Lila Mae (Smith) Jenkins (1935 - 1992)

Born 11 Feb 1935 in Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Ancestors

Died 20 Apr 1992 at age 57 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Summer Seely [send private message]

Biography

Daughter of Warren Smith & Vera Mae Swaner.

Wife of Wayne Lowell Jenkins. Children: Peggy, Vicki, Kay, Cindy, Earl.

Gave Birth in Iron Lung

Lila was a pregnant mother of three when she contracted polio in July 1956. She was put in an iron lung, and gave birth to her fourth daughter a few months later, while inside it.

In those days, when a person contracted polio, they spent the rest of their life in an iron lung. Lila was able to be moved to a "rocking bed that kept her diaphragm moving to make her lungs function." She then could go home and had the aid of a back brace and leg braces.

Her doctors said that she could not have more children, but she had a fifth child. She recovered from polio enough to eventually even get a driver's license. (Most polio patients were paralyzed from the neck down, for life) She worked as a seamstress, played the organ at church and was able to care for her elderly mother.

Sources

• 1940 US census
• Utah, U.S., Select Marriage Index, 1887-1985
• U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007
• https://www.deseret.com/1992/4/21/18979848/utahn-who-gave-birth-in-iron-lung-dies-at-57