Interview with Ethel (Leavitt) Leavitt

Ethel (Leavitt) Leavitt was interviewed on April 1, 1969 in by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of Nevada.

FH:What is your full name?

EL:My name is Ethel (Leavitt) Leavitt.

FH:What is your birth date?

EL:My birth date is September 1, 1916.

FH:[Where were] you born?

EL:[I was born in] Bunkerville, Nevada.

FH:[What was] your father’s name?

EL:[My father’s name was] Charles Albert Leavitt.

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

EL:[Her name was] Lillie May (Barnum) [Leavitt].

FH:[What] can you remember from [your] early childhood before you started school? 00:01:00EL:That is a long time back. I remember when I was just a little tiny girl I wanted to go to with my sister [Jetta (Leavitt)] and her husband [Solon Ralph Huntsman]. They were going in a wagon. You had to cross the [Virgin] River and go up the river bank into Mesquite. That was quite a-ways, but they took me with them. They left me with my grandmother [Martha Ann (Pulsipher) Barnum] to stay for awhile. Of course, [by the] time bedtime came and they had all left me, I began to get homesick. I cried and cried. Early the next morning they had to hitch the horses up to take me back to Bunkerville. 00:02:00EL:I am a home girl.

FH:[Did] you have your [education] here in Bunkerville?

EL:Yes.

FH:Can you tell about [it]? How much [education did] you [receive]?

EL:I didn’t get very much. I should have gone [to school] longer. During high school, my father died and the brother [Randy Leavitt] older [than me] went on a [LDS] mission. That left me to find a job. My brother-in-law [Kenneth Earl] had a grocery store in town and I went to work for him. That helped out a lot.

FH:What kind of a school was it? [Can] you describe it?

EL:It was a 00:03:00[very] good school. [The teachers] were quite strict to see that we did what we should do. We had a lot of fun along learning. We had [very] good teachers.

FH:Did you have more than one grade [for] a teacher? Or was each grade [with] a separate teacher?

EL:Each grade [had] a separate teacher until we [were] —.

FH:Were you changing classes after you [were] into high school?

EL:Yes.

FH:Are there some of those teachers you would like to name? [Teachers] that you feel were special to you?

EL:Yes. All of them were special, but two [or] three just stand out in the mind, because they paid a little more attention to me and 00:04:00tried to help me a little bit more. My brother-in-law was the art teacher.

FH:[What] was [your brother-in-law’s] name?

EL:His name was [Solon] Ralph Huntsman. He never did allow me to call him Ralph. He was Mr. Huntsman, even though he was my brother-in-law.

I would work like the dickens to paint a picture that I thought was [very] good. He would look out of the corner of his eye and squint and say, “Well, that is pretty good for a scrub.” My music teacher, Mr. Wallace Martin, was a [very] good teacher. I thought at first when he came here that [he] was the dumbest looking man I had ever seen in my life. [Laughter] When he walked from one building to the next, he would walk with his head down. No one [inaudible] and he is standing right in front of the tree. It is a wonder he didn’t kill himself.

FH:The absent-minded professor type?

EL:He was 00:05:00just a music man, and that was all. He was good. He brought more honor and things to our school than we had had for a good many years.

FH:There are people [who are] gifted like that.

EL:That is right. Our principal [inaudible] was a [very] good man and a [very] good principal. When he told you to do something, you knew he meant do it. If he got mad you could tell it. He had one brown eye and one black eye. [Laughter] [His eyes] just sparkled. He could be just as good as gold. He still is. 00:06:00FH:Where is he now?

EL:I think he is in Arizona. The last time I —.

FH:He didn’t stay around here.

FH:Did you take any trips when you were growing up?

EL:[I didn’t take trips] if I could help it. I was too much of a home girl [and it was] too hard to go very far. There weren’t many cars. I remember one trip that I made to Provo [Utah County, Utah]. [I] stayed with this brother-in-law, [Solon Ralph] Huntsman, and his wife [Jetta (Leavitt) Huntsman]. He was going to school at BYU [Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah County, Utah]. They took me up, [because] they had a family and were taking me for a vacation. I was a big [girl]. I wasn’t [a young] one. I was old enough that I had a steady boyfriend.

FH:Were you almost out of school?

EL:Yes. 00:07:00I [went] up there and stayed about two weeks. I [was] so homesick [that] I couldn’t eat [or] sleep. They couldn’t do [anything for] me. They had to find somebody coming back [down] and sent me back with them. The teachers [who] were there for summer school happened to be coming down for the weekend. [One teacher was Dave Abbott.] They brought me back home. I will tell you, this old desert looked good to me when I got here. [Laughter] FH:[Do] you really like it here?

EL:Yes, I like it here.

FH:[Do you] like it for more reasons than one, not just because [it is] home?

EL:[Laughter] I like to go places, but [when] night time comes, I want to be home.

FH:Was there anything that happened in those years that was funny or amusing that you can remember? 00:08:00Did you ever have anything funny happen to you?

EL:I have had some embarrassing things happen to me. It was funny until it embarrassed me to tears.

FH:[Was] it was funny to somebody else?

EL:I remember one boyfriend [that] I was going with from Enterprise [Washington County, Utah], Lamar Truman. He came to my house one night [to take] me to a dance. We were walking out the door [and] he stumbled and about fell over something. I didn’t [know] what his dad’s name was at the time. I knew his mother, but I didn’t know his dad. As he [started] to fall, I said, “For hell’s sake, George Truman, can I come and pick you up?” He started to laugh and he laughed and laughed. I said, “What are you laughing about?” He said, “Do you know who George Truman is?” “No. Who is it?” “That is my dad.” FH:[Laughter] EL:I am telling you, I could have sunk right through that cement porch. [Laughter] FH:You didn’t know how you were going to get [inaudible]. 00:09:00EL:There was another time [when] my girlfriend and Denzel Waite, a boy I [was going] with at the time, we were going to steal some melons. We each got a spoon and a salt shaker and went up the field road to the melon patch. The girlfriend and I didn’t go in the patch,. We stood by the fence and Denzel went in and picked two big melons and came out. We went up to eat [them] on the bench back there. 00:10:00[We] busted them open and ate them. We had just listened to Denzel [tell] some big story, [when] we could hear a horse coming up the road. [We could] hear this man cough and he said, “Uh-oh, here comes .” That was the [person who owned] the melon patch. We just ran for the ditch as fast as we could go. We had to jump the big ditch before we could get up to the highway. When we got up there, he said, “Lily [(Brown) Knight], can you jump this ditch?” She said, “I think I can.” He said, “I know damn well Ethel can.” Lily jumped across the ditch, Denzel jumped across the ditch and I went to jump and landed right in the middle of the ditch. I would [try] getting out and I couldn’t get out. They stood and laughed at me until I was just about frantic. When I got out of that ditch, they couldn’t catch me. I was halfway to Bunkerville before [the] two [of them] caught up with me. [Laughter] I knew every day for a week, every time I saw that man coming, I knew he was going to say, “What did you get in the melon patch for?” FH:Did he ever say anything?

EL:No, he didn’t even know we were there. Another time, this same fellow Denzel, myself, another girl named Rowena [(Waite)] Adams and Vaughn Leavitt decided we were going to ride horses to Beaver Dam [Nevada]. 00:11:00So we took off. Before we got up very far, Rowena got so sore she could hardly ride that horse. When we got to Littlefield [Arizona], she went in and found a bed and a pillow [at] Aunt Martha Petersons and lay down. We waited around all afternoon and decided it was time to come home. She borrowed a pillow off the bed to put on her saddle to come home. We [were] coming down off of the highway and she would ride a-ways, then she would cry and cry. Then she would get off and lead the horse. Finally, she said, “You fellows go on and leave [me] here and let me die right here. I can’t go any farther.” [Laughter] We 00:12:00would go a little ways and then we would wait for her. Finally, a sheep man came along in a pick-up truck. He was headed to St. George [Washington County, Utah]. His name was Rudger Atkins. Now he is president of the St. George Temple. He stopped and could see what trouble we were having. He was a good old soul. We had known him for years. He took the saddle [off] of Rowena’s horse and put it in his truck, put her in the cab and took her home. He had a lady from town take her up to St. George. She didn’t want to take the time to turn around and come back. He said, “I wouldn’t leave that girl out there for nothing.” He brought her home and bought her a milkshake and then took her on home. We were razed more over that ride [to] the Beaver Dam on horses because she did have such a time. I rode a horse 00:13:00all the time and it didn’t bother me. [Inaudible] FH:Were you busy during these years in [The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] attendance and activities? 00:14:00EL:Yes.

EL:That is right.

EL:Yes. I remember going when I was a young girl. We went in [an] 00:15:00open truck to St. George. I remember I had on the prettiest bright blue dress [from] Christmas. It was summer, and [by the] time we rode up there and back, [the] sun had just [bleached] all the pretty blue out of that dress. The shoulders where I had been in the sun too much [were faded]. It really ruined it.

FH:[Did] that make you [upset]?

EL:But it was real [fun].

FH:Tell a little bit about your father. What can you remember about him?

EL:He died while I was quite young, but I still remember him pretty [well]. He wasn’t a tall man; he was quite short and heavy. When he told you to do something, he meant 00:16:00[for you] do it. He didn’t mean wait for a week to get it done. He wanted it done then. He was a hard-worker [and] a good father. [Charles Albert Leavitt died May 17, 1929 in Saint George, Washington County, Utah.] FH:Did he ever get after you [or] punish you?

EL:Not that I can remember. I don’t have any [memory] of getting a whipping.

FH:Was it that he [didn’t] whip you; it was just that you knew he meant business?

EL:That is right. You could tell by the tone of [his] voice. I think sometimes I wonder if I have about the same tone of voice. My children, and I think the neighbor [children], too, think half the time I am mad, when it is just the tone of my voice with [which] I speak. I know, [and they] know, what I am saying [and] they [had] better do it or else. [Laughter] FH:What did he do 00:17:00mostly to make a living?

FH:What caused him death at that early age?

EL:He had a ruptured appendix. [At that time], they didn’t know too much [about] what to do. By the time they got up there, there wasn’t anything that —. Gangrene had set in and there wasn’t too much they could do.

FH:Did this happen a lot in those days? Do you know his parent’s names or anything about them?

EL:I don’t ever remember his parents, only their names and what I have read about them. His 00:18:00[parents were] Dudley and Mariah (Huntsman) Leavitt.

EL:Yes, they were both dead.

FH:Tell a little about your mother. What do you remember of her?

EL:I remember [a] lot [about] her. She lived a lot longer than father did.

FH:How long has she been gone? [Lillie May (Barnum) Leavitt died March 17, 1948 in St. George, Washington County, Utah.] EL:Yes. I [don’t] remember off hand, but it has been close to twenty three years, I guess. 00:19:00She was a hard-worker. After my father died, a few years [later] she [was] married [to] Thomas [Henry] , but she still worked hard. She took in school teachers and boarded them all the time. She had a lot of cattle and things like that to eat, but she made her own living. [Thomas Henry and Lillie May (Barnum) Leavitt Adams were married December 10, 1930.] FH:[Did] she marry Thomas [Henry] before you were married or after?

EL:Yes, [this] was before I was married.

FH:How did you get along with [your] stepfather?

EL:I got along pretty [well]. It seemed like he wasn’t mean [and] he was good to us. 00:20:00[The] fact that I worked in the store and the sister [Elenor] just younger than me and the one [Elsie] just older than me worked there too. We took turns. When the older sister married and left home, then I worked. And when I left home, the one just younger than me worked.

FH:[Did] you have kind of a standing job there waiting for whichever one could take it?

EL:It was a job. If we worked half a day we [received] $.50. If we worked all day we [received] $1.00. But that was a lot of money in [those] days. That went a lot further than $20.00 goes now.

EL:My mother roomed and boarded school teachers and made a living for the things she needed and wanted. 00:21:00She also held church [positions] until she got [to] where she was sickly and could not [do it any more]. After my stepfather died, she got a blood clot in her leg and they had to rush her to St. George. They kept her [leg] packed in ice [for] I don’t know how many days, freezing that leg, because they knew they had to take it off. They couldn’t dissolve [the blood clot]. They said they couldn’t give her ether because they figured she had a bad heart. [Thomas Henry Adams died December 24, 1945 in Bunkerville, Nevada.] EL:After they had [the leg] in ice so long, they went into [the] operation. They got in so far and [the leg] wasn’t frozen clear through. They had to give her ether to put her out, to finish taking [her] leg off. She was in the hospital for a long, long while. 00:22:00She came home and was able to stay with one of the children all the time. She couldn’t be at home alone. Finally, she [was] sick again and had to go back [to the hospital]. She died that time. She didn’t come back. [Lillie May (Barnum) Leavitt Adams died March 17, 1948 in St. George, Washington County, Utah.] FH:[What is] your impression of your mother? Was she [very] good to you?

EL:Yes, she was. I don’t ever remember getting a whipping from her either. I [have] said lots of times [that] I would rather get a whipping than a tongue lashing. When she would see that we didn’t do something right, she would let us know right [then]. She taught us a good many things. 00:23:00Every time I go to do [something], I think: mom would have me do it this way. I wonder if I should do it this way or that way. I would remember, if mom was here she would say do it this way. And that is the way it should be done. [Laughter] FH:Do you have a lot of faith in prayer?

EL:That is right.

FH:How has it affected your life?

EL:[It has affected my life a] lot.

EL:Lots of times. [I don’t know] whether I can relate any [instances]. I am sure you [would] get a cry afterwards. Lot of times, I have wondered whether to do certain things, especially since I have been married. 00:24:00[Situations] would come up and my husband and I wondered [what] we were going to do. It seemed like every time we would ask the Lord how to do or what to do, He would usually come to us [about] how to do it, and it worked out for the best. When our boy [Cecil Ray Leavitt] was in the [LDS] mission field, many times he would have to move [and] so [he] often traveled so much. When he left, they said we would have to [pay] around $75.00, anyway, a month for him. But when he [arrived] there, they had to travel so much, [that] it would take more than that. Sometimes we would have to send him close to $200.00 a month. We would wonder where on earth was it coming from, but it always came. I don’t ever remember a time of having more 00:25:00than we needed and having more money than we did while he [was] in the mission field.

FH:Things like this happen for some reason. There is a power in this that is almost something we can’t explain.

EL:That is right. I was with my sister [Erma (Leavitt) Leavitt] over here the other night. Since her operation she has not been able to hold a thing [in] her stomach. She is getting so weak. She called for my husband 00:26:00to come and help administer to her. They wanted my husband to seal the anointment. She asked him [if] he would ask the Lord to bless her [and with what] she ate she would be able to [gain some] strength.

Before they administered to her, she asked if I would make her cornbread. And so I did. When they [were] through, she [drank] a tea cup [of milk] and the cornbread. It stayed down until about twelve o’clock. But she said, “I know I [received] the nourishment that I needed [from] that.” Since then, she has been able to eat a little. It has stayed down long enough for her to [receive] nourishment out of it so that she is getting a little stronger.

FH:Try and recall [what] you did for fun [when] growing up. What did you do to have fun?

EL:My boy [Danny Rolan Leavitt] [has] just finished with what they call a sand buggy. It just worries the life out of me. I said it looks to me like you just 00:27:00made that. It was a Volkswagen. He kept asking me and asking me until I finally gave him permission to cut it down for a dune buggy. I said to my husband last night that it looks to me like I have let him go do that and he will kill himself [with] that thing. [Inaudible] When the boys here had one of those little cars, we had more fun going up and down these blessed hills. You would swear one of us was going to [be] killed, but we [weren’t]. Then we have a bump cart [with] just one seat. [It is] like a wagon [with a] seat on it [and] we [hitch] a horse [to it]. If we couldn’t find a horse, [we] 00:28:00would take turns. Each one of us [would] get a hold of one of those shafts, and the other [person] would get on the seat. We would take turns. We would run up the big hill and go down the hills and take [go] for rides. We had candy pulls and made homemade ice cream in the freezer. Everything we did we had to make ourselves. We didn’t have cars to run here and there. We always had dances that the school and the Mutual would put on. We looked forward to them every year. [They had] the same amount of dances each year, like the Gold and Green ball or the junior prom.

FH:Tell about the music that you had for those nights. What kind of music [was it]?

EL:We had [a] live orchestra. I played for a lot of those [dances] myself. My husband and [I] [both played]. He played the saxophone and I played the piano. If there was anyone else who could play the piano, I would change off with them and play 00:29:00the drums. We [had] two or three others in town that would play [the] guitar [and] the drums. For a number of years we played for dances. Even now, every once in awhile, they will come and ask if we won’t play for some entertainment. [They played for every dance and wedding reception until long after I was married. I would say until 1968 or 1969. After that it was only on special occasions. The last time they played together in public was at my daughter’s wedding reception. At that time, every reception had a program and they were part of my daughter’s reception. When they began to play and the guests began to get up and dance, each time they would stop and they would all yell “More! More!” So dad and mom played old dance songs for a thirty or forty minute dance instead of a program.

FH:Has music meant a lot to you in your life? 00:30:00FH:That sounds [like] so [much] fun. Do you think the [young people] now-a-days have as much fun as that?

EL:I don’t think they do. They like to get in [their] cars and go too much instead of getting together like [we did].

FH:It seems to me they would frown on this, and this is when they could really have good times. Did you enter into sports activity at all when you were growing up?

EL: [While I was] in school?

FH:Yes. 00:31:00EL:One of the physical education teachers the boys had was Reed Blake. He still lives in St. George. Many times they would have relay races and regular track meets like hurdles, broad jump, high jump, relay races, fifty-yard dash and [the] hundred-yard dash. Every one of those I would enter in [except for the] pole vault [event]. I couldn’t pole vault, but I could keep up with any of them on the rest of [the events]. One fellow I knew, he usually tried [to] knock my ears down. The coach would [have] me to run with him, because he was considered one of the fastest runners in 00:32:00school. Every time I would beat him.

FH:[Laughter] No wonder he didn’t like you.

EL:I remember one day I had on a white pleated skirt and he [had] me out there to run [a] race with him. Just as we went to start out he stuck his foot out and tripped me. Of course, the coach saw him. If you have ever seen a [inaudible] he got straightened out good. He said, “If you want, Ethel, I will go get the boxing gloves and I will just let you knock the socks right off of him.” I said, “No, I don’t want [any] boxing gloves.” [Laughter] FH:[Laughter] 00:33:00[END OF RECORDING ONE.] EL:There was a [fellow] in the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] camp that I had gone with quite a bit and they moved 00:34:00him out. I had been going with Denzel Waite and we had begun to get to serious, so I just quit. He was working in Las Vegas, Nevada, and my husband-to-be, “Dutch”, was working in Las Vegas. Denzel sent word up to “Dutch” to tell me something, to try to get me to write back to him so we could get back together again. But it didn’t work that way.

FH:[Was] it kind of a John Alden story?

EL:[Laughter] [Inaudible] [“Dutch”] and I started going together. That was how we got started going together. He laughed every little while [when asked] how we started going [together]. He said my sister [Erma] and her husband [Vincen Leavitt] over here; it was my sister and his brother. They made a freezer of ice cream one night, and asked me to come down and they asked him to come over. 00:35:00In the meantime, he said that my sister told him that if he could break Denzel and [me] up, this other fellow that I had been going with, it would be worth $10.00 for him. [Laughter] He broke us up alright, but I don’t think he ever got his $10.00. [Laughter] FH:He got a good bargain out of that. How long did it take you after you started going together to finally decide it was right?

EL:We went together several months. He had been married before to someone [Matilda “Tillie” Juanita (Dyer) Leavitt] that he had met on his [LDS] mission. She came out here after he came [back from] his mission. 00:36:00EL:He told her when she wrote and wanted to come out, “I am not the same [at] home as I [was] on [my] mission.” A missionary isn’t the same after he gets home. They have other things to do besides being dressed up all the time. But she came anyway. She only stayed around three days, or something like that, after they were married. She up and left and went to Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah]. He went [there] several times to get her to come back, but she didn’t want to come back, so she filed for [an] annulment.

FH:Was] that [a] blessing [for you]?

EL:[Lorin Abbott “Dutch” Leavitt] wrote the president of the church I don’t know how many times to get the annulment [to] be [a] temple divorce, 00:37:00so we could get married. We wanted to [be] married in the temple. We never [received] an answer back. Each time, [the request] would be signed by the bishop and the president of the stake and we still could never get an answer.

Finally, the last time he wrote [to] President [Heber J.] Grant, he [wrote]: we have put off getting married three times because we wanted to [be] married right. If he wasn’t going to answer his letter and let him know what to do, then he was going to go ahead and get married anyway. He wanted the annulment. Within a few days we [received] a letter back from President Grant. It told him: Brother Leavitt, evidently you are not aware of the fact that you don’t have to have a temple divorce to be married. A man can have as many wives, but the woman can just have the one husband. 00:38:00FH:But there would be one little difference, and that would be [that], if there were no annulment, then you would be his second wife.

EL:After we went up to see him, it was just a matter of a week or two and the annulment came through.

FH:You [had] it all straightened out and were able to do it up right. [Did] you [go] through the St. George Temple to [be] married?

EL:Yes. [Lorin Abbott and Ethel (Leavitt) Leavitt) were married June 3, 1936 in the St. George Temple, Washington County, Utah.] FH:Tell about that trip to the temple. What can you remember about it?

EL:As far as remembering much that went on in the temple, I don’t remember too much. I know when I went back again, everything seemed to be turned around. The rooms seemed to be different and everything, until we got to the veil; 00:39:00then things seemed to [come to my remembrance]. I think you have to go back a number of times afterward to be able to appreciate it and remember all that has been said.

FH:[From] this experience, [do] you know how to counsel your children?

EL:That is right.

FH:Where did you go to make your home?

EL:[We stayed] right here in Bunkerville.

FH:[Have] you lived here all the time?

EL:We moved to for awhile. In fact, right after we were married we moved down there, before we had any children. He was 00:40:00working in [the] ice plant. Then we ended back up here again. After we had two children, we moved back to . [Inaudible] in this barn here and then we moved back up here again. We have been here ever since. We bought a home in Las Vegas just a few years ago, but it got [to] where I couldn’t see making payments and trying to keep both places up. [We needed to] decide which one we were going to keep and get rid of the other. So [we sold] the home.

FH:[Did] you have six children of your own and adopted one?

EL:Yes.

FH:[Tell] about each one of those children, starting with the oldest one.

EL:The oldest one is Sheila May [Leavitt], a girl. When she was born 00:41:00she didn’t have much hair on her head. I only had two or three [children who] had [hair on their heads]. It seemed like [they just had] little bald heads. I would rub their little bald heads with [something] that was supposed to make hair [grow] on their head and make it curly until I thought I would wear their skin off. They finally [had] hair [and] it would be curly [and] pretty. Most of them were blonde. She was a little busybody all her life. A busier [child] I don’t believe ever lived from the time she was able to walk, right up to now. She is married and [has] six girls. You would swear that she could do more work than half the town and take care of those six and still work. I think she 00:42:00reminds me of her grandmother. She didn’t want to miss a thing that went on. She wanted to be the first one there and the last one to leave. She wanted to be right in the middle of it.

FH:Who did she marry?

EL:She married Walter [Glen] Weber. She is really a talented girl. [Inaudible] she is such a good little seamstress. I wasn’t. I wouldn’t take new material and cut [it] up. I wasn’t too good at [that]. But if I had something that had been worn and was too good to throw away, I would cut that and it always turned out good. But she was a [very] good seamstress. She can do most anything she sets her mind to do. [At] the piano and organ, that girl can [play] anything you put in front of her. She has to have the music, but she taught herself everything. She [didn’t] have [any] piano lessons. 00:43:00I tried to get each one of my girls to take lessons. They were too bull-headed, just like me. Each one would go stand in the corner and cry. If I would go with them, they would go and take a lesson. But the teacher didn’t want the mother there either, so I would come back and the children would come back with me. So they taught themselves. They would play an instrument in the school band [and] from there they learned the piano.

FH:Where do they live now?

EL:They live in Las Vegas.

EL:He works for the [Nevada] Highway [Department].

FH:Are they active in the church?

EL:She is, [but] he isn’t. 00:44:00That is what I say. She has to be the main toad in the puddle and [she] has her hand in everything that is going on. Besides that, she works.

FH:She is busy then.

EL:I think one of these days that man will get his eyes open and I hope he will go [to church].

FH:Tell about the second [child].

EL:The next one is Cecil Ray [Leavitt]. He married Carol Waite from right here in town. They live in . He went on a [LDS] mission when he was of age. [He] had a [very] good mission. They have three boys and two girls. 00:45:00He is kept a jumping too. Anybody who has a family, they have to be on the ball now-a-days to keep going. He and his wife both work in the church and are going every minute. My husband laughs [and] says they can’t come up here for a weekend because they have too many MIA parties they have to take care of before they come. I said, “That is their job. They are in Mutual [and] they have to take care of the young [children] before they can come up here to visit us.” That is what you want anyway, that they keep busy.

EL:That is right. Gloria 00:46:00Joyce [Leavitt] is the third one. She is married [and] lives in California. She has had quite a sad life. She has been married three times; this is her third one. The first one [Jeffrey Reese] she married in the temple, and then he went right into [military] service.

Before she was married, she had several major operations and several [more] after she was married and couldn’t have any children. They planned if they ever [had] the chance, they would adopt [a child]. He was in the service and she [had] a chance to adopt [a] baby. She called and told him everything and it seemed to be alright. So 00:47:00she and I flew back to Denver [Colorado] and [picked up] this baby. [When] he [came] home he didn’t want him. That is [why] I [have] him. She was working and I tended him, so I really had him all the time. They really didn’t do much in the church at all. After so long, she [got a] divorce from him.

She married again, but this one she married on the spur of the moment, on [the] rebound. He [Bruce Little] was a good man, but someone else 00:48:00introduced her to him. That was all that they were looking for, someone [to raise his three teenage children]. He had a family. She didn’t stay with him, but he was a good man. I kept thinking all the time that they could make it if they would give themselves a ghost of a chance. But he just didn’t take it.

The third time she married Larry [Earl] Gregerson. He is originally from St. George. He was a [very] nice fellow and they get along perfectly. They both said a hundred times, “We don’t know why we couldn’t find each other in the first place instead of having to [wait] so long.” She has had just such a sad life. She has been sick all the time [and] so many operations. 00:49:00We just hold our fingers crossed for fear that she is going to have to have another [operation] now. I don’t know. She has always been good to work in the church. She was a talented girl, just like the oldest [daughter]. She can do anything that she sets out to do. She plays the piano, she plays the organ, [and] she doesn’t have to have the music in front of her whatsoever. I think she gets that part from me. I can’t tell you the notes, I just play by ear. She taught herself to play by ear or play by the notes. She is [very] talented.

She would run these big machines when it comes to the office work. You have to go to school and study so long to work, and she just picked that up so quick that she was a whiz on anything. 00:50:00Everywhere she worked, the boss would say: if we get her, we can get rid of two [or] three other girls besides. If she just had her health, so that she didn’t have to do so much and work. Because she might go for a month, and then she would have to be off a few days, and then back maybe a day or two and then she would be off a few more days. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] EL:After Gloria comes Judith Lorene [Leavitt] and she married Erik Laub. They live in Las Vegas too. They have three little girls, three little redheads we call them. They are both working in the church.

FH:Is her husband redheaded, too? 00:51:00EL:She is not [a] redhead, but her husband is quite a redhead. That is where the children get [the color of] their hair. Listen to what has been taught [you] at home. Her husband has been taught the same way. That really helped us with this girl when she married. He was LDS, but he had never done anything [nor had any] of his family. All he had was the name and that was about it. They were bound [and determined] they were going to get married. They came [to the] house and were upset because we wouldn’t give them our blessing and let them get married. 00:52:00We just told them outright, no. We told them he needed to settle down and do the things that he knew was right if they were to go to the temple. Then we would give our consent and not until.

He told dad [Lorin Abbott Leavitt], “He had better study.” But he [Erik] thought that if they got married, then “Judy could help him. Dad said, “No, Erik. That just won’t work that way. Because after you remove the incentive that you have to work for, then that is gone. You won’t do [the work]. You just do [it] ahead of time. I know that you will do [the work].” They [were] quite upset with us. In fact, I thought my husband kind of insulted [when he told] him, “Now Erik, any time that a man will ask a woman 00:53:00to lower her standards and come down to his, he must have an awful good case on himself. [And he must] think he is worth an awful lot.” We finally talked and talked them into waiting. He jumped right in and started doing [Priesthood preparation classes]. I reckon he [has] told us a million and one times how thankful he was that he waited, was able to get his recommendation and go to the temple. He is a worker. He has, I believe, one brother and two sisters that work in the church now.

FH:It has been a lot of good.

EL:He is a [very] good fellow. It just surprises to [me] death [because] I really didn’t think he ever would 00:54:00work like that. When he comes to Sunday school, you ought to [hear] his stories. My other [children] really didn’t [struggle] because I have taught it all my life. Since he married, [he] goes to church and listens there are blessings [and he is] working in the church all the time too.

FH:What does he do to make a living now?

EL:He is a meat cutter [and a] good one. After “Judy” comes Danny [Rolan Leavitt]. He is the one [who] has the dune buggy and thinks that there is nothing like it. [Laughter] [He does] all the burning [of] gasoline taking them all for rides. He graduates this year [from high school]. I don’t know what he is going to do. I want him to go [on] to school, but I 00:55:00don’t know whether he has made up his mind [as to] exactly what he wants to do. His dad will mention this and that. When the other [youngsters] are making something, I said no, we can’t decide. He has to decide [for] himself what he wants to do. He is interested in electronics. We had a fellow come the other day from [who] wanted him to go to a private school there. That sounded like a [very] good deal.

He has been to the school and it is accredited too. He said they have to obey laws, rules and regulations. They won’t put up with [any] foolishness. They said, “We won’t allow any of this long-haired stuff in our school. 00:56:00They have to have their hair cut. They have to shave every morning and they have to have a clean white shirt on every morning.” They even furnish the white shirts for them. Beside that, they get the experience right along with the [education]. They [have] so much [education] and so much of the actual [experience]. They get [paid] to work a little along to pay their room and board.

FH:That sounds like what we have been talking about.

EL:That is the dune buggy. [It is] probably loaded down with [youngsters]. He has been on the basketball team. This year they [went to the] state [tournament].

They [were] beat up there, but they got to go and have the fun. [He was] on the baseball team. 00:57:00FH:Does he have any ideas about a [LDS] mission?

EL:We really hope the [United States] Army doesn’t get him first. The school says they can get them deferred for two years [for] his [education], but it only takes a year to get through the school. He would hit it just right; he could get out when he was nineteen [years old and] he would be old enough to go to on a mission if he could get in before [military] service would catch him. We hope he gets to go on a mission.

The 00:58:00sixth [child is] Myrna Kaye [Leavitt]. She turned fourteen [years old] last month. She is getting [to] that age where they think they know it all. [Laughter] FH:Don’t they know more than mother and dad at that time?

EL:Yes.

FH:They learn pretty fast after that, too.

EL:Yes. I am kind of tickled when she comes home some days from school and says “I am the dumbest one in math class.” It usually reminds me of a story I read in the New Era a few weeks ago. I said, “You remind me of [the story]. If you are the dumbest one in class, we will just have to find [out] what [subject] you are dumber in and study that much harder.” [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] EL:She is like my oldest girl. Everything that comes [along], 00:59:00[even] if it is no more than a dog fight out in the street, she has to be right there and have a say so in [about] it. I hope she has all the ambition of her other sisters. She tries to sit down and pick out [notes] on the piano. She is not too good yet, but I think she will learn.

EL:The third girl doesn’t play the piano. She doesn’t play anything at all. That is my fault. I tried to get her to do. Even at school she would bring an instrument home [to learn] to play in the band. Months later I would find it hidden up in the closet somewhere buried 01:00:00under the quilt or something that she had fixed. Now she is sorry to think that she didn’t do what I tried to get her to do.

FH:Was the seventh [child] you [have a] little different?

FH:[Is] he pretty proud of that?

EL:Yes.

FH:[What] is his name?

EL:[His name is] David Allen [Leavitt]. After the adoption, we waited awhile before we had him sealed because I told Gloria, “If you ever get a good man, 01:01:00I will give the baby back to you.” She was the one [who] got him. [She] was not married so she couldn’t [adopt]. Dad and I were so old we just assumed they would not give him to us at all. But we were sure surprised. The judge asked him if this was his mom and dad and he said, “Yes.” “Are they good to you? Do you like them?” He sure did. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] EL:The judge just talked to him [for] a few minutes [and was amazed at how smart he was about what was taking place] and how plain he could talk. The judge signed that paper so quick it almost scared us. When we turned to walk out, he thanked the judge. [Laughter] That was rare to think a tiny [child] like that could talk to [the judge]. 01:02:00FH:They are sure smart. EL:Yes. I don’t ever remember coming up with ideas like his. It sometimes almost scares you, the smart remarks he has. But I put off having him sealed. I told my daughter that if she ever married a good man [and went] through the temple [that] I would give him back to her. She waited too long, and we decided that he was too old. We couldn’t do it. He would not be satisfied, so we had him sealed. He was happy when he saw that temple. He said to President [Rudger] Atkin, “Thank you.” He said to his dad, “You are so good to me. I am so proud of all of you.” 01:03:00He was so cute.

FH:That is wonderful. Talk about your own life after you [were] married. Tell about your activities in the church and [what] you have done.

EL:After I married, the [positions] that I have held in the church [are]: I have worked in the Primary, in the Sunday school, in MIA and in the Relief Society. I was president of [the] Relief Society for a little over three years. I have been president of the Mutual and the coordinator in the Sunday school. I have taught Primary classes and Mutual classes. 01:04:00FH:You told me about something previously that you ought to tell about [now]. [What] happened over [at] the cemetery? Can you tell that story?

EL:My [children] all know [about it], but my grandchildren might [be] interested some day. If it is kept up. It has been about five years ago. The next day was [going to be] Memorial Day and I decided I [had] better go up [to the cemetery] that night [to] see if I could decorate my folks’, brother’s and sister’s graves because I might not be here. When I got up there, I couldn’t find [the graves]. The weeds and everything were so high that you — [END OF RECORDING TWO.] EL:— couldn’t find any 01:05:00of the headstones. I was [so] mad I cried. I came down and tried to get my husband to [help me, but] he was watching a ball game. He [said] he would, but [to] wait just a few minutes. But it was getting to be sundown. So I went over [to Erma and Vincen’s place]. He had company at the time, but he wondered what the matter was. I said, “I have to have some help at the cemetery. Will you come and haul my lawnmower up for me? Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and all the people [who] have folks [buried] there will come to decorate the graves. They can’t find them. That is just a disgrace.” So “Vince” picked up his lawnmower, [picked] up mine and we headed up to the cemetery. We started cutting. We had to go over and over and over because the grass was so high. [It] about struck us right around the waist. We worked until way after dark. 01:06:00We got up way early the next morning and worked all day that day. Finally, we got the grass all cut down.

Then I went up every day for a long while, until I got it to go in [shape] a little bit. They hired a man to water and cut it. He was quite old and he didn’t do [it] like he should, so I took over the cutting. I could see he wasn’t watering it so the water would go where it needed to be. I took care of the [cemetery] for a year and let him get the money for it. Finally, the town board came to me and wanted me to take the job. They said they [voted] on me to take the cemetery job. 01:07:00I said, “I don’t want it. I am [inaudible] to think that I would [inaudible] away from him. I will do the work and he can get the pay.” He was getting quite old. But they didn’t want [to do] it that way. So for two months I did it without any pay. Finally, [inaudible] came to me and said, “[Inaudible] doing it for nothing?” So I did. I have done it[for] five years. In [the] five years getting the water out of the ditch, we dug a well first. [It was the] first well. We had a lot of water, but it was so hard and it killed every plant we had in there. [Inaudible] 01:08:00FH:[Was there] alkaline in the water?

EL:It had so much alkaline, so they quit using it entirely. I went back to the ditch and tried to water out of the ditch until they could [dig] another well. In the mean- time, the county [crews] hauled in a bunch of dirt. Then Vincen hauled [in] a lot of dirt. He [was] working on the highway at the time, so he hauled [in] a lot of blow sand. I [inaudible] haul [in] quite a few loads. We leveled that all out, had to raise the headstones up and even planted more plants. It was about the time [when] you would think that you [could] get it going and there would be no water. So they dug another well. It is good water. We have our sprinkling systems all in and the plants [are] 01:09:00doing [well] now. “Dutch” and I planted more rye grass.

“Dutch” and I cut around all those headstones this year [with hand clippers]. Last year [we did] a lot of cutting around the headstones and the bushes. You can’t get that close to bushes in a lawnmower. I wore out four lawnmowers. Finally, I asked them to buy me a lawnmower. They kept saying there is no need to go to the county [and ask] for lawnmowers. There is no budget for anything. Anyway, we went to them and asked. That was all it took. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. They asked what kind we wanted. In about a week they sent me a card and told me to come pick it up. We have a tractor [mower] to ride on. Now I want an edger 01:10:00to cut around the headstones so I won’t have to get down on my hands and knees.

FH:You will have to get one of those [inaudible].

EL:[Inaudible]. For many years, everybody said, “[You] don’t want to be buried up in that rock hole.” But they have changed their minds now. They come back on Memorial Day. Last year you would think it was a picnic ground. Everyone would come and decorate the graves, they just hung around and talked and talked and got tired and sat [down]. They had a [very] good time. [Mom and dad always had ice water, cold soda pop and sandwich makings for everyone who came to decorate graves, as there were no stores or restaurants in town.

EL:Every year, I leave the flowers on [the graves for] so long. The water ruins them after watering so many times, so I picked a time each year and went around and gathered all the flowers from the graves and stored them. For a long while I stored them at home. Finally, 01:11:00I cleaned out the little house that was up there. I have them stored up there the last few years. [When] Memorial Day comes, I get out that morning and I see that every grave is decorated with flowers. It takes quite awhile to get them all put around.

FH:[That is] a service that nobody else has I am sure. 01:12:00EL:I have told them two [or] three times now for the last couple years [to] get someone else to take my place, but no man wants it. It doesn’t pay enough and it is too much work. All the women have enough work to do and don’t want it either.

FH:I think you have been a blessing to the community.

FH:Are you also talking care of the chapel?

FH:Looks to me like you are a real blessing to your community.

EL:Sometimes I wonder [if] the [children] think sometimes that all I can think of is work, work, work, and [that I] want them to do that. Even when I was a [young] girl, just big enough to stand on a stool, I took my turn along with the rest of them. Every one of the girls did. We got up and took our turn getting breakfast in the morning. Then, [we] didn’t get up and have cold cereal, a hot cake or something like that. We had potatoes, gravy, hot biscuits and we had meat. That was a big meal; they had [to] work hard.

FH:Seems like things have changed rapidly. 01:13:00FH:Are there any other things that you can think of back along the way of [your] life that you ought to tell about? Have you been active in PTA [Parent Teachers Association]?

EL:[I] used to go to the meetings, is all. I [didn’t] have time. Someone said, “Think how much fun it is to be PTA president.” But I had too many other things and couldn’t do [it]. There were others [who] didn’t have anything to do. I said, “I will go, but I don’t want that job.” FH:After all [the] experiences of your lifetime, have you learned any lessons? [Inaudible] EL:Yes, quite a few of them I think, other than just hard knocks.

EL:I want to tell every one of them [to] get in and do what they have been taught. To work in the church; never turn a [position] down when it comes to church work, if it is no more than giving a talk or saying the prayer. Don’t let it get by you. Every opportunity they get, that [will be] the only way they ever learn.

EL:That is right.

FH:Do you have a strong testimony of the gospel? 01:14:00EL:I have a testimony. I don’t know how strong it is, but I know it grows all the time. There was a time I [would] go to fast meeting and say: today I am going to bear my testimony. It took me quite awhile to get courage to get up. The last year or so that I would get ready to get up, someone would get up ahead of me and get tears started and I am just stumped. When tears get started, there is no need of me thinking [about giving my testimony]. It is a lot easier to finally get in Relief Society and bear [your] testimony than it is in Sacrament meeting. I think you need to learn that you can’t just receive all the time. You have to give as well as receive.

FH:[Is] that about the most important part?

EL:Yes. [END OF RECORDING THREE. END OF INTERVIEW.]