Sylvia (Pulsipher) Knight (1925 - 2015)

Born 3 Aug 1925 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Roy Nathaniel Ward — married 5 Mar 1945 (to 21 Jan 1962) in Logan, Cache, Utah, United States

Wife of William Floyd Knight — married 14 Nov 1964 (to 29 Dec 1993) in Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States

Died 10 Sep 2015 at age 90 in Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah, United States

Biography

Sylvie (Pulsipher) Knight is Notable.

Sylvia was born to Wallace Wight Pulsipher and Amelia LaBlanche Mortensen Pulsipher, in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah, on August 3, 1925.^{[1] [2]}

Sylvia married Roy Nathaniel Ward in 1943. They owned a home at 1745 Childs Avenue, in Ogden, Utah. They remained married until Mr. Ward died, on January 21, 1962. People who knew Sylvie as a young widow (in her 30's) would visit her and eat with her, because, in her grief, she refused to eat alone, and they feared for her health.^[3][1][2]

She married William Floyd Knight in 1964. They resided in a humble, single-story house, on a 750-acre ranch in Almo, Idaho. They had two horses, Sherwood, and Charlie, and numerous cows. They picked up their mail at the General Store in Almo, which was simply addressed to their names, Almo, Idaho, and the zip code.^[2]

Circa 1970, Floyd had a medical emergency, so Sylvie had him flown from their ranch house to the McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah, where doctors performed open-heart surgery on him. The good news was that his heart was in excellent condition. The bad news was that they snipped a nerve, and he remained paralyzed from the waist down until he died more than 20 years later.^[2]

Sylvie was a petite woman, and Floyd was a large cowboy, but she refused to let anyone else bear his weight. Friends and relatives could open doors for them, et cetera, but in those crucial moments when there was a chance that Floyd would fall, Sylvie bore his weight as she moved him in and out of vehicles and his wheelchair. ^[2]

To facilitate Floyd's medical care, and, since his horse-riding days were behind him, Sylvie had a house built next door to her sister, Ruth, in Mantua, Utah. An old friend, named Olaf, had lived there, in a tiny house. Sylvie bought the property and replaced Olaf's old shack with a brand new house. It was a single-story, two-bedroom, one bathroom house, but it had concrete ramps leading to the front door and to the kitchen door, inside the garage, so Floyd could enjoy going in and out of his front door in fair weather, but wouldn't have to worry about slipping on ice during inclement weather.^[2]

Although Floyd and Sylvie were indepently wealthy, and could have hired nurses, gardeners, housekeepers, et cetera, Sylvie did the gardening, irrigating, laundry, and housekeeping all by herself. She personally cleaned Floyd's bed sores and changed his bed pans, et cetera for more than 20 years, until he finally died in their home, in Mantua, Utah.^[1][2]

On one occasion, near the end of Floyd's life, someone made the mistake of referring to him as an "old fart." Sylvie was a kind, loving, generous, Christian woman, but I don't think she ever forgave them for this. She let them know in no uncertain terms that William Floyd Knight was NOT an old fart, and no one was to speak of him that way - certainly not to her face.^[2]

After William Floyd Knight died in 1993, Sylvia donated a portion of their property to the U.S. Government, and it became part of the U.S. National Reserve known as "The City of Rocks" [5]. Floyd had an enormous collection of rocks, including flint arrowheads and American Indian Tear Drops.^[2]

For four decades, between 1975 and her death in 2015, Sylvia, never having been "blessed" with biological children of her own, financially supported 100 Mormon Missionaries around the world, "adopting" them as her own. She kept a picture of a Family Tree with thumbnails of these missionaries on a wall in her home, in Mantua, Utah. She remained in touch with them years after their Missions, by mail and telephone, and was as delighted by their marriages and the births of their children as if they were having her grandchildren. Sometimes they visited her, as if she were an extra grandparent.^[2][4]

Her brother-in-law, Mick, died in 1995, and Ruth died in 2005. During the interim, Sylvie and Ruth often went to do Temple Work at the Ogden Temple.^[2]

Eventually, Sylvie became too feeble to care for herself, so her surviving sister, Marian, and brother-in-law, Bob Hope, took her into their home, nearby, in Brigham City, Utah, where she finally died, in 2015.^[1][2]

Sylvia was buried in Plot B-19-50-6 of the Brigham City Cemetery, in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah.^[1]

She left her 750-acre ranch to the Mormon Church in the hopes that they would convert it into a museum, but they sold it.^[2][5]

Research Notes

To put the size of my Aunt Sylvie's 750-acre ranch into perspective, a certain well-known Star Wars actor owns an 800-acre ranch in Wyoming. These ranches are dwarfed by "The WT Waggoner Estate Ranch," which "is the largest single ranch in the U.S.A. - with 510,000 acres of land," according to the Telegraph ([6]), but their value is about a million dollars. According to the Pfister Land Company, L.L.C., Idaho pasture land was valued at $1,350 per acre in 2016, an increase of 3.8% [about $50] since 2015, the year Sylvie died ([7]). Assuming that all of Sylvie's land was pasture that sold for that price, it would have sold for $975,000.Vaughan-3997 13:08, 21 May 2019 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 May 2019), memorial page for Sylvia Pulsipher Ward (3 Aug 1925–10 Sep 2015), Find A Grave: Memorial #152378533, citing Brigham City Cemetery, Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah, USA ; Maintained by genhunter (contributor 46918216)[1].
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12} Personal acquaintance of William Mortensen Vaughan with Sylvia Knight since circa 1965
3. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 23 July 2019), memorial page for Roy Nathaniel Ward (30 Jun 1896–21 Jan 1962), Find A Grave: Memorial #14467222, citing Brigham City Cemetery, Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah, USA ; Maintained by Kim Millett (contributor 46783029).[2]
4. ↑ Sylvia Knight, Obituary, Deseret News, 2015. Accessed by William Mortensen Vaughan May 23, 2019.[3]
5. ↑ Page 1 of 1, CACHE PEAK CIVIC ASSOCIATION MINUTES, April 7, 2011 – 7:00 p.m. Almo, Idaho Cache Peak Emergency Services Building, accessed May 21, 2019, by [[Vaughan-3997|William Mortensen Vaughan.[4]