Interview with Rhoda (Hafen) Leavitt

Rhoda (Hafen) Leavitt was interviewed on April 15, 1969 in Bunkerville, Nevada by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of Nevada. Charles Clinton Leavitt, her husband, also participated.

FH:What is your full name?

RL:[My name is] Rhoda (Hafen) Leavitt.

FH:What is your birth date?

RL:[I was born] January 19, 1906.

FH:What was your place of birth?

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

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

RL:[His name was] Albert [Luther] Hafen.

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

RL:[Her name was] Ellen (Leavitt) [Hafen].

FH:What do you remember from your early life before you went to school?

RL:When I was a young girl, I was not quite twelve when my father [emotional] had to take my mother to St. George [Washington County, Utah] to have a baby.

She was going 00:01:00to have my second to youngest sister. Hazel [Hafen] was her name. [They] had to go in the wagon all the way and had to stay there awhile [after] they [arrived]. [The baby] was not born as soon as they thought it was going to be. While they were gone, the whole family came down with the mumps: my older brothers Luther, Alfred, Oak [Hafen] and then all the sisters. There was myself and Hazel, Rose, Grace and Ruby [Hafen]. They all had the mumps [and] were all [very] sick, but me. I took care of all [of then] and at the same time we had the threshers [who] were going to thresh our grain.

I was only twelve years old, but my girlfriend from across the street, Bishop Earl's youngest daughter, Vella Earl, came and helped me. 00:02:00[There was] a big crowd of men [who] had to come there to eat. We two [girls] cooked dinners for them. We were sitting down for dinner one day and my uncle sent his daughter up to help us. She was a grown girl out of college. Charity Leavitt was her name.

He sent her up to help us cook the dinners. I can still remember how impudent and sassy we were when she came in there because we had [the men sitting] down at the table eating. She said, "My dad sent me up here to help you cook for the threshers." I said, "You can go right back home because we do not need any of your help." I remember how embarrassed she looked, but I did not think how awful it sounded. She walked out and we did not have any trouble cooking for those threshers.

It was comical and a big joke, [but] I remember there was an old man who was an outsider. There was nobody [who] drank tea or coffee or smoked. I do not think I had ever seen a cigarette in all those days only at that [one] time. His name was Bill Button. He helped the threshers at that time and he drank tea. He came in the kitchen and said, "Will you two girls please make me some tea?" Mama had tea in the kitchen. They had it stored away for dysentery sickness. That is about the only time we ever heard [of anyone] making a cup of tea. We made 00:03:00a milk pan full of tea. A big round [pan]. We did not know any better [how] to make it and he drank it all. Pretty soon he said, "Is there anymore tea there?"

I know how we laughed and made fun to ourselves, but we just poured some hot water over those tea grounds, made some more tea and [took] it into him. He said, "That is mighty weak tea, my girl, but it is better than none." [Laughter] I remember as [children] we were barefooted. We did not have any shoes. We were twelve years old, but we had more fun cooking those dinners for the threshers. I do not know how many meals, but [there were] a lot of them before they [finished] all [of the] threshing.

They had to have boys [inaudible] and help. While we were sitting down, before they were through 00:04:00eating, my dad came [in] from Santa Clara [Washington County, Utah]. They had to room over at Johnny Stucki's house waiting for the baby to be born. Dr. McGregor came over there. Dad got on the horse and came down here to see about the farm and [the] work. He had been up there with her. When he came in [and] said, "I had to come down here and see about you and see what was going on." I said, "What did I do?" He said, "Aunt Teresie came along and stopped in to see your mother. She was going to Provo [Utah County, Utah]. She said she had been here [at] a dance the night before."

That was one of the main things we did do -- have a lot of good dances. We really went to town at those dances. We always had a big crowd [and] always had a good orchestra for a little dinky town like this. We had a good orchestra and a lot of fun. I remember I had an organdy dress and how pretty it was. He [dad] said, "She stopped in to tell us that you and Allen Pollack carried on and danced [nearly] every set and said you were barefooted." All the [children] were. 00:05:00I was not any worse off than anybody else. I said, "We could not have had any more fun and we did dance barefooted. I did dance. I never missed a set." He said, "I knew it. It did not bother me any what she said. She was just jealous because her [children] did not have a lot of fun like you did. It did not bother me a parcel." He had to tell me that she had come in there to tell him about seeing us at the dance.

FH:He must have had a lot of faith in you to turn things over to you like that.

RL:Yes, he turned it over and we had boys there too. I remember that the mumps did not seem to hurt me very much. They were not swollen up very big, but the other [children] had [the mumps very] bad, but they [recovered]. Before he [came] home again they all came down with whooping cough. I did not take [get] the whooping cough. I guess I was immune to it or too mean! [Laughter] The girls did not have it so bad, but the boys really had a hard case. I remember how they whooped until they would just fall over. We did not do anything in particular --

only waited until it was over. [Laughter] That was all I did. 00:06:00FH:What do you remember about your [education]?

RL:I remember what a good basketball team we always had. He [Charles Leavitt] was one of the best [players] on the basketball team.

FH:[Was he] your husband?

RL:Yes. My brother was a real athlete and was [a] good [player] on the basketball team. I know going up to Dixie [High School] they had to be good when they beat them at Dixie in St. George. They took the record at Reno [Nevada] at the same time. They had [very] good coaches and [very] good basketball teams.

You said you wanted me to tell about something funny that happened to me in school. I was going to tell about Mr. Whiting. He was the principal 00:07:00and was [very] strict. When he spoke to you, you better mind right quick. He was a short heavyset man with big black eyes and [was] baldheaded. In the auditorium where we had a study period he had seats assigned to everybody. You had a number on the back of your seat and everybody had a seat. When Mr. Whiting came down the hall he would walk quickly. You could tell his walk from anybody else's and everybody was in their own seat by the time he got in there.

One day one of the boys came and sat with me, Dee Houston. Mr. Whiting came in and looked at me and said, "Rhoda Hafen, will you please take another seat?" I said, "No, I will not. I am in my own seat. If anybody moves, it will be somebody besides me." He turned on his heel and walked back into the office. If I had been out of my seat I would have moved, but I was not, so I did not. He could see that he was in the wrong. He sent one of the teachers back in there [who] asked me to come in there. He said, "Why did you not move 00:08:00when I told you?" I said, "I would have if I had been wrong, but I was not in the wrong. Dee was out of his seat, not me." He said, "I thought I could correct a girl a lot quicker and get by with it." I said, "No, you did know that I was in my seat."

He said, "I guess you are right. I apologize." [Laughter] He was a good teacher and [very] strict. I remember in my senior year we had [a] history [class] in the middle building of the schoolhouse down here. He gave us our final test in history. We were all dying to know what our history test mark would be because we were going to graduate. I wanted to know. He was quite a tease, too and he kept us in suspense until the last minute.

We were having one class over in the farther building. His office was in the first building and he had to go to the middle building for [the] history [class]. We usually walked over to the building with all the [students]. This day I thought: I will 00:09:00run and go up those steps and look in Mr. Whiting's desk.

I knew he had those history test papers all right there with a rubber band. I thought I will flip through them and see if I can see my mark before he [gets] there. I went out of the class and ran as fast as I could and he saw me. I ran to the other building and ran up the steps as fast as I could, opened his drawer and went through those [papers]. [I] saw my mark and shut [the] drawer quick and sat down as he came up those steps. I could hear him coming just a-bounding. He looked at me and looked at that desk and said, "You know, the second I saw you leave that crowd and run as fast as you could go I knew what you were going to do. If I had been five seconds quicker I would have caught you." I was scared to death. I never said a word. 00:10:00He could read you like a book. He was [very] sharp. [Laughter] Another time, it was in our senior year, I had a date with [my husband] to the dance that night. Miss Cox was the home economics teacher and the physical education teacher. She had the key to the restroom. We had a nice restroom with a dresser and a bed in there for [students] to rest in. Sometimes they were sick and they had to go in there and take a little rest. Miss Cox was a good friend of mine. I really liked her and she was good to me. I went in and asked her if I could take the key and go in there and rest awhile. I was going to slough history, Mr. Whiting's class, go in there and rest awhile before the dance. She said, "I should not do it. I will probably get in bad, but I will let you." She let me take the key and I went in [to rest].

The history class was the last [class] in the afternoon. I went in, locked the door and went to sleep. I slept until school was out and when I woke up it was pitch dark. I was scared to death in that schoolhouse. [Laughter] I 00:11:00[ran] out of there right quick and locked the door. As I went out through the hall and on [to] the porch, I met Mr. Whiting face to face coming up those steps. He said, "Young lady, where have you been?" I said, "Right there." He said, "I have looked all over this valley. Do not ever slough one of my history classes again.

If I had found you, I would have brought you back here by the hair of the head."

I said, "You did not find me." He said, "A mighty good thing for you that I did not." He was right on the ball all the time. He was after any [student] who sloughed his class Those are the kinds of teachers that you really learn from.

He was strict, but he was very good. [Laughter] FH:Are there any other teachers 00:12:00that you remember?

RL:I remember at the same time Miss Cox, the home ec teacher. There were two or three other teachers there that I thought the world of. Miss Kindred was a first grade teacher. She was not my teacher. My own aunt was my teacher when I first started school in the first grade, Ella (Hafen) Perkins. It was [in] Roy Hafen's [school] district. My dad was Roy Hafen's brother. She was special to me because she was my first teacher and because she was my dad's sister.

FH:Do you feel your teachers were good teachers?

RL:I think they were all good teachers. I remember Mr. Hutchings in St. George, Utah. After I was married I went to the dentist. He told [me] about being down here as a teacher in high school. He said for a 00:13:00group of [students] he had never seen a smarter bunch of [students]. He was a good teacher. He said, "We did not have many books, but we really made the best of them. That one year that I taught there, there was not a high school in the State of Nevada that went as high as those [students] did on their tests."

I remember he was especially true. When he taught here he [asked] me, "You are a Leavitt. Do you know Theodosia Leavitt?" I said, "I know her. She is my husband's sister." He said, "That was the most patriotic [girl] I have ever seen in all my life." They saluted the flag and said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning as they went in [to class]. He said, "She was a little bit late and we were through with the Pledge of Allegiance when she got there." They lined up outside and marched in and saluted the flag. He said, "She was late, but she did not miss it. I was standing there waiting for [her] to come in, but she stopped and said, 'Three cheers, three cheers for the red white and blue.' Then she stood up there all alone and saluted the flag 00:14:00and gave the Pledge of Allegiance all alone. She marched right in behind all the rest of them." [Laughter] FH:Were [the classes] all [in] one classroom in your earlier grades?

RL:By that time they were all separate [classrooms].

FH:Did you have good conditions for your [education]?

RL:Yes, we did. I believe we had the best teachers. It seemed like every teacher [who] came was exceptional in every [subject that] they taught. They put it over.

FH:Did you [receive] a diploma from high school?

RL:Yes.

FH:Did you have some correspondence [education]?

RL:Yes. It was in child life and curriculum. Mr. Whiting saw that I took that class. After I graduated from high school I worked as a stenographer for him for two years.

FH:In these earlier years, did you go on any trips?

RL:Yes, we went on trips with the basketball teams. When I was in high school they had trucks and cars and Las Vegas [Nevada] was a trip.

FH:Did you follow them for all the big games?

RL:Yes, 00:15:00that is about as far as we [went] away. They always took us all along.

FH:Did you go on a trip with your father one time?

RL:That was when I was a young [child] -- before I was in high school. I remember especially about that because--.

CL:She has told that [story] so much, she believes it!

RL:It is the gospel truth! I went down there when I was a little [child]. My mother had two younger sisters working in Las Vegas. They were both working in a café at that time. I was going to stay with them while my dad peddled [produce]. On the way down I [became] sick. I had a felon on my finger and a burning hot fever all the way down [to Las Vegas]. I will never forget how sick I was and how long that trip seemed. [A felon is an acute and painful inflammation of tissues of a finger near the nail.] FH:It was painful, too.

RL:Yes, it was painful. When I [was] down there, they had to take me to a doctor and he lanced it a little bit. I remember going to the first picture show I had ever [seen] because they did not have any here then. [Las] Vegas was [a] young [city] then. As near as I can remember, the streets and sidewalks 00:16:00were not paved. They had a guide and took me out to a café that night for dinner and ice cream. I remember [that] it was not in a big swanky café or casino or anything like they have now because they did not have any. It was in a vine-covered bowery. It was [very] long with green runners all up over the bowery [with] little round tables and these chairs that matched them. What a thrill that was to go in there and have ice cream and dinner! I was just a little girl. How thrilled I was to go there with them.

FH:The Las Vegas structure [was] quite a change.

RL: I will say [so]. [Laughter] FH:During these years were you active in [The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]?

RL:I never remember not being active and going. Our parents took us to Sunday school as regular as the church days came along. We never thought anything 00:17:00about staying home. I remember my grandma [Mary Ann] Hafen going to church from the time I was little. She went until she was ninety [years old]. She would walk from her house up here clear down to where the schoolhouse [was]. It was born and bred in us to go to church.

FH:What organizations were you active in before you were married?

RL:I taught in the Primary. I went to Mutual [Improvement Association] until I was twelve years old. When I [was released] they put me in as secretary of the Mutual. I was secretary for several years. 00:18:00I taught in the Primary where I taught these trekker boys. I taught those boys all through Primary until I was married and taught my own boys in Primary. In Sunday school I taught the boys.

They always gave me the boys' classes. I taught the boys until I was married. I taught boys [nearly] all my life. The roughneck boys were the ones they put me over.

I will tell one little incident if you want me to. Delbert Waite was the superintendent at that time and he [had] me teaching a class [of] boys [on] church history. They were big roughneck [boys]. He lived in part of our house [and] rented two rooms. His two boys were in my class. They were the same age as mine. One [boy] was a big loud-mouth noisy [boy] and he did not think he had to mind because I was a teacher. He came out the door one day as I was giving the lesson. I said, "Glade, be still while I give this lesson." He kept on talking.

As he came out I swatted him over the head. 00:19:00He sat down and kept still and I went right on with the lesson. He [Delbert] came over and said, "You know, Rhoda, that is why we give you those boys. You can handle those boys so easy that there is nothing to it. You only had to tell him once to keep still. When he did not, you swatted him upside the head with a magazine. [That] is all it took to calm him down and you went on with the lesson." That was just the way it was.

Two years ago I taught the MIA [Mutual Improvement Association] Maid [girls] for four years. I graduated a class of [girls] every year. When you teach a class of MIA Maid teenagers, you have to know what you are talking about or you are going to get checked mighty fast. They are hard [girls] to teach in this day and age.

They do not take your word at it. You have to prove it.

FH:They are smart and that is good.

RL:Yes, it is good for them and it is good for you because you have to study mighty hard to keep up.

I wanted to tell one little incident about when I was 00:20:00a little girl. It is about Grandpa Dudley Leavitt up here. He lived up from our place in that little rock building. It is still there. My mother took my brother and me up there to see him before he died. I have never forgotten. There were wagons and teams parked all up and down both streets of all of his boys, girls, married ones and single ones, and friends. I have never forgotten that huge crowd of people 00:21:00[who were] there to see him. They knew he was dying. I remember as a little girl going there. He was so low that he could not speak, but he reached over and shook hands with us. You do not forget those [events].

FH:What do you remember about your father?

RL:[We would] go in the bedroom and start gossiping, talking low, about our friends saying this or that. I remember one time he came to the door and shook his finger and said, "If you cannot say anything good about anybody, you keep your mouth shut. Not one word. You can talk all you want to, but if you cannot say anything good, you keep still." He was strict on being honest and was proud.

His old age pension was coming before he died. 00:22:00He would no more take that pension than anything. He was too proud to go on that pension. He made his own way. He did not want any help on the farm. They were independent. They were not like [people] are now. There are very few [who] would not take [the pension].

There were a few of them [who] would not and he was one of them. He was proud and he was honest. He always tried to teach us to be the same way, to be honest.

If we could not say anything good, not to say anything.

FH:Did you feel like he was a hard worker?

RL:He was a [very] hard worker. Anybody [who] worked here in the valleys and fought [the Virgin] River, made breakers to keep the water down here, [and grew on] their own farms what they had to eat was a hard worker. They could not survive and not be a hard worker. I never remember when our cellar was not full of cheese he made himself and hams that he cured. We always had hams, fruits and vegetables. Lots of times he had to pick his own grapes. He had a grape [vineyard] here on our field. He would take a load to Enterprise [Washington County, Utah] in the fall and trade for 00:23:00carrots, potatoes and cabbage and [produce] that was hard to grow in this hot country [area].

I can still see in my mind those big hams hanging clear across the cellar [with] cream, butter, vegetables and everything we needed. I remember he had two big barrels [where] he kept the flour. They were great big round tin barrels. I bet they held 300 or 400 pounds of flour. He kept [them] full all the time. They did not have very much money then and had to work for their own living. They had to work [very] hard because they had to [grow] most [everything] to sell.

FH:Was their money their commodities?

RL:Yes.

FH:It sounds like he was a wonderful provider.

RL:You bet! We never lacked for anything as far as the necessities of life: clothes, good clothes. I remember how strict he was about how we dressed. When they first [built] a swimming pool down by the schoolhouse, they thought it was a crime for the boys and girls 00:24:00to go swimming together. Nothing good would come from it! How strict they were. For a long time we were not allowed to go in the pool with boys. I do not think we ever had a deck of cards in our house. It would have been a crime to even play a card game, let alone gamble like [people] do now. None of us [children] knew anything about a gambling game because we just never heard tell of such a thing as that.

FH:What do you know about your grandparents on your father's side? What were their names?

RL:John G. [George] Hafen was his name. Mary Ann [Anna Maria (Stucki)] Hafen, his wife, was my dad's mother.

FH:Did you know them at all?

RL:I did not know his other wives. They [had] died. I could hardly remember them. I knew my dad's mother; she lived right here. I have heard her testimony 00:25:00and have heard her pray so many times. You could not help but gain a testimony and gain faith in listening to her. She was such a good old soul.

FH:What do you remember about your mother?

RL:I remember how she believed in prayer. She did not think there was anything like prayer. I have seen her life saved several times with prayer. She had lots of hard sick spells. When she was sick there were two or three people she sent for and when they prayed for her she knew she would be well. One of them was Jim Abbott who lived right across the street. I will never forget what a staunch testimony [he had]. When he laid his hands on her head she knew she would be better.

Another time she was [very] bad. She was hemorrhaging and they thought she would die before they could even get her out from the house to the car. She said, "Before I leave, I want Ray Abbott from Mesquite [Nevada] to come and administer to me because 00:26:00I will never live to make it there if [he does not]."

He came over and laid his hands on her head and blessed her. Charles's mother [Thirza Helena (Leavitt) Leavitt] was a midwife and took care of a lot of people around here and brought babies [into the world]. She helped people even after she was [very] old and she was there with mama. She went with them to St. George and said, "I did not think she would ever live until we [arrived at] Beaver Dam [Arizona]. When I [was] that far up to Beaver Dam I saw that the change had come and she was going to be alright." She [mother] said, "If Ray Abbott had not administered to me I would have never lived." They had to depend on the Lord in prayer. They could hardly get out of town to go to a doctor.

FH:It was effective, too. They had a lot of faith. Do you know anything about your mother's parents?

RL:Yes. I remember his name was Alfred 00:27:00Weir Leavitt. He lived right over the fence from us [nearly] all his life. My mother's mother [Idella (Hunt) Leavitt] died when she was a young girl. But grandpa lived until he was about ninety [years old]. He was a staunch believer in The Book of Mormon. I do not think there were any Leavitts [who] were not Book of Mormon students. They thought there was nothing like The Book of Mormon. He had a little house beside my mother and I never went in his house but his Book of Mormon was not down on the table open. He could quote anything from The Book of Mormon and tell you anything you wanted to know.

If Charles wanted to know anything about The Book of Mormon or the [Holy] Bible, he would go down to grandpa and say, "Weir, how about this? I do not believe this. This is not so." He [Charles] would say, "I could learn more from grandpa.

If I get him a little bit mad, he would go through The Book of Mormon and I would know it from A to Z. I could read it and maybe not understand it and remember it, but I could go down to [inaudible] and get him a little bit mad and then he would quote me The Book of Mormon. I would not have any doubt when I [was] through." He really was a student [of] The Book of Mormon. He knew it by heart and studied it all the time. He was crippled and lame in his later years, but his 00:28:00Book of Mormon was always right beside his plate on the table. He really studied on The Book of Mormon.

FH:How many children did your parents have?

RL:[They had] nine [children].

FH:Would you name them?

RL:Yes. There were six girls and three boys. I will start with the oldest.

Alfred, Luther, Rhoda, Oak, Ruby, Grace, Pearl, Hazel and Rose [Hafen]afen]Ha.

FH:What has happened to them? Are they scattered [all] around?

RL:Pearl died when she was nineteen [years old]. Grace married and had a family before she died about five years [ago]. Then my sister [Ruby lives] in Linwood, [California]. 00:29:00Alfred lives in Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah]. Rose lives in Las Vegas. Hazel, Luther and I live here.

FH:Did the boys follow farming?

RL:One brother is a farmer and dairyman in Mesquite now. The other [brother] graduated from high school, married and went to Salt Lake [City]. He took a barber course there [and] is still a barber in Salt Lake [City].

FH:Has prayer been effective in your life?

RL:Yes. My own family has almost been raised from the dead through prayer. It has been instilled in our minds and in our lives. It has been part of our life. 00:30:00FH:Is there a particular incident where faith and prayer have been effective?

RL:Yes. I would like to tell about my oldest boy [Charles Clair Leavitt] when he was a young boy. He was one of the most faithful [boys] that ever was and still is. He is working in the bishopric now in Lakeside, California. I was going to tell you about him when he was a little boy. Right over the fence from us Brother and Sister Waite lived. They had a boy on a [LDS] mission, Dan [Waite].

He romped and played with my [children] and was a good friend with us. When he went on [his] mission he wrote to my two little boys. He was always telling them, "Now be sure and go to Primary and to Priesthood meeting and do the things that you should do. If you ever go on a mission like I have, you are sure going to miss it if you do not. Most of the things that come to my mind right now in the mission field are things that I learned in Primary and when I was a young boy in church and Mutual [Improvement Association]. Do not miss going. 00:31:00Go study and get all you can out of it. I can remember [nearly] all my Primary teachers and what they taught me." Clair looked up to him.

One day after Dan had come home from his mission, Clair had a bad earache. [When] these things [happen] when they are [children it] promotes their faith. [The earache] was very bad. He said, "It is killing me. What will we do?" I said, "I will have Dan come and administer to you." Charles was gone [to] work.

He said, "Mom, do you think that will cure it?" I said, "I know it will." I said [that] on the spur of the moment. If I [had] stopped to think, maybe I should have said it might help it. But I said, "I know it will." He said, "If you know it will, then I know it will, too." I told Dan what I had said. He said, "I believe it will, too." 00:32:00He laid his hands on that [boy's] head and blessed him.

You know, he hardly took his hands off of his head [when] the pain stopped.

Sometimes I wonder if you should say it right off, but the Lord was good enough to cure him that quickly. I think that was the first time in his life that he had ever had trouble with his ear. I do not think he ever has [had an earache] since. So you can see that [prayer] will do those things.

FH:What things did you do growing up that were for fun?

RL:We went swimming in the big ditch, but we went as a group of girls. We did not go [swimming] mixed -- boys and girls. [END OF RECORDING ONE.] RL:The most fun we ever had, I think, was dancing. We had the best dances, I believe, 00:33:00anybody could ever have anywhere. We had lots of parties, but [what] was always the most fun to me were these dances. As a young girl I cannot remember when I did not love to dance, always got to dance and always had a good time. We had a lot of good clean fun.

FH:Did you ever have any parties with the gang [group]?

RL:We always had parties in our home. We always had birthday parties in the home. We never missed [anyone] having a birthday party in our crowd. We had our whole crowd come to the party. We had birthday parties and had them at home.

FH:[Did you have] candy pulls or melon busts?

RL:Yes. We had melon busts, chicken roasts, oyster suppers and candy pulls.

FH:[Did] you have 00:34:00to make your own fun? Was [it] a community [event]?

RL:Yes, it was. I remember the whole town going into the fields and having corn roasts. Somebody [always] had a corn roast or [a] melon patch. They went as a group and had melon busts and corn roasts. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] FH:Did you enter into any sports activities during those years?

RL:I did not compete with other towns, but I always played volleyball and basketball. I did not play baseball. They did not take the girls into competing games. I do not think they ever took the girls away to compete much.

FH:Did you enjoy that?

RL:Oh, I loved it!

FH:Has music meant much to you in your life?

RL:Music has always been a part of our lives. Our dad had an organ at first.

Then he bought a piano when it was 00:35:00hard to buy a piano in those days. He had to sell so many cows to buy a piano. He saw that we had music lessons. Our boys had violin lessons. He [my dad] played the violin himself and played the guitar. He always had his [children] sit on his knee and sing while he played the guitar for us. His mother and sister played the guitar. I think music in the home holds the family together. That is what they did in their home and that is what we did in ours, too FH:Did you ever play for dances?

RL:Yes. I played for dances several years while I was in high school.

FH:Did miss out on the dancing?

RL:I did not miss out too much. I played and [then] danced. There were others [who] could play, too. I loved to play. I did not miss [out on] any dances! [Laughter] FH:Have you enjoyed reading?

RL:I have always enjoyed reading. I have my own big library of church books 00:36:00and all kinds of books. I think books are a part of the home if you have good books around. I have always had church magazines in the home. I have a good selection of books of my own. Do you want me to tell about the library now?

FH:Yes.

RL:I worked in the library for about four years down here. I ordered my own books and weeded them out when they needed to be. I had a reading class for the young [children] in the afternoons. Every day when I went to the library they would be [waiting]. In the summer, when they were out of school, we had a reading class for them. I really enjoyed the library work, too.

FH:Did you receive some comments from the supervisor of libraries?

RL:Yes. The state librarian from Reno [Nevada] came down here [with] the woman [who] worked under him. She wanted to go through my books and see what needed to be weeded out. She did not intend 00:37:00to do it. She did not have to do that as it was not what she was paid for. She came down to show me [how] and I said, "You are a professional. Why not help me?" The librarian was there and kind of winked at her. She went right through and helped me weed out what needed to be and helped me get [them] off my shelves. That is when he said, "You do not need to help her very much. I have seen lots of bigger libraries and lots more books, but for a little library she has one of the best selections of books that I have ever seen anywhere." I thought that was pretty good.

FH:[Did] that make you feel good about your work?

RL:Yes, it made me feel good. At that time we had a lot of the church books in there. The State of Nevada, had ruled out the church books in the community libraries. They told me I could give them to my own church if I wanted to. I had church history books and several volumes of some of the best books. 00:38:00I gave them to our church and they are in our church library now.

FH:Tell about your courtship and marriage. How did you happen to meet [your husband]?

RL:We had lived in the same community all our life. He [Charles Clinton Leavitt] is quite a bit older than I [am]. I loved to dance and he was a special dancer.

He is a good dancer and a good athlete. Girls always go for good basketball players and he was a good basketball and baseball player. They did not play football much at that time, but he was [very] special in both [of] those [sports].

FH:Did you start dancing when you were quite young?

RL:Yes. I started dancing [when] I was not any more than eleven [years old]. I remember dancing with all the [fellows] when I was twelve [years old]. I danced all my life. We have danced right on through. [Laughter] FH:How long did it take you 00:39:00to find out he was the right one?

RL:Not very long after we started going together. I went with him awhile, but it does not take long to know who you want. [Laughter] FH:Can you remember the circumstances that led up to your marriage?

RL:I can remember where we got our wedding stake before we [were] married. The old Key West Mine was going up here where they mined nickel and copper [ore]. He worked up there [for] our wedding stake. [The mine] paid every two weeks and every two weeks he brought his check down to me. I saved it until we [were] married. First, we went to Las Vegas and Bishop Earl there married us. When we had two little boys we went to [the] St. George [Temple] and were married and had [the boys] sealed to us.

FH:Did that make you happy?

RL:Yes. I will never forget 00:40:00how those two little boys looked. I remember making their little white shirts, white pants and buying their white shoes to go through the temple. I remember how white and scared they looked, like [children] do now when they take them in to be sealed to their parents. How thrilled we were when they were sealed to us.

FH:It is a wonderful experience.

RL:Nothing compares with it.

FH:Where did you make your home when you [were] married?

RL:We did not live right here [at first], but we had a farm up at the other end of town. We had four rooms and lived there and farmed. At that time, they farmed with horses and plows. It was not too long until they [had] tractors. Then he [went] into [the] dairy [business] and [had] a bunch of cows. He had boys to help when he was in the dairy [for] a few years. He worked for the Bureau of Land Management after we got out of the dairy [business].

FH:Tell a little more about the dairy. Did you have quite a large herd of cows?

RL:Yes. We did not have very good luck with them.

FH:Did you milk them by hand?

RL:No. They had a co-operation. 00:41:00The whole valley had a dairy together down here in the center of town. They had a lot of men. Most of the farmers here bought in to the dairy and made [very] good money at that. They built the dairy together and had a hired man [do the] milking. They all had [a] time to go in and have the cows milked.

FH:[Did] he did stay in [the dairy business very] long?

RL:No. He did not stay [with] that [very] long. He stayed in that while we had our [children] in high school and then he worked for the [United States] Government for the Bureau of Land Management.

FH:What kind of work [do he do]?

RL:They worked out around Caliente [Nevada]. They cleared off the pine trees and cleared off ground for the cattlemen. Then they planted it with a certain kind of grass. Too bad he does not tell you this because he does it so much better.

He would know all this [because] he [did it] for years. He worked out there and up in these mountains here for the cattlemen. He had [a] big caterpillar and tractor 00:42:00and made roads over the mountains for their cattle to [go] over to the springs where there was water and they could drive their cattle to feed. [It was] the same way out around Caliente for years, out through that country, and [around] Beaver Dam [Arizona], clear up in St. George on down through Caliente.

They all had grazing land out there. They sold hundreds and hundreds of acres of grass. I do not remember what kind it was, but [they] tried to see which [grass] would do the best. They made water holes, [or] reservoirs, to catch the water during the high flood times for those cattlemen out there.

FH:Was this important work for the development of the country [area]?

RL:It certainly was. I wish he would come in and tell you this because he would know the dates, where they went, all the country they covered and surveyed. [Inaudible] He [worked] twenty-five years 00:43:00[doing] that [and] just retired. There are markers all over this country [area] that he, Hogan, and the government men have put in, but I cannot tell it like he could.

FH:Did you have three children?

RL:Yes, [we had] three boys.

FH:Tell about them, starting with the first one.

RL:Charles Clair Leavitt is my oldest boy. He went through grade school and high school here. When he [was] out of high school, he went to St. George and went to two years there [Dixie College]. Then he went off to Cedar [City, Iron County, Utah] and finished two years at [Southern Utah State College] [in] Cedar [City] and graduated. A day or two after he [was] out of college, he had to go into the [United States] Army. He went over to Camp Roberts [California] first for a couple of weeks. Then they sent him up to Fort Ord [near Monterey, California]. 00:44:00They kept him there quite awhile. He did not finish his boot [camp] training. He had a college education and they had him teaching and put him in an office job.

He did [well] there.

FH:[Did] his school work really help him?

RL:His school work was the salvation of him. He taught other classes. Every minute that he was not doing his office work, he could teach. One day, over the loudspeaker, he heard: if there is a man here [who] can teach some of these boys, report to the office. We had check after check come from 00:45:00his teaching right here to us after he [came] home. He said, "Nobody could read. It is just pitiful. Boys twenty, twenty-two and twenty-three years old [who] could not do a simple fraction problem, could not read or could not write. They were tickled to death to learn." He really took advantage of his army training. He taught other [men] and learned good trades. He saved his money. Any [man] who can learn in the army [inaudible]. He was in the office all the time and did office work for these majors over there.

FH:Was this [during] World War II?

RL:It was [during] the Korean [Conflict].

FH:It turned out to be a great advantage [for] him.

RL:He really took advantage of the time he had to be in there. He was there almost three years. We went to Camp Roberts to see him while he was there and to Fort Ord. We went up there to see him. When he came back from 00:46:00Korea, we went to San Francisco to meet him. Seeing the General Mann come under the Golden Gate Bridge, I will never forget how big that boat looked. That boat looked like it was as big as this town. There were boys all over the outside of the boat. Their folks were all there to meet them in the harbor.

FH:How did you ever find him?

RL:He was about the last one [who] got off that boat. My two other boys were with me and they said, "The first one that spots him, whistle." My youngest boy saw him first. You should have heard that shrill whistle he gave. Clair said he knew that was "Al" the second he heard that whistle. Then he waved and we could see him. There were all those big pipes that go out of the boat. He was standing up against one of those pipes on the very tip top and we could see him. It seemed like they came off of that boat for hours. I think there were 4,000 on that boat. We were watching and craning our necks to see him come down. 00:47:00Every mother and everybody [who] was there was watching, but it sure took a long time to get them [off the ship].

I remember one mother. She had three boys on that same boat. They had police and ropes around to hold [people] back so the boys would have room enough to come down the gangplank. This woman kept getting near the boat and getting up a little closer and getting a little more anxious all the time. The policeman said, "Lady, if you do not stand back of that boat I will have to put you off of here." She said, "I will have you know I have three boys on there." I am telling you when those three boys came down there and jumped that rope and ran and grabbed their mother, I could see very well why she was anxious to get over there. I was just as anxious for one, but if you had three and had them all there it would quite a thrill that they were all home alive.

I should have told this [earlier]: [about] when he was at school in St. George.

I love to tell this because it 00:48:00goes to show how you can encourage [children] to work. He had [not taken any] foreign language. It was a little school here.

About the first week he came back [and] said, "Mother, [If] I have to take German up there, I might as well quit school. I know I cannot do that." I said, "How many boys are there in your class?" He said, "About forty-five or fifty.

Why?" I said, "Do they all have to take German? " "Yes, sure." I said, "Listen.

You are as smart as any [boy] up there. If you have to take German, you take German. Your dad has worked out [at] Caliente in ice and snow all winter long to put you through school. I expect you to work and I expect you to get a passing grade. You take German and you pass it." He said, "Do you think I can pass that?" I said, "I know you can pass it. Now you pass it." He said, "Alright, if you think I can, I will." I said, "I know you can."

He went back [to school] and took German for a few months. He said, "Mother, 00:49:00sit down. I want to tell you a story in German." So I sat down. He said, "I will tell it in German first." It was only a short paragraph. Then he told it to me in English. It was just a little simple story, about like Snow White and Rose Red, only it was about a little fairy princess [who] went up in the mountains and met a prince on a big white horse. They fell in love and he brought her back down. I remember how he laughed. He bent over and nearly died laughing. He said, "Nobody knows how you have to put every one of those little letters and words together, then a sentence, then a paragraph. I thought that was impossible. I did not think I could ever do that, but it really was not bad at all when I got started."

It was the same for every [boy] there as it was for him. He had no trouble passing German. It was just the thought of it. After he left, Charles said, "You were sure brave, weren't you?" I said, "I do not believe you could give me money enough to take German." [Laughter] But I was not about to tell him that.

If you encourage [children], they can do it. 00:50:00If he thought I thought he could do it, he could do it. I remember another time {when] someone in Sunday school [needed some] encouragement. I sent the [boys] on ahead. They always went to Sunday school. I met him coming home from Sunday school one day down the road here where we lived at that time. He was bawling. He was a young [boy]. I said, "What are you bawling for?" He said, "Delbert assigned me that two-and-a-

half-minute talk." He always called him "Del" because he lived right near our house. He said, ""Del" assigns [inaudible] and me to talk. He never assigns his own [boy] to talk. I forgot all about it." I said, "Stop bawling. He is as smart as you are. You do not need to bawl about giving a two-and-a-half-minute talk."

I had Sunday school lessons then and I started in and told him about Moses and Miriam. He was a little boy when he hid his sister in the bulrushes; the whole story about Moses and Miriam. I said, "Now tell it to me." I told it to him and he told it to me. He said, "I sure can tell that, can't I?" 00:51:00I said, "I guess you can. You do not need to come bawling. You do not have to work all day on a two-and --a- half-minute talk."

He was a little boy, but he [went] up and told it in his own words when he [was] up there. I remember one of the older ladies in the parent class, Leah Tobler was her name, got up and gave her two-and-a-half-minute talk. She complimented him on getting up and telling such a nice story and not having to hold his head down in a book and read it. She said, "That is the way I like to see a little boy get up and give a two-and-a-half-minute talk. Just get up and look people in the eye and tell it." That did everything to encourage these [boys].

FH:What has happened to him since the war?

RL:He came back after he [was] out of the Korean War. He went to UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles] and started [to] school there. He had a hard struggle there. In the meantime, he came home and married and they had to rent a little apartment there.

FH:Who did he marry?

RL:Elizabeth Prouty from Boulder City [Nevada]. They were married and lived there and he was real thrilled. He said the first teacher he saw when he [went] 00:52:00to UCLA was one of the coaches from Cedar City, one of his good friends. He was on the basketball team and on the football team. He and Dixie Leavitt were the same age and both went to Cedar City. He said, "The first [fellow] I met when I went there was this coach." I do not remember his name. He said, "I did not think he would even remember me. I went up and spoke to him." He said, "I knew you as soon as you came in. If you have any troubles or need any help, I am here to help you. Do not let anything bother you. If you need help, ask, and you will get it." He said, "Nobody knows how sustaining that was to know. A [boy] coming out of a little place and going to a big school like that, to know that there was somebody there." He went there two years and he finished up his [education] there.

FH:What did he study?

RL:[He studied] general education [for] teaching. They had men coming from all over to pick out teachers. 00:53:00This is what thrills me about how he got his first school. A teacher came through, one of the [men who] was hiring teachers. I do not know if he was a superintendent of a school or who they were that were hiring teachers. He called him in and questioned him about what [subjects] he wanted to teach, where [did he want to go] and what he could do [to] find out about him. Clair said, "Do you want me to fill out a questionnaire?" He said, "No, I can tell more about a man in five minutes [of] talking to him than all the questionnaires he can fill out." [Clair] said, "Do you know the first thing he asked me, mother?" I said, "No. I would not have the least idea." He said, "The first thing he asked me was: are you a Mormon?" He said, "Yes, I am a Mormon." He said, "Are you a good Mormon?"

He said, "I am not perfect, but I have never done a thing in my life that I have ever been ashamed of." He said, "Well, that is what I wanted to know. When I hire teachers I do not know if they are LDS or not, but when I hire teachers if I can find a good Mormon 00:54:00I will hire them any day in preference to a non-Mormon.

I am not saying there are not lots of good teachers, but I am a Mormon, too. I am from Utah. I am from Logan [Cache County, Utah] and I have known Leavitts all my life. I knew you were a Mormon. I always hire Mormons if I can hire a good Mormon." He said, "I am not perfect." He said, "I am not either. If we were all perfect we would not be here."

That was a real testimony for a [boy]. He taught a year or two in Brawley [California]. Then he taught up to Ramona, California a couple of years. He moved down to [the] San Diego [California area] to Lakeside and taught there. He has worked in the church ever since. He was superintendent of the Sunday school there year after year. Now he is a second counselor to Bishop Crockett in the Lakeside Ward. He is an old man. Every time I go down he says, "You have to come down and check up on him, do you?" I said, "Yes, I have to check up on him." 00:55:00We have really enjoyed him.

FH:How much of a family does he have?

RL:He has three [children] -- two girls and a boy.

FH:Who is your second child?

RL:Gale H. Leavitt. Do you want me to tell a few of the faith-promoting things about him first? When he was a little boy, one of the neighbors had a BB gun and he was shot in one eye. He had a problem with that. We had to take him to Salt Lake [City to] have it taken care of. After he came back home, he [had] a scum [develop] over that eye. He could see well out of the other eye. I do not think I hardly slept a wink for nights and weeks and months [because] of that [boy].

The school doctor came over one day 00:56:00and he said, "Rhoda, you should take him to Salt Lake [City] and have that scum taken off of his eye right now." I said to Charles, "I do not believe I can have that done. I would rather wait awhile. I do not think he ought to have it done." He said, "It should come off." I said, "Give me another week. With faith and prayers and more prayers I do not think we will have to have that done."

One morning we got up and I looked again and that [scum had] moved on his eye. [It was] just like a jelly. It moved to one side. I said to Charles, "That [scum] moved on his eye." [Gale] said, "Mom, it feels like it is moving." I said, "Do not touch it, just let it go for a little while." In a day or two [it] slipped off his eye [very] smoothly. It came off [in a] whole [piece]. I said, "Not only our prayers [were answered], but everybody in this valley [had] prayed for that boy's eye." That scum came off of his eye. I do not think in his life he will ever forget how much faith, 00:57:00how many prayers went up for that eye and how that eye healed up and felt better. I think it was the hand of the Lord and nothing else.

He does not have 100% vision in that eye. Looking back after [it] was all over, the doctor said, "I have never seen stronger eyesight in all my life than that boy had. That one eye is not 100% whole, but with [it] and his other [eye] he has good eyesight, much better than three-fourths of the people [who] come in [to my office]. He will not have to worry about it." [While] he was in high school, he worked in the service station at Glendale [Nevada]. You never forget prayers. He was a [boy] maybe in [his] second year [of] high school. He worked over there in the summer to help to make [some] money. Both boys did [this] and made good money over there. He came home one afternoon and said, 00:58:00"Do you know who I saw over there today?" He was as white as a ghost. I said, "No, who?" He said, "President David O. McKay came in today."

He had been in Los Angeles. He said, "Mother, you have never seen anybody so sociable and nice. His face and hands were so white and his hair was so white.

It thrilled me all over to look at him." [Gale] was waiting on him [and] filled his car up with gas. He said, "A tingling sensation went up my whole spine when he shook hands with me." I said, "That is an experience I have never had, but it is thrilling to hear you [tell] it." I could tell he was thrilled to death to say that he shook hands with President David O. McKay. [Gale] said, "You know, mama, he locked his car [from] the outside [with] his key [inside]. I talked with him and we worked and worked. He said, 'Son, what is your name?' It's Gale Leavitt." 00:59:00He said, "Is it really Leavitt? One of my most wonderful friends in Logan, Utah was a Leavitt." He called him by his first name. I do not remember his first name, but the important thing to [Gale] was that he encouraged him because he was a Leavitt and said he was good friends to a Leavitt. His wife was with him, too. [Gale said], "Finally, I [pried] the wing [window] on his car open, [put] a wire through there and brought his key off the seat where he had left it. I opened his car for him. He shook hands with me and talked with me. You know, I have never experienced anything like it. He was friendly with all of us. A bunch of girls from Overton [Nevada] were working there, too; he shook hands with every one of them, asked them their names, asked them what they were doing in the church, about their mothers and their fathers and asked about the country [area]." I said, "That is the wonderful thing about the LDS people, the president of the church and the counselors, because we all believe in the same things." He was not too high to speak to help a boy. 01:00:00He had his life saved when he was in college. Talk about his eye as being kind of weak, he was a brilliant [student] in school. He won a $4,000.00 scholarship to go to Reno to school. So you know he had to study to [get] there.

Another experience he had: he came over here to go to the ballgame in the Virgin Valley. The boys had all come over here to see the ballgame. After the ballgame they went to the café to have a cold drink and a hamburger before they went home. An older [fellow] came along and picked up these young [boys] and said, "Let us ride up to St. George." Two or three of these younger [boys] did not want to go with him. Gale left his car parked there. He [was] driving fast headed up there. Gale said, "I told him to let me out two or three times and he would not let me out." Oh, you are alright. Stay in here." He had a big new car 01:01:00he wanted to try out and show it to them. He said, "Going up over that slope between here and St. George, the cattle were thick as they could be and there was not any fence. [Gale] had two good friends in there with him, Glen Perkins and Van Leavitt. Boyd [Leavitt] was the one driving the car. There were four of them. He said, "Boyd, let me out. I want to get out." It was in January and there was a north wind. He said he would not let me out so I reached over and turned the key off and got out and started to walk back." Those [boys] went on to St. George. They went in and had a drink or something and coming back he [was] going about 100 miles an hour and they tipped over. It about wrecked the rest of them. It did not kill them, but they were all piled up there in the rocks around that turn up above the ledges.

The next morning the Mesquite people came over and said, "Where is Gale, Rhoda?"

I said, "He went back to Glendale to work." They said, "He did not. His car is parked right there in front of Faye's Café." 01:02:00"Is he home?" I said, "No. Why?"

He said, "Boyd, Glen and Van are all in the hospital. They had a terrific wreck, but they cannot find Gale." I thought maybe they had not found him and he was dead out there in the rocks somewhere. So we got in the car and started to St.

George. We only [went] to the hospital. I said to the nurse, "I want to see how my boy is." She said, "There is no Gale Leavitt in here. There is Van Leavitt, Boyd Leavitt and Glen Perkins."

Glen was a young boy, Gale's age. We went down there and he had an aluminum crown put on the top of his head. He had his leg up in a cast. He had broken his leg and hurt his head. I could not talk to the other two because they were still out. They had broken their ribs or something. They had an oxygen tank on them so that they could breathe. We could hear them breathing all over the hospital.

They said Glen 01:03:00might be able to talk to you. I went down there and said, "Glen."

He said, "Oh, Rhoda, do I wish I had gone out when Gale did." I said, "Where is Gale?" He said, "Gale got out and walked back home." I said, "His car is still over there." My youngest boy said, "Dad, let's go find Gale. I bet they have left him down there [and] he is dead." They nearly froze to death. They had someone finally come along and pick them up and took him to the hospital.

We came back and we were heartsick. We thought he had been left there. When we came back, we met Gale coming in his car. He had walked back to the lodge at Beaver Dam and went in. Everybody was in bed. It was late at night. They have a big fireplace. He said, "I pulled the couch over by the fireplace. I knew the manager there [very] well. I put a blanket on and pulled it up and went to sleep. I did not even wake up until this morning. I got up, had breakfast and caught the bus home. I went over to the café to get my car and Don Lee was there and called to me. 01:04:00"Gale, where have you been?" He said, "I just came from the lodge. I got off the bus right there when Don saw me and went to his car."

He said, "Have you seen your mother and dad?" He said, "No [inaudible]. [END OF RECORDING TWO.] RL:He said, "Your mother and dad went up to the hospital to bring you back and you were not there." He said, "I did not go to the hospital. I got out [of the car] and came back." He said, "They thought you are up there. They think you are dead [because] they could not find you." He [went] in his car and came back to meet us. Glen and Van said, "If we had had the guts that [boy] did and [had gotten] out, we would not have been crippled for life like we are. That took an awful lot of guts to turn that key off." You know, young boys, four or five of them get out and walk back. I said, "Gale, what do you think would have happened if you had not gotten out?" He said, "It was nothing but the Spirit of the Lord prompting me to get out of there. If I had not gotten out, I would have been right where you are looking for me up there dead in those rocks." I said, "That is 01:05:00exactly what I know, too, and I wanted to know if you knew it. When the Lord prompts you to do something you want to be sure and do it."

He left his car there and we went back to St. George so he could see the other boys. It goes to show, have faith enough to pay attention to the promptings of the Lord and you are going to be blessed. I think, as much as I am sitting here, that that is all that saved that boy's life.

FH:What has happened to him in life?

RL:He went to school in Reno [and] now he owns a service station and lives in Moab [Grand County] Utah.

FH:Is he married?

RL:Yes, he married in the temple.

FH:Who did he marry?

RL:He married Lorraine Harmon from Pocatello, Idaho. They were married in the Manti Temple. 01:06:00I went through with him. I forgot to say, Clair and his wife were married in the Los Angeles Temple. First they were not married in the temple, but I went down.

CL:She was not a Mormon.

RL:He converted her and baptized her himself. I would like to tell that experience about Clair's wife.

Maybe I better finish about Gale going through the Manti Temple. We went through the temple with them. Her mother, father, brothers and sisters were all there to go through with them. That Manti Temple is really one in a million to me because it has not been remodeled with escalators. It is exactly like it was when it was first built. The cut stairways and carved wood through there is beautiful. These others are all more modern and they are beautiful. Ever since he has been a [boy] he always said, 01:07:00"When I go through the temple, I am going to the Manti Temple." That was his goal [and] what he worked for. He has been a [LDS] missionary there for three or four years. He is still a stake missionary in Moab. He has been superintendent of the Sunday school.

FH:How many children do they have?

RL:They have three [children] -- two girls and a boy.

I want to tell about Clair going through the St. George Temple. [From] his Sunday school class he always wanted to go through the St. George [Temple]. He was telling in his Sunday school class. I was there while he was giving the lesson. He said, "My grandmother," that was my mother, "said she had been through the Los Angeles and Salt Lake [Temples] and said there were none of them like the St. George [Temple]. They are friendlier and they are not like the St.

George Temple." All those young people think any one was better than the other.

I remember there was one old man raised his hand and said, "I am like Clair's grandmother. There is none of them like the St. George Temple." He was 01:08:00an old man from St. George and from this country [area] and that is what mother thought -- there was not anything like the St. George Temple.

He worked in the ward there and went through the Los Angeles Temple. I went through with their bishop. They had about 250 people who went through with them that day. You can see there was a big crowd down there at the temple that day.

It was really a sight to behold to go through the temple down there. That was the first time I had been through the Los Angeles Temple.

FH:It is a little different than the others.

RL:Yes, it is. A lot of it was on tape and [inaudible] like you know. I like the St. George [Temple], too, but I like the Manti [Temple] better than any [of them], like Gale. [Laughter] The ceremony and everything is all the same principle. It is thrilling to go through and see your [children] sealed to them and all. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] RL:The third boy is Alfred [Leavitt]. He went through high school here 01:09:00and then to two years of college in Cedar City. Then he married. He was only eighteen [years old]. I had to go sign with him. He married Esther Jeannetta Barrett. She had to go sign with him so that they could get married. They [were] married in [Mesquite, Nevada]. Several years ago they went through the St. George Temple and we went with them. You know, it is a big thrill to have your [children] and have them all three go through the temple. He has worked and taught the elders'

class in the Las Vegas Ward where he is going [now]. All three of them have had the opportunity to baptize a few who wanted them to baptize them. Clair baptized his wife.

FH:Was she a non-member and he worked with her until she came into the church?

RL:She was a non-member. She says I was the one [who] converted her. He 01:10:00baptized her. They were living in Los Angeles when he came back from the Army. My sister's husband was going to be baptized down there. We went there to see him baptized into the church. He was not a Mormon when she married him, but the elders had converted him. I was down there one Sunday and he said, "Rhoda, I want to talk to you a little about the gospel." I said, "Ask me anything you want." So he asked me everything he could think of and I told him all I knew. He said, "You know, I have learned more about the gospel from you than all the [LDS] missionaries [who] have ever been here." I said, "It was because you were not afraid to talk to me and ask me."

He said, "I really do not know whether I want to go through the temple and be saved or not." I said, "Why? You big jackass. What is the matter with you?" He said, "My dad and mother had as big a family as yours did and there is not a one of them [who] belongs to the church, only me. If none of them are going to be saved I do not know whether I want to." I said, "You are a dunce. That is all the more reason why you should join the church right now so that you can take 01:11:00the gospel to your mother and father. That is probably why the Lord is making it possible for you to join the church right now so you can help your family join the church." He said, "I never thought about it." I said, "You better start thinking right now."

Ruby said, "The missionaries are going to baptize Harry." I said, "Why not have Clair baptize him? [He] is your own sister's boy." She said, "I did not know he could baptize anybody." I said, "What is the matter with you? He has been baptizing [children] ever since he was a priest in the gospel. He has baptized five or six [children] over there. He baptized my youngest boy when Charles was not here."

When Alfred became eight years old, he came home from Primary one day and he said, "Mom, pack my suitcase. I am going to the temple and am going to be baptized for the dead." I said, "You have not been baptized yourself." He said, "What is the matter with you? You have one little boy here and you have not seen that he is baptized when he is supposed to be. Clair and Gale were baptized when they 01:12:00were supposed to be baptized. Why did you not see about me?" I said, "Because you were born in January and we did not have a font for you to be baptized in." They had to go down to the [Virgin] River, dig a hole and let the water run in it so he could be baptized. I decided to wait until summer until it [would be] warmer than is what it was. He said, "The whole class is going and I am going to be baptized for the dead." I said, "Okay. You just hold your horses and I will call Bishop Leavitt." That was Bishop Vincen [Leavitt] down here. He said, "Rhoda, bring him right down here. I am just filling my cattle tank and it is all clean. It has been scrubbed out. Is Clair is there?" I said, "Yes." "He is a priest. Tell him to put on his white pants, a white shirt and come on. He can baptize him right now and we will hurry up about it so he can go."

We went down and [Clair] baptized Alfred with the bishop there. That has been quite a thing for Clair and for Alfred, both. So I said, "Ruby, he baptized Alfred when he was just a young priest himself." She said, "I would rather have Clair." Clair had been right there beside her and she did not have a boy. She said, "I never could have had a boy [who would] have been any to me better than Clair. I will call the missionaries 01:13:00and see what they say." She called the stake missionaries [and] said, "Would it be alright if I had my sister's boy baptize [my husband]?" He said, "Of course, if you have relatives, why did you not say so. He is the one to baptize your husband, not us."

We went out to the Hollywood Stake House and had him baptized. Clair was going to baptize his wife then [also]. She had been converted, but they had not been there too long [in] this ward. Their recommendation had not been signed there. I never thought about that. When we [were] out there, the missionaries came over with the stake president and the bishop. He said, "Do you have Clair's recommendation here?" I said, "No, I never thought about it." Neither did they right on the spur of the moment. I knew he could get a recommendation in a minute because there was nothing to hinder him. He said, "Do you want us to go ahead and baptize his wife?" I said, "Absolutely not. That is the best privilege in life that boy will ever have, converting and baptizing his own wife." The mission president said, 01:14:00"I am like you. That is a privilege. If that were my wife nobody would baptize [her], only me. What ward do you belong to, Mrs.

Leavitt?" I said, "The Bunkerville [Ward]." He said, "You do?" I said, "Yes." He said, "You know, my mission president companion was president. Who was your stake president?" I said, "President Ryan Bunker." He said, "He is my best friend. Everybody knows President Bunker and you are in his stake. [Everyone] knows what the Bunkerville Ward is [inaudible]. Come right ahead, Clair, and baptize your wife. When your mother goes home she can send me your recommendation"

That was something, wasn't it? He let him go ahead and baptize his wife and baptize Uncle Harry. When I went home I [received] Clair's recommendation from the bishop and sent it right down to him. When she [stood] up and bore her testimony she said how proud she was to be baptized. She said, "My mother[-in-law] here is the one [who] converted me. My husband baptized me, but my mother[-in-law] here converted me." I think that was better than any amount of money to me to have that girl get up 01:15:00and say that. She has worked in Relief Society, in the Sunday school and in every organization [of the church]. A better little girl never lived. That was the best thing that a girl could say to me.

Gale baptized two girls. One of them was Gloria Leavitt down here. You said Duchess?

FH:Yes.

RL:It was his daughter that Gale baptized. So my boys have been pretty lucky about baptizing other people.

Alfred has been a policeman for five years in Las Vegas. This [man], his companion and partner, had been there with him for five years and had been driving back and forth. They always go two in a car. He was not LDS. 01:16:00One Sunday the bishop called Alfred. He said, "Alfred, get down here to the chapel right away. Your partner and his wife want you to come down here and baptize them." He said, "Me?" He said, "Yes. We have no time to wait. Get down here right quick.

They want you to baptize them." He said, "I have never said a word about the gospel to them." He said, "You do not have to say a word. This man says, 'He has never preached to me a minute, but if I ever saw a boy live the gospel and set an example, it is that boy. I have watched him every minute. I heard him the other night when some men called us from out on the strip and said to come out and have a drink with us. They kept at that [boy] and kept at him and he said I do not drink. He hung up the receiver. You as well tell him first as last. That is the kind of a boy he is and he is the one I want to baptize me.'"

I said, "Alfred, I am so mad at you [that] I could beat you blue. Why did you not call me so I could go down there and see you baptize him?" He said, "I did not have time. I was so scared and excited myself. 01:17:00I just barely had time to get there and do it myself." I said, "That is neither here nor now. It is the thing that you were a good enough boy and lived a good enough life that those two outsiders wanted to be baptized." I think we have been lucky that those three boys have baptized somebody else into the church.

FH:It is not all luck. They have to live it.

RL:That is right. We have tried to teach it to them all their life. We have tried to set a good example. We have not been perfect, but we tried to do the best we could [for] them. As a rule, I think if parents set a good example and work hard usually the [children] turn out pretty good, most of them.

FH:Tell about your life since you have been married. 01:18:00Have you been [active] in [the] Relief Society?

RL:Yes. I was in the Relief Society presidency with Verda Earl and Rose Abbott for three or four years. I was the first counselor in the Relief Society with Vera Waite and Erma Leavitt, Vincen's wife. I have worked in Mutual [and] in Primary all my life. I have been a stake missionary for four years.

FH:How did you like that missionary work?

RL:I loved it. Never a dull moment. Uncle Corey Hunt [was] an old man here [who] died a while back. I was with those three old grandpas, bishops and presidents.

Uncle Charley Hardy over [in] Mesquite has been dead for years. I was just a young girl then. I was married and had my [children]. Charles went with me part of the time. When I [was] tired of preaching a sermon, he could preach one twice better than I could because he remembers all [of the] church history. He can remember the gospel better than I can to tell it. 01:19:00I have to read it and remember it, but he has it in his mind all the time. He can give it.

FH:[Does] he have a gift for it?

RL:Yes, he has a gift for it. When Bishop Abbott would come over to get me he would say, "Go right in there, Charles, and get ready and come right along. I will have you give the talk, too." He got just as much good out of it as I did.

FH:[Has] your husband been a stalwart in the community?

RL:Yes. He worked for the good of the community. He worked around these mountains for the cattlemen and for everything that he could do he has done. If he would get in here and tell you a little of it, he could tell about some of the work he has done out there in Caliente around those mountains. Why not come and tell them, Charles? I do not know those places like you do -- those water holes and country [area] you worked out there.

FH:He does not seem to want to talk about it. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] RL:I remember going down to my grandfather's house, my mother's father. 01:20:00He drove [the] mail [truck]. He was a man [who] always made money. When everybody around this town did not have a nickel, grandpa always had money. He had gold. When I was a [youngster] I remember him sitting there by the fireplace [when] one of the older girls asked him for some money. He took up [a] board out of the floor and reached in and [brought up] a two-quart bottle of $5.00 gold pieces. I can remember that as vivid as yesterday. I saw that big bottle full of gold. That is the only gold I have ever seen. He could make money.

He was superintendent of the Sunday school, worked in the gospel and helped widows after he was [very] old. There were a whole bunch of widows here --Aunt Rel, Grandma Lean, mama, Sister Abbott [and] Aunt May. There were eight or ten women [who] were [very] old widows. [When] they were old they worked in the temple. They went back and had excursions all the time. Grandpa gave 01:21:00them $2.00 apiece. He was crippled [and] could not go, but he paid their way every trip they went to the temple so that he would be doing his share.

FH:That made a blessing for everybody.

RL:It [was] a blessing for him and for everybody else. I would like to tell another faith-promoting story. I do not know whether I have told it to my [children] or not. But while I think about it I want to tell it so that they can hear it. I told this to my Mutual [group] one night down here, the MIA Maids.

This is about Grandpa Dudley [Leavitt who] is [my children's] great-great-grandfather. This [event] is [recorded] in their family record book.

I want to copy it down and write it myself so my [children] can read it because it is my mother's grandpa. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] RL:This is in the Barnum record book Old grandma 01:22:00Ann Barnum was her name. Her husband was on a [LDS] mission. Grandpa Dudley walked up to Aunt Ann's one night. He was a great [man] to help the missionaries. They really believed in the missionary work. He said one night he was prompted to go up to Aunt Ann Barnum's [home]. He went up and she and Uncle Asa [Barnum] were there. [He] was her oldest boy. He said, "Ann, how is Asa doing on his mission?" Her husband's name was Asa Barnum, too. She said, "Dudley, I do not know. Looks like maybe he will have to come home. We have done everything. He has to have some money [because] he is broke. He has not had a nickel. We have calves to sell, we have figs and we have hay, but we cannot get a nickel anywhere. I do not know what on earth we will do." He said, "Do not worry another minute." Grandpa Dudley plunked down a $100.00 greenback. He had [received] his Indian pay.

He worked for the Indians and drove 01:23:00[the] mail [truck] back and forth. He had four wives of his own [with] big families so you know how badly they would need that money. He said, "Send it to him in the morning [by] the mail. Give him the whole $100.00." That $100.00 then would be like $1,000.00 today or more so. She said it saved her life. I do not know whether they paid it back or not. I asked Grandpa Dudley's oldest daughter [who] lived in Mesquite [Nevada] after I read that. I said, "Aunt Ree, how long did Grandpa Dudley have to work to earn $100.00?" She said, "I do not know, Rhoda. Longer than you would ever know or think about. Probably months and months it took to earn $100.00." He had one crisp $100.00 and it gave it all to her to send to a missionary. That was the kind of people this community was made of. They were all like that. All those old men were like that.

FH:You can tell [that] by talking to their descendants here.

RL:I bet if you went anywhere 01:24:00you would get the same opinion from everybody else that you do from me. They [would] tell you the same things [because] they had the same spirit and the same faith.

FH:This is why your husband is such a powerful spirit, even though he is [reluctant] to talk.

RL:There is not one thing holding him back except those cigarettes. It is nearly killing him, but he knows [the] gospel. He has a better memory and can preach [the] gospel. I do not believe there is a man in this community [who] can compare with him. Like he said, he has preached some of the best funeral sermons you have ever heard.

FH:He is a powerful character I can see that just [by] talking with him.

RL:He has helped the country [area]. He studies the gospel from daylight until dark so you know he believes it. He was operated on a year ago down in San Diego [California]. When Clair first went down there he 01:25:00[was given] his patriarchal blessing, he and his wife. He did not tell me [this] until after dad had been operated on. He said, "After this is all over, mom, I am going to read my patriarchal blessing to you." In this blessing one of the things it said, "You have someone [who] is near and dear to you that is very near to death's door.

Your faith and prayers are going to help save his life." It almost worded it right out. After he came to nearly dying he had a skin cancer here. You can see that big hole on his forehead. He said, "You are going to be the means through faith and prayers, through your own faith and through your own prayers and the help of the Lord, you are going to help save the life of someone that is most dear to you." I said, "That is telling you pretty plain."

So you can see why a boy's testimony and faith is strengthened 01:26:00and grows every day of his life. It seems like that happened. His wife thought that was the most thrilling thing that had ever happened to her was to have something told right like that in a patriarchal blessing.

FH:Have you [participated in] some civic [events]. Were you on the board that had to do with getting the high school?

RL:Yes. At one time, Mesquite tried to get the high school over there. It was here for years and years before it was changed. They had the town board here.

There was Albert Leavitt, Kenneth Earl and Holley Adams. They came up here one morning and said, "There is only one other person in this town we need to go help fight for that school and that is you. You can tell those authorities up there more in a minute than we can ever tell them." I said, "I will go and say all I can, but there is one [man] right here that can tell them more than all three of you [and] me put together." We went and 01:27:00had to really fight for that high school. By the time we [were] through telling them who worked for that high school, there were only six [students] when it started, and how they had to pay the Mesquite [children] to come over here to go to school to get that high school, the high school was not moved. I was on that committee.

FH:Have you had some trips with your husband?

RL:I told about when we went to San Diego and met our boy when he came from over there. These other trips were just family trips where we have gone around to [visit with] our [children]. They know about those. I do not need to tell anymore about [those trips].

FH:Have you learned anything from life?

RL:I think I have learned a lot from life. A kind word sometimes does more to help a person or yourself than all the money in the world. I think if 01:28:00we live the best we can, we are honest and try to keep the word of the Lord like we know it should be kept, keep the principles of the gospel and try to set a good example the best we can, that you cannot go too far astray. I know I have had a good example set for me [by] my parents and my grandparents. Some of them came across the plains and the work that they had to do, I do not think that we should let them down. To think our ancestors went through all of that for us -- I do not think there would be much in life if we did not do these things.

FH:Would you give some counsel and advice to your descendants and 01:29:00perhaps bear your testimony?

RL:I would like to tell my boys to live up to the gospel the way that it has been taught to them -- the way I have taught it to them and the example that was set and the way their ancestors have [lived] -- the way that they know it. I think they have lived it pretty good and are working as hard as they can and doing what they know is right. I want to tell them to be honest and live up to the principles of the gospel they know, and be honest, true and fair. Make friends with everybody and treat them just the same way and they will be treated that way throughout their life.

FH:Do you feel your testimony is strong?

RL:I have a pretty strong testimony in the work of the Lord. I know He has helped me and saved my life, saved my children's lives and saved my mother's life. I have had my own boy's life saved 01:30:00so plainly that I could not deny the power of the Lord. I would not dare to [do that]. I have had my own life saved by the power of the Lord, nothing else. I want to bear this testimony to them.

If they live up to what they know is true and do what they know is right, they will have the same testimony that I have and the Lord will protect them, guide them and help them all the days of their life. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] FH:Was there something else you wanted to tell?

RL:Yes. I would like to tell about Alfred. We were down there this Sunday, day before yesterday. He has been a policeman on the Las Vegas [Metro] Police force for thirty years. He has a [very] good memory for faces. He has books of all the criminals and underworld [figures] and he has caught several. He has recognized them driving by in a car and has seen some just sitting in a café. He has walked right up and called in [to the police station]. They had the information right there 01:31:00and they picked him out up there and took him in. He has a good memory for faces. He has picked up [very] desperate convicts. He has really had experiences down there that would just curl your blood. Talk about wicked -- I did not know such things went on in the world until he told me. [Inaudible] FH:Has he made a real reputation for himself?

RL:Yes, he has. There is not supposed to be too much put out about [inaudible] because there are lots of desperate people around there. So I was [very] thrilled and 01:32:00yet I was scared underneath. There is something about those [people]. I thought I needed to add that now because he has just been advanced. [END OF RECORDING THREE. END OF INTERVIEW.]