each of the two 5-foot high back wheels. Any breaking action could jack-knife and wreck the speeding rig sending Lloyd flying. Any attempt to shift to a lower gear to slow the rig down would also be unsuccessful. The speed of the spinning cogs in the gear-case would only allow him to take it out of gear; leaving the tractor freewheeling and moving even faster.
Lloyd did not panic! He accessed his options and determined that the best thing to do was hold the tractors steering wheel firmly with both hands and hope to keep the speeding machinery on the road. As he reached the bottom of the hill, the tractor slowed to its normal speed. He pulled to a stop to get his composure and offer a prayer of gratitude.
After that experience, Lloyd planned ahead, he stopped the tractor at the top of every hill that had a long decent he shifted into a low gear; keeping the tractor from speeding out of control.
Commentary - Lloyd averted serious injury or death by praying and keeping a cool head in the face of calamity – the same as he did on his storm-tossed military ship a few years earlier.
Lloyd’s experience is valuable for all of us as we have stressful experiences. keep God’s commandments; pray to the Lord for guidance and trust in him. God’s modern prophet. Gordon B. Hinckley said, “Keep trying. Be believing. Don't get discouraged. Things will work out.”
Lloyd and Oris’s joint venture – 8-row sugar-beet thinner – Lloyd and Oris had had been discharged from the military following WWII and Oris and Delphia were married when they embarked on a entrepreneurial venture – a way to take physical hardship out of beet thinning. For decades, farmers hired laborers to perform the backbreaking effort - people bent over with a short-handled hoe in one hand and pulling weeds and sugar-beet seedlings growing too close with the other.
Their innovative idea was to design and construct a vehicle with eight sugar beet thinning workstations on the stripped-down chassis of an old truck with a usable motor. A worker would set or lay a few inches above the ground and thin the beets as the vehicle slowly moved down the rows. Their invention had eight beet-thinning positions; six bench chairs with curved wood barrel stave leg-rests and two hammocks with a large hole at one end where the beet-thinner, laying on his stomach, rested his head on a canvas strap; their arms reaching through the hole. The workstations hung from cables bolted to a angle-iron frame bolted or welded to the stripped-down truck chassis; a canvas stretched over the angle-iron top provided shade.
Their “mechanical sugar beet thinner” moved slowly down eight sugar-beets rows; the driver setting on a wood box behind the wheel. I was 12-years-old and was the driver of the vehicle – my tasks included keeping the rig’s wheels between the rows and make “graceful” turns at the end of the rows to go down another block of eight rows of sugar beets.
Oris’s father had large fields of sugar beets; likely the two entrepreneurs’ first customer.
Commentary – Sugar beet production is now largely automated. Thinning and weeding rows of sugar beets has been replaced with equipment that drops one seed at a time with perfect spacing. Genetically modified seed makes the plant impervious to weed-killing herbicides.
Oris said they only operated their business for one season and sold their equipment. Oris and Lloyd had other priorities – a college education and Lloyd, a Church mission to Norway.
Remarkable faith – Lloyd, 24, chooses to serve a Church mission - In September, 1950, Lloyd, 24-years-old, a World War II veteran and with two years of college behind him, decided he should go on a Church mission. He was called to serve in Norway for 2 ½ years.
Commentary - In those years, missionaries going to foreign language countries were called to serve an additional six months, ostensibly to allow time to learn the new language. Today, such missionaries serve two years, including an accelerated language course at training centers.
While Lloyd on mission – Daddy died – mother sold and bought property - Our father died in 1951. The farm in Stone was sold, but not closed before his death. Mother followed her and Daddy’s plan to use the proceeds to pay off bills and use the balance to buy a farm closer to home. In 1952 she bought the dairy farm in Corinne.
At Daddy’s death, Lloyd had 18 months before he would be released from his mission. Cleo had graduated from high school (1950) - the Army draft board gave him a deferral until Lloyd returned home.
Cleo played a critical role in effecting the move to Corinne – commuting daily from Tremonton to milk the cows night and morning and managing the 80 acres of farmland. I was still in high school. (Chapters 1 and 18)
Lloyd meets his eternal companion while on his mission, Lilian Christiansen – Lloyd didn’t plan it, but it happened. While on his mission he and his companion taught the Gospel to a beautiful Norwegian woman, Lilian Christensen – she was baptized in October, 1951; two months before Daddy died.
Lloyd’s mission assignments were in Bergen – he saw Lilian at church. By the fall of 1952, they had fallen in love. This presented a problem. Lloyd was still on his mission and any personal contact had to be arms-length. Solution; Lilian would immigrate to America and live with mother while Lloyd finished his mission. Lilian arrived in November, 1952. Lloyd returned home in April 1953. They were married in the Logan Temple on June 16, 1953. Lloyd was 27; Lillian 22.
Upon Lloyd’s return home, 19-year-old Cleo was drafted into the Army, I was a junior in high school. Lloyd took over running the farm in Corrine.
Lloyd and Lilian decided he would set aside his plan to complete his college education. Rather, they would move into the Corrine farmhouse, which was of good quality, manage the dairy farm and get a full-time job - Baron Woolen Mills in Brigham City.
Mother deeded the five acres that included the farmhouse and barnyard to Lloyd and Lilian
And sold the remaining 75 acres of farmland. Lloyd and Lilian secured financing and made major renovations and addition to the old farmhouse needed for their growing family – Lloyd did most of the carpentry work himself. Their new landscaped home had flowerbeds, a large vegetable garden and farm animals. One of the farm buildings became a wood-working shop.
Commentary – Small farms were rapidly becoming unprofitable. Technological innovation and economies-of-scale forced massive consolidation of farms. Farm houses may still stand, but the land is either owned or rented by large corporate farming operations. Dairy farms in the 1950s of 20 milk cows cease to exist. Dairy farms with over a thousand milk cows are common.
Lloyd and Lilian’s seven children – Lilian (Christiansen – thus the “C” in the boy’s names) gave birth to all of their children in the Tremonton hospital: Oleen C (1954), Kenneth C (1955), Dan C (1957), Julie Ann (1959), Shaila (1961), Wendell C (1963) and Lloyd Eric (1970).
Commentary – Oleen was 4-years old when I left the farm for my Church mission. I missed not seeing my nephews and nieces grow up. Hopefully, this family history book will strengthen family bonds.
I scared the pheasant so bad, it jumped right out of its skin – Several months after Lloyd and Lilian married - Lloyd was working at his full-time job in Brigham City; I was mowing hay using a seven-foot-long cutter bar mounted to a tractor. The cutter bar hit a pheasant hiding in the alfalfa. I got off the tractor and used my pocket knife to skin and clean the bird while I walked to the milk house to wash it. I laid the dressed bird on a white napkin and walked it to the farmhouse to give it to Lillian.
When Lillian came to the door, she asked in broken English, “What is that?” I said it was a pheasant for her and Lloyd’s dinner. She said, “Where is its feathers?” I said, “I hit it with the mower and scared it so bad it jumped out right out of its skin.”
Lillian, did not understand or see the humor in my use of the English idiom - so I told her to just tell Lloyd exactly what I said - and he would explain – in Norwegian.
Get me out of this garbage can – Lilian was an only child. Lloyd and Lilian and sometimes just Lilian visited them in Norway. After several years, her parents came to Utah for a visit.
Mary Kay and I had recently moved into our new home in Granada Hills in 1967, and invited Lloyd and Lilian to bring her parents for a visit – we would take them to Disneyland, 50 miles south; something Mary Kay and I often did when we had out-of-state visitors. Lloyd and Lillian were interpreters for her parents.
When we arrived at Disneyland, we purchased a book of ride-tickets for each person. After a few rides, we bought a treat and were walking slowly along the concourse as we ate and visited. We were startled when we heard Lilian’s mother’s muffled screams for help.
We turned and saw her legs sticking out of a three-foot tall 50-gallon garbage container with a smooth 3-inch lip around the top. Lloyd and Lillian’s father rushed to her aid. She emerged from the can with tousled hair, but triumphantly holding her precious book of tickets over her head.
She told us when she tossed her paper napkin into the container, she was holding her ticket-book in the same hand – they both went in together. Rather than asking for help, this five-foot two-inch-tall lady instinctively went in after her coupons; reaching further and further into the near-empty barrel until she lost her balance and fell headfirst.
Commentary – The memory of Lillian’s mother in the garbage can was more vivid than any ride; unfortunately, we didn’t get a picture.
Lloyd’s career -Thiokol Chemical Corporation – 31 years – Thiokol won the contract from the U.S. military for manufacturing the solid propellant used in the first-stage of the nuclear-warhead Minuteman Missile. They built their plant in the remote mountain foothills west of Corrine.
Because of Lloyd’s chemistry courses in college, he applied for a job in the lab where they tested the quality of each shipment of ingredients used in making the propellent and each batch of propellant.
Lloyd got jobs for Cleo and me - Lloyd was highly regarded by the lab’s management. He was successful in getting Cleo a job with him in the lab. Knowing I needed to work at night so I could go to school during the day, he was also successful in getting a job for me on the night shift – extracting or picking-up samples of materials and delivering them to the lab for testing.
Lloyd spent the remainder of his working career at Thiokol – retiring with full benefits.
Commentary – Lloyd’s efforts on behalf of Cleo and me had multiple life-changing results for us both. Cleo’s job at Thiokol became his career. I was able to pay for my college education – and meet Mary Kay, my eternal companion. (Chapters 1 and 2).
Lloyd and Lillian – Full-time couple mission and Temple ordinance workers – After Lloyd retired from Thiokol, he and Lilian were called to serve a full-time mission to Norway. They also served many years as ordinance workers in the Logan Temple.
Lilian and Nazi German occupation of Norway – WWII - As a nine-year old girl living in Bergan, Lilian experienced great deprivation and feared the brutality of the Nazi German soldiers who conquered her country in 1940 and occupied it until the end of WWII in 1945.
She was reluctant to talk about the years of Nazi occupation because of the bad memories; brutality, including forcing her father, who was a taxi driver, to be the driver for Nazi officers.
She told me how terrified she was when the black-booted, goose-stepping Nazi German soldiers marched down their streets
Commentary - After the war ended, Lilian’s life changed dramatically for the better. She joined the Church, came to America, married Lloyd and raised a wonderful family.
Lloyd and Lilian pass away – Lloyd passed away on March 4, 2005, age 79 from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Lilian was 85 years old when she passed away on March 23, 2016 at their family home in Corinne – she was under Hospice care at the time.
At Lilian’s passing, their posterity included seven children, 25 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Commentary – Lilian demonstrated enormous courage to leave her homeland and parents, come alone to America and two years later, start a new life with Lloyd. Throughout their married life, she and Lloyd chose to be active in the Lord’s Church and serve others. They taught the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their family – by precept and example.
Delphia
Strikingly attractive, effervescent personality, entrepreneur, talented seamstress and interior decorator. Married Oris Rudd (WWII Army vet, County Agent, college professor – Church leader) She and Oris served four Church missions. Parents of five children – 19 grandchildren, 79 great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren at 2019.
Delphia is born in the family farmhouse - Delphia (1927-2019) was born September 9, 1927 in our parent’s farmhouse in Stone. She attended the one-room Stone elementary school until the sixth grade when she transferred to McKinley Elementary coincident with our family moving to Tremonton in 1939.
She began attending Bear River High School in 1941. The school bus picked-up both elementary and high school students and delivered them to their respective schools - three miles apart.
Delphia - my personal caregiver - her doll buggy my limo - When I was born, Delphia was nine years old. She had a little stroller in which she placed her dolls and took them for a ride. After I was born, she had a little baby brother; Delphia became my babysitter. She moved me into her doll-buggy and her dolls were out. She pushed me around the yard as she talked to me.
Commentary - I don’t remember those stroller rides, but I undoubtedly laughed at everything she said; It was always a joy to be around Delphia. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had a need as a baby, Delphia was there to take care of it.
Oh Nona, let’s give it one more breath - Delphia and her 3-years-older sister Nona learned how to be self-reliant – they thought. One day as teenagers, the two girls were home alone and decided they would prepare a fried chicken dinner for the family. There was only one problem, they would first have to catch and butcher a chicken – something they had never done by themselves, but had observed our father do many times (Daddy did the entire procedure by himself - he held the bird’s legs and wings with one hand; the with the ax in the other, cut off the chicken’s head) – the teenagers probably thought, no problem.
They scattered grain on the ground to attract the chickens and then with daddy’s poultry leg hook captured a young rooster. Then came the hard part – they had to kill the chicken. They agreed to divide the responsibilities; Delphia would hold the chicken’s wing feathers and legs together so it couldn’t move – just like they 0bserved Daddy. Delphia was to then place the bird’s neck on the large chopping block – and Nona would swing the ax and cut-off its head.
However, when Nona swung the ax, Delphia jerked the bird off the chopping block. This happened a couple of times. Nona said, “Delphia, that’s no way to get a chicken ready for supper.” To which Delphia responded, while clutching the bird, “Oh Nona, let’s give it one more breath.” Nona said, she took the bird and completed the job; the only time she killed a chicken.
Commentary – I suspect it was also the only time Delphia an accomplice.
“The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor” - I vividly remember December 7, 1941. It was Sunday; the family had just returned home from Church. I was five years-old and playing outside – Momma and Daddy were also outside looking at their flowerbeds - it was pleasant day. Delphia was inside the house and turned-on the radio – the program was interrupted for a special announcement; Delphia burst onto our front porch screaming, “The Japs bombed Pearl Harbor.”
Commentary – It is unlikely that my family knew anything about Pearl Harbor. The daily news described Nazi, Japanese and Italian invasions and conquests of other countries, but the U.S. had been officially neutral. That surprise attack on U.S. territory changed everything; my country and family would never be the same.
Delphia graduates from BRHS in 1945 – her first full-time job - Delphia had grown into a particularly beautiful woman with a happy, caring and effervescent personality. Following graduation, she found employment with Utah Power and Light (UP&L) as the receptionist in their glass-front, one-story office building on Main Street in the center of Tremonton.
Commentary – Delphia’s front-office position with UP&L gave her a lot of public exposure. Tremonton was the local shopping center. Word War II was ending. To save postage stamps, people would often stop by the UP&L office to pay their electric bill when they were in town.
Almost all Main Street window-shoppers looked in as they passed by. Local UP&L management undoubtedly selected Delphia’s to fill that front-office position because of her strong interpersonal skills, attractive appearance and engaging personality – she was a perfect fit for the person they wanted to greet and help their customers.
I know who my sister likes best - Delphia had several suitors. As a little boy, I was often present when they came and waited in the living room for her to come out – mostly I just observed.
However, on one occasion, she had a date with a young man that I overheard Delphia say to Mama and Daddy that there was someone else she liked better.
When the young man arrived a bit early, mother invited him into the living room and went to tell Delphia that her date had arrived. I was eight years old. Since the two of us were alone in the room, I apparently felt it my duty to be a good host and entertain him.
Armed with the intelligence I overheard from Delphia, I set about discussing something I thought he would find interesting. I broke the silence by innocently saying, “I know who my sister likes best.” I immediately had his attention.
He asked, “Who.” I told him I wouldn’t say. He offered to pay me money – 10 cents - if I would divulge my secret. I still refused to disclose any information – he raised his bribe; okay, I will give you a quarter. I was still mum. As I recall, he was up to $1.60 when “embarrassed” Delphia burst into the room, stopping our conversation and killing my chances for instant wealth.
Commentary – Delphia was mortified, but I later discovered that Momma and Daddy were behind the swinging door to the kitchen with tears in their eyes, holding their mouth, trying to suppress their otherwise audible laughter.
World War II - Oris was spared fighting in the war with Japan – Oris graduated from BRHS a year before Delphia. In December, 1944, at age 18 Oris was drafted and re[ported for duty. After his 16-week basic training at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Arkansas and a 10-day furlough to visit home, Oris spent 25-days aboard a troopship destined to the Philippines – specifically, Tacloban, a city on the island of Leyte – a camp named “4th Replacement Depot. “
When his ship arrived, medical staff diagnosed one soldier on board with potentially contagious Meningitis. Not wanting to take any chances, his ship was quarantined for 30 days. When the quarantine was lifted, the orders for each of the men was posted. Oris was assigned to the 132nd Infantry Regiment of the 23rd Infantry Division (called Americal) and moved to the Philippine island of Cebu – Headquarters Company – training for the planned invasion of Japan.
Before is Division embarked, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs that obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The Emperor of Japan, Hirohito, announced to his people in a recorded radio speech on August 15, 1945, that Japan had unconditionally surrendered to the United States and its allies. The formal surrender took place on the deck of the Battleship Missouri on September 2.
News of Hirohito’s planned action was known by U.S. Intelligence before Hirohito’s recorded radio speech was broadcast. Oris recounts walking guard duty at 10pm on his 19th birthday, August 14, when he received word that “the Japs have quit.” (The war with Germany and Italy had already ended about four months earlier.)
American and allied soldiers began moving onto the main islands of Japan as occupying forces on August 28 - in preparation for the formal surrender four days later.
Oris and his “Americal Division” landed on Japan soil on September 11, 1945. Shortly thereafter, the Americal Division was disbanded and Oris was assigned to Troop D, 5th Calvary Regiment. He was promoted to Sargent - Troop’s Records Clerk in the Regimental Records office.
One year after arriving in Japan, Oris was among those receiving orders to return to the states and discharge. He and his unit boarded a “Liberty Ship” to make the trip home. Oris described his trip aboard ship as “a very rough crossing.”
Commentary - Liberty ships was the name of over 2,700 mass-produced cargo ships built during the war – 441 feet long and 57 feet wide at the beam. Over 200 of the vessels were converted to troop ships – carrying up to 550 soldiers each. Cargo bays converted to sleeping and other quarters were poorly suited for passenger travel – inadequate sanitation, mess (eating area) and ventilation facilities. Bad weather compounded the very unpleasant crossing.
Oris arrives back in America - Oris’s ship landed at Fort Lewis, a military base near Tacoma, Washington. He was then transported down to Camp Beale, near Marysville, California (40 miles north of Sacramento), where he received an honorable discharge – released to go home.
Commentary - Oris was 20 years old when he was discharged in the fall of 1946 – after nearly two years of service. Young in years; much older and wiser in terms of experience.
His parents had taught him the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in their home and knew it was true. Unlike many of his army friends who chose to use their pass-time to carouse in local bars and dives, Oris chose worthwhile pursuits. Because of his obedience to Gospel principles, he was eligible for God’s blessings and remained mentally, emotionally and physically free. Whereas those who chose to live a hedonistic lifestyle separated themselves from God and were “in bondage” to their addictions and adverse consequences of their poor choices. “Behold I say unto you that wickedness never was happiness. (Alma 41:10)”
When Japan surrendered, Oris’s future family members: Marine Combat Medic, Lloyd was aboard ship; part of a convoy headed for Japan. Aviator Jim Knighton, who had been flying B-26s over France and Germany, had been reassigned and was on a troop ship headed for an unspecified Pacific island airbase. Nona was in Ogden, training to be a registered nurse and 1st Lieutenant in the Army. (See Nona and Lloyd above).
Oris begins College – Home from the war and eligible for federal GI-Bill benefits, Oris started school at Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) in the fall of 1947; living at home in Fielding and commuting to school with other students.
Oris and Delphia’s first date was - um, complicated – Wanting to get settled into a normal life, Oris laid plans for his education, and more importantly, finding the woman he would marry. Oris was a year ahead of Delphia in high school. They had not officially met, but knew of each other through had mutual friends who were very complimentary. Oris learned Delphia worked at UP&L and routinely looked-into the store-front window to see Delphia at the reception desk.
One day, Oris, not known for timidity, walked into the UP&L office when there were no customers and asked Delphia for a date the next Saturday.
Delphia quickly accepted. However, she had problem. She didn’t tell Oris she already had a date for that night.
Delphia’s solution – back out of her previous date and substitute a new girl. It worked - Delphia’s beautiful and witty cousin Verdeen Roe, was living in our home while finishing her last year of high school. She was willing to go along with Delphia’s plan – and the other fellow reluctantly agreed to the substitution.
Delphia’s cover was blown when she and Oris returned from their “”most enjoyable evening together.” They were standing on our front porch talking when Verdeen and Delphia’s former date drove up. Delphia diplomatically said goodnight to Oris and ducked inside.
Sequel – three decades later - Delphia’s 40th high school reunion - a woman came over to Oris and Delphia’s table and introduced herself as “the wife of Delphia’s jilted date.” She said, “I just had to meet the girl who broke my husband’s heart.”
Oris and Delphia marry – then elope – Oris was 21 and Delphia was 20 when they were married in the Lord’s Logan Temple April 22. 1948. That evening, their parents hosted a wedding reception for them at the Tremonton First Ward cultural hall. Knowing that some of their friends were planning mischief at the end of the reception, they quietly slipped away on their honeymoon - while the guests were still dancing and enjoying the festivities.
Oris and Lloyd’s joint venture - an 8-rows-at-a-time sugar beet thinner – After Oris and Delphia married, he and Lloyd came up with an innovative idea to earn extra cash. They would take an old pick-up truck chassis and motor and weld an angle iron overhead frame with eight stations below where workers could either set on a board or lay-down on a hammock a few inches above the ground and thin sugar beets under the shade of a canvas canopy affixed over the top of the angle iron superstructure.
Provided much better working conditions than the short-hoe, backbreaking, labor-intensive task farmers hired workers to do each spring. (See Lloyd above).
Bobby, Judy and Janet are born - Oris graduates - Oris and Delphia rented an apartment in Logan. Delphia worked for a retail store for two years until their first son, Robert B (Bobby) was born in the Logan Hospital on April 28, 1950. Delphia then became a stay-at-home mom.
Oris was working part time as a Soil Surveyor for the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station and registered for additional courses; a fast-track to graduate several months before the school’s official commencement ceremony in June.
When Oris was out of town, Delphia, pregnant with Judy and Janet, took Bobby and stayed with our parents in Tremonton.
On April 11, 1951, Delphia gave “premature” birth to two beautiful twin girls, Judy and Janet, in the Logan Hospital. It was a difficult pregnancy - Delphia was weak. Many prayers were offered and answered.
After two weeks in the hospital the two little girls were released, but a lot of care was still required and someone needed to help take care of Bobby. The children’s two willing and able grandmothers opened their hearts and their homes to fill the void.
Delphia and the three children divided their time between Tremonton and Fielding where Grandma Bunderson and Grandma Rudd provided additional care while Oris continued working for the Experiment Station and completing his education.
Oris secures a great job but the location is problematic – Oris officially graduated from Utah State with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy in June 1951. In July, the kind of job for which he had trained became available. After interviews with several applicants, Utah State officials offered Oris the job 370 miles south - County Extension Agent, San Juan County; classified as tenured faculty, Assistant Professor.
Oris and Delphia would live in the city of Monticello, the seat of San Juan County, near the southeast corner of Utah near “Four Corners,” the only place in the nation where four states meet; Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
To Oris and Delphia’s families, the place sounded far away and desolate, but to Oris and Delphia, it had an air of excitement; opportunity; a career Oris wanted.
Oris’s father hauled their household goods on his rig and the two grandmothers traveled with them to help Delphia with the babies. Their new home was a rented “government-owned” house. Oris reported for work August 1, 1951.
Commentary – Prospectors discovered deposits pf uranium in San Juan County. The atomic bombs that ended the war with Japan six years earlier, brought focus on prospecting and mining for uranium.
Uranium ore is mildly radioactive. A Geiger counter was one of the tools prospectors used to find deposits of the precious metal. A few prospectors in San Juan County became rich overnight; reminiscent of the gold discoveries of the previous century.
Monticello had a population of about 1,200 when Oris and Delphia arrived and was growing at a rate of over 5 percent a year. City services and affordable housing were not keeping up.
At the time of their move, my father and mother concluded that my mother should travel with Oris and Delphia and Mrs. Rudd to help take care of the three babies. Daddy chose to stay home with Cleo and me. His health was not good - he passed away two and a half months later – October 18, 1951, age 68,
Acclimating into the Monticello community – The County Agent was a visible position in the small, agriculture-based community founded by Church pioneers in 1887. Oris and Delphia made it a point to participate in community activities. A few months after arriving, Oris agreed to serve as chairman of the community’s annual March of Dimes Drive to raise funds to combat polio.
Tragic loss – 3-year old Bobby dies – In the summer of 1953 Oris attended summer school in Colorado. Grandma Bunderson kept the twins and Delphia and little Bobby went with Oris. While in Colorado, Bobby became ill. Oris said, “Bobby was unexpectedly called home.” He died in the Tremonton Hospital on August 9, 1953 and was buried near his Grandpa Bunderson who died two years earlier.
Four years in Monticello – they have to move – Oris’s was notified that they were being evicted from their “government-owned” house as of July 1, 1955. A government employee of higher rank was moving to town and there were still no good homes to buy or rent.
This posed a major problem; they needed good housing. Delphia was caring for the twins, pregnant with Brian and needed medical care. Mother invited them to come to Tremonton where Delphia could receive good medical care - she and Grandma Rudd would take care for the two girls.
Having lost Bobby because of inadequate medical care in Colorado, they did not want to take any chances. They agreed Delphia and the children would do better in Tremonton. Oris would complete his work in progress and resign.
He sent job applications to agricultural officials in California and Oregon. Oris’s father came with his cattle truck and moved their belongings to his home in Fielding, Utah to await the next move (Fielding is about 10 miles north of Tremonton). The U.S. Forest Service Ranger said Oris could stay in a small furnished cabin at the Ranger Station while he wrapped-up his work.
Brian is born in Tremonton – During this time of employment uncertainty, Delphia was pregnant with Brian. Oris and Delphia concluded it would be better if Delphia gave birth to Brian in Tremonton where they were acquainted with the doctors and the two grandmothers could take care of the girls. Brian B was born in the Tremonton Hospital that July.
The family moves to Salem, Oregon - September, 1955 – The Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Director made a job offer to Oris – Marion County Extension staff in Salem, the capitol city of Oregon - population 44,000 – working with back-yard gardeners and suburban farmers in the lush Willamette Valley where tens of thousands of Oregon Trail pioneers and homesteaders settled a century earlier. Oris would retain his “tenured faculty, Assistant Professor” credentials.
Their furniture was still on Oris’s father’s cattle truck in Fielding. Oris’s brother Evan helped Oris drive the truck 700 miles to Salem and put their belongings in storage.
Judy and Janet were four years old and Brian two-months when Oris and Delphia loaded them into their car and drove to Salem. This time, without the children’s two grandmas to help.
They found a home for rent and moved-in. Church members were instant friends. After several months, Oris was called to be a counselor in the ward bishopric. However, little Brian’s allergies flared-up - requiring medication.
They attributed Brian’s health issues to climate. Monticello’s dryer 7,100 ft. elevation; 16 in. annual precipitation. Salem, 150 ft, elevation and a humid 40 inches annual precipitation.
Fourteen months in Salem – Oris transferred to Lakeview, Oregon – In the fall of 1956 Oris’s supervisor called to notify him of a promotion and transfer. They wanted Oris to replace the head of the OSU Extension office in Lakeview, county seat of Lake County.
His experience working with ranchers and their livestock in Utah made him a perfect fit for the agricultural community in the huge Lake County, 8,400 square miles - 5.4 million acres, ranches and timber. Lakeview’s population was about 3,000. It was a significant promotion.
Oris drove 300 miles southeast of Salem to Lakeview; 4,800 ft. elevation - 3,000 population - near the Oregon-California border. He met with Extension personnel and community leaders. Offer accepted, Oris needed to be on the job December 1.
Lakeview - Vickie Lee is born – Church service – Measles quarantine –They purchased their first home - nice neighborhood; excellent schools. Church members provided a base of instant friends and social activities. Brian’s allergies cleared-up in Lakeview’s dry climate.
Happy event - 1958 - Delphia gave birth to Vickie Lee, their fifth and last child.
Delphia and Oris were promptly into Church service; Delphia, secretary then president in their ward Relief Society. Oris was the ward young men’s president and later served on the Klamath Stake High Council
Measles came into their home when Delphia agreed to care for two small children for a few days; while their mother was in the hospital delivering her third child. One had apparently been exposed to the virus. When the child became ill, the Rudd’s house was quarantined for two weeks. Oris said a lasting friendship between the two families was cemented.
Commentary – The measles vaccine was invented in 1963. Today, children receive the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) when they are one year old and a booster when they are four; saving the lives of many children.
Oris - one-year sabbatical - 1963 – Utah State - MS in sociology – Oris’s employer, OSU, granted Oris a one-year sabbatical (paid leave) to get his Master’s Degree. They chose to return to Utah State University to get the degree – where family was nearby. They rented their home in Lakeview and moved to Logan. They lived with mother their last month of school - Oris wrote and Delphia typed (and retyped) his master’s thesis.
When they returned home in 1964, they were surprised – the women in the Lakeview Relief Society persuaded the Bishop to give Delphia a sort-of “sabbatical” too - hold open her position as Ward Relief Society President. She picked-up right where she left off.
Commentary – Successful computer word processing programs were not available until after 1979. Prior to then, changes to typed manuscripts generally required retyping.
The family moves to Madras in 1966 – Two years after returning to Lakeview, Oris was asked to move again; head-up their office in Madras, Jefferson County – the present leader was retiring. He would be leading eight staff serving the county’s diverse agricultural community.
Oris drove 220 miles northeast to Madras; Delphia and the children stayed in Lakeview until the children were out of school.
Delphia – community organizer – When the churches and service clubs in Madras had a worthy cause, they organized a fundraising event; solicitating donations from the general public and local businesses. Different groups holding their activity on the same day was problematic.
Business community leaders called a meeting where one delegate from each nonprofit organization were to come, ostensibly to calendar their fund-raising activity.
Delphia represented the Church. At the first meeting, she listened to the delegates express frustration - too much competition - poor results. As the county agent, Oris was involved with the annual county fair exhibits at the fairgrounds - that stood empty part of the year. At the second meeting, Delphia proposed they hold one annual community-wide event at the county fairgrounds. Each organization would share in the common costs but would be individually responsible for their own booth-decorating and operating expenses. The delegates voted on Delphia’s motion - unanimous approval.
Commentary – Oris said the “Madras Community Bazaar” became a community attraction; still going strong when the Rudd’s moved to Ontario in 1975.
Oris called to be a Bishop – Delphia teaches early-morning seminary - The members of the Church living in the greater Madras area were organized into a ward in 1968. Oris, who had been serving as branch president was called as the ward’s first Bishop. Delphia was called to teach early-morning seminary to high school students.
Commentary – The Church conducts religious training classes for high school and college students wherever possible. Accredited courses are generally taught during school hours. High schools in some school districts allow “release-time” for students. Where such programs are not available, students and (volunteer) teachers meet off-campus before school starts (Early-morning seminary). In some locals, Early-morning Seminary begins at 6 AM. Student/teacher attendance at that hour is remarkable - a tribute to their faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.
Judy and Janet marry – Judy married Terry Ernest Herzberg in 1970. They have six children; Derek Ernest (1972), Jena Lynn (1974), Darci LeAnne (1975), Stacie Teresa (1977), Brandon Matthew (1979) and Teryn Michael (1982).
Janet married Eddie Alvin Dunn in 1975. They have two children; Jamie Nichole (1978) and John Robert (1981). Janet died unexpectedly from a complication following surgery in 1999. She was 48-years-old.
“Del’s Draperies” begins – help children’s college education – Delphia consulted with the County Extension Office staff regarding potential small business niches for which there was high demand. The “window treatment” idea emerged. Delphia was already an experienced seamstress – she had been taught by her mother and made or altered her children’s clothing for years.
Delphia started a custom window-treatment business: “Del’s Draperies” - Oris would help. Delphia enrolled in drapery-making course offered by the Extension office and bought books on the subject; learning how to make different styles of window treatments. Oris remodeled their daylight basement and built a large padded work table on which to lay and pin fabric - and a work table to set the commercial sewing machine they bought. Delphia contacted wholesale accounts with fabric manufacturers and distributors who gave her fabric sample books.
Delphia and Oris went to her customer’s home or office to take window measurements and show them pictures of optional window treatments. After Delphia completed the curtains or draperies, Oris joined her in completing the installation.
Delphia turned her commercial business into a creative art-form that she loved. Her end-products were beautiful – receiving numerous compliments on her custom-fit drapes, swags and valances that beautified her customer’s homes or offices – not only in Madras, but in nearby cities. Delphia had so much business she hired a seamstress full-time.
Commentary – By the time the Rudd’s left Madras, Delphia was well known in the town and highly regarded. At a community party in Madras to recognize the Rudd’s before they left for Ontario, the master of ceremonies said, “The Extension Service can get a new County Agent; but who is ever going to replace Delphia.”
Mary Kay and I moved into our new home in Granada Hills in 1967. Mary Kay described the windows to Delphia over the telephone and the two developed a window-covering plan. Mary Kay and I measured the windows as Delphia directed and she went to work. Two months later, Delphia, Oris and their children drove to our home to install beautiful window coverings; gold braid trim on the draperies with swags then hung in the living and connecting dining room; transforming barren rooms into something beautiful. That done, we all went to Disneyland.
Oris and Delphia’s final move - Transfer to Ontario, Oregon – After nine years in Madras, the administrators of the OSU Agricultural Extension Service offered Oris another promotion; Ontario, the county seat of Malheur County, 275 miles east of Madras and 57 miles northwest of Boise. Population, 9,000; situated on the west bank of the 1,056-mile-long Snake River and boundary between Oregon and Idaho. Prehistoric flooding of the Snake River and volcanic activity left rich soils; ideal for growing potatoes, sugar beets and onions.
Oris and Delphia arrived in Ontario in August, 1975; rented an apartment and found a residential building lot on which they could build their home.
Their contractor did the core construction work and Oris did finishing work. After they moved into their home, Oris moved his wood-working equipment into their garage and built their kitchen and bathroom cabinetry. The set-up Delphia’s “Del’s Draperies” tables and equipment and she made window treatments - beautiful “drapes with valances; curtains and shades for every window.”
Commentary – Moving to a new location is a life-changing experience by itself. This move was complicated for the Rudd’s. Oris said they set their “disappointments” aside and worked to acclimate into their new community;” at the same time caring for family, building a new house and doing the finishing work themselves. Oris said, “My new position brought new challenges and opportunities.” Delphia did not restart Del’s Draperies. They focused their available time on completing their house and landscaping their yard, including a large garden and fruit trees.
Oris and Delphia are excellent examples and role-models for provident living. No matter how long or how hard - they faced their challenges and disappointments together.
Settling into the Ontario community - Oris’s County Agent position and Church service gave him considerable visibility. In Church, Oris was called to the Nyssa Stake High Council and later a counselor in the Stake presidency. When the Nyssa Stake was divided, creating the Ontario Stake, Oris was called as a counselor in the Ontario Stake Presidency.
Delphia served in the Young Women’s organization and an Early-morning seminary teacher.
Commentary – Delphia became a mentor to many young women who needed a good role model. One such person lived with her mother who had just remarried. The young women did not accept her new step-father. With the mother’s approval. Delphia invited the girl to live with her and Oris’s until the family could work out a solution. After a week apart and Delphia’s kindness, the young woman said she was ready to return home and do her part in bringing unity to her family.
Delphia’ example of love, service and faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ was so strong, that it had a lasting effect on many of the young women she taught. Long after many of the young women married and had children of their own, they continued to keep in touch with Delphia; some stopping to visit when passing through Ontario.
Brian and Vickie marry – Brian married Martha Dawn “Marty’ Butler on August 13, 1977. They have six children; Jennifer Jo (1975 – Brian’s previous marriage), LaTisha Kaye (1978), Stephanie LeAnne (1980), Brian Clark (1982), Robert B (1986) and Karlee Dawn (1990).
Vickie married Peter Lynn Hibbard on April 8, 1978. They have five children; Melissa Joy (1978), Amy Rebecca (1980), Christopher Lynn (1982), Matthew Ernest (1984) and Timothy (1986).
Delphia – repeat drapery performance – our Georgia, and Idaho homes – Mary Kay and I bought a new home and moved to Georgia in 1972. One of the first things Mary Kay did was to call Delphia about window coverings. A couple of months later Oris, Delphia and Vickie came to our home to hang the beautiful custom-made draperies and curtains. (Chapter 5).
When I transferred to my Firm’s Boise office in 1977, Delphia again offered to use her marvelous talent to make our new home in Meridian more beautiful. Of particular note was the complexity of fabricating window sheers that slope down from our 13-foot high cathedral ceiling – cut on an angle, with tie-backs to frame the large windows - overlook the Boise River.
Commentary – Delphia’s work was an artform; window treatments that framed windows inside to enhance the visual landscape view outside; stunning artistic accomplishments that would complement any gallery of the visual or performing arts.
Oh, how we love her. Mary Kay and I could not go into a room in any of our three homes without being warmed by Delphia’s graciousness and her marvelous talent.
What Delphia did for Mary Kay and I, she also did for Nona and Jim. Oris said, “Delphia’s most complicated and beautiful creations were hung in her sister Nona’s and her brother Harold’s homes.”
Oris retires from OSU - second career at TVCC – Oris retired from OSU after 27 years - Professor Emeritus - age 56.
Treasure Valley Community College asked him to develop and teach a continuing education type curriculum for agribusiness employees (field men and women) who needed to upgrade their skillset. Oris accomplished the work and resigned after five years.
Oris’s third career - Malheur ESD – Malheur (county) Education Service District in Ontario had a program for disadvantaged and handicapped high school seniors – helping them prepare for and obtain gainful employment. Oris retired a third time in 1992 - he and Delphia wanted to serve a Church mission - “couple missionaries.”
Delphia, manager - Church Garment Center in Ontario – The Church opened an outlet for the sale of temple clothing in Ontario around the time the Boise Temple was dedicated in 1984. Delphia was managing the Center when she was released in 1992.
First Church mission - Leeds, England (1992-1993) – Oris and Delphia were called to travel 6,000 miles east of Ontario to serve a 18-month mission in Leeds England, about 200 miles north of London. Their primary assignment was to help stake, ward, district and branch leaders visit less-active members. Oris said they met with over 200.
Commentary – Oris said when new converts fail to pray, assimilate with other Church members and do not have Church callings, the light of their testimony can become dimmed; they return to allowing their day to day cares dominate their priorities.
As the Lord’s modern Apostle, Neil Maxwell said, “We get in the thick of thin things.” The ancient Apostle Paul said, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. (I Corinthians 2: 14).”
In the final analysis, we choose what we shall become – that is why we are on earth: “…We will go down, for there is space there, and we shall take of these materials and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them. (Abraham 3: 24-25; Appendix 1).”
Second Church mission - Micronesia Gaum (1993-1995) – Micronesia, is vast tropical region in the western Pacific Ocean about 1,500 miles due east of the Philippines. It includes over 2,100 islands, a total land and water area of 2.9 million square miles - a population today of over a half a million – about half that when Oris and Delphia were there.
The people living on the islands are largely governed by five (5) independent sovereign nations and three U.S. territories – largely encompassing four main island groups, the Caroline Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands.
The five sovereign nations are The Federated States of Micronesia (sometimes also called “Micronesia”), Palau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Nauru. The U.S. territories are Guam, Wake Island and Northern Mariana Islands.
The Federated States of Micronesia, is comprised of four (4) states (island groupings): Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It covers over a million square miles. Each state has considerable autonomy and different geography, ecology, language and culture.
The Islanders spoke their native language but most also English. They had tribal customs - many supported themselves by subsistence agriculture and fishing. Certain islands had hotels and resorts that employed Islanders and expatriates, principally from the Philippines.
Many of the islands were captured by the Japanese during WWII and liberated by U.S. forces.
Many of the islanders worked on construction projects financed by foreign aid from the United States – appropriated to help the islanders rebuild their infrastructure destroyed by the war.
Some version of Christianity was common, modified by native traditions. The Church had organized units on most of the larger populated islands.
Oris and Delphia served 21-months on the Caroline Islands; specifically, Yap, Palau and Chuuk Island groupings; hundreds of miles separated each grouping. They were originally assigned to serve six months on each – they extended three months on Palau. The mission headquarters was on Guam, 6,500 miles west of their home in Ontario.
They arrived in Guam on December 24, 1993. Two days later they began their training and orientation – learning the island’s different demographics, languages, modes of travel, political structures and cultures. Leave your nice suits, dresses and shoes in a mission-home closet. Their attire would be light-weight clothing – white shirts are okay; sturdy shoes a necessity.
Yap Islands - First assignment – Sunday morning, January, 1994, Oris and Delphia arrived at the Yap airport - 500 miles from Guam - Yap population, 11,000. Their duties were to be shadow-leaders, providing help and support, not take charge. Take an active role in organizing and helping conduct leadership training meetings, welfare projects and counseling with individuals struggling with life’s challenges.
They were met at the airport by two young men, full-time missionaries, who drove them to church services already in progress at one of the two meetinghouses on the island. The local Church leader introduced Oris and Delphia and said they would teach the Sunday School class and would also be the (only) speakers in sacrament meeting that immediately followed.
After the services, the full-time missionaries drove Oris and Delphia to their furnished home, a dwelling that the previous couple-missionaries rented; comfortable and air-conditioned.
During the course of their six months on Yap, they helped conduct a funeral, assisted a young man prepare to serve a full-time mission, taught the fundamentals of getting a job; conducted family home evening meetings in their home on Mondays and opened their home to high school students who wanted to stop-in after school.
Palau Islands - Second assignment - The Palau’s 250 islands are 300 miles from Yap and have a total population of 18,000. Principal employment was construction, hospitality, retail and domestic service jobs; many workers were Philippine expatriates.
Oris and Delphia replaced another missionary couple. There were also two sister missionaries and three pair of elders serving on the islands. Oris and Delphia had the mission car and were sometimes called upon to perform provide transportation for the other missionaries and certain members needing special assistance.
When Oris and Delphia arrived, the sister missionaries asked them to help strengthen the young women’s and primary children’s programs. When activities needed more energy, Oris and Delphia brought love and experience.
Working with local leadership, they planned a Christmas celebration. The day before Christmas, they brought the teenagers together to make popcorn balls and fill over a hundred bags with candies and fruits. On Christmas eve, people filled the Church meetinghouse with overflow standing on the wide porch that wrapped around either side of the building.
Their Christmas Eve program included singing carols, a manger scene, a play with youth actors and finally Daren, a native Palauan and returned missionary who was employed by the resort came dressed in his Santa Claus attire, dancing and handing out the bags of goodies to the children. He did so well, his 3-year old niece didn’t recognize him.
Oris and Delphia held scripture study classes in their home on Tuesday evenings for missionaries to bring their investigators. Delphia skill and experience teaching Early Morning Seminary paid off; the number of people attending filled their living room. Their mission president learned of their success and asked them to add three months to their mission time.
Chuuk Islands - Their last missionary assignment – The Chuuk Islands, also known as the Truk is one of the four states comprising the Federated States of Micronesia. A large atoll (coral reef) surrounds the 16 volcanic islands of Chuuk and a sheltered 833 square mile lagoon. Chuuk has a commercial marina-dock and an international airport. The islanders have their own distinctive language.
Obtaining adequate fresh water is a challenge. Many Islanders collected rainwater. Some small freshwater springs flow in the mountains. In 2010 the Church donated a mobile desalinization plant (about the size of a semi-truck) to the Government of Chuuk for emergencies.
Chuuk’s private property laws were largely restricted to island residents; the Church was not able to own land. The problem was overcome by individual members donating an land easement to the Church.
A Church member owned land atop the small island of Foupa. He donated an easement to the Church for building a small meetinghouse and missionary living quarters. The young missionaries and three strong Chuukese Church members loaded the building materials, tools and equipment on small boats and brought them to Foupa. Then carried the materials up the 500 ft. hill. Oris built cabinets and drawers and Delphia cut and sewed the window coverings. Oris said the view from the top was stunning; blue ocean as far as the eye could see with volcanic cones of the surrounding islands piercing the skyline. Another wonderful property feature was its natural fresh-water spring.
The Chuukese working on the project stopped work at 4pm to prepare the evening meal. Two of the missionaries cut large banana leaves and positioned them in a circle on the ground for people to set. The women placed the food they had prepared in the center of a “ground-level’ table. The landowner, Mitoitchi, who had recently joined the Church offered a prayer of gratitude to the Lord for the food.
Spectators, often children, came to watch the construction. Initial opposition gradually fell away and many new friends were made in the village.
Many of the islanders did not have a high school diploma. Oris and Delphia taught classes in their home that prepared young people to set for their GED. The students generally came after work; in the evening or after dark. When the classes ended, Oris often loaded the students into their small vehicle and drove them home. Thus, ended their 21-month Church mission to Micronesia Gaum.
Third Church mission - Philippines - Quezon City (1997-1999) – The Philippine islands is comprised of 7,107 islands stretching 1,150 miles north to south; located 11,000 miles from Oris and Delphia’s home in Ontario, Oregon. The country is distant, but not foreign to either of them. They both worked with Philippine expatriates when they were in Micronesia - and Oris’s Army unit was stationed in the Philippines for several weeks during WWII.
Quezon City is the most populous city in the Philippines and lies on the northern edge of the Philippine capitol of Manila. Church missionaries first went to the Philippines in 1967. Today there are 42 missions and two temples in the country of 67 million. Church membership exceeds 700,000.
Oris and Delphia began their mission in November, 1997. They lived in a gated residential subdivision 25 miles from the mission office.
They were assigned to interface with each of the 200 full-time missionaries; distribute mail and help them get the things they needed, including suitable housing; complicated because house break-ins and looting were common.
For example, the home of six sister missionaries was burglarized while the women were out. Concerned about safety, Oris and Delphia squoze all six into their Honda Civic and took them to their home. Oris had enhanced protection devices installed before the women returned. While the six missionaries were in their home, Oris and Delphia acted as their chauffeur.
Oris and Delphia spent considerable time proselyting; accompanying the other missionaries to their meetings with investigators. Their mature presence at those meetings had a positive effect – the Philippine culture is family oriented and respectful of their elders.
They also worked with leaders in the local Branches, training auxiliary leaders and teachers; visiting two different Branches each Sunday. They learned to be prepared to deliver a sermon on a variety of topics without advance notice; “Elder Rudd will be our concluding speaker.”
They were often called upon to meet with young single adults to discuss social relations, dating practices and careers. Oris and Delphia returned to their home in Oregon in May 1999.
Fourth and final Church mission – Salt Lake Family History (2002-2003) – They only had to travel 300 miles to the Church’s Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City to begin their fourth Church mission. They lived in the “Garden Apartments” near Temple Square and served in the Church Family History Center - Family History and Records Processing.
Most of their time was spent checking genealogical records of deceased people whose vital records had been previously extracted – comparing the extracted record against the original microfilm for accuracy and making corrections as necessary.
Commentary – Oris and Delphia’s missionary service began in February, 1992 and concluded in May 2003. Four geographical locations across the globe; England, Micronesia, Philippians, and Utah with only relatively short breaks between calls. In all, they traveled over 25,000 miles and served in five sovereign nations and one U.S. Territory.
Their willingness to serve on these senior-couple missions are marvelous examples of faith, courage and unselfish devotion to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
It was not convenient for them to go, but they followed the admonition of the Lord’s prophets and left their home and posterity to serve: “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19-20).”
Growing older together – In 2003, Oris, age 76 and Delphia a year younger finally returned home for good. Oris, returned to his wood-working hobby. As health permitted, Delphia joined Oris in making their home a place of peace and refuge - where the influence of the Holy Ghost can be felt by all who enter its doors.
When they returned from Salt Lake City, Delphia needed surgeries for a knee replacement, rotator cuff and fistula repair. Spinal stenosis was painful. She was on oxygen 24-7.
Delphia passes away - Delphia died on November 29, 2019. Her funeral was held at their ward meetinghouse in Ontario. As her body laid in her casket, she looked as beautiful as she was throughout her life. Oris looked well and used a cane. Their children and some of their grandchildren participated in the services. Delphia was interned in the Tremonton, Utah Riverview Cemetery where their son Bobby was buried and where she and Oris had purchased plots. Cleo offered the dedicatory prayer at the gravesite.
Commentary – Over their lives of service, Oris and Delphia have created innumerable new and enduring friendships. Magnificent role models for their posterity and all who know them – or who get to know them by reading this account.
Oris said of Delphia before she passed away – (which also applies to him), “Her abiding faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Plan of Happiness will continue to sustain her as she copes with the adversities and the joys that are part of growing older.”
Vernon Odell
Vernon’s diverse interests were on display in high school; agriculture, boxing, dance and drama - played trumpet in the BRHS marching band, Church Seminary president. Age 14, eldest boy at home – filled-in helping father run the farm (Oleen and Lloyd were at war - WWII). Age 20, marries Reita Faye Dustman. Helped Cleo and me find employment. Life plagued with injury and health issues. Vernon and Rita: Ogden Temple ordinance workers; parents of seven.
At Rita’s passing in 2013, 25 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.
Quasi frontier environment – born in our farmhouse - Vernon was born in the family’s farmhouse in Stone on August 17, 1929. The home had no electricity and thus, few conveniences. He was the fifth of our parents eight children. At his birth, his older siblings, Oleen, Nona, Lloyd and Delphia, ranged in ages from two to seven.
Vernon’s boyhood – Vernon lived most of his boyhood during the worldwide Great Depression of 1929-1939. Our parents had real-estate indebtedness at the time and were forced to sell most of their land and animals at severely depressed prices; retaining their home, 200 acres, workhorses, some cows and barnyard animals.
As soon as the children were old enough, they had to had to help their parents operate their labor-intensive farm. Vernon said, “I worked on the farm with my Dad from the time I was big enough to drive the horses; I love the open country and farming way life.” Our parents taught their children to love our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ; kneeling family prayer around the dinner table, morning and night.
Vernon’s best childhood friend was our cousin, Elroy Cutler - Elroy was the son of mother’s sister Edna, whose family lived a mile away. The two boys were too young to do much work, they played in both family’s barnyards. Neither parents could afford buying bicycles and toys for their children. Vernon said they used their imagination and had great fun devising different things to do; but a couple of times the small inexperienced boys were injured.
Commentary - Recounting some of his boyhood misadventures with Elroy, Vernon mused how it was a wonder they survived adolescence.
Hauling barrels of spring water from Deep Creek – Even when water was available in the irrigation ditches and the surface well in the barnyard; no water tasted better than the crystal-clear spring-fed water from Deep Creek that ran through the valley about a mile from our farm. Vernon said he often went with Daddy for water; driving the team of horses pulling the wagon that held 50-gallon wooden barrels. They filled the barrels by bucketing water from the creek. Vernon said the road had ruts; in some places so rough, water sloshed out of the barrels from underneath the loose-fitting lids.
Five-year-old Vernon’s first big trip – Vernon said, “When I was five, “Mother and Father took my brother Cleo and me to Manti with them (about 230 miles south of Stone). We stayed with relatives while they went to the Temple.”
Commentary – My mother and father worked hard to maintain contact and preserve extended family relationships. I remember as a boy, trips to see extended family were a joy; we visited and played with our cousins. Family reunions were vacations.
Manti is the county seat of Sanpete County; located 12 miles north of Mayfield, Sanpete County where Daddy was born. Many of our father’s extended family lived in the county.
Harvesting dry juniper logs for firewood and fence posts - Vernon said he loved to go with our father to the west hills for firewood and fence posts. He said that Daddy spent the hours riding the wagon telling stories.
When they reached the Juniper forest, they used an ax or 3-ft long crosscut saw to cut down dead trees and place the logs and large tree branches in the wagon box. Smaller logs and limbs were placed on top and tied down. Vernon said, “Boy, what a ride going home that was, (trying to keep) the high load of wood on the wagon … while driving over a road that was nothing more than a cow trail.”
Commentary – Both our father and mother used opportunities where they had their children’s undivided attention to teach life principles and stories about their heritage. Daddy likely told Vernon the story when he was 12-years old and went with his grandma Fredrekke to cut firewood in those same hills. How one of the horses balked and refused to go - they prayed for the horse to calm down and they finished their task. (Chapter 18).
God's Prophet is coming to Arbon, Idaho – Word came that the prophet, Heber J. Grant (Church president, 1918-1945) was speaking at a stake conference in Arbon, about 50 miles north of Stone in the summer of 1937. Everyone within driving distance were invited to come. My parents took their family to meet the Prophet.
Vernon said during the two-hour break between the two, 2-hour, sessions, President Grant walked outside to visit with the attendees who were outside eating their lunch. Vernon and some of the boys saw a patch of ripe raspberries near the meetinghouse and ran to eat some. When they got back, President Grant was greeting the people reentering the building. Recognizing Vernon, he said, “You’re one of the boys that were in the raspberries – then laughed and said, he did the same thing when he was a boy.” Vernon said, “It was an honor to shake the Prophet’s hand.”
Commentary - Church membership in 1937 was 800,000; 17 million in 2021. Through the mid- 1900s, the stakes in the Church had a general authority visitor to at least one of their semiannual conferences. Today, worldwide Church membership make such visits impossible. Regional conferences, closed circuit television and satellite broadcasts are common.
At the time of the Arbon stake conference, people worldwide, were suffering from the economic collapse termed the Great Depression (1929-1939). Mother said President Grant spoke of the need to follow principles of provident-living, and referenced the now huge Church Welfare
Program that started the previous year. He said this calamity would pass, but emphasized others will come – we must be prepared to face them.
It is noteworthy that four years later, the United States entered WWII. We would be wise to live as admonished by God’s living prophets; and live providentially – insure against catastrophe and maintain an emergency reserve of food, water and savings; “… if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30).
I prayed and then found the cows – Our father held cattle grazing permits on the public land. When the grass was good, he let the milk cows, roam free during the day in the foothills. The animals were always moving but generally stayed within a few miles of the barnyard.
Daddy told Vernon to get on the horse and bring the cows in for milking. Vernon said, “I rode out, but the cows had strayed, I could not find them … I returned home and told Daddy. Daddy wasn’t interested in excuses and sent me back.”
Vernon said, “This time I prayed and asked the Lord, for help.” He said, “I was impressed to give the horse his head. Over the next couple of hills, we went, and there were the cows.”
Commentary – Our father used a very tame horse and taught his children to ride bareback at an early age. We got on the animal by leading it close to a pole fence or elevated object; the horse stood still while we got on.
As a family, we had kneeling prayer at our chairs around the dinner table both morning and night. Our parents taught us to always seek the Lord’s blessings in all that we did. Vernon learned that lesson at an early age – it sustained him and Rita throughout their lives.
Vernon walked the pole fence – cut on barb-wire – As a young boy, Vernon went with Daddy and his older brothers to get a load of hay off the haystack to feed the animals. Bored, Vernon decided to walk the pine-pole/ barbwire fence that surrounded the haystack. Daddy saw Vernon on the fence and warned him to jump if he lost his balance.
Vernon made a misstep and jumped. However, one of the barbs caught his pants. He said, “I got hung-up in the wire, my feet couldn’t touch the ground. My dad came barreling off the haystack … and hollered for the other boys to unhook the team of horses.” Vernon was bleeding with a 4-inch gash on his forearm. He said, “Daddy wrapped the wound with a shirt, threw me on the back of one horse, jumped on the other and headed to the house.”
Vernon said mother washed the wound with warm water and soap, applied carbolic save and wrapped the wound tightly with a clean white cloth to stop the bleeding and hold the wound closed. A few days later, they traveled to Tremonton and asked the doctor to inspect the wound. He said, “The only thing I could have done better is stitch it up.”
“I watched my Dad break wild horses” – Until our father purchased a used Oliver tractor in the 1940s, having a good stable of horses was critical to operating the farm. Our father was routinely training horses for draft and riding.
Cleo said that Daddy first put the untrained horses in a narrow cattle chute where the horse was secure and couldn’t successfully kick or bite anyone standing nearby. He then fed, gently touched and talked to the animal. Vernon said Daddy would put a halter on the horse and tie it to the back of a wagon pulled by a team of horses – teaching the horse to follow. Then our father put a harness on the animal’s back and hitched it to a wagon with other horses; learning to work next to the other horses as a team.
Vernon said while the horse was still hitched up with the other horses, “Daddy put one of us boys on the (trainee) horse’s back. It took time, but gradually Daddy trained the animal to be a valuable work horse; and one we could also ride.
Vernon learns to drive setting on his father’s lap – Vernon said when he was, “too small to see over the steering wheel of the car;” Daddy would set him on his lap and let him steer the vehicle while driving to Tremonton.
Commentary – Even though Daddy had his feet on or near the foot pedals, Vernon felt he was in control; a confidence builder for the young boy.
Harvesting grain - Vernon was the “stacker” – A stacker was the man with a pitchfork that rode in the header box to make sure it filled properly. Vernon said, “Daddy taught me how to stack.”
Commentary - Until grain combines were invented and commonly used after WWII, farmers harvested their grain (wheat, barley, oats or rye) using a multistage process. The grain was cut in the field via a horse or tractor-drawn equipment called a “header” or “binder.” Headers were generally used in the Stone area because the grain straw was too short to bind into bundles. Binders were used by Tremonton area farmers.
A header cut the grain heads growing atop the grain straws or stems and elevated them via a conveyer belt into a horse-pulled wagon with solid ends and sides called a “header box” driven alongside.
As the header box was filling, the stacker used a pitchfork to even the load. When one header box was full, it was replaced by an empty one. The driver of the full header box pulled away from the header and drove it to the barnyard to unload into the threshing machine which separated the grain from the chaff. The grain was bagged and hauled to a granary and the straw and chaff was blown into a large pile.
In those years, the thresher was powered by a steam engine; later a tractor that also pulled the threshing machine from farm to farm. (Chapter 18).
Harvesting hay - Vernon was the derrick boy – The derrick boy’s job was to drive the team of horses at the derrick to pull a cable through a series of pulleys to lift the “slip” load of loose hay to the top of the haystack. Daddy was the stacker on top of the hay stack; Oleen and Lloyd were loading piles of hay in the fields onto the horse-pulled slips.
Commentary - Harvesting hay: They cut growing hay with a horse-drawn mowing machine that had a five-foot long cutter blade. They then raked the newly-cut hay into piles using a one-horse pulled “buck rake.”
When the hay had dried a few days later, the men and boys used pitchforks to load the piles of hay onto horse-drawn flat beds that rested upon wood runners (they called these wagons without wheels, “slips”). Before loading the slips with hay, they laid a rope with three steel rings at the ends and in the middle. When the load was brought in to the 30-50 foot high derrick, the derrick boy hooked the iron rings to a hooking apparatus with a trigger and a long trip-rope he held in his hand as he drove the horses away from the derrick, thereby lifting the load of hay high into the air and over the haystack - at which point the stacker pushed the load of hay with his pitchfork to the proper location and then told the derrick boy to pull the trip rope - releasing the middle ring and dropping the load of hay.
Four boys led 20 horses to water - When threshing grain, Daddy and Uncle Ray Roe assigned Vernon, Oleen, Lloyd and our cousin, Russell Roe, to take the work horses to water a mile away. Vernon said the way they did it was to line up four to six horses. Each horse wore a halter over its head with the halter-rope tied to the tail of the horse in front. The boys rode the lead horse bareback. They then headed off to the stream to give the thirsty horses a drink of cool water.
Vernon’s spiritual experiences – Vernon officially received his name and father’s blessing and was entered on the rolls of the Church as a child of record in the Stone Ward on November 17, 1929, three months after he was born. Eight years later, our father baptized Vernon in Deep Creek on Vernon’s birthday, August 17, 1937. He was confirmed a member of the Church and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost the following day.
Vernon graduated from Primary, received the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained a Deacon on September 19, 1941 - he was then a member of the Tremonton First Ward. He was ordained a Teacher on January 16, 1944 and a Priest on August 25, 1946.
Our father conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood on Vernon and ordained him to the office of Elder in December, 1948. This ordinance took place in the Bear River Stake Tabernacle in Garland, about two miles from our home. (When was Vernon ordained a High Priest?)
Elementary school transition – from Stone to Tremonton - Vernon was 10 years old and had just finished the fourth grade at Stone Elementary when the family moved their primary residence to Tremonton in 1939).
The schoolhouse in Stone was then a frame building with two-rooms, eight grades and two teachers. Adult supervision during school recess was limited. Vernon said the he and the other boys could get pretty unruly, but he could defend himself quite well. He said he had a reputation for being a good fighter and fast runner – “the kids called me speed.”
Tremonton’s McKinley Elementary was a two-story brick facility with one or more classrooms for every grade and a gymnasium/auditorium with a stage.
Different from Stone, when students acted-out, teachers and sometimes the school principal would intercede.
Working for other farmers – The move to Tremonton provided new job opportunities. Daddy and the boys often worked for neighboring farmers; thinning beats and planting tomatoes in the spring, weeding row crops during the summer. The harvesting process was different for each type of plant: Ripe tomatoes were picked by hand in the field – placed in half-bushel boxes called “lugs.” Potatoes were lifted out of the ground by horse-drawn equipment - men followed, straddling the row - with a burlap bag pulled between their legs, they tossed the potatoes into the bag until it was nearly full. After sugar beets were lifted out of the ground by horse-drawn equipment, workers carrying a sharp knife with a hook on the end followed; pulling the beet from the ground, cutting off the green top and throwing the beets into winrows to facilitate throwing onto trucks and taken to the sugar factory.
Sweet corn cobs were picked band, tossed into winrows and loaded onto trucks for the cannery. Green pea vines were mowed in the field, loaded on wagons, hauled to the pea vinery where the vines were off-loaded by pitchfork and shelled mechanically.
After Vernon graduated from high school in 1947, he worked at the Garland Sugar Factory.
Commentary – The jobs available in the labor-intensive farming industry of the mid-1900s are gone. Technological innovation in farm equipment, herbicides, insecticides, genetics and economies of scale has caused massive consolidation of farms and food processing. The small family farm cannot compete. Today, almost all farm production comes from a relatively few large corporate farming or confined animal feedlot operations.
High school: Remarkable diverse interests – Vernon’s high school years illustrate Vernon’s versatility. His coursework included six elective areas of study which he enjoyed and did well: Agriculture - Vernon said he loved farming and took agricultural science and wood and metal-working classes. Boxing - Vernon participating in the schools “smokeless smoker” boxing competition each year. Dancing - Vernon enjoyed ballroom dancing and took classes; becoming proficient in the foxtrot, swing and waltz. He was a member of the dance team; performing “floor shows” at basketball half-times and going to Salt Lake City for the June Music Festival. Drama – Vernon tried out for school plays. He was particularly pleased with his performance in the senior class play, “Star Light, Star Bright.” Marching Band – Vernon learned to play the trumpet. Seminary - BRHS granted time-release for students registering for off campus Church seminary – he was the seminary president during his junior year (1946).
Commentary – When Vernon was a young man, boxing was a national pastime. We had boxing gloves in our home and my brothers would sometimes square-off. Lloyd had a wall-mounted punching bag and built a gymnastics high bar mounted on two tall posts near our house.
Professional boxing matches were broadcast over the radio. Our family enjoyed following the exploits of the heavy weight boxer and champion, Joe Louis. The family, gathered around the radio to listen to the announcer’s vivid and exciting, blow-by-blow description of the fights.
Vernon had a classy sports suit. When I was a junior in high school, I wanted to go to the prom but I had nothing to wear. Vernon and Rita were recently married. My remarkable brother offered to let me wear his sharp-looking sports suit; dark blue trousers and a powder-blue coat.
Vernon, the oldest boy at home - Oleen and Lloyd were in the U.S. Army Air Corp and Navy/Marines, respectively in 1943 (WWII). Vernon, was 14 and Cleo 12-years-old.
Vernon became Daddy’s work-companion on the weekly commute to Stone to run the farm (Monday through Saturday). Cleo stayed in Tremonton to milk the cows and help mother care for the animals and garden (Cleo is 5-years older than me).
Vernon said Daddy taught him how to cook their food; becoming so adept, he and Daddy took turns preparing meals from the box of canned fruits, vegetables and meats mother sent each week along with baked bread and cake. Augmented by potatoes stored in the root cellar (Daddy planted a garden of root crops (potatoes, carrots and parsnips) in Stone as well as in Tremonton.
Commentary – The farmhouse did not have electricity - thus no electric lights, radio, stove or refrigerator. My Dad and brothers cooked their food on the wood stove. They bucketed their domestic water from the irrigation ditch and allowed to stand for the silt to settle before they used it - or they carried water from Uncle Ray’s hand-pump surface well, 400 yards away. A kerosene-wick lamp provided their light.
Sage hen was an occasional treat. I remember as a boy in Stone with Lloyd; we saw a flock of sage-hen land in our alfalfa field a few hundred yards away. These larger-than-pheasant birds were wary and you could seldom get close enough to shoot them. I remember Lloyd took Daddy’s long-barrel shotgun; aimed it above bird and fired; the bird flew into the buckshot. Lloyd skinned and butchered the sage hen and rolled the pieces of meat into flour seasoned with salt and pepper before frying; a tasty dinner indeed.
I distinctly remember the wonderful aroma of potatoes frying as it wafted outside the farmhouse in the cool high-desert air.
Vernon’s first health issue - a persistent bleeding nose - Vernon said he had a nose bleeding disorder wherein his nose could start bleeding at any time. This condition continued until he was an adult. He said he generally got relief by plugging his nostrils. One time in Stone, he could not get the bleeding to stop. He said Daddy was concerned he was losing too much blood and gave him a Priesthood blessing; the bleeding stopped.
Nearly killed by lightning –Vernon daid he was helping Daddy irrigate when a thunderstorm came up; lightning danced across the sky. He said, Daddy said they should move quickly to set the water for the next turn and run for cover. Daddy ran ahead to remove the canvas dam from the completed setting; while I set the next canvas dam further downstream. “After I set the dam, I watched the … lightning … dance on the ground to the south toward Snowville.”
Fascinated by the rapidly changing scene; he said that he paid no attention to the personal risk he was taking. He said, “The lightning seemed to dance to the south for several seconds … then in an instant moved toward me in straight line – I was hit and fell to the ground.”
Daddy saw what happened and “ran a quarter of a mile through the muddy field” to be at my side. Vernon said the next thing he remembered was Daddy shaking him … “Daddy thought I was dead for I could not move.”
Vernon said when he recovered, he and Daddy looked around and saw a hole in the dry dirt twenty feet from where Vernon had been standing.
Commentary – Cleo said when thunderstorms came to Stone, he sometimes saw lightning dance along the barbwire fences. Our parents were wary of thunderstorms, calling their children into the house if one came close.
Daddy clearly knew the extreme danger presented by lightning because of his experience herding sheep in the Teton Mountains when, as a 17-year old boy, he saw a man killed by a lightning bolt. (Chapter 18, Billy’s Life before Marriage).
Vernon bought a gift for Daddy that Daddy wouldn’t buy for himself - Vernon said our parents spent to provide for their children long before they spent anything on themselves. For example, Daddy would not replace his old, worn-out boots. He said Daddy extend their life by inserting a piece of harness leather to cover the holes.
We were living in Utah when Vernon got his first job - working for a farmer. He said, “When I saved enough, I bought a pair of field boots for Daddy and myself. When I gave Daddy his pair pf boots, I saw tears of gratitude in Daddy’s eyes; the first time I ever saw him cry.”
Vernon and Rita's courtship – Vernon said he met Rita Faye Dustman when he was a junior in high school and she was a freshman. Their first date was two years later; attending Delphia and Oris’s wedding reception at the Tremonton First Ward cultural hall on April 22, 1948.
Oris and Delphia left the reception for their honeymoon early and family members, including Vernon and Rita, moved Oris and Delphia’s gifts to their Tremonton apartment and cleaned the Church – not finishing until morning. Vernon said, “When I got home, Daddy told me to hurry and change your clothes, it’s time to milk the cows.”
Married during a blizzard - Vernon said they dated 20 months before he gave Rita an engagement ring on December 25, 1949. They were married civilly on January 13, 1950 at Rita’s parent’s home: Marvin Franklin and Lottie Marie Deem Dustman. Our uncle, mother’s brother, William Ray Roe, who was serving as a Bishop in Stone, preformed the ceremony.
Vernon said a fierce blizzard had started when the wedding guests began arriving. The guests, including Uncle Ray, my parents, Cleo and me left for home immediately after the wedding to get ahead of the storm and made the five-mile trip without incident.
However, by the time Vernon and Rita started their trip to their Tremonton apartment, deep snowdrifts had closed the east-west road to Tremonton. They had to take the long route to their apartment. They drove 15 miles south to Brigham City, then northwest 20 miles to Tremonton; five hours. They waited until July before going on their honeymoon; to the high Uinta Mountains and Bear Lake.
Commentary – The winter of 1948-1949 was one of the worst winters in the west on record. I was 12-years old. I remember snowdrifts several feet high – some up to the eves of barnyard buildings – with an ice-crust so strong, I could walk on them without sinking. When snow plows finally plowed the road in front of our home, they left 10-foot-high snowbanks.
Even though our family was snowed-in, we did not go hungry. The bottled food on our cellar shelves and flour bin were full. We had hay and grain stored for our barnyard animals that provided milk, meat and eggs.
Mary Kay and I have tried to prepare for emergencies by following the admonition of Church leaders; be as self-reliant as possible. Try to have food storage and liquid assets to last a year.
Vernon and Rita’s first home – early TV – A few months following their marriage, Vernon and Rita bought their first house; a basement home next door to Rita’s parents; at the base of the beautiful, over 11,000 feet high mountains of the Wasatch Range. Television was a new innovation, small screens, limited broadcasts. Mother did not have a TV. Vernon and Rita often invited Mother, Cleo and me to join them on Saturday evenings to watch the variety shows.
Commentary - Retail sale of television sets did not become common until after WWII. Vernon and Rita bought a television with a standard screen size of about 10x13 inches. I was 14 years old – I looked forward to their invitation – come watch the Ed Sullivan Show.
Temple marriage – Vernon and Rita made their eternal covenants with God and each other in the Lord’s Logan Temple on August 24, 1950. Their car had a flat tire in route. Vernon said it seemed that every time they went to the Temple, he had to fix a flat tire or there was something else; “It seemed like the Devil tempted us more.”
Vernon and Rita’s seven children – Rita gave birth to all of their children in the Brigham City Hospital. Their eldest son, Darrell Vernon, died as an infant in 1950. Marvin D was born in 1951, Susan - 1952, Valene - 1954, Debra Ann - 1957 and Joy in 1960. David D was born in 1964 when the family lived in Corinne. They in Deweyville when the other children were born.
Employment - Utah General Depot - After working a year with a local farmer in East Tremonton, Vernon went to work for the federal government at Utah General Depot near Ogden – (Hill Air Force Base). While unloading a load of heavy spools of wire, one reel broke free from the truck and fell on his leg – he was unable to work for three weeks.
Gould National Batteries - Vernon left the “Depot” and began work at Gould National Batteries, a manufacturer of lead-based automobile and truck batteries.
While working at Gould, surgeons removed a large growth from Vernon’s right wrist – causing him to wear a cast from his elbow to his fingers - Vernon continued to do his job, repairing batteries that failed quality control testing. One time a battery exploded. Sulfuric acid caused partial loss of vision in his left eye. Another time a tall stack of battery cases fell on him causing serious injury.
Lead poisoning was a major risk. The company employed several safety measures and tested each employee’s blood for lead every month. However, for Vernon, their precautions were inadequate. He contracted lead poisoning and had to leave Gould.
Commentary - Vernon was highly regarded by management. It was because of him that Cleo and I obtained jobs at Gould. I was working at Gould when I resigned to serve a Church mission in 1958.
Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1970. If the Act had been in effect when Vernon was employed at Gould, he would have likely escaped his workplace injuries and lead poisoning.
Mountain States Equipment - After leaving Gould, Vernon found employment at Mountain States Equipment and later County Farm Service Company as a parts manager and salesman. While delivering a piece of heavy equipment he sold to a Wellsville farmer, the equipment moved while he was unloading and the hitch he was holding crushed his little finger - the doctor saved his finger, but it was stiff.
Thiokol - family moves to Corinne - Circa 1960, Vernon, age 31, found employment working in the parts department at Thiokol Chemical Corporation west of Corinne. Vernon and Rita sold their Deweyville home and lived for a year in a trailer home next door to Rita’s parents. Vernon commuted to work and built a new home on an acre that Lloyd and Lilian platted and split-off from their ranchette homesite. Their last child, David D was born in the Brigham City Hospital while they were living in Corinne.
Vernon never fully recovered from his previous injuries and surgeries. He had increasing pain in his back and in his legs. He said, “I had gotten to the point that my legs would sometimes just give way without warning; my left leg was shrinking and muscle spasms were severe.”
An orthopedic surgeon surgically removed a ruptured disc and arthritic growths from his back, providing some relief, but his back never fully recovered. Vernon left Thiokol after four years.
Farm in Lewiston, Utah – After Vernon left Thiokol; he and Rita sold their home in Corinne and bought a farm near Lewiston. During their first winter, Vernon, drawing on his credentials working for the Garland Sugar Factory, was hired by the Smithfield Sugar Factory for the three-month sugar beet processing campaign.
The children adapted well at their new schools. Ninth-grade Susan was elected student body vice president at Lewiston Junior High School. Vernon and Rita became foster parents to “Steve” a 17-year-old Indian student.
Commentary – The small city of Lewiston is 50 miles from Corinne and 20 miles north of Logan.
Tragedy, Vernon is seriously injured training their horse “Princess.” He was riding the horse at a gallop in their pasture. The horse tripped; Vernon was thrown to the ground with the horse on top of him; pinning his leg to the ground. The horse immediately began struggling to get up. Vernon said, “…the horse was only green-broke and began to fight to get up. After my prayer, (the horse) quieted and lay still … I could have been kicked to death so easily.” As the horse got to its feet, Vernon pulled himself from underneath the horse. He said, “It was truly the Lord’s help and blessing at this time that saved me.”
However, old injuries were likely aggravated. For that and other reasons, Vernon and Rita decided to sell their farm in Lewiston and move to _______________ in 19__.
Vernon and Rita’s Passing - Vernon was in the hospital when he passed away September 4, 2004, at age 75. Rita passed away on October 26, 2013, age 82.
They both resided in their Plain City, Utah home at the time; watched over by their children that lived nearby. For several years prior to their passing, they were actively involved in genealogical research and for many years commuted 24 miles round-trip, once a week to serve as ordinance workers in the Lord’s Ogden Temple.
At the time of Rita’s death, their posterity included seven children, six of whom were still living, 25 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.
Stories to come from Vernon and Rita’s children: To include other moves - Vernon employed by the Bishops Warehouse in Ogdon - Plain City, move and managing the Church Farm.
Cleo R
High school athlete - mother’s backstop and my role model when our father died in 1951. Deferred from the Army draft to run the farm. When Lloyd returns from Church mission, Cleo is drafted. Sent half of his Army pay to help mother. Helped less-educated military buddies - in the ring, “Big Bundy.” Married Shirley Ann Kunzler in 1958. Career at Thiokol Chemical.
Served as Bishop - he and Shirley headed genealogy library. Temple ordinance workers.
Parents of three girls and three boys - 2021: __ grandchildren and __ great-grandchildren.
Cleo, sixth child born in Stone farmhouse - Cleo was born in the family home in Stone, Idaho in 1932. Seven years later our parents bought a 4-acre ranchette east of Tremonton and made it their primary residence. He graduated from McKinley Elementary and began his freshman year at Bear River High School in 1946.
Cleo’s athletic reputation opened a door for me - Cleo graduated from high school in 1950. I started my freshman year in 1951. Cleo had been on the football team. BRHS football coach, Lorenzo Howard, must have thought I would be as good as Cleo and asked me to register for his Athletic class; I would be a member of the football squad my freshman year – no tryout. Commentary – While I enjoyed athletics, I did not become a starter on the football squad until my senior year. Cleo was a much better athlete than me.
Cleo deferred from Army draft to run the farm – two years - When Cleo graduated from BRHS in 1950 the Korean War was just beginning (1950-1953). Upon graduation from high school, Cleo registered for the Army draft, as required; receiving a temporary deferral because of hardship; our dad was experiencing significant health problems, Lloyd was in Norway serving a Church mission and I was just starting high school.
Cleo age 19 - Daddy dies in 1951 - Cleo stepped-up - The year daddy died was a time of great stress. Our parents sold the farm in Stone, our father, who had been sick all year, died.
Mother turned to Cleo for help and he stepped-up. He helped mother conclude the sale of the farm in Stone and purchase a Grade-A, 80-acre dairy farm west of Corrine in 1952. On the day of sale, Cleo started milking the cows each morning and evening and working the fields of hay and grain. I assisted when I was not in high school. (Chapter 18).
Cleo is drafted into the Army- stationed California – Cleo was drafted (two years) into the Army in September, 1953, just four months after Lloyd came home from his mission and one month after the armistice (no peace treaty) was signed, ending the fighting in the Korean War.
Cleo’s first assignment was Fort Ord Army Base near San Francisco. Cleo tested in the top ten percent of his class for academic knowledge and skills. After basic training, Cleo’s unit were ordered to Korea.
However, on the morning of departure, the officer in charge called out Cleo and 39 other men. Their orders had changed. They would stay stateside; Cleo to March Field, 400 miles south near Riverside. Cleo said, “I worked in the office four hours a day and went to ‘electronics’ school the other four.”
Promoted - Corporal, Company Clerk and radar operator - At the conclusion of his training, Cleo was promoted to corporal and made the company clerk, working directly for the Captain – 120 soldiers. He spent the morning handling the records for his unit; the rest of the day learning how to operate a radar-controlled antiaircraft gun.
Cleo sends half his Army pay to mother - Because he knew mother needed financial help, Cleo used a provision in the Army’s payroll regulations to send part of his monthly payroll to mother, $40 when he was a private; more as he received pay increases.
Cleo was able to increase his cash-flow by making pay-day loans. When soldiers received a weekend pass, many servicemen spent their time and money “out on the town.” Many came back broke. Some asked teetotaler, “Bundy,” for a loan – give me $5 now and I will give you $10 on payday. Cleo accepted their IOUs. Word got around and Cleo’s pay-day-loan business grew. However, a few soldiers tried to dodge making payment. In those cases, Cleo stood near the paymaster window as the soldiers came-up to get their money.
Cleo’s nickname; from “Bundy” to “Big Bundy” – Cleo often worked-out in the gym. The person he replaced as company clerk apparently held a grudge against Cleo and the company commander who demoted him. The man was a Karate instructor and professed the title of Black Belt. The man was in the ring, saw Cleo and called him out; shouting for him to get into the ring and fight. Cleo said the man was much larger than him and bragged of his fighting experiences in New York City.
Cleo had no interest in fighting the braggart but felt he had no choice since the man made such a public spectacle. He got into the ring.
Things happened quickly. As the man attacked, Cleo employed techniques he learned in basic training, grabbed the fellow as he lunged and pushed him to the mat. Angered, the man immediately got up and rushed again, with the same result.
Karate allows multiple opponents at a time. The braggart called his five buddies to get in the ring and face-off with Cleo. Cleo was unsure how to deal with this unfair conflict, until the thought came to him, “start with the person on the left (Cleo is left-handed). Cleo grabbed the man as he lunged and threw him into the two men standing next to him. Under the rules, once a fighter falls to the mat, he is out of the fight – four were left standing.
The fighting skills of the other men were no better than the first. Cleo waited for them to attack and deftly dispatched each to the mat in the same manner as the first.
When word got around, Cleo’s friends changed his nickname from “Bundy” to “Big Bundy.” Collection of his payday loans also became easier.
Commentary – Cleo said he was praying for help as he got into the ring. The thought of starting with the fellow on his left was not instinctive, he said he was told what he should do; “The spirit guided me.”
Cleo’s many African American friends – Cleo said most of the men in his company were Black.
As Company Clerk, he interfaced with each of the 120 men in his company. He sought to be friends with all, listening to their problems and helping when he could. Race was never an issue. He said he tried to be easy to talk with, strived to show respect and help each man.
He helped one man compose letters to his girlfriend. It worked so well, the man asked Cleo to be the best man at his marriage. Another man’s family was not receiving the military benefits for which they were qualified. Cleo helped him complete and file the necessary paperwork – the benefits were received. Cleo said, “The man was extremely grateful.”
March Field – shooting competition – fast-flying drones – Each antiaircraft gun was operated by a team of soldiers. Cleo’s job on his team was operating the radar equipment - quickly find the target-drone traveling 300 miles an hour; lock-on and fire - live ammunition.
The March Field commander set up a competitive training exercise on the desert firing range. Each team would have ten shots at ten drones. Cleo said his unit was last in line. The other units had missed most of their shots. However, his team knocked 6 of its 10 drones from the sky. He said his captain was very pleased.
Cleo’s radar skills tested – What if San Clemente Radar Station goes down? – Cleo said the Army Brass staged a wargame to test whether March Field Radar Station could take over if the United States were attacked and the radar station on San Clemente Island was knocked out. The task was for the March Field Station to shadow the work actually being performed by San Clemente without interfering.
Cleo had been assigned to the Base’s radar control room; responsible for maintaining and operating the Base’s radar equipment and system. Cleo said the Base’s top Brass were in the control room when the “start” order was given. His radar unit immediately began monitoring all aircraft flying over Southern California’s western coast: commercial, private, known military and unidentified (potentially enemy) aircraft.
Cleo said he felt pressure because he was responsible for reading the radar monitors, identifying which aircraft was ours, civilian and military – and which could not be identified. If and an identified airplane was declared hostile by the officer in charge, Cleo’s job was to direct simulated anti-aircraft fire on the aircraft.
Cleo said the room was chaotic; orders being shouted, radio operators providing information, each person in the room playing their role. After the test was over, Cleo’s commander gave him a thumbs-up.
Commentary – San Clemente Island is a 21-mile long, 36,000-acre island about 75 miles northwest of San Diego. The island was used as a military radar post during WWII. When Cleo was stationed at March Field and had radar operational responsibility in 1955, San Clemente Island was an Army radar control and warning station.
I wish I had a division of men like you! As Company Clerk, Cleo was assigned to escort all visiting high-ranking officers. He also interceded between men having problems and the Company Captain.
He said, “ I was very busy and it was a good experience.”
The night before Cleo was discharged from the Army, his commanding officer came to visit him. He concluded the visit by telling Cleo, “I wish I had a whole Division of men like you.”
Cleo returns to civilian life - When Cleo was discharged from the Army in September 1955, Lloyd was operating the dairy farm in Corinne, with my limited help, and working full-time in Brigham City. Vernon was employed at Gould National Batteries in Ogden. Vernon got Cleo a job at Gould, a company that only had about 30 non-office employees at that location. They commuted to work - Vernon, and Cleo carpooled with one or two others from Corinne to Ogdon. Cleo attended night school at Weber College two nights a week – he later transferred to Utah State.
The year after I got out of high school, Vernon and Cleo were so highly regarded at Gould that they got me on too. Not an easy thing to do - from the employer’s perspective, three people from one family could be disruptive if one became upset.
Lloyd, Cleo and I operated the dairy farm in Corinne; dividing the work – taking turns milking the cows, irrigating the crops, etc. (Vernon chose to not be involved with the farm).
Cleo marries Shirley Ann Kunzler – Cleo and Shirley were married in the Logan Utah Temple in May, 1958 – Cleo was 26 years old and Shirley was 20.
Commentary – At the time of Cleo and Shirley’s marriage, I was preparing to leave on a Church mission in September. Cleo asked me to be his Best Man at their wedding reception that evening. I went to the Temple for the first time when they were married, I was 21 years old.
Cleo and Shirley’s homes – Shortly before they were married, Cleo and Shirley purchased a new three-bedroom home in Tremonton. They lived in that home for two decades. In 1977 they purchased, restored, rebuilt and enlarged the historic family ranchette in east Tremonton. Since then, extended family have enjoyed Cleo and Shirly’s hospitality as they visit the home of their youth.
The farm is sold – By 1959 it became clear that the farm would never be profitable. In fact, operating the farm was a drain on nonfarm wages as well as relationships. Mother agreed to sell. Lloyd and Cleo handled the sale of the livestock and the remaining 75 acres of farmland. Lloyd was deeded the five acres that went with his home and the barnyard buildings (Vernon and Rita would later buy one of those acres and build a home.).
Commentary - After all bills and the mortgage were paid, there was little left over. Clearly, the decision to sell was wise. For me, I could focus on getting an education when I returned from serving my mission, September, 1960.
Cleo’s career - Thiokol Chemical Corporation received the military contract to make the solid fuel for the first stage of the Minuteman Missile in 1956 and proceeded to construct two large complexes in the foothills west of Corrine. Lloyd was employed in the chemistry lab. He was thought of so highly that he easily got Cleo a job in the same lab. Both of them would retire while working at Thiokol.
Commentary – When I returned from my Church mission in September, 1960, I was focused on getting a college education and desperately needed a job working nights to finance my education; Utah State and later Weber State University.
Lloyd and Cleo were so highly regarded at the Thiokol lab, they got a job for me in 1961; working the night shift; collecting samples of chemicals and mixed propellent from the far-flung bunkered storage and mixing sites and bringing them to the lab. (Chapter 1).
(Stories and info to come - provided by Cleo, Shirley and/or their children - including)
Annette is born 1959 –
Diana is born June 1960 – dies _____(see Chapter 18 – stories at the end of the chapter)
Peggy Lee is born 1961
Michael Cleo is born 1966
Curtis K is born 1972
Chris William is born 1974
The family sells their Tremonton home – purchased and renovated family home
Shirley’s Church Service
Cleo’s serves as a Bishop (dates) – other Church Service ___________.
Cleo fell off the barn – in hospital, he said Daddy came to him.
Cleo and Shirley called to head the Bear River Stake Genealogy Library (19__ - 19__)
Cleo Branch President and Shirley - called to serve at the Bear River Valley Care Center, nursing home in Tremonton (200 patients.)
Cleo and Shirley’s posterity: five children, __grandchildren, ___ great-grandchildren and __ great, great-grandchildren.
Thomas R
Thomas died as an infant.
The last child born in the Stone farmhouse - Thomas was born in Stone Idaho on December 25, 1934. During the months leading up to his birth, mother had been bedridden. After Thomas’s birth, mother remained deathly ill. (Chapter 18).
Tragedy – Thomas dies - Thomas was very sick from the outset. Daddy drove and Aunt Lola (Uncle Ray Roe’s wife) took the baby to the hospital in Tremonton – but to no avail. Thomas was 12-days old when he died - congenital heart defect (blue baby).
Commentary - In today’s world, infants diagnosed with Blue Baby Syndrome – congenital heart defects - are generally surgically treated with no loss of life.
Thomas buried – much grief - Daddy arranged for a friend to make Thomas’s casket. Thomas’s funeral was held in my parents’ home so that my bedridden mother could be present. Thomas was buried in the Snowville Cemetery.