Oral history interview with Bernice Williams Bowman by Bette L. Stanton

Oral history interview by Bette L. Stanton with Bernice Williams Bowman. Topics include: Personal background information including place of birth, parents, siblings, spouse, children, and growing up in Castleton, Utah; Experiences of her youth; Riding mules and burros; Her mother serving as the post mistress and their home serving as the post office; Her father bootlegging whiskey during prohibition to make money for her two older brothers medical bills for leukodystrophy and her two brothers eventual death; The death of four younger brothers of which two died of leuodystrophy, one as an infant, and ove from appendicitis; Her father's work in the cattle and mining indsutry and often being away from home; Her uncle's practical jokes; Baking bread; Picking cherries; Visits from her Grandfather Larsen; Moving back and forth between Moab and Castleton for school and the many changes in the schools she attended; Carrying snow home in saddle bags to make icecream; Not having refrigeration; Gardening and canning food; The death of her uncle; Working at a nursery school after graduation; Meeting her future husband, dating, elopement, and moving to Colorado; Retuning to Moab after the birth of her oldest daughter and builidng a home; Her husband's cancer and employmemt with the Sheriff's Department; Moving back and forth between Moab, Colorado, and Montana; Working as a hotel maid; The genetic origin of leukodystrophy in her family and its affects on four of her brothers and a grandson; A 1950s earthquake in Montana, the devestating effects, and her husband's absence from home after the earthquake assisting others affected by the devestation; Moving back to Moab; Her husband responsibilities after becoming Sheriff: running the prison, patrol duty, search and rescue responsibilities; under-age beer busting, catching criminals; the murder investigation of Ann Woodward; Her husband's retirement; Their 50th Wedding Anniversary; Death of her husband; The use of telephone party lines; Her mother's mental breakdown after her youngest brother, Larry, became sick with leukodystrophy and her mother had already lost five sons; Taking her mother to the State Mental Hospital in Provo; Her father's frequent absence from home; L; Caring for Larry at her home with along with her own children; Larry's death; Caring for her mother later in life and finally feeling close to her.