Interview with Juanita "Nita" (Seegmiller) McQuaid

Juanita “Nita” (Seegmiller) McQuaid was interviewed on May 12, 1969 in , County, by Fielding H. Harris, a representative of the Voices of Remembrance Foundation. She related her personal history of living in various parts of .

FH:Would you please give your full name?

JM:[My name is] Juanita (Seegmiller) McQuaid.

FH:What is your birth date?

JM:[I was born] November 9, 1910.

FH:Where were you born?

JM:[I was born in] .

FH:What was your father’s name?

JM:[His name was] Frank Seegmiller.

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

JM: [Her name was] Edna Lucinda (Sorensen) [Seegmiller].

FH:Can you remember [anything] from your early childhood?

JM:I had a wonderful mother. She was too good. She wasn’t [very] well and was a sickly woman. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for me. I had two older half- 00:01:00sisters and they were the same way. I was a very spoiled child; I had everything I wanted. On the spur of the moment, my mother would whip up a cake and have a party. I had a very fun life when I was a child, but I was very spoiled.

FH:Can you tell us about your education?

JM:Until mother died, I was just an average student in school. I liked school, but she was sick the last year or two before her death. Then her passing away just took the school out of me. I had so much to do after she died. My brother was ten years old, and I was twelve years old and we were left alone. Our father 00:02:00was on the farm or out at our ranch about twenty miles out of town a good share of the time. We had to come home to a cold house. I had to fix our meals and [do] everything. I wasn’t tip-top in school, but I was in every activity. I wasn’t [a] scholar, but I was very active.

FH:Was this a radical change from what you had experienced?

JM:Yes. I was a [very] spoiled little girl and, all at once, it was dumped in my lap. It was [very] hard to adjust.

FH:Tell about some of your activities and experiences in school.

JM:Glee [Club] was about the biggest thrill I ever had. I used to always sing in the chorus in all the operas. When I was in the seventh grade, we got a new music teacher. He had to try us out before he could put on a performance. I won [and] got to be Cinderella, the maid with the golden slipper. From then on, I had it made. All through school I would take the leads in the operas. 00:03:00Music was the main thing in my life and it is still very important in my life.

FH:Did you [participate in] any music other than singing?

JM:I played the piano. I played for some dances. I could play well enough to teach myself songs. I was always playing the piano and singing when I was younger. After I married, I [started] directing music. I have done that very, very much.

FH:Then music has been a very important factor through your whole life.

JM:Yes, through my whole life.

FH:Did this carry over into your activities [in The] Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] also?

JM:Very much. I was the ward music director for many years and [for the] MIA [Mutual Improvement Association]. The last twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years, I have been in stake jobs, because I worked. I worked at JC Penney and for doctors away from [my] home, so I had to 00:04:00take the stake jobs, other than the Sunday meetings. I led [the] Singing Mothers on a stake basis, as well as a ward basis and MIA music festivals.

FH:[Going] back to your [education]. Were there some of [your] teachers that you would like to mention by name?

JM:There was one teacher, Lena Nelson, who was an English teacher. She never married. She was quite a large woman. She was always a thrill to me because she dressed beautifully and always wore such gorgeous beads. She had lots of them. We all loved her. She was very, very strict, but we all learned a lot from her. 00:05:00Karl Larsen was the one who discovered that I was above average through his talent searches. He meant a lot to me in my life. When I [went] to high school at [] College J. W. [Joseph Warrington] McAllister was the [music] leader. He meant a lot because I was in his operas. He was a very, very dear friend and person. The people in music have been the ones that have thrilled me. I have attended many MIA and Relief Society conferences in []. Florence () Madsen has given me a big lift in my life in music directing. I have taken her very seriously. Crawford Gates has been 00:06:00a big, tremendous thrill to me in the MIA. I have gleaned and studied music; although I haven’t taken a lot of private lessons in directing, I have always been there to glean from the best in the church. I have accomplished very, very much.

FH:Do you feel that the teachers you had in school were high quality?

JM:No. There were weak ones. There was one — I had better not say [the name]. Let me say it this way: there was one teacher [who] was a little annoying to me. I won’t mention names, but I was in the seventh grade. It was [at] the time of my mother’s death, the same year. For some reason, he couldn’t reach me. Later, this man was put into [the] bishopric. I could hardly see him in a bishopric [position] because he wasn’t exciting to me. He even went so 00:07:00far as to be president of the temple and president of stakes. In later years, I found what a truly remarkable person he is; he is as good as there is on this earth. [That] is the way I feel about him now. But, as a teacher, he couldn’t reach me.

FH:He wasn’t in the proper situation.

JM:No, he couldn’t reach me.

FH:Were there any [events] that happened in your life that you feel were funny or amusing?

JM:I have had so many funny [events happen]! Right now, I can’t think of anything funny except that I have always been very, very noisy. I wish I wasn’t so noisy. You can hear me. If I go in a store everybody will start yelling to me from up in the balcony. They can hear me everywhere, no matter how I try to quiet down, I can be heard. Sometimes, it’s a bad fault. 00:08:00[Laughter] I have an aunt [Leila Fern Seegmiller] [who] lives on the corner. She took care of my grandfather [Charles W. [William] Seegmiller]. He lived to be 103 [years old]. From [the time] I was twelve years old until I married, whenever my father and my brother were both gone, I would live with her. I [also] would live with my sisters. People would say to her, “Don’t you worry about those [youngsters] a little bit?” She would say, “No, no, not a bit. I can hear “Nita” every time she goes by [the house]. I know what time she comes home and when she [leaves]. She doesn’t worry me a bit. I know where she is at all times.” [Laughter] FH:You were a very outgoing person.

JM:[I was] a very noisy person! [Laughter] FH:In the years when 00:09:00you were growing up, were you active in church? Did you attend church meetings?

JM:Yes, I attended church, especially when I was younger. There was one thing that I loved about the church. When I was a teenager, my father had very little money. He was a farmer. We always had plenty to eat and I had plenty of clothes. But when it came to cash to go to picture shows, and other activities, I never had [any]. Church was one place I felt I could go and I didn’t have to have money. It was a wonderful, wonderful outlet to me because I just couldn’t keep up with some of the shoemaker’s daughters [who] always had money in their pockets.

FH:Did you attend all of the different organizations?

JM:I attended all of the organizations, yes.

FH:Did you ever have an excursion to the temple for baptismal work when you were younger?

JM:Yes, I went one time and was baptized for the dead.

FH:Will you tell about your father? What can you remember about 00:10:00 him?

JM:My father never attended church much, but he knew the [Holy] Bible from A to Z. He was a very good father. I thought he was hard on us because we couldn’t get away with anything. He was very strict, I should say. One time, I wanted to go over to Hurricane [] so bad and he wouldn’t let me go out of town to anything. I wanted to go over to Hurricane so I told him I had to go over to pitch [for] the ball team. He said, ““Nita”, you know you are fibbing to me. You don’t like to play ball.” [Laughter] No matter how I tried to get over there, or even [go to] [, ] or [City, ], he wouldn’t let me out of his sight. But he would allow some of the [young people] to be with us all the time. I had girls sleep over with me nearly every night. 00:11:00My father fed half the [youngsters] in the neighborhood. My brother and I lived alone in this big house and all the [young [people] congregated there. Every night there would be one or two sleeping there. Never, in all my life, did I ever see anything that wasn’t just right in that house, never. My brother told me that he did make a little wine, at one time, down in the back lot, but I didn’t know it. One time, I remember coming home, there were mostly cousins [at the house] and they were all his age. He had on his shorts and they were dancing around the dining room table. Other than that, that was the only thing I ever saw while we lived alone. [It was] just two little [youngsters and] that wasn’t good. My brother is one of the finest men that ever lived on the face of the earth, to this day.

FH:What is your brother’s name?

JM:My brother’s name is C. F. Seegmiller, Charles Franklin Seegmiller. 00:12:00They call him “Bud.” In all my life, he has been so close to me. If ever I needed anything — I have had two bad burns — here he comes on the dead run. He knows whenever anything happens to me. He will go up to the drugstore, buy what I need, come home and put it on [and] take care of me. To this day, he comes up every morning — he lives through the lot — to see if we are alright.

FH:You have several brothers and sisters in your father’s and mother’s families. Tell a little bit about all of them.

JM:I have two half-sisters [who were born to my mother and William Josiah Venton DeFriez before she married my father]. One of them was eleven years older than me and she passed away three years ago. Her name was Orenia (DeFriez) Miles. She was a very, very, dear, sweet sister. My other sister is Mary Amanda (DeFriez) Williams. She was eight years older than me. She 00:13:00is another very lovely person. She lives two or three blocks away from me. She has always been very, very kind to me. I lived with both of my sisters at different times when I was in my teens [and] my father and my brother were gone. They were always very kind to me. My brothers-in-law were very kind and considerate. Both my sister “Renia” and her husband [Edward Colburn Miles have] passed away. Kumen [Davies] Williams and my [half-sister] Mary are both alive. They come here nearly every night and we are great friends as well as brothers and sisters. We have wonderful times together.

FH:[It] is such a fine thing for families to be close together like this.

JM:She is very, very sweet. 00:14:00FH:Tell about your mother a little bit.

JM:She was a tiny little woman, only about five-feet-two-inches and very beautiful. She died [when she was] forty-eight [years-old]. She had a bad heart [and] bad kidneys, but it never stopped her from working. She [had a] garden [that was] about one-fourth of a city lot. She gave her vegetables to everyone in the country [area]. She was kind to everyone, kind beyond all measure to everyone. I guess you could almost say she worked herself to death. She drove herself all the time, even though she was sick. I can’t remember too much about her except that she was sickly, but still going on a dead run until the last. On her dying bed — she went to bed in about October or November and died in February. During 00:15:00that time, she made me a beautiful blue wool dress and a blue wool cape to match, all lined in red felt. It was the most beautiful thing.

FH:She was too ill to be up, but she still worked.

JM:She did wonderful things. I had this [young] ten-year-old brother “Bud.” How he loved his mother. He could hardly leave her all of his life. She died on his birthday, when he was ten years old.

FH:That is wonderful that you have such close feelings for your family. It means a lot.

JM:It really does.

FH:Tell a little bit about those years when you were growing up. What did you do just for fun?

JM:I have to go back [because] I forgot one half-sister and that wouldn’t do. 00:16:00After my mother had been dead for eight years, my father remarried and had two children. The boy died, but his daughter is still living. I didn’t know her too well. She lives up in the state of . [By then] I was married and had a family. She was about the age of my family. I never became [very] close to her [because] we lived quite a distance apart. She is a very lovely girl and still living. That is all my brothers and sisters. Her name is Betty Renee (Seegmiller) Skow.

FH:Does she have a family?

JM:She has three children. 00:17:00FH:Did you have fun when you were growing up?

JM:I had an abundance of fun. I was terribly spoiled when I was a [young girl]; parties and parties. When I became a teenager, after my mother died, things were rough for me as far as cash in the hand. My father wouldn’t let me go anywhere, but I could [always] have [my] friends here. He would allow them to come and stay and he provided food for all the [young [people] in the whole country [area]. He was the best dad in the world. One funny thing they tell about me is [that] I was quite a candy maker. I could buy all the sugar I wanted. I could charge any amount of food. I would make an excellent batch of candy. I would hurry home at 11:00 [a. m.] from high school and make a batch of candy. I would take it out to the fence and give it to a special friend [who] was going past. Before I could get back into the house, there wouldn’t be any candy on the dish. [Laughter] Everybody who went by had to have [some] candy.

I had fun times. I was very popular 00:18:00and had lots of boyfriends and girlfriends. After I [was] about fifteen years old, I leaned more to boys than I did to girls! I had steady boyfriends. I was going with two boyfriends at the same time. One of them wasn’t here and the other was here. They both knew I was going with them, and I went with them for three years. It came to [a] decision of which one should I marry. I was nearly eighteen years old, and I decided — it’s a long story, but I decided on the one from [] . The other boy was very nice, but he was extremely jealous. My folks had sent me to to sing in the MIA chorus. I went up there and was going to go on up into . The folks thought it would be a good idea so I wouldn’t 00:19:00get married. They were kind of sending me away a little bit. Darn, if the boy from down here didn’t tag me up there and [influence] me to come back. I didn’t get to . The aunt [who] come there to meet me was [very] put out that I wouldn’t go back [to ] with her. I came back home and, lo and behold, when I got home, guess what I found? Sitting on my front steps was the boyfriend from . He had been selling vacuums [that] summer all down the coast. One night he was woke up in the middle of the night and [something] said for him to come see me immediately. He just packed up and came home. When he got here, my dad said, ““Nita” isn’t here. She has gone to .” He wouldn’t believe my father and he sat here for three days, waiting for me to come home.

I had quite a time deciding between these two boyfriends. I had found out this boy in [City] was extremely jealous, so I chose the other one. I chose the one from . That was in about July. In September he took me up to and gave me a ring. 00:20:00This is a little funny: when I [arrived] there, I found out that he had never grown up. He was still a [young] boy and had his boy friends. I felt quite neglected, even though I was engaged to him. Something was lacking. He was very handsome, I had my diamond, and he was very sweet, but he just hadn’t grown up. He brought me home, and then he went back home. He came down in November [for] deer season. We were to have been married [on] November 9. He came down to go hunting with his uncle [Thomas Cottam] and he was killed while he was deer hunting.

FH:Would you like to tell his name?

JM:His name was Reed Larson of 00:21:00Brigham City. He was an orphaned child. I met him in my early childhood. Uncle Thomas Cottam lived on [the] corner a block away. His corral was back of our place, so he would go through our place to milk the cows. Every time he came through, he would have to pick me up, carry me [around], and play with me. Uncle Thomas went on a [LDS] mission. He was quite old and he met a woman [who] was an old maid and they [were] married. They never had any children. So they adopted her sister’s boy. He had lost both his parents and they took him. That was how I got to know him, through my Uncle Thomas Cottam. He wasn’t my uncle, but we called him Uncle Thomas Cottam. [He was] a dear, dear friend. I wrote to Reed all those three years. I dearly loved him, but we were neither one ready for marriage. It was just one of those things. I felt very terrible at the time, as you can imagine. His mother died, his father died, and I couldn’t help feel like he was meant to go with them, 00:22:00going like he did. So I went on.

I went on one of the first trips of my life. I went up to the towns of and [in ]. I had a big time for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I [found] a boyfriend up there [who] wanted to give me a diamond. He brought it to me in December, but I didn’t accept it. I had my eye out on a [fellow who] had come from the little town of []. He was a graduate [automobile] mechanic and his name was [Albert] McQuaid. I had quite a time getting to know him. He was very backwards, very handsome, [but] very backwards. I finally got to know him and he was truly my true love. He was the man I married. I was married [when I was] twenty-one years old, nearly twenty two years-old. He was truly a wonderful, sweet husband 00:23:00and sweet boyfriend. There wasn’t a jealous bone in his body. He would take me to the dance and I could dance and dance and dance and dance. When the dance was out he would bring me home. It was so different [from] my first boyfriend who was so jealous. We were perfectly mated. He was the sweetest man in this whole world, and he is today.

FH:Where were you married?

JM:We were married in July. The temple was closed and we were married at my Aunt Fern’s [home]. [It was] my grandfather’s home. My Aunt Fern had taken care of my grandfather [who] lived to be 103 [years old]. I lived with them a lot, so she had this wedding for me. It was a lovely wedding. I had the long white dress and all that went with it. She served fruit cake that was a year old at my wedding.

FH:Before [you] tell about the rest of your life, talk about your father’s parents. Did you know them?

JM:I didn’t know my grandmother very well; she died when I was only 00:24:00about three years old. I knew my grandfather very well, and he taught me many, many, many things. He was as bright as could be, up until the last six months of his life. He would go along with the new style changes [and] read all the fashion sheets in the newspaper. If I would go up [to see him] with a dress that was a little shorter than usual, he would say, “Yes, “Nita”, that looks fine. That is the style. You look mighty fine.” One thing in particular that I remember about him is that he kept such a beautiful garden [and] a beautiful home. I think part of his long life and mine, was due to the way he ate, the way he took care of his body. 00:25:00He would seem to feel what he needed and he would eat very small portions. I have learned from that. When I overeat, I always think of grandpa: if I had just used a little sense, I wouldn’t feel like I do. He was a very, very bright man and a very loving man. This sweet little auntie [who] took care of him, gave up her life to take care of him. She saw that he had everything and everything was just right. Sweet little Aunt Fern married when she was sixty-eight years old. She is still alive. She is eighty-some years old and has arthritis and in a very bad fix now. Up until a few years back, she was a spry as a sixteen year old.

FH:What was this grandfather’s name?

JM:[His name was] Charles W. [William] Seegmiller.

FH:He is of prominent note in the community here.

JM:Yes, very. As a matter of fact, I believe it was my grandfather’s idea [to] build 00:26:00the Washington Fields Dam. That is where they are thinking now of putting in this big dam [Quail Creek Dam] that is to go in right above this dam. He had the ability to know those kinds of things. He is one of the big founders and I think it was him [who] came up with the idea in the early days.

FH:[Did] you say that his wife died early?

JM:Yes. I was [about] three years old.

FH:Do you know her name?

JM:[Her name was Marianne] Minnie (Forsyth) Seegmiller.

FH:Was it an aunt [who] took care of him?

JM:Yes, it was his daughter, Fern.

FH:Do you know your mother’s parents? [Andrew and Amanda Lucinda (Pace) Sorensen] JM:I knew them before my mother died. It seemed like, when she was alive, they were the ones I went to [stay with]. They 00:27:00were wealthy people and they, and their whole family, spoiled me. They spoiled all their [children]. They had too much money. When they died, there was very little left because they [had] given it to all their [children]. [They] just spoiled the whole bunch except my mother. There were two daughters and four or five sons. The sons were all very spoiled. What I mean by spoiled is he would help to pay their taxes and their obligations. They drank too much. They were good men, but they were spoiled, I [would] say. I used to [like] to go up there because I could always have plenty of money [to] go to the store. They had a beautiful home and one of the first bathtubs in town. It was always a lark to go there. When my mother died, then it was the Seegmiller’s, my father’s parents, 00:28:00[who] lived next to us. [They] took me in and taught me, more or less, what I know. They were both well-to-do people and had lovely homes. [One] was the one on the corner. They were very good to me, and taught me a lot.

FH:You spoke [that] one of your grandparents that lived to be 103 years-old.

JM:That was Grandpa Charles Seegmiller. I lived with him all through my teenage life, off and on. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] JM:I married [Albert] McQuaid, this sweetheart [who] was so kind. We lived just a block away from home. I was married in July and the next year in September, our first child [Edna Lu McQuaid] was born. I was terribly sick the full time. I had severe pains towards the last that I never even knew when I was in labor pain. I went to the doctor on 00:29:00Saturday, and he discovered that I was full of this terrible old albumin, so they had to bring the baby early. She was eight months. Saturday and Sunday I was in severe pain, but I had suffered so much pain in the past and I didn’t know I was taking pills to bring on forced labor. I nearly died at home before they took me to the hospital. They took me on a Sunday night. I [had] started the pills on a Saturday. Sunday night at 6:00 one of my neighbors came down [who] lived up above me [in] a two-story home. She said, “My lands! Get this woman to the hospital! She is dying.” They took me to the hospital and a wise old doctor said, ““Nita”, you are not going to have a baby. Let me examine you.” I said, “I must be going to have something.” He examined me and said, “If you are going to have a baby, it is so 00:30:00tiny that you are going to have the easiest time of anybody in the world. It’s head is just a tiny little head.” Soon after that, I passed out into a convulsion. They took the baby and it was a two-and-one-half pound baby. I was so full of poison that the baby couldn’t grow. The baby was born around 8:00 or 9:00 [p.m.] and the next morning I had another convulsion. I was unconscious from Sunday until Friday. [On] Friday, I just barely revived and it was Saturday before I came to.

I was terribly sick and this sweet little old maid Aunt [Fern who] took care of my grandfather, took care of me. After I had been in the hospital for two weeks, I went to her house and she took care of me for two more weeks. She had this two-and-one-half pound baby to take care of and she 00:31:00was an old maid. It was really rough on her. In that day, there were no incubators, and they said she was the littlest baby that ever was born in this hospital and lived. She was strong [and] there wasn’t a bit of flesh on her body. She looked just like a little peeled rabbit, but she was strong as could be. We had to keep her alive with [a] little eyedropper with brandy in it to make her heart beat and stimulate her. The first morning we took her home, my aunt called my half-sister Mary [who] lived a block away, and asked if she could come down and help bathe the baby. They said the baby should be put right in the water to stimulate her. She and her sweet husband, Kumen — he was always with her (they have been a loving couple their whole life) ─ they came down. He said, “Mary, if you can’t bathe that baby, I 00:32:00can.” Between them, they got the baby bathed. [END OF RECORDING ONE.] 00:33:00JM:When she [was] eleven years old, we moved from the west part of town back into my east part of town. In this area there were lots of girls. She [had] twelve girlfriends and she loved them all so much. She didn’t know which one she loved the most. She adjusted beautifully. She had one girlfriend in the other part of town that she was really a friend with, but when she moved out here she had these twelve [friends]. When it came time for her to [be] married, it was a real problem [so] she had all of them for her bridesmaids. She had a great, big wedding. To this day, she is the most unselfish, brilliant, loveliest woman in the world. Do you want me to tell you about [our] other children?

FH:What has happened to her? How much [education did she receive]?

JM:She 00:34:00went through high school and was a very popular, popular girl with girls. She didn’t care much for boys. I should say in the junior high [school] she didn’t care much for boys. When she got into high school, she started dating. There were these twelve girls and they were just a gang [group]. They had the grandest times in the world. They came to our house a lot [and] seemed to love to come to our place. [In] about her fourth year of high school, she started going with [Richard] “Dick” [Carl] . They went together [fairly] steady. They both graduated from high school. He went to to study to become a dental 00:35:00technician. They had talked a little of getting married, but nothing serious. While he was down there, the Korean War broke out. He called long distance and proposed to her, because he said he had to go. She was just seventeen [years old]; she lacked a few weeks of being eighteen years old. That was so hard for her to make the decision to get married on just the spur of the moment.

There was one thing that I want to tell before I go into her married life. She excelled in business and music. She [paid] her way through school [by] playing for [events] in high school and in college. On Saturdays, she had a government job in an office. She was the kind of a girl who was self-supporting and so very well-loved because she was sweet and understanding of everyone.

She married [“Dick”] 00:36:00and he went to the Korean War, so she stayed with us. He went to and he was a technician in a big hospital [there]. She stayed with us and went to one year of college. When he came back, [he] was [elected as] student body president and they went to school together the last year. She became pregnant and couldn’t climb the stairs, so she lacked one quarter of graduating from college. He set up practice [and] built her a beautiful little home. He wanted to be a doctor. He went away to [] to dental school. They had one little child, and while he went to dental school, the other child was born. She stayed with us until February while he was [in] school, because he wanted her here 00:37:00going through this pregnancy and to these doctors. Also, he was building her a new home that wasn’t finished. In February they took those two little children and went to . They became very, very active in the church [and] had many, many friends in that area. He was so kind to his fellow students. He had his own lab in his home and helped so many students through dental college. He was loved so much that they [elected him] as student body president of [the] university. They begged him to come back and teach but he came home. He stayed here one year and [the university] kept [begging] him to come [back]. So he went back and commuted between here and for one whole year.

It was [very] rough on all of them because it took so much money and they didn’t make too much money teaching. That was a [very] rough year. [So] he stayed here for eight years after that and built her a mansion. 00:38:00In the meantime, three more children were born to them; that made five children, four boys and the baby was a girl. He [received] a call to come up there [because] a [dentist] had retired and was leaving one of the oldest businesses in . It was one chance in a lifetime, because he catered to the old clients of . He commuted another year, making up his mind whether he should [stay] here or go. Finally, he took his family to and now he has them settled. They live in the town of []. It is a ten-minute drive from the . My daughter expects to go back [to school] there as soon as her children 00:39:00are [old] enough that she can leave them, and finish her music degree. She wants to get her music degree. They are very active; they both sing and she plays the organ and piano. They are very, very talented [and] wonderful people.

The last two summers, their second son Bradley [] has lived with us and we have had a lot of fun with Bradley. He [was] thirteen and fourteen years old. This winter, we had their son, Jeffrey [], who will be sixteen years old in June , living with us. It has been a great pleasure. He is a [very] fine boy. He worked at [O. P.] Skagg’s and each night he would call and say, “Grandma, what should I bring home? What can I help you with?” He has been [very] active [and] busy. He has learned a lot this winter. He has been very kind to us 00:40:00[and] fixes anything that [is] broken, [a] very handy boy.

FH:This is not only good for him, but it is helpful for you.

JM:It has been wonderful having him. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] FH:What about the other children?

JM:I will briefly mention that I had one little boy and he lived long enough for a name. We named him Lawrence Clyde [McQuaid] after my husband and my husband’s relative and closest friend, Lawrence McMullin. He just lived for a few hours, but he was a seven-month baby. I [also] had a six-month baby, a little girl, but she didn’t live at all. The whole problem was this terrible albumin [and] kidney infection. After I had tried three times to have children and had such 00:41:00a terrible time, I was operated on so I wouldn’t have more children. It is better to live and raise the one than not to live at all. I nearly lost my life all three times. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] JM:After I had this two-and-one-half pound baby, I became very active in the Relief Society. I was the only young person [who] went, but I took [my] little baby and became very, very active in [the] ward Relief Society. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] JM:I tried to induce my friends to come and they eventually did, but it was several years before I could talk the young people my age into going to Relief Society. I stayed in [the] ward Relief Society and then I was put into the stake Relief Society. 00:42:00The happiest experiences I had were going to [City] to the Relief Society quarterly conferences and getting instructions from Sister Madsen and all the leading musical authorities in .

After that, I started to work for JC Penney. My daughter was nine years old and so I felt I could leave her and [go to] work. My husband was a farmer and we were just starting out, so there was no money, so I started to work. My daughter would go to my Aunt Fern’s and stay after she would get out of school. I would work from 1:00 to 6:00 [p. m.], so I was home with her for breakfast, dinner and supper. I never, ever felt that I neglected her. I did have to give up [the] ward activities on account of my work. 00:43:00With my husband being a farmer, I always had a lot to do with tending [to the] milk. He was never home to help with anything, [so] I had all [the] butter churning and [chores] you have to do if you are a farmer’s wife. I worked part-time for JC Penney for fourteen years.

In the meantime, I went from one stake office into another. I went from the stake Relief Society into the stake MIA in the music field. I [went] from that into first counselor in the stake MIA. That was a great joy and we did many, many things. My husband was brought into the MIA as the Young Men’s secretary. My daughter’s husband was in [the ] Army in , so she was put in as music 00:44:00director. We all three worked together for a year or so and we really had a wonderful time in the MIA. It seemed to work out better for me because it was a night activity that I could go to. My husband’s health [became] worse and he had to give it up because he couldn’t walk anymore. I couldn’t be gone [from home] so much, so I joined the Sunday school and was on the Sunday school board. I was ward chorister for many, many years, besides. I would be what you would call the ward music director, head of the music when we had to get musical numbers for church each Sunday and tend to the ward’s musical activities. I was [part] of the group for many, many, many years.

FH:Were you chairman of the ward 00:45:00music committee?

JM:Some of the time I was, but I can’t say I was chairman all the time; it kind of falls with being the ward music director. But I had the job of getting [musical] numbers and being on the committee. I wasn’t chairman all the time. I must have been on the committee for at least twenty years. I stayed in music [until] I finally had to give up the Sunday school because my husband kept getting worse and worse and worse.

FH:What was the problem with your husband and his health?

JM:It has been twenty-four years ago [that] he [came] down with multiple sclerosis. At that time, we thought it was [a] tumor of the brain. 00:46:00We had him in with the best neurosurgeon specialist in the west. He had him in the hospital seven days. All we could get out of him when he was released was that he had no tumor. He didn’t diagnose it as MS [multiple sclerosis], but years later it was. We had him in all the leading clinics in the west. He gradually got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. For the past ten years, he has been in a wheelchair and totally disabled. I have to feed him and he can’t even wipe his own nose. You can see that it has made it so I couldn’t leave him [very] much. I tried to carry on in the ward as ward music director in the meetings, but I had [to] go to the meetings some days so upset because I would think I had him all 00:47:00ready [so] that I could leave him for an hour or so, and when I would start to get myself ready, he would start calling out. I would [have to] do this and that. Like sick people [are], he was afraid to be left alone. I got to where I [was] so nervous that I decided it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth [it] to be all upset so I have given up completely in the music line. I haven’t done anything in the music line now for about two years. I taught vocal, led the Singing Mothers, and worked in [the] ward meetings and Sunday school. I was in the Sunday school for many, many years as the director of music [along] with my work [at] JC Penney for those fourteen years.

I got tired and was offered a job working for an optometrist. I worked for Dr. Sheldon Johnson, the optometrist 00:48:00[for] four wonderful years. Then I was offered to do the buying if I would come back to [JC] Penney and work for them again. They told me if I would come back, I could have any hours I wanted, work any time of day, just as long as I got the buying done [and] put in about four hours a day. I quit Dr. Johnson, went back to [JC] Penney and stayed for two years. Then they put in a computer and it did away with [the] part-time jobs. They offered me [a] job back on the floor, but I knew I wasn’t up to it. I couldn’t leave and I [didn’t have] the strength.

I quit [JC] Penney and got the biggest thrill of my whole life working for a veterinarian [Dr. Richard E. Hazen]. He was the most wonderful person. I got 00:49:00to assist with operations, and it was just like operating on human beings. My very first operation, I had to put oxygen on the dog. I learned to give shots [and] take temperatures through the rectum. It was the most educational [and] wonderful time I ever had in my life. I worked for him for six months and he gave me a raise every month. It was just the highlight of my life. But I got a virus and [was] terribly sick so I had to quit. My son-in-law told me not to worry, that he [would] take care of [us].

I tried to sell hosiery for [the] American Hosiery Mills. I would go out and do a little bit of selling and he [my son-in-law] would give us so much each week. He was so sweet, but he was just starting out [and] he had his obligations. 00:50:00He was just getting started in a new clinic here and his obligations were big, so it was [very] hard on me to accept [his help].

That went on for six months and then right here, I believe I will tell about my faith-promoting experience [that] means everything to me. I know that there is a God. I know He hears and answers my prayers and I know that I just couldn’t live without Him. If ever I have a worry or ever I do something that I feel isn’t right, I have learned to pray to my Father in heaven, [to] go right to whoever I have said something that has worried me and make the correction so that I can go to bed at night. 00:51:00It seems like sometimes I talk too much and then I feel sorry. I haven’t had this experience for a long time other than getting a little too angry at my grandchildren! [Laughter] I’m high strung [and] highly nervous and I do a lot of yelling. I feel bad when I do. I couldn’t live without my Father in heaven and I know He hears and answers my prayers.

One day, I was bathing my husband. At this time, my husband had [become] so sick, that he had to give up farming. He crawled on his hands and knees trying to carry on. They tied him on his horse at the last, trying to gather up what few cattle he had. We had one sad year after another. We lost our beet crops for six years in a row. I would get up at 5:00 in the morning to ride the tractor trying to help him get them in. 00:52:00We had drought and had to haul the water. We would go backwards until we couldn’t pay our taxes. We had some terrible years with him sick and everything going wrong. Finally, it [got] to where we just couldn’t go any farther, so we had to sell. It was a blessing because we ended up with a home and one little piece of ground that wasn’t valuable. It was a pasture, but it was large. At this particular time, we owned our home and we had this one piece of pasture left.

One morning I was bathing my husband and I said to him, out of the clear blue sky, “If they are going to take the [LDS] garments out of JC Penney, where are they going to put them?” “I don’t know,” my husband answered. I said, “Would you care if I called somebody and found out? I believe I could handle them.” “Oh, if you will hurry.” It makes him [very] angry 00:53:00[for me] to leave him, especially in the middle of a bath, but something told me to telephone. I called one of our counselors in the stake presidency. I didn’t call him as [a member of] the stake presidency, I called him as a storekeeper. I said, “President [Lester] Gubler, what are they going to do with the [LDS] garments when they take them out of the store?” He ran the Center Department Store. He said, ““Nita”, I am so glad you called. We don’t know what to do. Our sisters have thought of different ladies they thought could perhaps take care of them. We have even thought of putting them in [the] welfare [office], but we don’t know what to do. We don’t know how to handle this.” I said, “Do you think I could handle them in my home?” He said, “You are just the person for the job.” I had all those years of buying for [JC] Penney [and] I couldn’t leave my home anymore. He said, “You just can’t do it in your home, because it is too public. You will have to have an entrance [and] a room to itself.” I said, “I have an old patio without a roof on it. I don’t know how I could rake up money to build on, 00:54:00but I think it would make a [very] nice room because our location is so good. I will call Leon Jennings and then I will call you back.” Leon Jennings is a brother to my son-in-law and he is a builder. He is here, there, and everywhere. He could have been in [or] [City], because he is a big contractor, a big, big, builder. But I got him right now. He says, ““Nita”, you tell them if they will give you that business, I will see that you get the room. I am on the bank board and I will get a loan for you. I will see that you get a loan that you can handle.” I went back to my husband and said, “Do you care if I call President Gubler back again?” This all happened during a bath. He said, “Oh, go on.” I called President Gubler back and he said, “That sounds wonderful! 00:55:00We were going to have to make our decision tonight.” I felt that that was an inspiration from heaven.

FH:Of course it was; there isn’t any question.

JM:No question in the world. That was an inspiration from heaven for it all to work out like that. Time went on and they never called me. I got to thinking about it and I kind of cooled off. I thought: maybe I would no more than get set up and they will change their way. I had to wait so long for their decision of what they were going to do [that], by the time they called me in, I had nearly decided I didn’t want to do it. They were too long making up their minds. They said they had been building a new stake center [and] were getting it ready for dedication. They had been so busy [that] they hadn’t had one minute to devote to this. It should have been opened the first of March and they hadn’t even 00:56:00contacted me [so] that I could get the room built. That was why I was so nervous. But they hadn’t even had time to talk about it. They were as innocent as they could be, but I had [become] a little cold [about the idea]. [Laughter] We laid our cards on the table and they told me they didn’t even know how much they could pay me. We finally got together and built the room. The room and the walk into the room cost $3,300.00. I was going to get this loan at the bank. It took a month to get the building completed. We opened it up on the first day of April. They had to tear out the old floor [and] put in a new floor. It had rained every day, so it took a month to complete it. About a week had passed since the room had been started 00:57:00and we [received a] chance to sell this pasture. We [received] a [very] good [deal] — it was sent from heaven, too. The down payment on this ground was $3,300.00 and the room cost $3,300.00. [The Internal Revenue Service] even questioned it [and] called [about] it. To me, that was an inspiration. I couldn’t leave home, so our good Father in heaven made it possible. I started this out on a charge account and, within three months time, we had everything paid. It has been paying well ever since. All told, the room cost us $4,000, by the time we furnished it. We figured that we love the work; it is just a joy to us.

Right now, 00:58:00my life is very happy. I only have one complaint, I get too tired. To take care of is a twenty-four-hour job. He requires constant attention because he can’t even wipe his nose. I try to work so hard outside that I get too tired. The garment shop is quite a big job in itself. I have people coming to me to buy garments from all over the . I am sending them to , [] and all over the . You can see why I am busy and why I am tired. Often I have to clean up and go to the [] Post Office right in the middle of trying to do something else. The saints come here to the [St. George] [and] they need garments. They say, “We have the hardest time in the world to get them where we live. If we write to you, would you send them to us?” What can I do, but be glad to do it? I have people writing to me, sending these garments all over the United States, and coming [in] at all hours of the day and night. 00:59:00My office hours are 3:00 to 6:00 [p. m.] and the people [in] St. George try with all their might to come at the right hours. I have [people from] all the neighboring towns [who] come here [from] Kanab [, ], Fredonia [], [and] Logandale [in ], all the neighboring towns come here at all hours of the day and the night. [TAPE RECORDER TURNED OFF] JM:— a few words about our early married life. My husband is a graduate [automobile] mechanic. He worked nights for eleven years. He would get off at 6:00 one night and be home until midnight. The next night he would work all day and all night. It makes me wonder if that didn’t have something to do with breaking his health, being a young man and never [getting] proper rest. I 01:00:00never felt good about it; I was never happy about it for this reason. There were eight men in this garage and I never felt that it was right. Throughout my married life and all [my] sickness, I [have] had to go through [it fairly] much alone; he was never home. To this day, I haven’t felt good about it. I think when there are that many men on a force, they should take turns. He took it until it changed hands and he [had] two bosses and he couldn’t take it any more. He is a very kind person and, at that time, he was afraid to death (it was depression times) that if he quit his job, we would starve. He just kept going and would never say a word for himself. After eleven years of that, he finally couldn’t take it any longer and quit.

Immediately, he got a job at the big plant at much [higher] wages. 01:01:00Although he was a mechanic all his life, his heart has been with being a roper. He loved horses [and] cows. My father was getting old, so my only brother and my husband went to work for my father. Those were rough, rough years. [Laughter] No money! My father died and these two bought out the estate, other than what was left to us. We had a little home of our own, little tiny [house] with two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs. After my father died, we bought his home. I had taken this little house — it had been a floral shop. It was one big room upstairs, and a big empty room downstairs [and] they had the big [plant] nursery in the back. We had rented for eleven years. One day my husband came home and said, “Would you like that little teeny house out there? 01:02:00It is for sale.” I said, “I would give anything on earth for any kind of home, anything.” We went up there and there was so much good soil. The nursery where they had raised plants was taken away [from] the house, but a lot of good soil was left. I made that a little paradise with flowers. I fixed the upstairs into a living room and kitchen [and] we slept in the basement.

We had it [for] three years and we paid $1,500.00 for it. One day my husband came home and said, “Your dad’s house is for sale [for] $3,500.00. Would you like to buy it?” It was the funniest house you ever saw. It had a round roof and the funniest way of heating. It was the dirtiest place. It had been rented for three years [and] it was filthy and raw. [My dad] died before it was completed [and] filthy people had lived in there. My people all warned me against buying this house because it was so terribly run down for an unfinished new place. 01:03:00I said, “You bet. I want it.” One day, going to the farm, he met another farmer. He said, “How would you like to buy our house?” He said, “We are looking for a house. What do you want for it?” My husband said, “$2,700.00. or $2,800.00.” He said, “We will come see it.” His wife came to our house and [they] bought it with one look. There we had gone from $1,500.00 to $2,800.00 and it was all on account of we had put in kitchen cupboards, a lot of paint and a lot of flowers. [END OF RECORDING TWO.] JM:We bought this home and I commenced to paint and raise flowers. Now we had a little home that we were proud of. It was a real thrill to have our grandchildren come to stay with us. It was [very] crowded when all seven came, but it was a real joy.

kept 01:04:00on with the farm and the ranch until he had to be tied onto his horse at the last to gather up his cows and was crawling to try to irrigate. He couldn’t go [on] any longer. We sold it and were able to pay for this home and get even with the world. For ten years he has been totally disabled. It kind of seems like I said [that] back farther, but maybe I just told it to you.

FH:At this time now, is he still able to enjoy life with your help?

JM:Yes, now let me tell about him. Clyde’s life is so full [that] he can’t crowd it all into a day. All he can do is talk and eat. I have to feed him. He has an abundance of friends and the most wonderful neighbors in this whole, wide world. In the summer, the minute it starts getting warm, which starts in April and lasts until November, our back patio and driveway 01:05:00combined is filled with people from four [people] to twenty-four every night. We all congregate here, laugh and talk. We push out there in the afternoon and he looks at every flower. He is so excited at every flower that I grow. Life, to him, [is] his television shows. It is hard for him to read [because] he can’t turn the pages. He can’t see too well. If I have the time, I put little paper clips on pages and he flips them over with his mouth with a straw. He hooks those in a paper clip and turns the pages if I can get time to put [paper clips] on the pages. Reading is hard for him, [but] he loves television. We have a beautiful color television. When he goes to bed at night, he looks at his grandson’s portable [television] 01:06:00and watches that until he goes to sleep. He is what you’d call one television fiend, but he loves it. His eyes are strong [and] his stomach is strong. He is just [so] strong, I believe he could eat a porcupine! [Laughter] FH:[It] is wonderful that he has television [to watch].

JM:It is, it really is [because] he can’t use his hands. If I have to do any work, I need to do it early because it gets so hot that I can’t work outside [after] noon. I plan to work an hour or two outside. I have two hours in the morning that are mine. I can work in the store, go to the bank or the store, [or] do my shopping [and] ordering. I either can work in the store or outside, or do the washing, or do whatever [during the] two hours [I] call my own. Then I have to start on him and it takes from one to three hours to get him out of bed, and to feed him. He has to watch his special shows [and] we usually watch those while we are eating. 01:07:00Then I get myself cleaned up. It takes me until 3:00 [p.m.] to get us where we are ready for business and he is ready [for] visitors. I love visitors because I don’t have to watch him so close. If someone is with him, he is alright. He [easily] falls over in his chair [and] has to have his hand moved or his leg moved, it seems like, every five minutes. If he is talking to somebody, he doesn’t notice it [very] much. If he notices [it] enough, he asks them to do it. So that is the break I get when we have company.

FH:It’s wonderful that you have neighbors [who] will come to visit.

JM:We do, and [my] dear brother and sister come [very] often. I can’t say enough for [my] brother “Bud” [who] lives through the lot. He and his sweet wife [Winnie (Tobler) Seegmiller] and their children. We have helped to raise his children. He comes every morning to see how we are and what he can do, and [if] he can do anything 01:08:00for us. He is just like a nurse.

FH:If you could do what you would really like to do the most the rest of your life, do you have any plans in that direction?

JM:I guess we all do, but I tell that he had better not outlast me, although I come from a long-lived stock. All of my people lived to be [fairly] old. I have always wanted to go back to school and take Institute ─ FH:Religious training?

JM:I have wanted to go back and [take] religious training, because my whole life has been so full of activities that I never could settle down to read. It makes me too nervous. I would like to go back and have time enough that I [could] study. I would like to take up painting. Golf sounds fun. If I had money enough and time enough, that sounds like the thing 01:09:00I would like to do to keep me in good health in [my] older years. Of course, I would like to keep on with my gardening, but not such a big garden. I have about a fourth of a city block now and it is too big. It is too much [for me].

FH:You are going to have to have help with that.

JM:I am. This boy would help, but he works and he can’t.

FH:Do you feel [that] you have learned lessons from life?

JM:I should say I have. I have learned how to budget, and that is one of the biggest things in life. I tried to teach that to my children. Pay your bills first and then live on what is left. That teaches you what you can afford. I think that installment buying is one of the finest things in the world, if it is something you need. Everything we have, we have bought for $5.00 a month or $10.00 a month. If you make a payment so that you can handle it 01:10:00— there are refrigerators and stoves and [items] that are necessities. If there is no way to get them but that way, [go ahead and] get them. But to go in [debt] for foolish [items on] monthly buying ─ no thanks.

Another lesson I have learned is [to] never borrow. I have tried so hard to teach that to my children. If it is an absolute necessity, borrow it, be careful with it and take it home. But don’t borrow unless it is really a necessity. I don’t go for that at all. It seems like every time you do, something happens to it and then you are in a bad way. You have to buy two instead of one. That is one of the big things in my life.

Another thing is procrastination. I am such a believer in that, that I am a driver. I never believe in putting off until tomorrow what you can do today. Every day of my life, I try to set a goal of what I am going to do [that] day. If it is humanly possible to do it, I do it. 01:11:00Sometimes I have so many interferences I can’t. When I can’t, I get quite upset, if it is something very important. I have learned that if you don’t do it, and you let everything stack up, then you can’t do it, especially with gardening or with housekeeping. The other day someone said to me, “All you do is paint.” I said, “If I don’t paint something every year, I can’t do it.” I just keep rotating it. It is a real problem to paint, because I only have two or three hours to do it. I have to get up way early or do it way late. This year, I painted my husband’s bedroom with him in bed. You ought to see me climbing over him, trying to paint. I made up my mind it had to be done and it is done, but it was a real challenge. It took three weeks, but I got it done. I know if there is a will, there is a way. I know there is not anyone living, if they have 01:12:00any health at all, or any money at all, [but what they] can’t keep clean to a degree. I am not a fanatical housekeeper, because I do too many things. I don’t have any filth, but I am not a good housekeeper. There is no excuse for dirt and no paint. I don’t think there is anybody that has had less to do on than I have, and I have been able to paint. I always have my paints bought in advance. When there is a special, I get the paint so I am always ready. When people tell me it can’t be done, that they haven’t got the strength or they haven’t the money, they have to be awful sick. Something has to be wrong somewhere, because it can be done. Anything can be done within reason, if you want to.

FH:Would like to counsel your descendants?

JM:Yes, absolutely. 01:13:00That is why I’m telling this. [In] this day and age, the younger generation doesn’t know much of this. This grandson of mine, borrowing has been the big thing I have tried to teach him. I don’t know whether it will go right out the window or not. He thinks I am [fairly] fanatical, which perhaps I am. There are times [when] you do need to [borrow].

FH:Perhaps you have learned this lesson the hard way.

JM:Yes. I have learned everything the hard way, more or less. That is why it means so much to me. Take for instance, my brother. He borrowed a tractor because his wasn’t running right. He had something he needed to do. It was up here in town [and] he was bringing it up here to do a lot. It wasn’t an absolute necessity, but he wanted to do it so he borrowed one. What did he do, but one of the tools on the back of it, I believe it was a harrow, fell down [and] ran through the tire. There he had a big expensive tractor tire to 01:14:00buy for the other man. Why hadn’t he waited a few days and fixed his own [tractor]. He still had to fix his own [tractor], plus buy a brand new tire for the other man. Unless it is an absolute necessity, don’t borrow. If you have to, you have to. If there is a way you can get out of it, don’t do it. [Laughter] FH:Do you feel you have a testimony of the gospel?

JM:I do, to this extent; I haven’t studied it, but I feel there is a Father in heaven, that He hears and answers my prayers [and] that He’s always with me. It is just like getting this business, and being happy like we are, is His doings. I was inspired; I acknowledged it right off because it just fell into place. It had to be. We have had many [times] like that, I can’t think of [them] right now, 01:15:00but things have worked out for us. We haven’t known how to unwind them, but someone has come and unwound them for us.

For example, the last when was sick, we owned quite a bit of property. He wouldn’t sell. We were going more into debt every year because things were piling up. If you don’t keep up with them, they pile up. One of his distant relatives, [is a very] good friend, [a] very, very fine, man, but he is a whiz with money. It is his business to lend money. Somebody must have told him we were in a mess, because we were in a mess. He came to Clyde and said, “, I have some money I would like to lend. I would like to help you with your finances if you would like me to.” He just kind of took over all of our obligations, paid [them] off, and made it so we could sell with a clear bill of sale. He handled the 01:16:00whole thing for us. Of course, he made his percentage, but it was something we didn’t know how to do.

He was sent to us. He gave us a certain amount of money [and] paid off all that we owed. Then we were able to give a clean bill of sale so other men could borrow money to buy, and he was paid back. We have been blessed. We have had our hardships and our ups and downs, but we have certainly been blessed. Life is very full; it is so full [that] we can’t crowd in all that we want to do. There is only [one] regret [that] I have with ’s sickness. He loves to go places and we have a nice car. But to load him and take him is a real major project. If he could just get in the car so we could go and enjoy a few of the beauties and get out a little more together — that is the one thing that hurts the most. Or even go to visit our children. He is so sick that 01:17:00I put him in a rest home last year — I don’t know if we need this recorded — and I had a sixteen-day rest for the first time in all these years. It was really great and he loved it at the rest home. They loved him. They said he was the hardest patient they ever had to take care of, but the best and sweetest. He thanks you and he is just [very] sweet. He makes you nervous; sick people do. They call, call, call, call, call, call, call, but they can’t help it.

FH:It is very hard.

JM:They can’t help it. He makes Jeffrey angry and he makes me angry to this extent, you go to do something and you hear him calling. You can’t tell if he needs something or if he is trying to talk to us. It is kind of nerve wracking. My husband always says, “You look around you and who would you change places with?” I will see a blind man 01:18:00go out in the street — he has a wonderful philosophy of life. People come here to see him. [When] they go home, instead of feeling sorry for us they go home feeling better, because he is wonderful. He never complains [and] never talks about himself. He is just full of gab, reminiscing about his days on the ranch. He is a marvelous person, no fooling. Whenever this blind person would go by, it would give him such a lift to think, “Why should I feel sorry for myself?” He enjoys everything — every little flower. I say every flower means so much to him; he is really quite a [fellow]. I think I have talked about enough. [Laughter] [END OF RECORDING THREE. END OF INTERVIEW.]