Interview with Lloyd Berdell Jennings

Lloyd Berdell Jennings was interviewed on June 11, 1968 in St. George, Washington County, Utah by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of the Voice of Remembrance Foundation. He related his personal history of living in Utah and several western states.

FH:Would you give your full name?

LJ:Lloyd Berdell Jennings.

FH:[What is] your birth date?

LJ:[I was born] January 24, 1897.

FH:[What was] the place of your birth?

LJ:[I was born in] Levan [Juan County] Utah.

FH:[What was] your father's name?

LJ:Alexander Jennings.

FH:[What was] your mother's [full] name?

LJ:[Ane] Margarethe (Anderson) [Jennings].

FH:[Can] you tell about your early life, your home with your family, your brothers and sisters?

LJ:[My brothers and sisters were] Julian [Alexander], [Mansfield], Eliza M., Zelia, Mary [Elizabeth], Ida [Jensine], Leo [Elroy], Lester [Herman], myself, [Alvin] [and] my youngest brother, Kenneth [Raymond].

FH:What was your home life like? Was it ─

LJ:My mother and father separated when I was about ten years old, as I recall. 00:02:00There were four of [us] boys left [at] home with mother who raised us, with some help from my father. We would live very modestly. We grew a garden in the summertime and raised hogs, and sometimes a calf, to furnish our meat. I helped my brother on the farm. I rode the horse to the derrick and helped with the haying and helped him do many things on the farm when he was [putting] in the crops and harvesting. Later, as I grew up, I worked for other farmers and 00:03:00people. I had a dog and a goat. I used to haul wood from the hills in the summertime with the wagon and in the wintertime [I used] a bob-sleigh. I hauled green oak and chopped it up for firewood. This was from the time I was about ten years old until I was thirteen or fourteen [years old].

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FH:About how much wood you would get?

LJ:I would get a load every day, chop it up, and put it in the big ricks shaped like a beehive. [The beehive] would be about eight feet across and about eight 00:04:00feet high. When this wood had cured for about a year, it was splendid oak wood [and] good firewood. That was what we kept warm with in the wintertime. This was our heating.

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FH:Where did you go to school? How [far in school] did you go?

LJ:We went to school in Levan. We lived ten blocks from the school house. The same school house stands in Levan [today]. One of my teachers was Ivan Dalby. He taught me for two or three years, until I [was] through [the] eighth grade. About the middle of May I went away on my first job. I went to Tintic in Juab County [Utah]. I took a job driving [a] team for a man by the name of Hans 00:05:00Hassle who was a very wealthy man. He had some thoroughbred horses, [inaudible] horses. I took care of the team and drove him and his wife wherever they wanted to go. Later in the summer he sent me out to his ranch to assist in the harvesting of grain. [I] ran the thrashing machine. They were having trouble running the machine at the ranch. I operated the thrashing machine until the 00:06:00harvest was over. Many thousands of bushels of dry-land grain and oats [was harvested] that summer.

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LJ:I went to Richfield [Sevier County, Utah] in the fall and worked with my brother who owned the old Monarch Café [there]. I worked with him that winter until the next spring [when] I went to Nevada. My brother wanted me to come to Nevada and farm with him and grow cantaloupes. I stayed there for two years or 00:07:00more. We grew cantaloupes and shipped them to Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah]. A man by the name of, I can't remember his name, [but he] was in the market business bought our cantaloupes.

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LJ:This man that we grew cantaloupes for was Ed Mueller who was a produce dealer in Salt Lake City and would contract [with us].

We lived, farmed and grew cantaloupes for two or three years. That is where I met my wife. [Georgeanna Blazzard] She had been teaching school in Washington [City, Washington County, Utah]. She came there to work in a drug store in June of 1916. That is where I met her. [I] went with her that summer [and], late in 00:08:00the fall, we decided to get married. She came home to St. George to get ready. I came [to St. George] and we were married on October, 20, [1916].

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LJ:We were married [at] the ranch by Bishop Hall. As soon as we could get ready, we went back to Overton, Nevada to live. We lived there until 1919. Then we 00:09:00[moved] to Salt Lake [City]. We bought a home and I went to work for a streetcar company as a conductor. We only lived there ─

FH:What kind of streetcars were those?

LJ:It was just a regular streetcar.

FH:Was it a trolley?

LJ:[They were] electric cars. Sometimes you would have one and sometimes you would have two cars. I remember in [1919] when they [laid] the track to Saltair 00:10:00[on the shores of the Great Salt Lake]. I ran the first train to Saltair and operated three cars as a conductor. I recall I sent in $315.00 [for] that day's [receipts from] the streetcar. That was the most money that had ever been turned in on one run in Salt Lake City on a streetcar up to that time. [The] manager of the streetcar system reported to me that was the most money ever turned in from one conductor. That was the first car [to] run to Saltair when the streetcars were put out.

FH:[Where] was your home? Where did you live?

LJ:We lived on Fifth South and Ninth East [in Salt Lake City]. We bought a little home there. It wasn't much of a place but I worked on it, painted it, fixed it up and fenced it. When I [was] ready to leave a year or two later, I sold it for half again more than I paid for it [because of] the improvements that I had made. We moved to Idaho and rented a farm from my uncle.

FH:Where was this farm?

LJ:It was [in] Declo [Cassia County, Idaho]. We farmed one season. That was the year, 1919, [when] all the banks went broke in the country, including the bank [where] we had our money. We grew a crop that year [but] there was no money to 00:12:00buy anything. I had 1,000 bushels of grain, several carloads of potatoes, a big stack of hay, 140 tons of hay in one stack, and I couldn't even get a dollar from nobody. That spring I had planted a lot of beets for the sugar beet company. A few days before we were ready to leave they sent me a check for $160.00. That was a lifesaver and got me out of the country!

FH:Where did you go?

LJ:On Thanksgiving Day in 1920 we went to Salt Lake [City]. We [arrived] there inthe evening and went to my brother's place and had Thanksgiving dinner with him. It was quite a happy occasion.

FH:We have gone through the time when World War [I] was on, and I wonder [what] your status was [during] the war. Did you go to war?

LJ:No. I was registered and, due to the fact that I was married, they never took me until the last draft. I was called to report and during that time the 00:14:00Armistice was signed. I never [was sent] to the war. [The Armistice, ending World War I was signed November 11, 1918.]

FH:That was fortunate for you. Let's continue from the Thanksgiving Day in SaltLake [City].

LJ:We stayed that day and the next and visited with my brother. Then we went on to Levan and visited with another brother [for] a day. Then we went down to St. George to my wife's people and visited for a few days. During this time I [applied] for a job in Glendale, Nevada and was successful at getting a job at the plaster mill. I had some experience when I was a younger boy in Levan. My father, his brother, Uncle Milton [Jennings], and a man by the name of Robison built the first plaster mill in the State of Utah. That was [the] Utah 00:15:00Consolidated Plaster Mill [in] Levan. While I was just a boy herding cows in the canyon, I would spend my time around this plant, and especially helping the old man [who] was the burr dresser. He took care of dressing the stone burrs and did the fine grinding for the plaster.

FH:Do you happen to remember the name [of] old man [who] did that work?

LJ:The man [who] was dressing the burrs was named Billy Peachy. He was the same man [who] had dressed the burrs and [who] I had known back in Levan several years before. He left the plant, left his job, and they gave me his job dressing 00:16:00these stones. I took care of the stones and they made me foreman of the mill. I could handle both jobs.

FH:In other words, you were able to take over the foreman's job and still keep up dressing the burrs and handle all of it.

LJ:Yes. Soon after I was made foreman, we bought the latest equipment. We bought the equipment but we discontinued the use of these burrs. They required too much power. There were new machines, [inaudible], that would do a lot better work 00:17:00[with] less power and [were] cheaper to operate. We discontinued the use of the burr mills and, in doing this, I increased production of [the] plant about twenty-five percent. I asked the man that owned the plant, A. C. Hupp, for a certain amount of money. I could improve the plant, increase the production, and more than double it, if he would give me $80,000.00 to spend on the plant for bigger bins, [the] latest equipment, and sacking machines instead of doing it by hand. He agreed to this. Within a year and three months from the time he put up 00:18:00the money to improve this plant, the plant paid every dollar of it back. In fifteen months.

FH:No wonder you were made the foreman!

LJ:Well, it worked out [well].

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FH:What happened when you could see that the plant was going to go out [of operation] in Glendale? [Did] you decide to leave it? Where did you go and what did you do?

LJ:We moved to Amboy, California. I accepted a job with the United States Gypsum Company, running another plaster mill. We stayed there for two or three years. Finally, our quarry run out [and got] to the point where it wasn't profitable to operate the plant. The company decided to build a new plant in Blythe, 00:19:00California. They tore the old plant down and shipped the machinery that they could use to the new plant in Blythe and rest was discarded. The plant was closed down.

FH:Was your job to oversee that [operation]?

LJ:I was foreman there. Soon after I went there I was made foreman. We moved in California soon after this plant closed down and I went into the insurance business.

FH:[Was this] in Los Angeles [California]?

LJ:We lived in San Pedro [California] and [that] was my district. We stayed 00:20:00therefor a year and a half.

FH:Did you like selling insurance?

LJ:I didn't like it at first. I [wasn't] happy as long as I was down there. Instead of being out selling insurance, I [would rather] be out on some building program or down to the docks or someplace else.

FH:It just wasn't your potato, was it?

LJ:No, no. No, I didn't like it at all. I accepted a job with a dry dock company as a paint foreman. Sometimes we would call for as many as 2,000 men or 3,000 men when they painted these ships. They would lift the ship out of the water [and] start on the keel of the boat scraping to clean it before we painted it. 00:21:00Then we would paint it and let it right back down into the water. By the time we had cleaned all of the shells and so forth off of the hull and had it painted with red lead, it would be back in the water. Half of the crew was on top sanding, cleaning the deck and the railings, and would paint and varnish everything on the top deck.

FH:This was an unusual job for a man [who] came from Levan!

LJ:It was, it was! It was the biggest worry I ever had in my life. I enjoyed it as long as I was there. I never stayed too long. Then we moved back to Las Vegas [Nevada].

FH:I want to go back for a moment and tell about your children that came along..LJ:[Lloyd] Leon Jennings was born in St. George, Utah. Lois M. Jennings 00:22:00was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.] Helen [Jennings] was born in Idaho before we left there. [George] Julian [Jennings] was born while we were at the plaster mill down in Glendale, Nevada. [Family records note that George Julian Jennings was born in St. George, Washington County, Utah.] [Richard Carl Jennings was born in Las Vegas, Nevada.]

FH:You are going to leave this job of painting ships. Where did you go from there?

LJ:We went back to Las Vegas. That was when I started in the building business [as a] contractor. While we were living in Las Vegas our baby boy Jesse was born.

FH:How did you get started in the contracting business?

LJ:I had a lot of experience in repair work around these plants. I felt that I was capable of building a house, [so] I started building houses. I recall the first house that I built in Las Vegas. It still stands, and was the first house I ever built. Later, construction at Boulder Dam [Nevada] started and I went to Boulder City and done some contracting. I built their first community church in Boulder City.

At the same time I was building that, I built the North Las Vegas school. I was doing quite a lot [of] work. Our home burned down. We [had] built a new home 00:24:00down in North Las Vegas. We had it finished only just a few months, it was a frame house, and it burned up. My wife had always been asking me to move back to St. George. After this happened, I gave up building in Las Vegas and we moved back to St. George. In the meantime, I had bought a lumberyard that had gone out of business. I bought all of [the] lumber and his hardware. [So] I hauled it to St. George and started building here. I had enough lumber and hardware to build 00:25:00four or five homes [and] I didn't have to buy [any] material. That gave me a quite a boost when I built [houses] and sold them. That got me [started] in the contracting business in [fairly] good shape in St. George.

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LJ:When we came to St. George I [also] bought [the St. George Café]. It is now [known] as Dick's Café. [Dick Hammer]. I guess I just bought it to give my wife [Georgeanna] a job because she [operated] it for about two years before we sold it. It proved to be quite successful. It was a good thing. She did a nice job of running it. During this time I got started in the contracting business. One of my first contracts was the City [of St. George] and [Washington] County jail. After that, I built a good many homes, then [did] some commercial work. My son, 00:26:00Leon, was in high school. He loved this [kind of] work and was very efficient [for] a boy. He could do [very] good work as a carpenter. He worked with me all day building the jail and any work that I was doing. When he was out of school, he would be right with me. Later on, we started a little store. We had a little hardware store and started selling building supplies.

FH:Where was this little hardware store located?

LJ:Here in St. George, right where it is now, J & J Mill and Lumber Company. When [World] War [II] came, we couldn't buy lumber, so we bought a saw mill. We 00:27:00bought a small mill that was producing about 5,000 or 6,000 feet [of lumber] a day. My other boy [Julian] was running some cottages [the Dixie Motel] that we had built and [Leon] was running the gas station. Later, we bought [a] saw mill and Julian took over the saw mill. We found that it wasn't profitable to run 00:28:00this small mill. We decided to build a larger mill and that was at Hatch Town [Garfield County, Utah]. We operated that for a couple of years and found [it] wasn't profitable. The boys wanted to expand and build a bigger mill. So we moved to Virgin [Washington County, Utah] and put in a mill that would cut from 50,000 to 70,000 feet [of lumber] a day. The timber [came from] Cedar Mountain [Iron County, Utah]. We operated that mill for about two or three years. Our son, Julian, sold it to [the] Whiting Brothers out of Kanab [Kane County, Utah]. They were big in the lumber business. Logging and [running] the saw mill was a dangerous business. I was happy to see them sell it. However, it was a 00:29:00profitable business. We made money at it. We had established the J & J Mill and Lumber Company which is still operated by Leon Jennings.

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LJ:After we got out of the saw mill business, Leon would say, "Dad, you don't have to do this. You don't have to go out on this job." I decided that I wanted to keep going, so I took a bulldozer and a couple [of] trailer houses and went out bidding [United States] government jobs [like] airport facilities. The first 00:30:00job [that] I did and was successful [with] the government was out on the Mormon Mesa [north of Mesquite, Nevada]. It was only a small job [for] just a few thousand dollars, but I still made a nice little profit. I think the next job I did [for] the government was at Delta [Millard County] Utah, and that proved to be successful. I went on for eight years building government airports. I did radar at Salt Lake City and instrument landing systems. When they extended their runways, I extended their lighting systems, and put in their slope light plans. Then I went to Pocatello, Idaho and put in their instrument landing system and 00:31:00slope light plans, and [at] Casper, Wyoming [and] the North Naval Base in San Diego [California]. I put in a radio facility there. I went all over the western part of the United States. In Sacramento [California] I did a big job and [worked] all the way up the coast to Bellingham, Washington. I did many jobs for the government. I was gone for eight years [doing] this government work. It was work that I enjoyed very much.

FH:Where was your wife while you were doing this?

LJ:She was running the court that I built here.

FH:Tell about these government jobs. What did you do?

LJ:The first job was west of here, about fifty miles, on the Mormon Mesa. It was an emergency landing field [for] any planes flying between Salt Lake [City] and Los Angeles or the east [coast] and Los Angeles. We finished about 360 acres of land and added eleven acres more to the length of the runway for the larger 00:33:00planes. We put up beacon lights and engine room where they had power to operate these lights and ─

[END OF RECORDING ONE.]LJ:─ the beacon.

FH:All self-contained units, sort of out there?

LJ:Oh, yes, yes it was. It was quite a nice little plant that furnished power for this thing.

FH:Okay.

LJ:And after I had had experience with the first job, I went on to bid many other jobs with the government.

FH:Now, they weren't just like this one though. They were ─

LJ:Oh no. They were all different. The next job I got was in Delta, Utah, and it was very similar. It was a beacon light, and a power house, and the markers 00:34:00around the field, and the lighting of the field for the planes to land at night. And every runway on an airport is marked with air markers, and they're made with sheet metal and painted with orange-colored paint. The symbols are clear around the airport. And there are various colored lights in them to identify which is the approach end and so forth.

But every job is different. Some of the large jobs with the radar and the runway lighting and the slope light lanes that brings the plane in─

FH:So like an incoming, with instruments, too.

LJ:Yes, I've built─ the only instruments [for] landing systems was─ a slope 00:35:00light lane isn't in connection with the instrument landing system. The instrument landing system, now, is a different thing. What we used to call instrument landing was the slope light lane would bring them into the runway, and the different colored lights identified the runways. And in many airports, there are several runways and they have to be identified with the various colored lights.

But there is one system of landing known as the instrument landing system, and that's never been successful. It isn't to this day. I put in one up in the northwest, and I had an invitation to come back to McQuoia Field to negotiate a 00:36:00contract to put in an instrument landing system like there. And that's the only two that have been put in in this country, and it's been proven unsatisfactory.

FH:I see.

LJ:The people that fly these planes, they won't give us their plane to this system.

FH:I see. They wanna keep control.

LJ:They just simply, they can't. They've got the responsibility of that plane with a hundred people on it, and when they call them to take over for the instrument landing system, it's a problem with the people. And many of the best pilots they've had in these companies, have quit their jobs on account of this instrument landing system. They wouldn't fly with it.

FH:They're afraid of it.

LJ:Yeah. But we put it─ now I don't want ya to get a misunderstanding of this 00:37:00instrument landing system. There's one system that's called "instrument landing" that is guided by lights and so forth. It isn't the regular takeover landing system, the radar.

FH:They'll control for the pilot.

LJ:The instrument landing system is successful, but not the radar.

FH:Oh, I see.

LJ:That's the thing. The radar system has never proven to be successful. But the instrument landing system is successful. Which we put in, oh many of them: Sacramento [California], Salt Lake City [Utah], Pocatello [Idaho]─

FH:You installed the whole system, then?

LJ:Oh, yes, everything, everything. All of the cables and the cables to the towers. I had to wire the towers. And, 'course this stuff was all furnished by 00:38:00the government, this equipment was all furnished by the government, but I installed it.

FH:Contract to install?

LJ:Mm-hmm. And, Casper, Wyoming, we put in one, but it's─

FH:Now, to me it's really interesting to know that you've done all of this kind of work after your son kinda wanted you to take a back seat.

LJ:Well, he felt that I didn't need to do it. And I explained to him that it wasn't necessary to go on doin' these things, but I still felt good and wanted to do it.

FH:You enjoyed the work.

LJ:I enjoyed the work. And it's been very profitable. This work has been very profitable.

FH:Mm-hmm.

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FH:And after you've been doing all this work now, for about eight years, it kinda came to an end. What was the reason?

LJ:Well, my health condition was one thing that caused me to leave this work. 00:39:00And four years ago, last Oct─ not October, it was in February. Four years ago in February, I had an operation for an ulcer, and which proved successful. And after that, I found that I didn't have too much to keep me entertained, so I built myself a diamond saw. A twenty-four-inch diamond saw. And went into rock business with it, rock hound business. And at that time─

FH:Cutting and polishing stones yourself?

LJ:Yes. And since that time, I've been making hewer and I've enjoyed this work very much. It's been a lifesaver to me.

FH:You're in the right location for this, too, aren't ya?

LJ:Well, all of the stones that I work with are practically imported stone. [Crosstalk] I don't use local stones. I've never went out in the hills and gathered stones.

FH:Oh, I see.

LJ:I've bought from Hoover and last time, it was most of the stones that I have used. And through [inaudible] some people he has [inaudible]. And I use a lot of Brazillian agate, and I bought most of them. I don't buy, or use no local stones.

FH:Mh-mm. Well now, let's see, it's been, you were eight years, and that's been four years ago. That puts us about twelve years ago. About that time, something happened of importance in your life. Or just a little before that.

LJ:Well, I was comin' home from Sacramento, and when the driver of my truck, 00:41:00pickup, tipped it over and dug the end of the car. I was seriously injured, and through that accident, I developed this arthritis. And it's been getting worse every year since then, until the last two or three years, it's been quite a problem for me to get around. And so that's why I've been more or less confined to home and to this type of work that I'm doing. However, I've enjoyed it and I have had quite a lot of success in this work, making tabletops and various types of jewelry.

FH:Okay. And you're still doing a lot of that, aren't you?

LJ:Well, very little. I sit here in my chair and make a little jewelry, but I'm not able to walk to the saw and to stand around the saw and saw my stones. And that's causin' the problem, I'm really out of material to work with.

FH:I see, uh-huh. Well, you might have to get someone to help you with that a little bit, maybe.

LJ:Well, I could.

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FH:Now, I wanna know, what started you into church activity. What made you interested?

LJ:Well, we have a man here in town, that I think is a fine man, that had a job in the church, teaching the Book of Mormon. And he was the one that came to me and talked to me, and asked me to come out to priesthood and help them in the priesthood work. And I give him credit for most of the interest that I took in going to church. He's, to me, I think one of the best teachers that I ever knew 00:43:00in the class work, in the church. And today, he's brought a lot of people into the church. The same time he talked to me, he brought six men into the church that, today, are active and all work in the church, and have been to temple, they pay their tithing; they're good people in the church.

FH:Now, you have been a member of the church all your life?

LJ:Oh, yes. When I was a little boy, I was baptized by a man by the name of 00:44:00Lorenzo Mangleson in the Levan. I was baptized a deacon, then I was baptized a teacher.

FH:Ordained.

LJ:Ordained a teacher. And the night that I was ordained a teacher, while they was performing the ceremony, the schoolhouse had a fire. And they was ringin' the bell for everyone to come and help fight this fire and carry water. We had no fire system. We had to carry water from the ditch in buckets to put this fire out. But the real─

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LJ:And after the ceremony and I had been made a deacon, he said we'll have to go and help put the fire out. And so, I remember that part of it so well that─

FH:[I] should say.

LJ:That's what happened the night that I was made a teacher.

FH:That was a memorable day for two reasons. Okay─

LJ:Then it went on for many years, that I was not active in the church work, and my son had been made a bishop. And he'd been made, later, it was in the stake presidency. And Brother Atkin, who now is the president of the temple, come to me and asked me to come to the temple, to go through the temple with my family, and so, after I had started going to church and so forth. But I always, since I was married, we paid tithing. I can't say that we've always paid maybe a honest tithing, but we paid tithing what we thought was right. And it's been a great privilege to me to do the work in the church that I have in the last few years, 00:46:00and especially the work that I've done in the─

FH:The Aaronic─

LJ:Aaronic priesthood. I enjoyed that work very much. But since I've been sick now, for a year and a half, I've been more or less confined to home, I'm gettin' to look like a half-wit, and I feel like that sometimes.

FH:[Laughter.]

LJ:My memory isn't too good, and I don't go to church like I should. But when I get to, or if I do get to where I can travel or walk or stand on my feet, well then I'll go back to church and try to be active.

FH:Mm-hmm.

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[Crosstalk.]

LJ:─ goes all the time, and she's always been very active in the church work. But now it's gettin' to be a problem for me to go. I can't stoop over to put my socks on and to change my clothes. And unless one of my sons can do it, or Leon, 00:47:00my oldest son is with me, or the youngest one, it's hard for me to go to undress and dress and so forth.

FH:Mm-hmm. Well, it's a great blessing to you, that you're able to get back into activity in these later years. And I think it's been a powerful factor in the lives of other people, the way that you talk about the work you did with the Aaronic program.

LJ:Well, it has brought me more enjoyment and more pleasure than anything that's ever happened in my life. I think of the future sometimes, and I think of what will happen in later times to come, and I feel that it's the greatest blessing that can come to any man on earth, is the activity you can have with the Lord's work.

FH:You're making a preparation for some of the greatest contracting work that you'll ever have. And I'm impressed with your ability in this line and that you have made preparation for some great things to come. Your future is a bright future. May I put it that way?

LJ:Well, I appreciate that, but I─ I don't know some of the things that I have done is things that give me real hope. And I hope that I can continue, as long as I live, to do a few little things that will make somebody happy. And when the time comes that I can't do that, then I'll pray to God that I can go on. That's 00:49:00what I feel like.

FH:Brother Jennings, I know that they are grateful to you for the kindness that you've done. Here locally, even, there are things that you've done that you've never told anyone about. Now, I'm aware of this, and I wonder if it's hidden, be made part of this record, some of it at least. Wouldn't you like to talk about some of those things? Tell me about two or three of them, anyway. Something that you─ or one, even.

LJ:Well, there's─

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FH:Brother Jennings, I know that it's something that you hesitate to talk about. Something that you've done for others that you've not talked about, but I want the people to know a little bit about this. Tell me about this little house across the street, and the circumstances surrounding that, would you?

LJ:Well, this little house was built about eight years ago.

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LJ:─ that Brother Heaton had, and he didn't have no use for it. And his little daughter had been married just recently, two years or so before. And her husband had an operation, a heart operation, and he died on the table. He never got well. And she was without a home, and she had these two babies. And I asked Brother Heaton, I said, "Let's build a house out of that garage and I'll add to it, and we'll make that girl a home." And he said, "Well, I'd like to do that." I told him, I said, "We'll go to the bishop and get the money. The bishop will let us have a little money to build it with, and we'll pay it back to him." I said, "How long will it take for you to pay that money back?" And he says, "I'll pay it back in a year." So the bishop let him have the money to go ahead, 00:51:00fifteen hundred dollars.

And we enlarged twelve feet on the front of that garage and built this little home with the help of two or three other people that were friends of this family, and friends of mine. Will Squire was one of them, and I just don't recall the names of the others, but someone helped us. But we never spent no money for labor, all the labor was furnished for free. And it's a lovely little house, and I'm sure the little girl has enjoyed it. It never cost─ the fifteen hundred dollars was all that was spent. And my son and I helped on it, helped on it with money. And the Pickett Lumber Company furnished the glass, and other 00:52:00companies, the plumbing companies─ Lee Hirschi's youngest son, and I told him to furnish the material, and we'd pay for that, and he'd do the labor. He brought us a bill, and it was down [as] paid in full. That's the way the wiring was done. The electrician had come and wired it, never charged us for it. It's been, every person that had anything to do with it was very liberal with everything they done.

FH:This creates a real joy in people.

LJ:Well, it was a nice thing. And the family, the little girl, and those children enjoyed this house. And it's a lovely little place.

FH:This is the kind of thing that I wanted you to talk about. It's a fine thing for future generations to understand and know the kind of a heart that you had. 00:53:00The only way they'll know is if they find out some of these things.

LJ:Well, I've built four homes since I retired. And I hope this won't sound boastful, because I've never taken a penny on those four homes for the work that I done. And I done all the buying and the paying of the bills. And on some of these homes, I done a lot of the work and enjoyed every minute of it. But I didn't do it to boast about it. I didn't do it to tell somebody else that I done it without pay for doing it.

FH:I understand.

LJ:But, it's been a pleasure. And three of these homes are three of the finest homes in St. George. Sometime, I'm gonna take you and show 'em to you.

FH:Alright, now Brother Jennings, is there anything special in your life that we've missed, that you feel like you'd like to talk about now, a little bit?

LJ:No, I can't think of anything.

FH:Actually, there is something that I might ask you about. I want you to tell me the names of your children's companions. When you tell me the names of the children's companions, your children, then I want you to tell me how many children each one of them have. Can you do that?

LJ:Yes.

FH:Alright, let's hear about that.

LJ:Well, the oldest boy, Leon, his wife is Annie McArthur, and one of the grandest girls that ever lived. And they have five children, they had three boys and two girls. Marjorie Ann is the oldest girl. She is now back to Columbia 00:55:00University, where her husband is getting his doctorate degree. And then they have a son, Mansfield Jennings, who is the manager of J&J Mill and Lumber Company. He has─ I can't think of his wife. Oh, his wife's name is Diane, and they have two boys, two of the finest kids on earth.

Then my other son, or my other daughter, Lois, she lives in Las Vegas. Lois Bracken. And she has three children that she has adopted, she never had no children of her own.

FH:Her husband's name is?

LJ:Hamblin Bracken.

FH:Hamblin Bracken, alright.

LJ:He was a grandson, great grandson of Hamblin, old Hamblin─

FH:Jacob Hamblin? A great grandson.

LJ:And then we have another daughter living in California, by the name of Helen Jennings, Helen Duff.

FH:Robert─

LJ:[Her husband's name is] Robert Duff. And they have two boys and a girl. Her husband is in the printing business, [audio malfunction] and an honest man of the world.

FH:Down at La Canada─

LJ:Yes. Then I have another son, George J. Jennings─

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LJ:─ living over at Middleton. And his wife is Marion Jennings, and he has three daughters.

FH:Oh, yes.

LJ:There's Betty, and Barbara, and oh I can't think of it. Oh, isn't that awful? The other girl just came down from Logan, where she's gonna teach school here. She's─

FH:Oh yes.

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LJ:Elaine. Barbara, and Betty, and Elaine. [???All good little girls.???]

FH:Oh. I want you to tell me a little bit about your younger years and how you used to play ball.

LJ:Well, it was way back in Levan. When I lived in Levan, I pla─ I pitched on the team, and we used to play with Nephi, and Mona, and the surrounding towns 00:58:00around Levan. I love baseball and always did. Today I watch the television and watch the games, always. But every place I moved and lived for several years, I was always interested in, and they always asked me to pitch baseball. And I was quite successful. I threw up a good curve. [Tape malfunction.] Well, I loved it, and I love baseball.

FH:Now Brother Jennings, also, for the record, I want to know about your interest in music. Tell me a little bit about how you, what kind of music do you like?

LJ:Well, I've always been a lover of music. I've always loved a picture show that was a musical show. I've always loved various people that has sang─ What 00:59:00was that thing that I mentioned?

FH:Jeanette McDonald?

LJ:Jeanette McDonald. She was always a favorite of mine, and I'd always go to a theater wherever I learned that she was singing. And it's been one of my greatest joys to go to the musical, and I've always loved music. I used to play the harmonica a little.

FH:Mm-hmm.

LJ:And I quite enjoyed entertaining myself. [I] never played for anybody else that I can think of, but my own. But when I was a boy I liked to sing. I used to sing, I'd get out in the field and feel that I could sing to myself, but it 01:00:00might not have been a very musical to anybody else [laughter].

FH:Alright, is there anything that you can think of that we've missed? If there isn't anything else, I think it'd be a fine time now for you to consider for a moment and perhaps give some counsel and advice to your children and your grandchildren, those who come after you. After this wonderful lifetime of experience which you've had, I think that you should be well-qualified to give them counsel and tell them what you'd like to see them do.

LJ:Well, I─ It's kinda hard to counsel with people. I think a man should give most of his counsel to his family earlier in life. Now, I think this to try and 01:01:00give them counsel now, about the only counsel I'd like to give them is to say this: That it's been the greatest joy in my life, my family. I've never had one minute of unpleasantness, I've never had one minute of worry over one member of my family. Never. And there's no man on earth that's been blessed as much as I have, in having a good family, a family that I consider all of them to be worthy of living their life in the church. It's been a great joy, my family. The greatest joy in my life has been my family. They never brought me one, one minute of sadness or misunderstanding. It's all been a joy. It's all been a 01:02:00pleasure. I feel that I'm the greatest blessed man on earth, with having the family that I got.

FH:Now Brother Jennings, I think if I recall, we missed one of the children. Do you want to tell me about Dick?

LJ:Yes. Dick is my baby boy. And we did forget and leave him out when you asked me about my children. He is now thirty-five years old, and he has a family of five boys and one girl. His wife is named Lu. She's a very accomplished─ Pardon, he has four boys and a girl. I said five, but I was wrong. And his wife's name is Lu; she's a very accomplished girl in music. And they're very happy with their family, and in fact, they're gonna be here to see us from San 01:03:00Francisco next week. I don't know just what to say, but they've got one of the grandest families in the world.

FH:Good. Now would you like to tell me the concluding thing here, perhaps, your feelings about the church and its effect on your life?

LJ:Well, I think the church is a wonderful thing. I've never lived it like maybe I shoulda done, but what experience I've had in the church has been a fine thing for me. And my wife has always been active in the church and has enjoyed her church work very much. And it's always been a pleasure to me, to know that she did.

FH:Now, have you taken care of all of the things that are essential in church 01:04:00ordinances? And you're prepared for exaltation?

LJ:Well, I don't know. There are some things that haven't been done yet. We haven't had our children all sealed to us yet in the temple.

FH:I see. Well then, this is something that you'd like to see done, is it?

LJ:Yes, I would. I would.

FH:Perhaps the time will come when this can all be taken care of.

LJ:Well, I hope so. I hope so.

[END OF RECORDING TWO. END OF INTERVIEW.]