Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard
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The Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard was written by Grady's three sons: Willis Dolan Garrard, Verl Grady Garrard, and Lamar Elwin Garrard, probably in the 1980s or 1990s; Willis is the primary author.
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This is the life story of Hyrum Grady Garrard, as related by his oldest son Willis, with additional comments made by his other two sons, Verl and LaMar.
Birth date: October 20, 1894. Death date: January 13, 1954.
Parents and childhood
Grady was born in Lakepoint, Toole County, Utah, to Solomon Benoni (Ben) Garrard and Olive Amelia Harrison. Ben's parents were John Benjamin Garrard and Mary Lovina Campbell. While John was still single, his family was converted to the L.D.S. Church in England and later migrated to North Ogden, Utah. It was here that he married Mary Lovina Campbell. His first wife, Susan McGinnis, had died, leaving four small children. He became a polygamist when he later married Charlotte Henrietta Campbell, the younger sister of Mary Lovina. The family later moved to Lakepoint, Utah.
Olive's parents were Hyrum Smith Harrison and Cecelia Johnston. Olive was born in Oxford, Calhoun, Alabama. The family lived in the vicinity of Salem, Alabama, where they were converted to the L.D.S. Church. While Olive was still a teenager, they moved toUtah.
While living in Lakepoint, Utah, Ben and Olive met and were later married. When Grady was about one year old the family of three moved to the southern part of Cassia County, Idaho. They traveled by wagon, camping at night along the way.
During Grady's early childhood in Cassia County, the family lived in dugouts and sod-thatched-roof cabins. Ben earned a living in agriculture and was famous for his physical strength. Several stories were told of his being able to lift a partially-filled wagon bed by himself. Another story was that he was able to lift a large iron anvil by one outstretched arm. Of Ben's family, four brothers, Ben, Dick, Wren, and Joseph (Joe), and two sisters settled in the Burley-Oakley area. Ben worked in the area, both for himself and as a hired laborer for other farmers in the area. This work was mainly in row-crop agriculture, also raising beef and dairy cattle besides raising, herding, and shearing sheep. He won many sheep-shearing contests because of his speed and agility with hand-operated sheep shears.
Grady grew up in this farm area and worked on many farms throughout his childhood and adolescence feeding stock, milking cows, herding sheep, baying, reaping and harvesting crops, weeding, and so forth. He had many memories of the hard work grubbing sagebrush to clear the land, with teams of horses pulling an old, heavy iron railroad rail crosswise through the brush. He lived in Oakley, Marion, and Locust in Golden Valley where Ben share-cropped and worked for surrounding land owners. Grady graduated from high school at the Oakley Academy, being the only male student with seven female students in his class of 1912.
Early adult life in Pella
From 1914 to 1916 the United States Government, through the Reclamation Homestead Act, authorized the construction of the Minidoka Dam across Snake River to form the Minidoka Irrigation Project. From the south side of the Snake River and the Minidoka Reservoir above the dam, three lift pumps were installed, pumping the impounded water at three different elevations along its shoreline into irrigation canals which wound across virgin desert. These canals were constructed by dredging and digging deeply into the earth with scoop shovels pulled by teams of horses. The lifts were powered by electric pumps with the power coming from the generators at the dam site. Several high-voltage lines supplied power through the Rural Electric Association to the surrounding county. The canal, from the lowest to the highest lift, wound over the countryside through Declo over the southern part of the county south of Burley and west to a settlement called Pella. The canal that ran through Pella was known as the "third lift."
Through the Reclamation Act, Ben and Olive homesteaded eighty acres of land one mile south of the Pella L.D.S. chapel, living at first in a lean-to and later in a log cabin until a permanent house could be built. The cabin later became the milk-house and slaughter-house. The home was constructed of roughly sawed and squared pine logs from the South Hills area and arranged vertically in long rectangular shapes and caulked to weatherize the outside surface. The house contained a kitchen, diningroom, livingroom, drawing room/ library, three bedrooms, and a large cooler/pantry. There was no basement, but later a dirt cellar was dug out beneath the south side of the house for storage.
There were six children born to the family before they settled in this permanent home; five sons and one baby daughter: They were born in the following order: Hyrum Grady, Lester Raymond, Archibald (Archie), Alton Harrison, Ellis Benoni, and daughter Selma Laurena,who was named after her mother's birthplace. Selma was born in 1911. There is a family story related about Ben and his family going up to the Snake River bank to camp and fish. He hooked a large sturgeon and it required the team of horses hooked up to the rope-like line with which the fish was caught, to pull the fish out of the river.
Life was very demanding on the farm and it required a lot of hard work and effort on the part of all the family, although the baby sister was largely spared from the farm chores. The work consisted of grubbing sagebrush, breaking turf with a semi-hand plow, digging and leveling irrigation ditches, forming and pouring concrete irrigation headgates and sluices. It also consisted of planting shadetrees (Lombardy poplars, willows, cottonwoods, and birch) in the yard They also planted a large fruit orchard composed of apples, plums, cherries (both black as well as red pie cherries), along with rows of raspberries and strawberries.
Farm crops included hay, grain, potatoes, and sugar beets, The farm gradually required much-needed equipment and machinery, including plows, wagons, manurespreader, haymowers, hayrakes, harrows, loaders, planters, grain combines, and a hay derrick. Ben had very good mechanical aptitude and he generally kept the equipment in excellent repair. He sharpened the teeth of the cutter bars on the hay mower and grain reaper on a three or four inch thick grinding wheel with a diameter of 2 ½ or 3 feet. The wheel was mounted on a frame so that it could be rotated with foot operated pedals connected to a crank shaft through the center of the wheel, The operator sat on a seat mounted on the frame. When teeth were worn out or broken, he removed them from the cutter bars, chiseling through the copper mounting rivets and replacing them with new teeth riveted on with new copper rivets.
When"water turns" occurred, the crops were irrigated either with small ditches next to the plants in the row crops or by flood irrigation of hay and grain. Irrigation was an unending chore with Ben or the boys routing the water expertly with a shovel. The water was directed into the fields by placing canvas dams in the ditches to divert the water where it was needed.
Hay was cut by a hay mower pulled by horses. It was then allowed to dry, after which it was bunched together in long horizontal mounds by a hay rake pulled by horses. It was rolled into a single bundle manually with a pitchfork and pitched onto, and stacked, in a wagon or slip pulled by horses, and carried to where it was ready to be placed into larger stacks. This stacking was accomplished by use of a large hay fork pulled up and down by means of an attached cable, fed through a pulley on top of a tall derrick and then fed through another pulley on the bottom of the derrick, which cable was then pulled back and forth by means of a single horse called the "derrick horse." The derrick was constructed from long, large pine poles obtained from South Hills. These larger stacks of hay were up to twenty feet or thirty feet wide, twenty of thirty feet high, and forty to one hundred feet long. They were located next to the corrals so the hay could be fed to the animals throughout the year.
Grain was harvested with a reaper (or alternatively called a binder) that cut a swath perhaps eight feet wide which fell on a canvas belt and fed into the mechanism that bundled, tied and deposited the sheaves on the ground. They were then stacked in piles of six or seven stacks arranged so they supported each other in an upright position leaving lanes between the piles for the wagons or slips when the grain was brought in from the fields. After a short drying period, the grain was hauled to an area close to the barnyard where it was stacked in circular stacks to wait the coming of the threshing machine. The sheaves were then pitched manually onto the inlet belt of the threshing machine with pitchforks, which was a back-breaking job. The many chores on the farm taught Grady the principle of hard work and the satisfaction of a job well done.
Family transportation was with two narrow buggies covered by canvas hoods which transported family members to town and to Church. The later black-topped buggy was pulled by a single horse harnessed between two narrow double wooden shafts attached to its front axle. Grady later used this buggy in courting his sweetheart and wife-to-be. They went to dances and other activities especially at the ward meeting house. The horse became familiar with the route and could take them home with little or no guidance. One story is told that Grady sometimes fell asleep while bringing Loreeta home. One time Loreeta brought along a pair of scissors and cut Grady's tie off below the knot. That probably taught him an important lesson!
In addition to the crops, the family raised livestock. This included dairy and beef cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, geese, and a few turkeys. The cream from the raw milkings was separated from the skimmed milk by a hand-driven De Laval centrifugal cream separator. The harvest crops provided financing for seed, equipment, feed, general supplies, taxes, and the mortgage payments for the land. Cash for weekly shopping was garnered from the sale of eggs and cream. Rare family treats were the fried chicken dinners on Sunday, a specialty of Olive's cooking, and occasionally homemade ice-cream or whole cream on fresh garden berries in season. When an old hen or rooster supplied the meat, rather than a young frier, Olive would boil it and when the meat was nearly done she would arrange dumplings on top of the chicken and liquid in the pot. Delicious! The menu for the meals usually included vegetables, meat, potatoes, eggs and bacon, and homemade bread and pastries. The family ate around the large oval dining-room table where Ben sat at the head of the table. The blessing was asked on the food and family prayers were usually said before meals. One family anecdote was told on Alton, when he was a teenager, of raising a large bowl of hot gravy above his head with both hands, when suddenly his hands slipped and the gravy spilled all over his head. Recreation was usually provided by participating in Church socials and dances. In later years the family would occasionally go to a movie in town, which cost ten cents for adults and five cents for children.
Neighbors, talents, and marriage
After the Reclamation Project was finished and the irrigation canals were filled with water, other families moved into the area, including the William Bodily family from Cub River in Cache Valley. they homesteaded about fifty acres across the road east of the Garrard ranch, where they built a rough log/timber house similar to the Garrards'. Their family included ten children, four sons and six daughters: Mae, Sarah, James, John, Ruth, Melvin, Loreeta, Fontella, Helgor and Gwendolyn. Both families lighted their homes with coal-oil wick lamps. Later telephone service on the rural lines was supplied with "party lines" having up to five or seven families on one line. The Garrards' phone number was 217-R4 and Bodilys'7O-Jl.
Drinking water was obtained from neighbors' electric pump wells and often was hauled three to five miles in large five-gallon milk cans, which had been carefully saved for drinking purposes. All other domestic water came from the irrigation ditches. All members of the families took a weekly bath on Saturday night in a large zinc tub. The water was warmed in kettles on the surface of the old coal-and-wood burning Monarch stove with an adjacent metal reservoir attached to the body of the stove, which warmed the water. A deep, concrete-lined, waterproof cistern holding several hundred gallons of water was used for storage and was filled with irrigation water from an adjacent ditch. The laundry was usually done once a week by hand, using old-fashioned scrub boards, zinc tubs, hand-propelled leather roller wringers, with "bluing" used to whiten the white clothes and bedding. The clothes were then hung to dry on long wire clotheslines strung across beams in the back yard. Ironing was performed with hand irons which were heated on the surface of a coal-fired stove.
Sanitary facilities were provided by a wooden outside toilet which had two holes, one small and one large, in the seat. Toilet paper was provided by old Montgomery Ward and Sears-Roebuck catalogs. Inside the house "slop jars" made of enamel were covered with a lid and used for nighttime personal hygiene, one in each bedroom. The beds were large frame beds with coil springs, stuffed cotton mattresses, covered with homemade canvas and woolen quilts.
When Grady was a teenager, the family acquired a Model-T Ford for transportation, which required cranking by hand to start the engine and was powered by a series of electric coils, which increased the voltage off of the generator sufficiently to start the engine and keep it running.
When in his teenage years, Grady also acquired a violin on which he took lessons and practiced until he became quite proficient. He also had a talent and a flair for artistry in drawing and painted several paintings, including a self-portrait done when he was in the Army during World War 1. He would often entertain the family, or in social gathererings, with "chalk-talks" while drawing on an easel of white paper with charcoal sticks and talking at the same time. He was especially good at drawing caricatures and comic faces, accompanied by a narrative humorous story. Other older family memories included a large grandfather clock kept in the livingroom, which was wound daily. A large black Edison (phonograph) with a hardwood body was also kept in Ben's bedroom on which a number of thick, hard, black grooved records were played to the family's delight. Two family dogs were part of the farm family, a black-and-white mixed collie and a completely black similar dog with a white-tipped nose, named Spot and Nig, respectively.
In 1916, after the Bodilys moved into the neighborhood,Grady one day saw Loreeta riding up the road past his farm on her way to Church in riding clothes, sidesaddle on a horse, with her long black hair flowing in the wind. This immediately whetted his interest in the new young lady, and they met in Church. A keen courtship ensued over the next two years, ending in their marriage in the bride's home on August 3, 1918. The temples were closed at that time due to the influenza epidemic. He was twenty-four years of age and his bride twenty-two.
Shortly after their honeymoon, he was drafted into the army on August 7 to take part in World War I. He received his basic training in an army camp south of San Francisco. He related the story that, while in this camp, he had a rough old sergeant over him who thought that he was too timid during bayonet practice, when he jabbed at a dummy who was supposed to be the enemy soldier. Finally, the exasperated sergeant told him to thrust at his nose to try to get him to be more aggressive. Grady got mad and went after that sergeant's nose with his bayonet so fiercely that the sergeant had to duck quickly to avoid being stabbed in the nose. The sergeant never bothered him after that! Later he was transferred to a camp in Upper New York State. As he was writing a letter home to his parents and bride, a large black crow alighted on his desk and spilled ink on the desk, then walked across his letter, leaving black tracks across the letter. He spent some time in a camp on the East coast, expecting each day to be sent overseas to fight. However, Armistice was declared, and he returned home from the service.
When Grady was on his way back home, he wrote to Loreeta asking her to meet him in Salt Lake City, where they had their marriage solemnized in the L.D.S. Temple.
Early married life, employment, and education (1919-1925)
For a while the newlyweds lived with both sets of parents but then they moved to Albion, Idaho, where both attended the Albion State Normal School for teachers, earning their teaching degree after two years. This occurred during 1920-21 and the year 1921- 22. Their oldest son Willis was born on March 3, 1921, while they were attending school. This event was assisted by the country doctor at a home delivery. During the next few years Grady taught at schools in Basin, east of Oakley; Locust, north of Oakley, and in a two-room brick schoolhouse located "kiddy-corner" from the Pella churchhouse. The next son, Verl Grady, was born in Burley in a home delivery on the 21st of July, 1923. While the family lived in Locust, one morning in the cold weather of late fall Grady went out to crank the engine on the Model-T to go to Pella. Because of the cold, the engine was extremely difficult to start, and he cranked laboriously for several minutes. Finally the engine sputtered, but backfired, throwing the crank back against his hand and arm and hurting him severely. He backed off and stared at the car, shouting, "the dirty -----!" Willis, at three years of age, was standing on the porch watching all of this, and when Grady and Willis went into the house to tell Loreeta what had happened, Willis kept waving his arms and quoting "Tudy bith! Tudy bith!"
From 1923 to 1925, Grady went to school at the University of Utah to get his college degree. The family lived in Salt Lake City, in a second floor small utility apartment, reached by climbing outside stairs up to that floor. Loreeta commented that the smoke--from the wood and coal stoves and the railroad locomotives--was so bad at that time, that you had to quickly get your recently washed clothes from off the outside clothes line in order for them not to be shaded gray. The family still owned the Model-T Ford. Family memories of this time include seeing the Salt Lake Temple and attending General Conference of the Church in the Tabernacle, with memories of the tall pipes of the Tabernacle Organ, which were shaped like pencils. Other memories included the street lamps along the sidewalks in Salt Lake with large lighted globes down the entire length of Main and State Streets. Newspaper boys were hawking their papers on the streets, shouting "Salt Lake Tribune!"and "Deseret News!" Willis liked to mimic these street hawkers.
While Grady was attending the University of Utah, his family would sometimes go to visit his maternal grandmother, Cecelia Johnston Harrison, who lived in Salt Lake City. She was the mother of Olive Amelia. Cecelia was a real southern belle! She was a very small, petite lady with a bun in her hair when she coiled her long tresses on the top of her head. She often wore a little, old fashioned bonnet on the top of her head. When she and her husband, Hyrum Smith Harrison, lived in Alabama, and before they became members of the Church, they allowed the Mormon missionaries to stay in their home. On one occasion a mob came up to their home and demanded that they give the missionaries over to them. Hyrum went into the house and came out with his gun. He then told the men that the first one that got off his horse would be a dead man! After this incident the mob rode off on their horses and didn't bother them. Hyrum was also a soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He played the violin and was captured by the Yankees. They kept him prisoner after the war was over so he could play his violin to entertain the wounded Yankee soldiers. The family was really happy when he finally came home.
Grady and his family also occasionally visited Grady's Uncle Dean Harrison, who was his mother's brother. One of those times, when they were invited to his house for dinner, Willis climbed up on a stool in the next room and was playing the old "Edison" with the thick records. The adults heard a crashing noise from where they sat in the kitchen and went into the livingroom to investigate. There was Willis, striking the record with a hammer to make percussion sounds in time to the music! Needless to say, they probably were not invited back to that house very often!
At the end of his studies at the University of Utah, Grady received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education in the summer of 1925. To supplement the family income and help pay for his school expenses, during the summer vacations Grady toured the Intermountain West through Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah selling tailor-made woolen suits to farmers and ranchers for the Logan Woolen Mills. He also sold life insurance during this time. Colorado has lots of mountains. Some of the roads were narrow and steep and the Model T couldn't make it up the hills. Grady would then turn the car around and back up the hill in reverse which was geared lower than the other gears.
During the Christmas season of 1924, the entire family, along with Grady'parents and Loreeta's parents, took a little trip to California to visit Loreeta's sister Fon and her family. They caught the train at nearby Dayton, Idaho, which transported them down past Logan and into Ogden, where they caught the main cross-country passenger train on the Union Pacific between Chicago and Los Angeles. There were pleasant memories of riding through large orange groves down through the middle of the broad streets of California, and of warm sunny weather and beautiful flowers. While they were on this vacation they also saw the Rose Parade in nearby Pasadena.
Employed as a teacher in Whitney, Idaho (1925-1927)
1925-1927: The family moved to Whitney, Idaho, where Grady taught school in the four-room schoolhouse. They rented a house from a storekeeper in this little town. His name was Sam Baliff. He had two children, a teen-age son named Paul and a younger daughter named Hattie, who was "feeble minded." Later we found out that she was suffering from congenital mongolism. The Baliffs' store sold brushes, general merchandise, and meats, It had a butcher-shop in which Mr. Baliff did all of his own butchering and meat cutting.
Loreeta had relatives who farmed in Whitney. They were James and Maggie Bodily, Grandpa Bodily's brother and sister-in-law. Their family had four sons and a daughter: Lawrence, Loren, Howard, Glen, and Margaret. In later years both Lawrence and Loren went on L.D.S. church missions to New Zealand.
Across the street from their house was a large dairy farm with a giant white barn where the farmer milked up to one hundred cows twice daily. Also in this small community was a Utah-Idaho sugar factory, which processed the sugar beets, raised by the surrounding farms, into granular sugar. On the other side of the house they rented lived the Bensons, who ran a farm and dairy herd. Their oldest son, Ezra Taft Benson, returned from his mission while they lived in Whitneya. He later became the Prophet of the Church.
During the time Grady taught school in Whitney he coached basketball, both boys'and girls'. The family shopped in Preston, which was about six miles north of Whitney, where they often visited Aunt Sarah, Loreeta's older sister, and her family. They also on occasion visited Loreeta's paternal grandparents Bodily in Fairview, Idaho, a few miles south.
While they were living in Whitney, their youngest son, LaMar Elwin, was born on October 24, 1926, without the aid of a doctor. Grady took care of the details. One day later on, when the parents were absent, Willis and Verl traded LaMar to the storekeeper for two lollipops! Brother Baliff gave the boys a toy streetcar a few days before Christmas, and it was put under the Christmas tree. As young children do, Willis and Verl started playing with it, and then fighting over it. Soon a knock on the door came and Loreeta opened it to reveal Santa Claus! He was invited in, and he declared that he was going to confiscate the toy if they were going to fight over it. Willis resisted, saying that Santa hadn't given it to them, but rather Brother Baliff had! Verl was scared and ran to the far side of the room and crawled under the day bed as far as he could go against the wall. Santa was not able to entice him to come out. (Of course Santa actually was too busy to involve himself in trifles like this so Grady had slipped into a Santa suit and pretended to be Santa in order to teach the boys a lesson.)
Other memories of Whitney included seeing a bloated cow which recovered after Uncle James had stabbed her distended stomach with his pocket knife to release the gas.
In the winter many of the families had large sleighs and bob-sleds used for transportation across the snowy roads. The Churchhouse, located across the street from the Garrard house, was the scene of many social activities, and provided much support and fellowship for the ward members.
While the family was living in Whitney they did have inside running water and electricity, but they still had to use an outhouse for personal hygiene.
School principal in Inkom, Idaho (1927-1932)
1927-1932 (Address was Postoffice Box 100, Inkom, Idaho): Their first house in Inkom had indoor plumbing and electricity and an outdoor toilet. Their landlord was the local storekeeper named Sam Hargraves. They later moved into another house owned by a Mr. Gaethe from Pocatello. This house was about a half mile east of the old grade school on the south side of the farm road. The house had two bedrooms with the three boys sleeping in the same bed in the second bedroom. To keep LaMar from falling out of bed, he was put in the middle between his two big brothers. The bedroom the boys slept in, on the north side of the house, was rented out to an elderly couple for awhile. The remaining bedroom was a little crowded with two beds in it. The north bedroom was sealed off from the living room by locking the door and taping it shut all the way around.This house didn't have electricity and had a hand-operated pump off the kitchen to furnish water. After they had lived there a while, the electricity was brought in and a well was dug a short distance southeast of the house to furnish water. They had an outside wooden toilet house with three holes of different sizes to sit on. Loreeta had a wooden tub washing machine with a hand-run lever on the outside that operated an eighteen inch flywheel placed vertically alongside the outside of the tub; this activated an agitator inside the tub. Sometimes on washday Grady positioned the Model T Ford so that when one wheel was jacked up, a wide belt could be attached between the car wheel and the washer. Eureka! A powered washing machine! It was in 1927 that Charles A. Lindberg was the first man to fly nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean.
Grady was the principal of the local grade school, which included six grades, and he also taught several classes. In later years, three or four of the older students were taught high school classes and several of them actually obtained a high school diploma by the time Grady left Inkom.
On a number of community occasions, in Church social gatherings, school social gatherings, and parties, Grady displayed his artistic talent giving "chalk talks" and drawings. The family would help decorate the large Christmas tree at school and when school let out for the Christmas vacation, they would bring this tree home for their own personal Christmas tree for the holidays. Many functions were held at the local "Hi-Way Inn" owned by Al Sloat.
A small, fresh-water stream named Rapid Creek ran through the town, and especially in the spring when the water was high, it provided excellent fishing for rainbow trout ranging from six to twelve inches in length. When Willis turned eight years of age, he was baptized in a deep spot in this creek by Brother Torman, with his father Grady confirming him into the Church. Later, when Verl turned eight he was baptized shortly after his birthday by Grady in the same creek in a deep spot made deeper by partially damming the creek below the deep spot. He was confirmed later that day by Grady.
One summer Grady and Loreeta raised cauliflower in a plot east of the house. They sold the cauliflower but it was a lot of work for the amount of income it produced. Another summer, Grady worked at the cement plant south of town. There were some limestone hills south of Inkom that were determined to be a potential for cement production, so shortly after the family moved to Inkom a plant was built. Grady's job (he was called a chemist) was to check the properties of the cement in a little laboratory at the plant. He not only checked the chemical composition but also tested the physical properties by casting small cylinders of cement and, when set, conducting a series of physical tests.
In Inkom, the bishop's name was Cordon. He had two sons who were students in the school. The older son was named Royal; the younger boy, Johnny, had severe diabetes and oftentimes required emergency treatment while he was in school. In 1929 the family traded in their old Model-T Ford and bought a new two-door Chevrolet with a permanent cloth top. On Sunday afternoons the family would often take rides in this car, and sometimes Grady would treat his boys to an ice cream cone which in those days cost only five cents. He would often tease them by going past the ice cream store and they would sigh! Then finally be would turn around and come back to make the purchase, much to the delight of the boys.
Rapid Creek emptied into the Portneuf River which ran parallel to the highway and railroad going to Pocatello. The family did a lot of shopping and business in Pocatello and often raced the trains which were going down the nearby rails on their way to town. One of the impressive sights on the rails was the large Union Pacific engine which pulled long freight trains from the Continental Divide westward over to Portland, Oregon. "Big Ben," as it was called, had sixteen drive wheels, two boilers and two smokestacks, and two coal tenders for fuel. A special passenger train would go through once a day and was called the "Portland Rose."
One 24th of July the community and Church had a large picnic up an adjacent canyon, but during the picnic a storm came through in which there was intense rain, hail, and a little snowfall. The homemade icecream served at this picnic was especially delicious. Many family pictures were taken with a large Kodak box camera. During this time, when LaMar was a toddler, his favorite toy and plaything was a sky-blue, small rocking chair made just his size.
Large fruit orchards near the house produced mostly fall and winter apples, with a few pears and plums. In late summer, chokecherries were especially abundant on surrounding hills and the whole family picked many of these to make chokecherry jelly and jam. A high ridge of cliffs ran through the center of Inkom, formed from old volcanic lava. On the way to Church they could look up into the cliffs and see a primitive cave in which there was a white rock that looked something like a large mountain sheep standing up there on the hill.
Some of the neighbors and friends at this time included the Blairs, Frank Sextons, and Kilsgaards. One Thanksgiving the family was invited to dinner to some friends' home who lived farther up on the hill. There was a lot of snow at the time so the trip was made by horses pulling a sleigh. Also, during the time the family lived in Inkom, the Bodily family held a giant reunion at the home of Uncle Jim, Loreeta's brother, in Pella. It was attended by over one hundred and ten members of the family who were direct descendants (with their spouses and children) of Grandpa William and Grandma Harriet Ann Bodily.
One year when a big three-ring circus came to Pocatello, the family was preparing to attend this special event. Loreeta got the boys all ready and they were waiting for Grady who had gone up to school. He didn't come, and didn't come so Loreeta became disgusted, left the boys to wait for their dad, and took the bus to Pocatello by herself! Finally, Grady showed up and a little chagrined, took the boys to Pocatello for the circus. They got general admission tickets and sat on bleacher-type seats. They spotted Loreeta on the other side, sitting in the reserved seats that had backs on the chairs!
Across the street from their first house was a large blacksmith shop, and it was quite dramatic to observe this big man with his giant hammers and forge, crafting all types of metals for the businesses and farmers of the surrounding area. It was especially interesting to watch him form horseshoes around the neck of the anvil, and to size them individually for the horses before he nailed them on their hooves. The boys often entertained themselves rolling iron hoops from wagon or buggy wheels. A memorable Christmas present one year was an all wooden, yellow toy wagon with rubber tires, and frame-like box in which the boys rode down the hills with shouts of glee.
Herbert Hoover was the president of the nation and it was a time of "boom or bust" economy, with early years having excellent prosperity and much money, even slipping into inflation. Then the great Stock Market Crash of 1929 came along. Prices and income dropped dramatically in most families. During the last year the family stayed in Inkom, Loreeta taught the first grade to help supplement the family income. Grady got a job teaching in Malad, Idaho, at the Jr. High School and commuted down to work, coming home every other weekend (fall of 1931 to spring 1932). That winter the snowfall was quite heavy. Grady drove the Chevy to Malad across the Malad Pass and often encountered deep snow. He took pictures that showed the snow on either side of the road higher than the car. During this time Grandma Bodily came up to their house in Inkom to help keep the house up and watch the children, while Loreeta taught. It was about this time that the boys saw their first autogiro flying over Inkom.
Life in Malad, Idaho (1932-1935)
1932-1935: (Address - Box 656, Malad, Idaho) The family moved to Malad in 1932. Roosevelt was elected president in the fall of 1932. Their first home was located a few blocks north of the city park, just north of the school grounds. It was a simple home with two bedrooms and indoor plumbing. The second year Grady taught in Malad, he was also the Jr. High School principal. In contrast to the school teachers today, Grady always wore a suit and tie to work at school. During his last two years he became the principal of the High School and also taught English. Grady also helped coach the high school girls' basketball team. Willis studied English under him during his freshman year in high school. Verl was in the 5th grade during the fall of 1932 to the spring of 1933. LaMar did not start school that fall because he did not turn six until October 24. He was home taught by his mother that school year and started in the second grade in the fall of 1933.
Grady was always an ardent fisherman. Local fishing yielded trout from the Malad River and whitefish from the Weston Reservoir about twenty miles away. One year the boys raised domestic rabbits and they inherited a small pig which they had until it grew to slaughter size.
In the summer the family often visited their grandparents in Pella. Grady spent a lot of time there fishing with his relatives. The boys had good times there also, playing with their cousins and working on the farms. While staying at the Bodily ranch, they were often treated to Grandma Bodily's cooking which consisted of delicious pies and cookies and buttermilk. Just before bedtime, Grandma often would have just baked a new loaf of bread. While it was still warm, she would cut off slices and spread fresh homemade butter over them. Then, she would spread thick Jersey cream over each slice and then sprinkle a little sugar on top of that. That was really delicious! Other times just before bedtime, everyone would just have bread and milk. This consisted of breaking up a slice of bread into pieces and then placing it in a glass of milk to be eaten with a long spoon. At mealtime Grandpa Bodily would always say a long prayer while blessing the food. At the same point in the prayer he would always stop and give out a great big sneeze that the family would anticipate.
One day a violent lightning and thunder storm came up just as Grandpa was taking the swill out to feed the pigs. A large lightning bolt struck the ground and then traveled along the ground and hit the Bodily farm with a big crash! Everyone ran from the window just as it hit the farmhouse. Shortly after, Grandpa Bodily showed up at the back door all covered with pig swill. He was just pouring the swill into the pig trough when he was hit by the lightning bolt. He was not injured (except his pride), but the bucket and the swill flew into the air and most of the swill came down on him and his clothes!
While living in Malad, the family often traveled east across the mountains to visit Aunt Sarah and her family. Many memorable Christmases were enjoyed in Malad by the family, with large decorated trees and bountiful gifts delivered by Santa Claus. During this time Grady was called to be the Stake Sunday School Superintendent. He was also ordained a Seventy in the Priesthood by the president of the Church Seventy's Quorum, Levi Edgar Young. In 1934, the family acquired a new bicycle from the J. C. Penney Co., striped red and white. Willis also bought a single-shot .22 bolt-action rifle from the Toponce Hardware- The gun cost $3.50. One year he was given a BB gun for Christmas. He and a friend got in a friendly tussle and Willis was shot in the eye. The BB was removed by the local doctor. About this time LaMar had a boil develop on the top of his right foot, which was lanced by the local doctor.
After a couple of years, the family moved about five blocks southwest to a new home. It was a brick home and fairly modern for that day. It was only about a block from a large wheat and flour mill owned by the Crowther Brothers. It was interesting to see the wheat brought in by the farmers and transported into the large elevators, where it was processed into different milling products, including flour and farm feeds. The boys often played around the grain elevator. They especially enjoyed riding up and down on the hand-operated elevators that held only one person.
One fall all the boys caught the measles. Then Willis developed pneumonia in the winter and was bedridden for almost four weeks. He had to make up the classes in school for the time of his illness. After Willis developed pneumonia, Verl did too, but his was not as severe as was Willis' and he recovered before Willis did. Verl complained about how sick he had been, but his mother admonished him that he wasn't as sick as Willis had been. In the spring Verl developed scarlet fever and was quarantined in the back of the house with Loreeta, while Grady and the two other boys "batched it" in the front of the house. While Verl was quarantined, Grady became quite ill and was diagnosed as having appendicitis. He was rushed to Salt Lake where his appendix was removed at the Veterans' Hospital. Loreeta was a little desperate, and she pleaded with the doctor to lift the quarantine; he took pity on her and did so a week early so Loreeta could take care of the family. Grady came home with his appendix preserved in a bottle of formaldehyde to prove that it had been removed. Also, at one time Grady found out that he had a large tape worm in his intestines. With the help of the doctors and medicine he was able to pass it out from his body. When the family saw it in a bottle they were all horrified!. In the spring LaMar tripped over a lawn mower and cut his foot which resulted in a bad infection. The family traveled to Preston to visit Loreeta's sister, Sarah, but the infection in Lamar's foot became worse and traveled up his leg toward his groin. He was admitted to the local hospital and cold packs were placed on his leg in an attempt to stop the infection from going any further. It had developed into blood poisoning or erysipelas. Grady and Loreeta were quite worried and so the local Elders were called in to give him a blessing. A large boil developed on his upper leg and this was lanced by the doctors. He was kept in the hospital for a few days before the family returned to Malad. He was bedridden for most of the summer, being unable to walk. Finally, in the fall he was able to walk but with a distinct limp which accompanied him for five or six months
Some of the neighbors in Malad included early neighbors Daniel J. Evans, a carpenter, whose son was Danny K., a friend of Willis. Later neighbors included the Thorpes and Ryttings. The boys had many friends and often played games with them like marbles," kick the can," and "run-sheepy-run." They made a lot of their own toys such as rubber guns where the rubbers were cut from old car inner-tubes and stretched over a wooden gun. When released, they were shot at the opponent and sometimes had a pretty good sting. When you were hit, you were out of the game. They also made darts out of wooden roof shingles. These were shot into the air by rubber bands also obtained from old inner-tubes. In one war game, Willis had an elaborate set of rubber guns and had eliminated a lot of his enemies until LaMar crept up behind him and shot him with a single shot small rubber gun. Around the first home in Malad and in the front yard, there were a lot of long thin weeds with short tough roots. When pulled out of the ground and allowed to dry in the sun, these made excellent spears and could be thrown quite a distance. There were some old pig pens and small barns in the back yard of the house that made excellent forts when engaging in war games.
In Church, the family belonged to the Malad First Ward, whose bishop was Jessie Dredge and whose counselor was Claude Williams. These men raised beef and dairy cattle for a living. Loreeta was very active in the Relief Society. When LaMar turned eight years of age, he was baptized in that ward house. Many dances were held in that building for the youth, even down to the age of eight. The other ward was located in the south part of town. It was also the Stake House and was used often for plays. One such play depicted the life of the Savior. One year, Grady participated in a play there called "Shining Through", and he often gave chalk-talks.
In school Grady befriended and helped to encourage a bright young student, Ivan Corbridge, who became the studentbody president his senior year. One year the schools, especially the grade school, were damaged by an earthquake. LaMar was given an allowance of five cents each week which he usually spent buying grapes in the store just south of the grade school, and it was while he was in this store that the earthquake hit. He watched the goods in the store sail off the shelves onto the floor. Several students were injured when they ran out of the grade school and were hit by falling bricks from the chimnney of the school. After that, the schools regularly had earthquake drills.
For entertainment the family usually listened to their favorite radio programs, including "The Air Adventures of Jimmy Allen," "Little Orphan Annie," and "Skeezix." Sometimes Grady took the family downtown to the local movie theater. The movies were in black and white and many of them were westerns, but occasionally there were films starring Shirley Temple and the famous one starring King Kong. The funny papers carried such characters as Alley Oop, Maggie and Jigs, The Gumps, Smoky Stover, Mickey Mouse, etc. On holidays, such as the fourth and twenty-fourth of July, there were great celebrations and many booths were set up in the park just north of the school grounds. On many occasions Grady was in charge of some of the events or ran one of the booths sponsored by the American Legion. He acquired a whole roll of tickets and gave them to the boys so they could get their fill riding the carnival rides. The three of them got on the Ferris wheel after almost everyone else had gone home and gave the operator three tickets. The operator gave them a few turns of the wheel and stopped it for them to get off. They gave him three more tickets from the roll they had and he said, "How many tickets do you guys have?" Willis showed him the roll and he took them, started the wheel and went over to the café to eat. Round and round the boys went enjoying it immensely until finally the operator came back and ended it all. LaMar recalls that the next morning he felt quite sick to his stomach!
Grady made sure that the boys received and were instructed on musical instruments, Willis the clarinet and piano, Verl on the trumpet, and LaMar the violin. During this time Willis also obtained his learner's permit for operating a car at the age of fourteen and helped drive the family car. On one occasion when the family was on a fishing trip at Payette Lakes, Grady drove very near the edge of the lake and LaMar shouted "don't do it Grady, don't do it!" This outburst became a source of amusement for the family for years afterward!
One summer when the stake president was slaughtering sheep to sell the hide and wool to the government, Grady went down and helped to slaughter and skin a sheep so that he could keep the carcass for mutton. The boys took their little wagon down to the field where the slaughtering took place and brought the meat back to the house where it was hung on a tree limb. They ate the mutton, but finally it began to spoil so the boys put it on the wagon again and hauled it up to a fox farm nearby where they sold it for a dollar. One summer, Grady and Willis participated in an Aaronic Priesthood outing, sponsored by the stake, down to the Martin Harris grave in Utah.
When Grady secured a better job in Shelley, Idaho, the family moved in the summer of 1935, hiring a local farmer with a large truck boxed in by wooden slats, to move their belongings and their furniture. They loaded and unloaded the truck themselves. The spring before the family moved to Shelley they acquired a family pet, a mongrel black and white, long haired dog they named "Rover". On a cold, wet and rainy April day, as they opened the front door, this half-grown pup ran into the house from the street, shivering and cold, and hid under the bed. He had been "tin-canned" and mistreated by some ruffian boys to the extent that he had lost part of his tail so he was now "bob-tailed". Loreeta tried to move the dog from under the bed with a broom, but he would not budge, so one of the boys crawled in under the bed after him and pulled him out. In spite of parental protests, the boys adopted the dog, and he belonged to the family from that day on. He gave the family much companionship and joy over the following years. The family on occasion also had a number of cats as family pets and "mousers". They took a yellow/tan tomcat with them from Malad to Shelley and he lived many years after the move.
High school superintendent in Shelley, Idaho (1935-1941)
1935-1941. (Address: Box 187, Shelley, Idaho) Grady's new position was the superintendent of the high school. Ken Thomas was the principal of the grade school. Members of the school board included the town dentist, Homer J. Dyer, the town doctor, Harold L. Scheiss, and the board secretary, a lawyer name L. Ivan Jensen. Among the high school teachers who were Grady's colleagues and who taught his children, were J.D. Christensen, Genevieve McCarthy, who taught English and drama, Dean Goodsell, Char1es D. Saylor, John Craner, Bill Hall, Alton C. Swan and Ray L. Haddock. G. Osmand Dunford taught seminary in a classroom in the L.D.S. stakehouse located adjacent to the high school. After several years he left and was replaced by Elwood Allred.
The family's first bishop in the Shelley Second Ward was Ray O. Humphreys, who was later succeeded by his counselor, Floyd C. Kelly. Their Shelley Stake president was J. Berkley Larsen with H. E. Davis as one of his counsellors. Mr. Davis owned and ran the local movie theater, the Virginian Theater. For several years, Grady's secretary at the school was the daughter of their first bishop, Mona Humphreys.
While living in Shelley, the family bought a new car, a 1936 four-door Chevrolet, gun-metal blue in color. It had an all-metal roof and cost $750 new. The salesman that sold the car to Grady decided to deliver it to him personally, but he brought his family with him on this occasion. He bought his little boy an ice cream cone, and the little boy dropped it on the back seat of the car, leaving a big stain on the fabric. Grady was very unhappy with the delivery. The car was kept in the family until 1952, when it was junked.
On one occasion, Grady's younger brother, Archie, came through Malad with some acquaintances and said that their car had broken down. He prevailed upon Grady to lend him the family car for a few days to conduct some of his insurance business. When he failed to return a week later, there was real trouble in their household from Loreeta. When Archie returned about ten days later, all havoc broke loose from the matron of the house!
Their close neighbors in Shelley were the Malcoms, Olers, Otts, Christensons, and McGarrys, with whom they shared a two-party-line phone. Their number was 130-W and the McGarry's was 130-N. This was the first time the family had a telephone. Each time you made a call, the operator would ask you "number please". If you picked up the telephone and the other party was on the line, you could listen in on their conversations. One night Grady received a late phone call where the caller was a little abusive and rowdy and did not identify himself/herself. After the call, Grady called the operator and asked who had called him. He was told the number and when he called them they were really surprised. It turned out to be a home where there was a group of teachers who were having a party and thought it would be funny to call him late at night.
All the while they were in Shelley, the family lived in the same house. It was a frame house located in the south end of town on the road leading to the sugar factory. There was a bedroom, a kitchen, living room, and a bathroom on the main floor. Upstairs there were two bedrooms where the boys slept. It had an enclosed back porch with an ice-box which had to be replaced with ice periodically to keep the contents cool. On really cold nights Rover was allowed to sleep on the back porch. One time when Rover was allowed to sleep there, he was given a piece of meat that he did not want. He was scolded for not eating the meat. The next time LaMar came out on the porch, the meat was gone and Rover sat there and acted as if he had eaten the whole thing. LaMar became suspicious and searched the back porch, only to find that Rover had hidden the meat in a boot and covered it over with a small mat.
There were stairs leading from the porch to a basement that had only a dirt floor. Canned fruit and home-made root beer were stored in the basement. Water often seeped
into the basement when the lawn was watered from the irrigation ditch located in front of the house, since the lawn was right next to the house. Very few people had sprinkler systems for their lawns in those days. One day, when the floor was still damp, Willis stuck a metal fishing pole into the light socket hanging down from the ceiling. He got quite a shock! The bathroom drained into a septic tank in the back yard which often did not function properly. Later, the W.P.A. workers dug a sewer throughout the city which led westward to the Snake River. This sewer was dug manually by means of picks and shovels, and the house drain pipes were connected to this sewer. There were a lot of workers on this government project who were glad to get the work because of the depression that existed at that day. Many times the workers stood around and were not doing anything so the W.P.A. was nicknamed "We Play Around."
Before the sewer line was installed throughout the city, many people still had a wooden outside toilet in their back yard When Grady and family moved into their house, they also had an old wooden toilet shed that was located way back in their yard. This was a problem because at Halloween time, one of the favorite pranks was to tip over these wooden toilets. A watchful eye was kept, and their toilet house was never tipped over. In Shelley, quite a bit of mischief took place at Halloween time. A favorite prank was to"soap"or"wax"windows on private homes and business establishments down town. Another prank was to shove a potato into the exhaust pipe of an automobile. The owner would have difficulty in starting the car until the potato was ejected with a big bang!
There was a large garden spot located in the back yard of the Garrards' home where many vegetables were raised for food. Each year the garden spot was plowed and leveled by a hired hand who used his horse to pull a plow and a level. The boys had the responsibility of irrigating the lawn and garden and weeding it during the summer months. Also, in the back yard there were several apple trees and an old pig pen which the boys sometimes used to raise rabbits.
The house had electricity and running water and was heated by two coal-burning stoves, one in the living room and a large Monarch cooking stove with oven in the kitchen. Grady would usually get up first in the morning and start the fires in the two stoves. It was LaMar's duty to cut the kindling wood for the stoves the night before, One time he forgot and got a "licking" from his dad for being negligent. Occasionally, Grady cooked the oatmeal or cracked-wheat mush for breakfast. When he did, he usually forgot to put salt in the mush. The upstairs bedrooms were only heated by the warm air that came up the stairs from the kitchen. Very few people in those days had furnaces in their homes, and there was no such thing as air-conditioning or swamp-coolers. The upstairs was very warm at night in the summer (even though there were trees surrounding the
house) and the boys often went to bed without any clothes on. In the winter, hot bricks were often heated in the kitchen stove oven and wrapped in cloth and taken upstairs to bed to warm the feet. The conditions under which the family lived in those days would today be considered quite primitive! There was a garage to the rear and side of the house. The car was usually kept in the garage at night during the winter. However, in the winter it was so cold sometimes that Grady could not get the car started. Many times hot water from the tea-kettle was poured over the fuel system to warm it enough to get the car started.
Many farmers who lived a distance from the town would give up trying to get into town because of the snow in the roads and the cold weather. They would hook up their horses to their sleighs and come into town on Saturday to pick up supplies and see the Saturday night movie. A favorite sport for the younger boys was to grab on to the back of these sleighs and skid along behind on the snow and ice or to just jump on the runners and ride along. After riding on a sleigh for some distance going out of town the boys would jump on another sleigh coming into town. Grady cut the boys' hair with some hand-held clippers. Sometimes he postponed cutting their hair till Sunday morning before church. One Fast Sunday morning, when he was cutting LaMar's hair, LaMar fainted and fell out of the chair.Grady also had a shoe repair kit to save money by repairing and re-soling the boys shoes.
Their day-to-day shopping, including groceries, was done in Shelley. The local grocery store was Mallory's. It was here that LaMar picked up free scraps from the butcher shop to feed to Rover. However, occasionally Rover would get worms from these scraps and would have to be de-wormed with the appropriate medicine. These consisted of large pills which Rover did not like. The boys would throw Friskies to him and then throw the large pills so that he had swallowed them before he realized how he had been tricked. However, he was a much happier dog once he had been de-wormed.
Shelley also had a drug store, ten-cent store, several milkshake and candy stores, post office, and several gas stations with garages. Willis worked a short time at one of these stations, but he left a tire iron in a tire once when he had repaired a flat. In Shelley there was also a local lumberyard and hardware store. There was a movie house that cost ten cents for children. The movie was continuous and often the boys would sit through the main feature twice just to see the cartoon which lasted only five minutes. The cartoons were black and white and were usually of the "Mickey Mouse" or "Betty Boop" variety.
The family's heavier shopping was done in Idaho Falls, nine miles to the north. On one of their trips there they went shopping for new wardrobes, and the boys and Grady each bought a new suit at Rowles-Mack in Idaho Falls. They often ate at the "five-cent spot" where for a nickel you could buy either a hamburger, chili, salad, drink, etc., for the same price, five cents. One day Grady treated the family to a dinner in one of the better restaurants, and the dinner was not very good. When he paid the bill, he noted on it how bad the meal had been. Weeks before Christmas time, Grady would take the family to Idaho Falls to "window shop", much to the delight of the boys who would go from store to store to see the displays of toys. Grady also took the family to shop after Christmas when many of the goods were on sale, especially the toys. When they were visiting some relatives in Idaho Falls one day, LaMar blurted out, (much to the embarrassment of his father) that Grady bought their Christmas presents after Christmas because they were so cheap! In the summer they often took picnic lunches on their shopping trips, which they ate in the city park near the falls on the Snake River. It was near here that the family saw the new L.D.S. Temple being constructed. West and across the river was the local municipal airport. Sometimes the boys hitch-hiked there to see the airplanes. They saved up their money one time to take a fifteen minute ride flying over the city. It cost one dollar each! Western Airline would land there each day on their route from Pocatello to Montana with their old Boeing 247 passenger planes. On their Saturday shopping trips the Woolworth's store would sometimes give away free balloons which they filled with helium gas. The boys each got a balloon and enjoyed them thoroughly during their time shopping.
Grady was really careful to make Christmas time very special for his family. He was quite particular about how the Christmas tree and presents looked on Christmas morning when the boys first saw them. The boys would usually go to bed early on Christmas Eve and then get up very early on Christmas morning to see and play with their presents. One time, several days before Christmas, the boys put the icicles on the tree by just throwing them on in a random manner over the branches. When Grady saw the results, he was very upset! He took every icicle from off the tree, then smoothed them and carefully placed them on the branches as if they were real icicles on a fir tree in the forest. The Christmas tree was decorated and the presents laid out by Christmas morning so that it was a work of art. Grady wanted it to be as if Santa Claus had been there personally and had done the job. Later on in the day there was always a delicious dinner cooked by Loreeta. There was always a turkey or something similar cooked for this special occasion. For dessert there was usually a Christmas pudding topped with a special sauce or whipping cream. Often there were relatives or close friends invited to this dinner.
Through the high school discount, Grady purchased from the sporting goods store in Ogden, Utah, a model - 12, hammerless Winchester 12-gauge shotgun, which the family used a great deal for hunting birds, especially pheasants, sagehens, and grouse. Occasionally they went hunting ducks and geese, but had little luck. Rover must have had some hunting blood in him, because he often stopped and "pointed" and thoroughly enjoyed helping to flush the birds out. Grady liked to fish and the family, especially in the summer when school was out, took many fishing trips along the upper Snake River, the Salmon River, Jackson Hole Wyoming, the Payette River and Payette Lakes, and Yellowstone Park. Grady took the family through Yellowstone Park many times, sometimes camping in the tent and at other time staying in the cabins for one dollar a night. When camping outside, however, they were often disturbed by the bears going through the garbage cans. Grady seldom came home empty handed because he was an excellent fisherman. He tied his own "flies" for catching fish, and often could catch fish in places where others could not catch any because he knew just what kind of bait to use. On a fishing trip to Island Park country, as the boys and Grady were wading down the river, they encountered a number of willowy marshes. As they came around one bend, they surprised a cow moose with her calf feeding in the river. Sensing the possible danger to her offspring, she turned and charged toward them. Needless to say, they stirred a great deal of water getting out of her way! Another time, in Yellowstone Park, they watched a bear barely swim to safety just above the Upper Falls. Often Loreeta got very car sick when they were driving around on the winding mountain roads. She was a good sport, in spite of her discomfort, and did not complain very much.
While in Shelley there was still a depression and money was hard to come by. In Idaho school teachers and administrators were not very well paid! In preparing the school budgets for the coming year, it was discovered that the local high school janitor (who was only an eighth grade school graduate) made a few dollars more than Grady made as school superintendent, with a college degree! He had taken a number of college courses, especially in the summer, toward a Master's degree. In the summer of 1937, Grady and Willis both went up to Moscow to the University of Idaho for summer school. Willis took a number of classes in music, including band and orchestra, while Grady studied his curriculum in education. They roomed at the L.D.S. Institute, with George S. Tanner as the director. Another summer he took the whole family with him and rented a small house in Moscow. On the way home after summer school, the family traveled the North-South Highway from Lewiston to Boise. When they traveled over the Whitebird Hill, the road was a narrow one-lane gravel road with turnouts about every quarter of a mile. Signs along the way warned the travelers to honk their horn at blind curves. Near the top of the pass Grady honked and the horn stuck. It continued to honk all the way down until they arrived at the little town of Whitebird! Grady wanted to fish some of the streams between Whitebird and Boise so the family camped out several nights so he could fish during the day.
A spur line of the Union Pacific Railroad ran through the center of Shelley from Pocatello to West Yellowstone in the park. With it came many transients and hobos riding the rails. A lot of them had good jobs before the depression set in. These men wound often stop at the house asking for food, and Loreeta would ask them to go out and help to split firewood for their dinner. On one occasion all she could give them was a sandwich made from beans. However, they were grateful for that! Rover, however, did not like them and barked and growled when they came near the house, especially at night. Along the railroad, early in the morning in the fall, the outline of their bodies could be seen on the ground because there was no frost where they had been sleeping. Grady commented that he was grateful that he had the sufficient necessities for his family during these tough times. The boys could never remember a time when there were not presents under the tree for Christmas and sufficient food for either Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays! Today, children would feel they were extremely poor and impoverished if they had to live as cheaply as a family did, in those days, who fell in the middle-income bracket.
One evening, after Verl had taken a bath in the tub, Grady walked into the bathroom and found the tub dirty, with a ring of debris around its sides. In a fit of anger, he tromped up the stairs to the boys' bedroom, where Verl and Willis were in bed together. Grady picked up the broom and tried to whack Verl from on top of the covers, but Verl rolled up against Willis and Willis got the whacks. No one got hurt very badly, and Grady broke down and began to laugh!
One summer the family brought several chickens home from a visit to the grandparents in Pella. The object was to feed and fatten them up for the dinner table. They were all sacrificed except for the last, a big red-tailed rooster, who became known as "Ronnie the Rooster." He became the family pet and would follow everyone around, crowing and clucking, begging for food. Willis had been away from home at college at that time and was not acquainted with Ronnie that much. So, one day Grady came home from work to discover that the fowl was missing. Upon inquiring as to his whereabouts, he was told that Ronnie had been sacrificed for the family dinner that night. He had a hard time eating the fried chicken that night. However, it didn't seem to bother him to catch fish and eat them. Every one in the family liked to fish but LaMar, who expressed no interest in the sport.
A number of memorable incidents occurred during his work at school, but several stood out in Grady's mind. A young sophomore student named Johnny Mulberry was very gifted and talented in music, and often sang at their school programs. One weekend his family was driving up the highway to Idaho Falls at night when visibility was poor. The truck in front of them had no tail light and the family vehicle drove into a long, extended, sharp-pointed pine pole on the back of the truck. The pole crashed through the windshield and penetrated the young boy's chest. It was a tragedy for the whole community. Another sad incident occurred when the high school held a large carnival and took in a considerable amount of money. The next morning when Grady went into the office, it was discovered that some safe-crackers had broken into the high school during the night, broken into the safe, and run off with the money,
On another occasion, Grady was called upon to exercise disciplinary authority in his role at school. A number of senior students were in the chemistry class taught by Bill Hall, the coach. They were doing lab experiments, and in the process had generated hydrogen gas under water, where the gas was collected in a large carboy. Several of the boys in the class, not wanting to waste the hydrogen, tossed in a lighted paper wick to see what would happen. The resulting explosion made a loud "boom" that was felt and heard all over the building! When the white-faced teacher came in and discovered what had
happened, he called Grady in to appraise the situation. The boys, including his son Willis, were grounded, and they had to spend an hour after school in punishment for several weeks. Grady had some problems with rebellious students and had to expel some from school. This brought on the wrath of some parents which he had to handle. He had special problems with a group of students who called themselves the "Woodville River Rats." In fact, the last year at Shelley High School his son LaMar was a freshman and his two older brothers were away attending college. LaMar was afraid to go into the boys' restroom for fear of reprisals against him because he was the principal's son. He made sure he didn't hang around in the halls, and got out of school and headed home as quickly as he could when school was over, to deliver his papers.
In the summer of 1938, all the family but Verl attended the World's Fair at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California. Verl had gone there a short time previously with the "Ag" teacher, Bent Cross. Verl stayed home to take care of the paper routes and other business while the rest of the family was gone. It was so hot traveling through the desert in Nevada on the way to Reno that the car would keep vapor-locking. Grady would take a wet rag and wrap it around the fuel line going into carburetor. The evaporation of the water in the rag cooled the line down and the car made it to San Francisco and back. It was a very exciting and educational experience. To drive across the new San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay Bridge was exhilarating, especially so since the U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet had just come into port and was lying anchored in the San Francisco Bay. The family was allowed to go on board one of the big aircraft carriers. LaMar admired the sailors and their uniforms, little realizing that some day he would be wearing one of those uniforms during World War II. The family rode the cable cars up and down the steep streets and saw many exhibits and shows within the Fair. On display was one of the first B-17's made by Boeing Aircraft. Later models of the bomber became famous during World War II. Sally Rand with her strip-tease show was also there but no member of the family went to see that! Another exhibit showed one million dollars in coins stacked upon a platform in front of them. Each stack of dollars was one hundred coins high, and the stacks extended for one hundred rows long and one hundred rows wide, making a total of one million metal coins. A million dollars did not look like so much, when it was stacked in piles!
After leaving the Bay Area, the family traveled down the coast highway to Los Angeles. They visited Aunt Fon and Uncle Ben and their family in Long Beach. Then, Grady nursed the old car across the deserts in California and Nevada to Utah where he took the family to see Bryce Canyon and some other parks in Utah, before returning to Idaho and home.
Besides taking his family on this long trip to California while they lived in Shelley, Grady took his family on many shorter trips to fish and camp. They took fishing trips to Island Park; Sheep Falls near Ashton, Idaho, and a 4th of July fishing trip to Mackay, Idaho, where they discovered the trout were being caught with willow-flies. They were fortunate enough to capture several dozen of these flies in an old rotting stump, and then using them as bait. As a result they broke three bamboo fly rods trying to land the fish, which averaged one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half pounds in weight. On one fishing trip on the South Fork of the Snake River, they were in their rubber raft with a cousin, Rulon Davis. The raft got hung up on a protruding branch and flipped them into the river. On another memorable trip, they went to Salmon City and Leadore, fishing for brook trout and salmon, during the salmon run in the late summer season. It was exciting to see the salmon jump the rapids, coming several feet completely out of the water. Many additional trips were made to Yellowstone Park during these years in Shelley. Earlier, when the boys were younger, Grady took the family to Yellowstone in the Model T Ford. The back of the front seat could be removed and placed between the front and back seat so a bed could be made in the car. The family also had a canvas tent in which another bed could be made. Grady, Willis, and Verl slept in the car and Loreeta and LaMar, who was just a baby, slept in the tent. One night Loreeta woke to see a bear silhouetted by a full moon, standing on his hind legs with his front paws on the wall of the tent opposite the entrance flap. She screamed and yelled for Grady who, with the assistance of other men, scared the bear away. After that, Grady and the older boys slept in the tent while Loreeta and LaMar slept in the Ford! About this time the family also took a trip to Salt Lake City to visit Uncle Archie and his family. While there, they all crowded into their upstairs apartment.
Several years before the family left Shelley, Verl and LaMar acquired paper routes for the Post Register, an evening paper published in Idaho Falls. During these times, the extra money from these jobs proved beneficial for these boys. The paper cost three cents a copy delivered at the customer's home. It was delivered every day but Sunday so the weekly rate was eighteen cents. Collection was every two weeks at a cost of thirty-six cents. LaMar learned to be wary of people's dishonesty when they tried to give him a quarter, a nickel, and a penny for the two weeks' fee. He learned that the rich people would often try to cheat him, whereas the poorer people were more prompt and honest in their payments! He had a customer that lived in a house made from scraps from a sawmill and with a dirt floor. This was the most honest and prompt of all his customers. The boys had a boss who occasionally came down from Idaho Falls and who stuck up for the paper carriers when there was any dispute. When Verl left for college, LaMar inherited his paper route, so he had a monopoly on the paper routes in Shelley, except for those of the Salt Lake Tribune. One of the new customers LaMar inherited from Verl's route demanded that he be given his paper before anyone else, but LaMar told him he would just have to take his turn in the deliveries. If he didn't like that, LaMar told him that he could complain to his boss, and he would gladly provide his phone number. Rover accompanied LaMar on his paper route and knew it as well as his master. Everybody in that small town knew Rover and who he belonged to. When one person tried to turn Rover into the dog pound to get a reward, he never made it, for several people who knew who Rover was threatened the man on the way to the pound. When Germany invaded Poland, England and France declared war on Germany. That was the only time that the Post Register had an"extra"which, incidentally, cost five cents. In the winter it was too difficult to ride bikes on the paper routes, so the boys had to run on their routes through the snow. As a result, both Verl and LaMar were excellent runners when they went to college. Later, Verl earned a coveted "I" sweater which he was able to wear because of his accomplishments on the University of Idaho track team. During this period both Verl and LaMar constructed many model airplanes made from balsa wood and special tissue paper and glue.
In the fall of 1938, Willis went away to college at the University of Idaho in Moscow. During the summer vacation of 1940, before Willis returned to school, Grady ordained him and his friend, Glenn Lewis, to the office of Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. That fall both Willis and Verl returned to the University of Idaho to resume their studies.
School superintendent in Eagle, Idaho (1941-1943)
In the spring of 1941, Grady had become very disturbed at the questionable politics within the local school board and decided to leave his job as superintendent of schools in Shelley, Idaho. He secured a job as the superintendent of schools in Eagle,Idaho, which was located about nine miles west of Boise. It was a smaller school, but he intended to stay there only a few years, until his youngest son LaMar had graduated from high school and left to go to the University of Idaho. Grady had become disenchanted with the politics of small town school boards and had decided that he would go into some other occupation when the time came for LaMar to leave for school.
Eagle was a small town and the high school had only between 70 and 80 students. It was a tough high school where most of the students came from farms in the local area. On two occasions there were fights between a student and a faculty member in which both were badly beaten up. Grady escaped from any of these violent confrontations. However, one student did not like him, so one night he sneaked into Grady's driveway and stabbed the tire of his car with a knife. The school had six-man football, a baseball team, and a fairly good basketball team. The coach of the basketball team left in the middle of the year, and the team won more games after his departure. They also had a women's basketball team. There were only two classes in math: beginning algebra and plane geometry. Grady taught the geometry class and LaMar was in the class. When the war broke out that fall, another class was instituted which was a class in aeronautics. Grady also taught this class. Even though Grady was not trained or specialized in either of these areas, LaMar felt that he did a pretty good job as a teacher. In those days there was a lot of homework, and it took at least two hours each evening to complete the homework! Two of the students in the aeronautics class later became bomber pilots in the Army Air Corps. At the end of that year, on December 7, 1941, the greatest tragedy in that generation occurred to our country when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. This completely changed the course of history and the destiny of Grady's family, as well as most other families. Several students, who were Korean, called Grady on the phone and asked if it would be safe for them to come to school Monday morning. Grady assured them that there would be no problem, which was the case. Many of the male students who graduated from high school in the spring enlisted in the military services and some were killed in the war.
In the spring of 1942, Willis graduated from the University of Idaho and decided to go back east to graduate school and hopefully to medical school. Grady, Loreeta, and LaMar traveled to Moscow in the old 1936 Chevrolet to attend the graduation. Grady allowed LaMar to drive part of the way along those mountain roads by the rivers. However, both Grady and Loreeta were on edge whenever LaMar was allowed to drive! Since Verl was already in Moscow, the whole family was present at the graduation. Verl returned to Eagle with them and worked as a surveyor that summer in the local area. He returned to the University of Idaho that fall. At that time Grady and Loreeta were quite concerned as to how they could afford to help Willis with school expenses if he attended medical school.
During the second year they were in Eagle, Loreeta taught in the local grade school. The high school was located about a half mile north of the main intersection of town on the west side of the road, just before the road ascended a small hill. On the top of the hill, on the same side of the road, was the grade school. Just north of the grade school was a small house inhabited by Bob, Russell, and Edris Lloyd. Their mother was a widow and was hardly ever home, since she was a nurse working in the homes of patients who were disabled. LaMar became quite chummy with the two younger boys, Russell and Edris. The older boy, Bob, later was a gunner on a B-26, and was killed in a bombing raid over Italy during World War II. Edris later moved to Seattle, Washington and became good friends with LaMar when he attended the University of Washington.
There were two houses north of the Lloyd home, the next one being Grady's family home. On the upper floor there were a frontroom, kitchen, one bedroom, a bathroom, and a back porch, with stairs leading to the downstairs. Downstairs there was one bedroom, besides a furnace room and storage space. Grady and Loreeta slept in the upstairs bedroom and LaMar in the downstairs bedroom. In the backyard there was a garden with fruit trees and grapes. There was a large field farther back and west of the house, in which wild ducks and pheasants were plentiful.
Grady and his family were the only Mormons in the town and so did not have much of a social life there with many friends, as they had previously enjoyed in Shelley. When they went to church, they had to drive nine miles to Boise to the ward that was on the west side of town. LaMar became friends with the local Methodist minister in Eagle and sometimes attended church there and also helped the minister with his Boy Scout troop. There was friction between the minister and some of the people in the town and LaMar often was caught in the middle of it because of his helping out with the Scouts.
When the war with Japan broke out in December of 1941, Major Bagley moved to Boise from California with his wife Selma (Grady's sister) and two boys, Keith and Donny. Keith later became a great football star at Boise High School. Major secured a job at Gowen Field as an electrician working on the bombers that were temporarily at that training base. Also, Ether and Gwen Coltrin (Loreeta's sister) and family lived in Boise where Ether worked as a carpenter building homes. Often, time was spent with each of these two families. Ted, one of the sons in the Coltrin family, was close to LaMar's age and spent considerable time with him.
In 1942 the war was raging and everyone was doing what they could to help the war effort. Often the sky was filled with B-24's and B-17's, flying in formation as the crews from Gowen Field were training to go to war in Europe. Convoys of army vehicles filled with soldiers frequently came through Eagle on their way to the west coast. At that time there was a fear that the Japanese might invade the west coast. There was rationing of gas, sugar, and other food. To save gas, the speed limit was 35 miles per hour. Grady still had the old 1936 Chevrolet, which had to be re-bored several times since no new cars were being manufactured.
LaMar decided he wanted to get out of high school early and still graduate, so in his last year he took extra courses in high school and also attended a machinist school in Boise at night and on Saturday. With these extra credits, he was able to graduate in three years. So, he graduated from high school in the spring of 1943 and decided to leave Eagle in June to attend the University of Idaho during summer school.
Since Grady was not teaching school that summer, he obtained employment in Boise at Albertson's grocery store. He clerked there and also stocked shelves; he was able to get LaMar a job there in the spring stocking shelves and working in the ice-cream section making ice cream cones, milk shakes, etc. Since there were so many airmen coming into town for training, everyone was trying to provide space in their homes for rooms or apartments for these airmen and their wives. Some of them had just recently been married and were trying to be together for that short time before they would have to leave their wives and go overseas to bomb the enemy. As they came through the store, they were buying the few necessities they would need before they might be separated forever! In June, LaMar left Eagle on the bus to go to Moscow, Idaho to college.
Farm labor camp manager (1943-1945)
Since Verl and LaMar were to be at the University of Idaho and Willis was going to be back east going to medical school, Grady decided it was a good time to leave the occupation of teaching and school administration and work for the federal government. He applied for a job with Price Administration Services but ended up with the federal government managing farm labor camps. Because they knew that they would be leaving Eagle and would be traveling considerably with no permanent home, they decided to give the family dog, Rover, to some relatives who lived north of Eagle. Rover, however, would break loose and come home all tattered and bruised from trying to escape. Loreeta was very sentimental and did not like the thought of his being mistreated or being unhappy in a strange environment, so it was decided to have him"put away." Verl, LaMar, and Uncle Major Bagley took him into the foothills north of Boise and Major shot him. They then buried him there. Everyone was quite sad for some time, for Rover had been part of the family since they had lived in Malad, Idaho.
Grady now had the job of managing camps for the federal government which were set up to house migrant farm laborers, who had been shipped into the country to replace those workers who were now in the armed forces of the United States. Sometimes he would have to go to the Mexican border and pick up these laborers and fly back with them to camps in Oregon and Washington. These trips were made in the old Douglas D.C. 3's, sometime called "Gooney Birds" by those in the military. They did not fly very high and bounced around when they hit bad weather. As a result, Grady as well as some of the other passengers became very airsick. That fall (1943) he managed camps in Oregon and Washington, some of which were in Eugene and The Dalles, Oregon. By Christmas time that year, he was located in Walla Walla, Washington. He and Loreeta lived in one of the temporary housing units put up to house farm laborers at the labor camp. All three boys came there from school to spend Christmas with their mother and father.
By the summer of 1944, Grady and Loreeta had moved to Kennewick, Washington, where he managed the farm labor camp. This camp was located just south and across the Columbia River from Pasco, Washington. It was practically under the bridge and on the bank of the river. Their living quarters consisted of a tent with a wooden floor. The bathroom was a wooden three hole outhouse, a short distance from their tent. One summer, while Verl was visiting them, he accidentally dropped his wallet down one of the holes and had a difficult time retrieving it. The showers were for the whole camp and were located also a short distance from their tent. Loreeta cooked on a Coleman gas stove, and the tent was heated by either a small oil or coal stove. It was all very primitive but was home and a place for the boys to come for holidays and special occasions, Loreeta worked each day in Pasco as a waitress in a local restaurant. Grady would take her into town before daybreak and then pick her up in the evening.
In the spring of 1944, Verl graduated from the University of Idaho and went into the U.S. Navy. He was sent to Great Lakes Training Station near Chicago for "boot camp" training. LaMar went to summer school at the University of Idaho and came back to stay with his parents that fall at Kennewick, awaiting the time when he would soon be drafted into the armed services. He got a job at the roundhouse of the local railroad where they repaired locomotives. So, Grady, Loreeta, and LaMar lived there in the labor camp for a few months. LaMar got tired of waiting, so he went to Spokane that fall and tried to join the Navy but was turned down because he was partially color blind. An old navy chief at the recruiting-induction center felt sorry for him and told him to go home and volunteer for the draft and he would be sent back there to the same place where he (the chief) would make sure he would be inducted into the Navy. He said he could do this because the physical requirements were less stringent for an inductee than for an enlistee. Grady was not too happy with the idea of volunteering for the draft, for he felt maybe LaMar could avoid the service entirely, since the war seemed to be winding down. LaMar insisted on going, so Grady finally gave his consent. The chief kept his word and LaMar was finally inducted into the Navy on special assignment. All the other inductees were placed in the Army because of the high casualty rates during the Battle of the Bulge in Europe. It was probably a good thing that LaMar went into the Navy because he might have ended up being put in the infantry and taking part in the Battle of the Bulge which resulted in the war being extended until the following June. It was while LaMar was in boot camp at Farragut, Idaho, that winter that he received word that both Grandpa and Grandma Bodily had died, only twenty-five days apart.
Meanwhile, Verl finished boot camp at Great Lakes Training Center and was then sent to pre-radio school at a junior college in Chicago that had been taken over by the U.S. Navy. After completing this school, which lasted a month, he was sent to Gulfport, Miss., for three months to attend a primary electronics school. After attending this school, he was sent back to secondary school at the Navy Pier in Chicago. Willis had been drafted into the Army and was attending the University of Chicago Medical School in their A.S.T.P. program. This was not too far from where Verl was stationed in the Navy, so they got together occasionally on weekends. Meanwhile, LaMar finished boot camp at Farragut, Idaho, and came home to Kennewick on leave. He spent several days in Kennewick with Grady and Loreeta and then hitchhiked to Walla Walla, Washington, and on to Moscow, Idaho, to see some of his old girl friends there. He then reported back to Farragut and was sent to pre-radio school in Chicago at Wright Junior College. He wrote ahead and told Verl to meet him at "the railroad station"in Chicago. LaMar didn't realize that there were many railroad stations in Chicago, but Verl found out from some friends where he was coming in and met him when he arrived. LaMar was stationed in Chicago for about six weeks and was able to spend several weekends with Willis and Verl at the dormitory on the campus of the University of Chicago. One time, Willis had a date with his girlfriend but was unable to make it because he had to deliver a baby. LaMar substituted for him and had a good time! On another weekend the three boys got together and had their picture taken together in their uniforms. Later, LaMar was sent to Gulfport, Miss., to the same school that Verl had previously attended. After completing this school, he was subsequently sent to secondary school at Corpus Christi, Texas. After completing this school, he was made an instructor at the school and remained there until he was discharged from the Navy in 1946. After completing his school in Chicago, Verl was shipped overseas to the Philippines. In the spring of 1946, Willis graduated from medical school, and Grady and Loreeta made the trip back for the occasion in the old 1936 Chevy. LaMar was able to get a leave, and came by train to Chicago for the ceremony. This was the second time that Grady, Loreeta, and LaMar were able to attend a graduation exercise of Willis. While in Chicago, Grady let LaMar drive the car in that busy city. LaMar got stopped by a cop for going the wrong way on a one-way street. When the cop saw that LaMar was a sailor and from Idaho, he just laughed and told him not to do it again. Grady and Loreeta got a big bang out of that incident! While they were still in Chicago, Willis had some of his medical friends strip the veins on Loreeta's legs and perform other procedures on her that needed to be done. After all this was done, Grady and Loreeta drove back home, and LaMar returned to his base in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Life in Burley, Idaho (1945-1954)
After the war was over, Grady and Loreeta left the government service. Grady successfully bid on a project to supply meals to migrant workers in the Milton-Freewater area of Oregon. He outbid a man who had previously won the contract for several seasons. Grady bought supplies and an old Model T Ford truck. The fellow he outbid came to him and offered to buy out his contract and purchase all the supplies and the truck. The offer was at a substantial increase over what Grady had invested so he sold out and went to Boise. Shortly after that, he got a job with the newspaper in Burley, Idaho, the "Burley Herald." Later, he took a job selling Farmer's Automobile Insurance and then expanded into real estate. He also sold and had installed aluminum and glass storm doors and windows all over Cassia and Minidoka Counties. While in the real estate business, he never took advantage of anyone or cheated anyone. On one occasion several people had asked him to advertise some property they wanted to sell. He found a buyer and got the two parties together to make the sale. They went behind his back and concluded the deal so that he did not get his commission. He just walked away and took no action against either party. His boss knew how honest he was, so a few months after his death, this man came to his widow and gave her a check for the amount of money he had received from renewals of insurance policies that had been originally written by Grady before his death. Legally he did not have to do this, but he felt that he wanted to treat Grady's widow in the same way that Grady had treated other people.
In Burley they lived in several different places until they purchased their home on Normal Avenue. One such place was a small apartment located a few blocks north of the main intersection in Burley on the highway to Paul. At one time it was probably a motel and Loreeta referred to it as the "sheep sheds." At Christmas time, Verl and LaMar hitchhiked to Burley to spend the holidays with Grady and Loreeta. They all stayed together in this apartment and it was a Rule crowded. Verl and LaMar spent part of their vacation time helping deliver radios and other electronic equipment for Alton Garrard, their uncle. The family joke was that they had to deliver a really fancy radio-phonograph combination set, which was quite heavy, to the local "red-light house", and they met several of the "ladies" there but they left immediately after the delivery was completed! Another place that Grady and Loreeta lived was at the residence of the local priests of the Catholic Church. Loreeta cooked and kept house for the priests, in exchange for which they received free board and room. At that time Grady humorously referred to Loreeta as the cook and himself as the gardener. They lived in a small apartment attached to the main building.
After Ben and Olive sold and left the farm in Pella, they purchased a small house located in the southeast part of Burley. Grady's mother, Olive, died August 6, 1943. After she died, Alton and Bob Garrard invited Ben to come and live with them in their house on the southwest side of Burley. Ben had his own bedroom and was well taken care of by them. He lived there until he died. After Grady and Loreeta left the residence owned by the Catholic Church, they lived in this home owned by Ben. It was a small house with two bedrooms and was heated by a small oil beater located in the frontroom. Other than being cold, it was fairly comfortable. At Christmas times, Verl and LaMar would sleep in the second bedroom in the same bed. Grady always would still try to have a nice Christmas for them. He would have a Christmas tree with the all the trimmings, and presents. One Christmas they both received very nice bathrobes which lasted for many years. Often on holidays and special occasions, the Garrard families would get together and have a fine dinner at the home of Alton and Bob. Also, Verl and LaMar spent a lot of time there playing monopoly and other card games with Patty Jo and Park, the two children of Alton. Finally, Grady purchased a home on 1919 Normal, just a few blocks from where they had previously lived. This was the only home that they ever owned. Loreeta was very happy to finally have a home of her own. There were two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and a living room upstairs. Downstairs there was one bedroom, a pantry, and a furnace room. There was a garage to the side of the house and a fairly large back yard, with irrigation water for a garden. They had a medium sized raspberry patch which produced an abundance of fruit. These were especially delicious when covered with heavy Jersey cream, which Loreeta purchased from people located on a farm nearby. Grady still liked to fish but one year decided to go deer hunting. He shot a deer but when he saw the poor deer lying there with its big brown eyes, he was so moved and felt so bad that he never hunted deer again!
Verl and LaMar continued to attend the University of Idaho, and when Verl earned bis Master's degree he began to teach in the chemistry department. LaMar continued to come home at least part of each summer. He worked part of one summer in Kellogg, Idaho, in the mines, but returned to Burley for the rest of the summer. He worked for the highway department, in the feed mill in Heyburn, on a construction project building grain elevators, spraying weeds, and other various jobs in the Burley area during these summer times.
After graduating from medical school, Willis came out west and interned as a doctor at the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. While working in the hospital, he met Edith Edwards, who was a nurse at the hospital. A courtship followed and they fell in love, ending in a marriage in the Salt Lake Temple. Edith's parents lived a few blocks northeast of the hospital. Grady and Loreeta came and attended the ceremony. Willis and Edith rented a small apartment not too far from the hospital. There was no actual bedroom, for the bed set back in an enclave in the wall off from the front room. After finishing his internship, Willis now had to go into the United States Air Force to fulfill his obligation to them for putting him through medical school during the war. Willis and Edith ended up on an airbase near Montgomery, Alabama. There they had their first baby, a little girl they named Linda. Now Grady was a grandpa! After completing his obligation to the Air Force, Willis and Edith went back to Chicago where Willis specialized in pathology. They lived in some old wooden barracks not far from the campus of the University of Chicago.
Meanwhile, Verl continued to teach at the University of Idaho, and also began to work on a doctorate at the University of Utah. LaMar graduated from the University of Idaho and also received a commission in the United States Air Force Reserve. He then went to the University of Washington for a short time and transferred to B.Y.U. in Provo, Utah. The two boys often came to visit their parents at Christmas time and at other times. LaMar had always wanted a Model A Ford, so for Christmas he was presented one which Grady had purchased for him for $150. Verl and LaMar would take it out on the snowy roads around Burley and try to see if they could spin it around. Grady had meantime bought a fairly new Pontiac sedan for himself and Loreeta. He would often take Loreeta for rides in it on the weekends and in the evenings, which she enjoyed very much. To save money, LaMar told Grady to sell the Ford sedan because the Korean War had broken out and he was afraid that he would be called into the Air Force and would not need a car. He took the old 1936 Chevy with him back to school. LaMar attended B.Y.U. that fall semester but received orders to report to Lackland Air Force Base the next spring. He came home to Burley to spend Christmas with Grady, Loreeta, and Verl and then went into the Air Force at Lackland, Texas. After a few weeks there he was sent to Scott Air Force Base just east and across the Mississippi River and east of St. Louis. He often went up to Chicago to visit Willis and family on weekends, and they all had many good times together. LaMar was later transferred to Kansas City where still later he was discharged in September of 1952. He then went back to B.Y.U. While still in the Air Force LaMar came back several times on leave to visit his parents in Burley.
After completing his residency in Chicago, Willis and family moved to Charleston, West Virginia, to practice medicine. Meanwhile LaMar met Agnes Weibell at B.Y.U. early in 1953. They dated for about a year and in the early fall of 1953 LaMar brought Agnes to Burley to meet his parents. She was a little apprehensive at first, but when she met Grady and Loreeta, she immediately relaxed and enjoyed the visit. All three went to the Cassia County Roundup and had a great time. Grady was not feeling too well at that time, but tests seemed to not find anything wrong. He was a Seventy and had become very active in stake missionary work. When LaMar would come home for vacations, Grady would take him with him to speak since LaMar had taken several missionary prep classes at B.Y.U., and had visited many church history sites while in the Air Force and on the way home after his discharge. Grady was called to be on the Burley Stake High Council and ordained a High Priest. He was put in charge of all missionary work in that Stake and was very busy in that calling. He was also very busy with his insurance and real estate business, but would always take time to take Loreeta for rides in the country. This she enjoyed very much!
Later in the fall of 1953, Grady became rather chronically ill and lost a great deal of weight. He went to the L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City, in November of that year, where an exploratory laparotomy by Dr. Vincent L. Reese revealed diffuse peritoneal cancer, originating from the head of the pancreas. It had spread into all the organs of the disease that took Grady's mother, Olive. The doctor's prognosis was for six months, but the disease caused him to weaken rapidly. Grady and Loreeta had reservations to fly to West Virginia to spend Christmas with Willis and family, but when the time approached, Grady realized he simply couldn't make it, so Willis and his family flew out to join the family in Burley. Verl and LaMar traveled home, too, from their respective universities to spend Christmas with the family. They had as enjoyable a holiday as possible under the circumstances, with Grady even being helped out to the family table, where Loreeta had prepared a sumptuous Christmas dinner. Grady enjoyed seeing his little grandchildren, Linda, aged five, and Paul Grady, eight months old. Grady was even able to laugh when little Paul Grady tried to blow out the electric lights on the Christmas tree. It also pleased Grady greatly that his ninety-year-old invalid father was brought to the house and was able to be at the dinner table with them.
After Christmas, Willis had to fly back to West Virginia to work, but Edith stayed to help take care of Grady and kept little Paul with her. Linda stayed in Salt Lake City with Grandma Edwards, Edith's mother. For the next several weeks, Edith provided devoted, loving support and trained nursing care to Loreeta and Grady, which both of them greatly appreciated. Toward the end she was able to administer medication to relieve his suffering, which was increasing in intensity. On January 13, 1954, a Saturday, around 11: p.m., Grady slipped away peacefully in his sleep. Through all these weeks of his illness, no one could have given more loving and tender care than Loreeta gave Grady, and he appreciated it. Each time she would bend over his bed to smooth a sheet or plump up a pillow to make him more comfortable, he would give her a kiss.
As soon as Grady died the family was notified. Willis flew back from West Virginia, Verl rode the bus from Moscow, where he was teaching at the University of Idaho, and LaMar drove up from Provo, where he was attending B.Y.U. The funeral service was held at the Burley Fourth Ward Chapel, January 16, 1954. It was well attended by a chapel full of friends and relatives. Grady was buried in the Burley Pleasant View Cemetery, near his parents.
Although Grady died at an early age, he accomplished many things, including the raising of three boys who were encouraged by their parents to get a good education and marry a faithful wife in the Temple. All three boys eventually obtained doctor's degrees and married faithful and devoted wives who were members of the L.D.S. faith. They often commented that they had a good father whom they appreciated and who set a good example for them. They had never known him to lie, be unkind, dishonest, or mistreat anyone in his life, although there were many times people had been dishonest with him. Grady's three sons felt that their father had been called to go into the spirit world, to continue the missionary work he had grown to love so much as a mortal being.
Citing this source
- Wikitree Reference (Appearance in reference list is shown below the editing view text):
- No description: <ref>{{Space:Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard as related by his sons}}</ref>
- With description: <ref>{{Space:Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard as related by his sons|description=: a short biography written by his sons Willis, Verl, and [[Garrard-91|LaMar]], probably in the 1980s or '90s; page ##}}</ref>
- Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard: a short biography written by his sons Willis, Verl, and LaMar, probably in the 1980s or '90s; page ##.
- MLA:
- Garrard, Willis, Verl, and LaMar. Life Story of Hyrum Grady Garrard. Final Draft. Provo, UT, prob. 1980 or '90s. Web. 20 May. 2024.
- APA:
- Garrard, W.D., V.G., & L.E. (prob. 1980s or 1990s). Life story of Hyrum Grady Garrard, Final Draft. Provo, UT. Retrieved from [[Space:Life_Story_of_Hyrum_Grady_Garrard_as_related_by_his_sons|Space:Life_Story_of_Hyrum_Grady_Garrard_as_related_by_his_sons</nowiki>]]
Notes
a. ^ Ezra Taft Benson was actually returning from college at Brigham Young University, from which he graduated in 1926. He had served a mission to Great Britain for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the years 1921-1923.
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