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Show 192 for doing that in his absence. The records show that he did marry again in 1882 and eventually had a good-sized family. Susa once wrote of this first marriage of hers, but before her death she ordered the manuscript burned. She was by nature, at this juncture, "intense and sensitive" (like Dunford, it was said), "intimidatingly energetic, needing freedom and craving attention and admiration." Soon after her divorce, Susa became a student at Brigham Young Academy in Provo. In 1879 she had Bailey with her there for awhile. He was then two or three years old. Her sister Rhoda roomed with her. In a letter to her mother, Susa said, with reference to Rhoda, "For pity's sake keep her a child as long as you can. Don't let her 'marry in haste and repent at leisure.' Set my 23 example before her and let it be a warning." She left daughter Leah, and later Bailey as well, not with her own mother, but in Idaho with Dunford's parents. This decision later led to custody problems. It was reported that she never could get full custody of these two children. But out of that failed marriage came a notable connection, for Susa's daughter Leah married John A. Widtsoe who eventually became a member of the Council of Twelve, a general authority of the Church. Susa grew up rapidly in this season of her life. In Provo, Karl G. Maeser helped her understand the Book of Mormon and urged her to "pursue a literary career." Prior to his death, missionary lecture tours to the Sandwich |
