Eathel Lasson Winkelman Oral History Interview

Oral history interview with Eathel Lasson Winkelman by Ron Staker; Topics include: Biographical information such as date and place of birth, parents and siblings; Growing up in Fairview, UT; The death of Eathel's father when she was a toddler; Her mother expecting her fourth child when Eathel's father died; Admiring her mother's courage; How her mother learned to milk cows; Skimming and selling cream from the milk; Her uncles caring for her father's sheep and cattle and sending the profits to her mother; Watching soldiers leave on a train during WWI; Attending elementary school in the building that is now the Fairview Museum; Walking only two blocks to get to school; Her mother's second marriage to Eathel's Uncle and he being a great father to Eathel and her siblings; Her mother sewing dresses for her; Enjoying Independence Day celebrations; Making paper flower wreaths; Enjoying art; Attending high school in Mt. Pleasant; Participating on the typing team; Taking a woodshop class; Serving as Senior class vice-president; Cheerleading; Graduating from Seminary; Senior couple missionary service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS); Attending cosmetology school after high school graduation; Employment at salons in Salt Lake and Cheyenne, WY; Meeting her future husband in high school and being reacquainted while she was living in Salt lake and her future husband was attending the University of Utah; Attending the Junior Prom with him and being proposed to that night; LDS Church service; Living in California; Teaching a missionary preparation class; Involvement in the PTA; Fundraising efforts for Marching Band uniforms; Starting a book club: Moving to Durham, NC to get married; Her husband attending law school; Traveling home to Utah and being involved in a car accident in California; Deciding to stay in California for her husband to finish law school, but the economic effects of the Great Depression preventing this; Her husband having difficulty finding employment and becoming a real estate broker; Eathels' employment at salons in Beverly Hills and names of celebrities whose hair that she worked on, such as Heddy Lamarr and Gracie Burns; The birth of their children; Eathel opening four of her own salons; Making wise real estate investments; Enjoying world travels; Taking art classes as an adult; Her interest in oil painting; Sharing her paintings with family and friends; Family history stories; Her memories of Fairview as a child; Her father's involvement in the Fairview Mercantile Store; Attending dances at the dance hall; Her hopes for the Fairview Museum and its influence in bringing more activity to Fairview; Children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

The oral history interview with Eathel Lasson Winkelman, conducted by Ron Staker, covers a wide range of topics about her life and provides insight into Eathel's childhood, her career in cosmetology, the challenges she faced during the Great Depression, and her love for art and family. Her life story highlights resilience, family devotion, and community involvement.

Oral History of Eathel Lasson Winkelman Fairview Museum Oral History Project Interviewed by Ron Staker 21 March, 1994 Transcribed by Kenneth R. Tarr March, 1994 Fairview museum of History and Art Fairview, Utah 1994 Oral History Project Fairview Museum of History and Art Interview with Eathel Lasson Winkelman By Ron Staker, 21 March, 1994 Transcribed by Kenneth R. Tarr March, 1994 RS: I'm Ron history from Staker Eathel and this is March 21st, 1994. I'm collecting an oral Lasson Winkelman from Mt. Pleasant. This is an oral history collection project for it's five minutes to eleven. the Fairview Museum of History and Art, and EW: This is Eathel Lasson Winkelman, yes, and I have also been collecting histories for the Fairview Museum, and I thought, "Well, if I'm collecting all these histories, I'd better start my own." Now I have never written my history except for short sketches that I did one time when we had our book club in California. They wanted us to give just a short history of our life. Well, I started writing my history and I started March 3rd, 1994, and I am now 81 years old. I have been getting everyone else's histories; I now have 60 {manuscript} I have collected for our Fairview Museum of History and Arts. I don't have my own history written so I feel I'm living on borrowed time, so I'd better make use of some of the time that is left for me. We never know what our true life Span will be. So I try to hit the high spots of my history. | I am the third of four children born to Elizabeth Matilda Ole Edgar Lasson. We lived in a white house located Main Street in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles south miles south of Salt Lake City. Mother and father were Young Lasson one-half block of Provo, Utah married in and east of and 100 the Manti Temple, about 30 miles south of Fairview. Therefore, we were all born under the covenant. Following is a chronological list of all of us: Edgar Eugene Lasson ("Ted"), born June 21st, 1907; Reed Carmen Lasson, 9th of April, 1909; Eathel Lasson, the 12th of July, 1912, Winkelman now; and Beth Lasson, 24th of October, Fairview, 1915, and Utah with Siebert the help is her of name now. a doctor. We were I think it all was born Dr. at our Winters. home in My mother was one of the most courageous women I have ever known. She was an example to follow. She stressed morality, cleanliness, and I loved and admired her so much! I could always go to her and talk to her. So could all of my girl friends. Mother was called "Aunt Lizzie" by most everyone that knew her. She was a capable and courageous woman and I'll always love and admire her so very much. We had to face a very sad situation in our young life. I was two and a half years old, Ted eight, and Reed six, and Beth was My brother Ted was in bed with a four and a half months from being born. broken leg. He had fallen out of a tree. My father had loaned his gun out to Otto Clark, a neighbor and a friend. He went into the bedroom to clean his gun and keep Ted company. He was cleaning and a stray bullet went through his chin and through his head. It killed him instantly. Such confusion! The men at the Blacksmith's nearby heard the shot. They came running in. I was just Mother was two and a half years old, and they say I started crying. screaming, I'm of the largest sure. Well, after the funerals that had ever very been sad, held sad funeral, in Fairview. and they say one To get on with my life's story, at two and a half years old, my mother's sister came and lived with us when my sister Beth was born. I completed grade one through six in a beautiful old school. It is now the Fairview Museum of History and Arts, and I am now on the Board of Trustees. We are working to preserve that museum and build a new museum to house the Columbian mammoth found on the east hill in Huntington Canyon. It's 11,000 years old and the best preserved bones they have found. The museum is in the stages of building contracts, etc. We have it off. been given the city was bonded for $400,000. Foundation and we were to pay the $100,000 we paid Well, to $800,000 by the Economic Development, We received $100,000 from the Eccles $400,000 back at $20,000 a year. With get on with my education, I liked and the school. I seemed to have few problems. I remember especially two teachers. Gladys Graham, my first-grade teacher, she was related to me. My mother's mother was Rebeccah Graham. The principal was Maitland Graham. He was my uncle. He was married to my father's sister, Marcella Lasson. Stanley Brady was an excellent teacher, also a disciplinarian, but he was a fair teacher. We lived only two blocks from the schoolhouse, so we always walked to and from school. In the wintertime it was really cold and I remember wearing long-legged winter underclothes. I hated wearing them, but they really did keep us from getting cold so much. My mother had never milked a cow in her life, but she had seven cows and she learned to milk them. Even my brother Ted, eight years old, helped. And later on as I got older, I remember taking the cows to the pasture a number of blocks from our home, and at night I went after them to bring them home. Later on, when I became older, I would also milk them. I would always hide. I was so afraid some of my friends would see me. (chuckles) Mother said I would feed the chickens when I was small and call them, "Shitties, Shitties, come and eat." (chuckles) I remember when my mother used to try to get me to take any medicine, and I'd hold it in my mouth and then spit it out. One time I went to the dentist, and he said, "Oh! She bit my finger," and I said, "I meant to too!" And mother was really upset with me. My grandfather, Ole Lasson, helped my mother in many ways. She milked these cows and would separate the milk and take it to the creamery just across the street at Scott Larsen's creamery. Those creamery checks really helped us a lot! We had pigs and chickens, and my father had cattle and sheep he ran on the ranch in Indianola. His brothers took care of them and would give mother the checks, never taking anything out for raising them right along with the other cattle and sheep, etc. That helped our family a great deal. Father's oldest brother, Arthur, would give mother the checks and my mother, after she had been a widow for nearly fifteen years, she and uncle Art were married. He was a wonderful father to we children, and he and mother had a great life together. They did more temple work than most any other in their stake. He helped we children! My sister Beth trained as a nurse at the L.D.S. Hospital, and the cosmetology field, which has served me well. We'll tell you that later in my history. I'll get back into my school years. Junior high. I remember Jess Young. He was an art teacher. I anything great, but my mother saved some of my pictures. When I from California--when we were living in California--I saw them, 2 I went into more about I attended didn't do came home and I thought, "Gee! I can't do that well now!" And I said to myself, "I'm going to take some art classes," and I did! I have been so pleased I did because I have sold eighteen pictures, given many away as gifts: our three children each have at least six or seven. Many of our grandchildren have paintings. I'm happy I had that encouragement by some of my paintings I did when I was in junior high. so Now, getting into my high school days, I had some special teachers at North Sanpete, Mt. Pleasant. Ila Miner was special. She was my type teacher, and I used to be on the type team. We went to Richfield, Provo, and different places where we competed. I could do sixty a minute, but if you don't use it, you lose it! And I don't even type now, and I wish I had kept it up. Pamela tells me she will type my history for me on the computer. I was happy to hear that. RS: Who is Pamela? EW: Pamela is our daughter, and she lives in Provo. Another teacher was Vern Gunderson, our shop teacher. I was making a small table. The table legs were curved, etc. One day in our assembly program, Vern said, "Eathel came and showed me her legs and asked if they were shaped well." Well ok, well I was so embarrassed I could have sunk through the floor! Of course, it was my table legs! He was always joking, but was a great teacher. My other teachers were Seymore Jensen (who was the principal), Daniel Rasmussen, Alene Erickson, my dear friends Grace Simpson, Norma Petersen, Faye Rigby, Neil Hafen, Verl Merrick, Vernon Christensen, Maureen Seely, Lucille Stork. I graduated from high school in 1931. The Junior Prom days, Carnival Queen, I was running for that and lost by a few votes. The girl that won, her father had sent over a purseful of dollars and it was so much a vote. She won, but everyone said, "You are still our queen, Eathel." So many names were signed on a paper and I had a number of papers that had been signed for me. I was vice-president of the senior class. Claire Acord was president, and Essie Candland secretary. I was also vice-president of the girls' club. I graduated from seminary, and the teacher was H. Anderson. I received my S Award: that's presented to those who have fulfilled so many requirements. And I was a cheerleader at North Sanpete High. I have many wonderful and beautiful memories of my high school days. I was very active in school and love all the memories I have. I was on the type team. Ila Miner was our teacher, and also a great friend up to the time she passed away about a year ago in 1993. We would go to Richfield and Provo, and we stayed overnight in a beautiful hotel in Provo. We met some very interesting people. I went with Dick Knight and Clyde Bingham (from Ogden) whom I had met. I enjoyed seminary and to learn more about the Gospel. My husband Jay and I have filled three stake missions and one fulltime mission in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Getting back now to cosmetology. I was always doing friends' hair and sometimes sluffed class to do someone's hair. So when I graduated in '31, went to Quish School of Beauty Culture in Salt Lake City, Utah. I took training courses school. for 1600 hours, and then in the B.Y.U. educational One was Lavon Madsen who graduated. I have also attended many seminary. Many friends I met at beauty used to live through the lot from our home 3 I in Fairview. Later on we lived together in Salt Lake City, and worked at Mitchell's. Jaye Turnbull Beuler Carlett, we also lived together in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We both worked for the same lady, Betty Kaye, in Salt Lake City. She transferred me to Cheyenne. She had a beauty salon there. Her sister, Jody, ran it for her. When I went to Cheyenne, I lived with Jody. I have many wonderful there. It was memories of Cheyenne, Wyoming. later when Jaye Bhuler came and I met some of then we lived my at finest friends the Y.W.C.A. We had so much fun with the friends we had in Cheyenne! In beauty school there was only one boy taking the beauty course. We all thought that was so strange and we laughed about it. But now there are probably as many men as there are women. Well, enough about beauty school. My sister Beth went into nursing and graduated from the L.D.S. Hospital. She made a wonderful nurse and she helped to take care of many of our family and friends. After working in Cheyenne for two and a half years, I returned to Salt Lake City and worked at the 2.C.M.I. Department Store. Before leaving Cheyenne a friend of mine, Maye Daniels, was with her sister in Cheyenne, but returned to her home in Logan, Utah. She looked up my friend, Jay Winkelman. She started us writing to each other. I had dated Jay some in high school; then he went to Utah State. He was active there and belonged to the Jester's Club, the drama club. He had the lead in Seventh Heaven, and was active. He was president of the Junior Class. He lived with Ray Lillywhite who was president of the student body. And I, living in Salt Lake City, was living with Elouise Hoopes. She was Ray Lillywhite's girl friend. And I went from Cheyenne and led the Jr. Prom with Jay. I had a beautiful white crepe long dress with black fur all around the bottom of the skirt, and a black taffeta jacket with big mutton sleeves and a stand-up collar. I felt so special! And to be leading the prom with Jay! Well, Jay asked me to marry him that night, and I accepted. He had borrowed Ray Lillywhite's fraternity pin. I didn't know that, but I found out later from Elouise, Ray's girl friend and my roommate. We have had a continuous friendship all these years. They are in Alameda, California. I just called her for her 82nd birthday. They are both doing well. They have made a great name for themselves. We are very proud to call them our friends. I worked in the M.I.A., the Mutual Improvement Association, for thirteen straight years, and was president five years of that time. I taught the Gleaner Girls in Mt. Pleasant, and we had the first Golden Gleaner in the state. Her name was Esther Peel. I took her all over the stake for Signatures. Dona Petersen and I taught the class. There was only one of those girls that wasn't married in the temple. While second counselor in the stake M.I.A.--Ruth Jones was president and Ethel Erickson first counselor--we took the young ladies on the mountain and had some great experiences getting acquainted with trees and plants, and we had some great testimony meetings. When Jay and I came home from our mission in Massachusetts, the stake president brought us an assignment. He had been waiting for us to get home. We taught the prospective missionary class for three years in Carlsbad, California. It was a most enjoyable assignment. We would meet twice a month at our home in Carlsbad. We taught them table manners, how to cook, how to talk on the phone, how to apply for a job, how to press their pants, and we also taught the Gospel. Each time, we had them give their testimonies. 4 That's one thing one does on missionaries go on missions. "Mom and Dad." It was truly a mission very often. We had twenty-seven We still hear from some of them. Some call a choice experience. - us Then they assigned us to be employment specialists for the stake. That was also rewarding because we helped people find jobs! One lady came down from Utah; she even stayed with us until she found employment. We helped a family that was living in their camper. They finally were employed, both husband and wife, and they did well from then on. Well I could go on and on, but I'm afraid this history is going to be too long for anyone to read. I've been P.T.A. President in Mt. Pleasant at the high school. Myself, Alice Hafen, Thelma Tuttle had signed a contract for band uniforms. We didn't have any money to pay for them. We had a band concert, served a dinner, charged, and the Lady Lions helped with it, and the band played. We had round-robin. We served food for three days, and bought all the hamburger and wieners in Mt. Pleasant, Fairview, and Spring City. My husband put up a long grill. We had the gas company in Mt. Pleasant at the time--propane. We went to all the banks, merchants, and presidents of clubs, and asked for help and donations. In almost a month's time we had collected enough to pay for the uniforms. At that time we owned and lived at the Mansion House, and when that band marched down State Street, Arlene playing the drums, Claire Seely the majorette, I tell you I thought the buttons would pop off my blouse. I was so thrilled. There was nothing like that for the rewards for our efforts. We also made capes and caps for the junior high school. With their white pants and shirts, it was a sight to be seen! Our mission in Massachusetts was a very great and spiritual experience. We just loved many of the people we taught in Massachusetts and kept in touch with them. Betty Olson, Martha Harger--they are sisters--Betty's son, Chris Olson, was our branch president, a wonderful president, and his wife and family, leaving Society, left. outstanding. The one family invited us to dinner because we were to return home. We were called by the president of the Relief Mrs. We did Gougan, but didn't who wanted take time us to to come eat our and see dessert her so new we baby would before go back. we I tried to get my husband to forget the dessert and drive on home and call the hostess, but he drove on. We arrived there and she said, "You left your blouse in there." I went in to the other room to get it and they all shouted, "Surprise." There were the branch members, many of them. I've never been so Surprised. I started crying. I could hardly stop. There was the table all set, and a beautiful horseshoe-shaped cake which said, "Happy journey and good luck." Well, we had a wonderful evening, and they gave us an album with many pictures of the members of the branch. I looked through it and it brings many memories back to us. We have many happy memories. And I think I'd better stop for a few minutes. I came to the end of the history that I had written, but I did write this one for our book club in California. I started a book club in California and we had twenty-one members. And we had the most wonderful group of women that I have just about ever known. But one of the ladies was really involved in genealogy and she asked each one of the members to write a short history of their life. And so I have written here, and I might do a little repetition 9 here, I don't know, but I will read this that I have written for that. And it says I was born and reared in Fairview, Utah, a small town in Sanpete County, on July 12, 1912. My mother, Elizabeth Mathilda Young, was also born in Fairview on May 22, 1886. Her parents were William Franklin and Rebeccah Graham Young. They were father, Ole Edgar Lasson 1915, when I was two and Carrying my sister Beth, Older brothers, Edgar married ("Ted"), for fifteen years. In 1928 she in the Manti Temple. My mother ever known. She was September was born the a half years who was born also a and very 25, 1906 in the Manti Temple. 5th of July, 1882. He died July old and mother was twenty-nine. five months after his death. We Reed. married was one moral Mother my of raised father's the most person and the four of us 13, She had My alone was two brother, Arthur Ray Lasson courageous people I have a wonderful example to me. I loved her very much. My stepfather had been a widower for five years. He and his wife had no children, so we filled his life with children and grandchildren. Mother and he were very happy. They did a great deal of temple work in the Manti Temple. They were known to be the salt of the earth and friends to all. Jay, my this year, November 22, husband for but we will this coming nearly sixty years be celebrating our year. Jay was now... sixtieth born May 7, This is, I've updated wedding anniversary 1911 in Mt. this Pleasant, Utah, six miles south of Fairview. I first remembered Jay from before we even went to high school. He and several of his friends came to Fairview to find some girl friends. My friend and I were sitting on the bridge across from my home. They stopped and we talked. When I went to high school in Mt. Pleasant, I met him again. I was active in school, serving as vice-president of my senior class and president of the girls' club. I also kept busy dating and going to dances in the small communities in Sanpete County. After graduation I went to Salt Lake City to attend Quish School of Beauty Culture. Jay was captain of the football team in high school, and I dated hima fev times. This tall dark, curly-haired, handsome boy, the type most girls dream about, he was also the valedictorian of his senior class. He went on to Utah State College where he was president of the junior class. At the Junior Prom we led the grand march. That was the evening he gave me his Delta Nu fraternity pin. This fraternity later turned to Pi Capp. Jay borrowed that pin from his roommate Ray Lillywhite, who was president of the student body. After completing beauty school, I was transferred to Cheyenne, Wyoming where I worked for two and a half years. While there, I met some of the most wonderful friends anyone could have, and many of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I have kept in touch with some of these friends all these years. Jay went on to Chicago University and from there to Duke in Durham, North Carolina. I later visited Duke and we were married the 22nd of November, 1934. Jay was one year from taking his bar exam. When we came home for a vacation after two and a half years, we had a car accident, and decided to stay in California so he could continue his studies at U.C.L.A. It was depression days and there were no jobs. I went to work for Weaver Jackson from Hollywood Boulevard. Jay had a rough time finding work, and I became pregnant. He never did get back into school. This was one of our greatest disappointments, that he didn't get his law degree. He had law books twenty-five dollars--and that was a lot of money at that time--but did get back into his, ... and become a lawyer, which was a great 6 he for never disappointment. We had two more children and settled in California. Jay became a real estate broker and I went back into beauty school, beauty work. We had four beautiful salons in the Glendale area and had fifty people working for us. We sold our business and retired over fifteen years ago. We have enjoyed retirement, although we certainly have kept busy. We have been on three stake missions and a full-time mission in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a great experience. When we returned from our mission, Jay's three sisters and his brother-in-law were taking a B.Y.U. tour to the Holy Land, and urged us to join have them. We visited the Masada, saw the Dead Sea Scrolls, also visited Italy, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, Russia, the Pyramids. We Sweden, Germany, England, Finland, Norway, and France. We have been to Hawaii four times, all very memorable trips. Jay made some wise real estate investments with the profits from the beauty salons. Consequently, we have been able to live very comfortably and enjoy these choice experiences. We are so grateful for our many blessings and are especially grateful for the blessings of the Gospel and the principles of righteousness it teaches us in our lives. These standards direct our lives and bring peace of mind and happiness. At one time I visited my sister Beth Siebert in Orange. We attended her book club which I enjoyed so much. I decided to start one in Carlsbad. I spoke to several other ladies and they thought it a great idea. We had our first meeting in my home April 13, 1982. Present were Donna McDougal, Nanette Luke, Irene Maynard, and me. Carol Porter was invited but unable to attend. It has progressed and has been a most enjoyable group. I have enjoyed it immensely and hope it continues. It is not only a book-review group but a social time together with good friends. I have been interested in oil painting and have done at least one hundred and fifty. Our children have five or six in their homes, and each grandchild has one. I have sold eighteen and also made Afghans for each grandchild. I try to do my part in community and political activities. I just organized a forum this spring 1986 for the seven county supervisors, supervisor candidates. The forum was held in the club house here at the Rancho Carlsbad. I also had a party for Ron Packard when he won the forty-third district congressional seat by a write-in vote, a record-breaking accomplishment. I am grateful I have my health and was able to do my part whenever I can. Ron Packard won this as a write-in, only the second time in the United States that that has happened. We correspond and talk once in a while and we keep in touch with each other, and I received a beautiful Christmas card from them where they were to a party there at the White House. There is so many experiences in my life to remember with joy, so many beautiful memories. That has been said that if you have happy memories, you will have a happy old age. And I expect to have a super time in my old This is what "Bathel, if you Janet Tilton wrote on the bottom live to be a hundred and twenty, her everyone You are eternal youth thinking person, such way to make age. of this history. She said, you will never reach old age. personified. I have never known such a positive, a giving, loving, truly lovely lady, one who goes happy." out of RS: hear Eathel, I would like to ask you talk about some of your you some questions. I'd be interested to childhood friends, your earliest friends. EW: Well, some of my very early girlfriends was Allie May Carlston, Agnes Christensen, and Norma Peterson, Faye Rigby--Faye Rigby and I were together so much of the time--and Nora Cox. Nora Cox, it isn't Cox now; it is Nora Bench at that time, but she is Nora Cox now. She married Welber Cox. And there was Dorothy Rasmussen, her father was the depot agent there in Fairview when we had a depot. And I remember so well when we were up at the depot one time when I was just a little girl about two and a half or three years old and I was hanging on my mother's skirts there. And we saw the soldiers leaving for the World RS: Can War, and I can remember Lawrence Larsen, Otto Clark, and several others. And I can just still see them waving with their hands, you know, out of the window there as the train was pulling off and everybody of course was crying. But that was quite an experience. And then Lawrence Larsen ... Well, Lawrence Larsen was from Fairview. His father used to come by and would take me a ride on his horse. He would ride up by the fence, and I'd stand upon the fence and I'd put my leg over and I'd ride on the back of his horse with him. (laughs) And he was killed in the war, so it was quite a memory that I had. And some of my friends and I have, really strange! Yes, we have kept in touch. Now Lavon Madsen lived right through the lot from me, and we were very good friends, and just not long ago she was in Salt Lake to visit her daughter 'cause she'd moved back to ... Missouri, where her other daughter was living. And I had a luncheon here for her and had some of her friends in she hadn't seen for a long time. We had a most enjoyable time. EW: I'd and the you tell me what it was like growing up in Fairview? It was wonderful! I had no idea that I was poor. I never felt poor, and never wear the same dress twice in a row. I'd always change every day, everybody thought that I had a lot of clothes. But my mother would make clothes for me and ... I have to tell one ... But I didn't one time there was a young girl and her mother was trying on and she was getting so impatient. And her mother was trying hold still so she could fit the dress to her. And she says, she did says, “Weren't you like this when have some wonderful times, and on you the do this, but a dress for her, to get her to "Well mother," were alive." (laughs) Fourth of July we would But anyway have a big celebration there on the Fourth of July. And mother would always make root beer, and all the people from the ranch would come over, and we would have a big dinner at our place. And that was wonderful and that root beer was so good! We just thought that was a special treat. And another thing that wreaths of flowers, paper daughter was Uncle Art's I remember so well is I used flowers for Grandma Johnson. first wife. That was Gertrude to make flowers, And Grandma Johnson's Johnson. And there's a big picture of his family, Ed Johnson and Dora Day Johnson, up in the museum. It's a beautiful big picture of the family. And Aunt Gert was Uncle Art's first wife. But I used to make flowers for Decoration Day, and I'd make ten wreaths for Grandma Johnson, and she would give me $10.00. Well, I thought I was the richest girl in Fairview on the Fourth of July because I had all that money. But the first thing I did when I got my $10.00, I ran practically all the way down to Bishop Nielsen's home and gave him a dollar. 8 I And I was so proud of myself, giving my tithing to the bishop! And that was memorable times because we would all dress up so fancy on the Fourth of July for the parade and everything. It was a real outstanding day. And there was always the drugstore over there in Fairview where you could sit up on those high stools and have your sundaes and ice cream sodas, and Floyd Young was the one that owned it at that time. And he was a brother to Jess Young, Young. corner and they were relatives of my mother because And he build this home, which was a store where Golden Carlston's home now stands. which was worked in her and And father was William a home, right on the he had a cash-and-carry, supposed to be cash-and-carry, but there was a lot of men that | the mines and they would charge. Grandfather would let them charge, but their names are still on the books. best to have a cash-and-carry store. They never paid. So sometimes it's Anyway, my Aunt May ... Well, I'll get back to my grandmother and grandma. My mother's mother was Rebeccah Graham Young, and she came over--she was only thirteen years old when she came over from Yorkshire, England--with John Graham and her two brothers. And her mother died in Wyoming someplace, and there was another woman who had two children. She helped to take care of her, with the father, she had to take care of these children. Well, anyway Uncle John became the manager of the Fairview Mercantile Company in Fairview, and my grandfather was--well, I'm getting all mixed up here. My grandmother, Rebeccah Graham, she had seven children, and her President Grant's eighth child father, in was a placenta previa and she wasn't able to deliver it because there was just midwives at that time. And they kept her for a week because there was still a warm spot on her stomach. And my grandfather he ... they finally buried her, but she was ... It was so sad because there were all those children and my grandfather. And he never did marry but the oldest child was Aunt Vinny, and she was only fifteen years old. And she helped to take care of the family. But my grandfather's father, Absolom McDonald Young, was a doctor in Smith County, Virginia, and my grandfather, William Young, was sort of a doctor himself. And they said that he was just so clean that you could have eaten off the floor. He was such a clean man. And he said one time there was a fly landed on his cup and he threw his cup out the door because he said they carried germs and that long before they ever knew there was such a thing as flies carrying it. And he also said at one time that there would be traffic lights in the air the same as there are traffic lights on the ground because he felt that there would be. And he was a visionary man. And he was baptized by Jedekiah Virginia. Grant, He and and his that wife is and his brother and his wife were Smith County, baptized. And my great-grandfather was a doctor, and he was out one night and he caught pneumonia. And he died in my grandmother's arms and he told her to sell the plantation--they had 1600 acres of ground--and he said to sell the plantation and to move to Utah among the saints. Well, she tried to sell the hogs and the different things, and people were so against Mormons down there that she had a terrible time trying to sell their property. And she didn't sell the property. She left it in the hands of a Mr. Hambelin, or something like that. But she trusted him. But anyway, she and her daughter, and some other family, left and went to Utah. But they landed in Saint Louis and there She bought her first cook stove. But on this plantation, they had everything 9 there. This one daughter of platters of buckwheat cakes, big family, because they had in Saint Louis landed in Salt hers said she can remember these great huge and ham, cured ham, and eggs that served their a really big family. But anyway, when they were they came on to Salt Lake City on Lake, there were grasshoppers all the train, and when they over the station! And they such much were so thick that a lot of the people who had come to Utah turned around and went back on the train. They didn't stay. But my grandmother and them finally came on to Fairview, and there is where they stayed until her daughter, Sarah, was married to John Vance. And they moved to Mesa, Arizona, and my great-grandmother went on to Mesa, Arizona with them and she died there. But there's a long history and I have so material on genealogy that I just hope I can get it all put together some of these times. And now getting back to my grandmother, but no, there is another part I want to tell about grandfather. He would walk the floors at night when my grandmother died, and couldn't the room he would and there sleep it just walk were two seemed. the And floor, he and said outstretched one he night arms, said that there and a he, was voice well, a light said, he came "She just has into been delivered; the baby has been delivered." And it seemed from then on he had peace of mind and he was able to carry on. But then later on, his son Porter and he was so attached, and Porter worked in Eureka along with Uncle Will who was my mother's brother and Uncle George. And they worked in the mines over in Eureka. Well, Porter was the youngest one and he got pneumonia and he died. And grandfather said if anything ever ever happened to that boy, he said he wouldn't be far behind him. And he passed away in two weeks after Porter died, and they are buried in the Fairview Cemetery at the north end of the lower cemetery. And I manage to always get flowers on their grave every Decoration Day--Memorial Day. was But there's an energetic a lot of man, history and he and would a go lot and of take sad things, pictures but all my grandfather through Sanpete. And he would bring them home and then send them back east because there wasn't anybody around there that developed the pictures. So he would send them back east and have the pictures developed, and then he would make frames for them and tint them and paint the pictures, and then would deliver them to the people throughout Sanpete. And one time he came home, and he did this probably several times, but he emptied out all his bags of the money he'd collected. And he put it up in a little hole in the upstairs of this house. And there he saved until he had over a $1,000, but he'd have the kids count out this money, and that would help them to know more about what the worth of money was. And so he built this store there on the corner where Golden's house is. And they had groceries and all kinds of different things. But sometimes the Indians would come in there, and they were not allowed to sell any of this that had alcohol in to the Indians. But my Aunt Mame one time, she said there were two Indians came in there and she was there alone, and they went behind the counter and they wanted this, this stuff right here. So she said she just hurried and took their money so they'd leave fast. And they did. Well, this that my Grandfather Young was a very fine person and he kept his family all together as long as he possibly could. And then the first one was married to Vernon Webb and they moved to Oregon. Then Aunt Mame married Melvin Miner, and Melvin Miner was killed by a train in Vineyard. And Aunt 10 Mame had a ranch at that time. Well, she reared her family and they all had good college educations and became teachers. But only one of her children have passed away and that's Lela. Well, I'm rambling and I feel like I'm really rambling, but I've touched on mother's parents and now I'd like to say something about my father's parents. My grandmother was Cynthia Terry, and her father had four or five wives and her mother was the third wife. And he really had a big family. But he was a very prominent man; he was a very fine man. He became bishop and he was very active in the Church. But my grandmother and grandfather, they lived out . Well, I have to tell you a little bit about my grandfather. He came over on the Emerald Isle, Ole Lasson from Sweden and on this trip over from Sweden to New York there were a hundred people died on this ship. In Devil's Gate, Wyoming his father died, and his mother had the two boys and a daughter and my grandfather, Ole and Andrew and Niels Lasson and Aunt Nelly. And they came on to Eden, Utah, and there my grandmother had to hire her children, the ones that were old enough--and I think my grandfather was about fourteen years old-she had to hire him out to a family to work for them for their board and room. And I think she did with the other boys, also. But my grandfather saved his money and he was able to buy an acre of ground, then he would gradually add to it. And then he homesteaded a place near Indianola and it was called the "Clinton Ranch," and he started the Clinton Ranch. And he gradually added cattle to that ranch, and then later on he married Cynthia Falindy Terry and they had ten children out in a place in Indianola that vwas on the homestead. And I used to go out to that homestead and we would do fishing with a pin that we had turned, you know, and we had lots of fun memories. And I would visit my aunt where the railroad would just go by her place, and we kids would always run out to meet the train, and they would throw candy bars and gum and all kinds of things out to we kids. But anyway, my grandfather, with all of his thrift and hard work, he managed to become very very financially fixed, and how he ever did it, I don't know because he certainly started from scratch. to But the starting put and up his Peter Sundwall Sr., from Fairview, walked Clinton Ranch and asked grandfather if he the $10,000 family first at and bank that his in time. Fairview. cattle, Now and this all Well, is the over on the would go in grandfather, many boys years all after worked in my he Company, and several different things that they tracks on understanding, had together father was not able to work on the ranch because he would get badly, so he was at the Fairview Mercantile Company, where my several other men started the co-op, and it was a Co-op Sheep Mercantile railroad with him his ranch there. My There was hay fever so grandfather and and Co-Op started. A. H. Anderson, and A. J. Anderson's father, and another, Andrew Lasson. But anyway they started this co-op, and that's where my father worked because he had hay fever and he couldn't work over at the ranch. But nevertheless, he had cattle and sheep and everything that he was able to have on the ranch. They started the first bank in Fairview, Utah in 1914. It was called the Fairview Bank. And when the depression came along--and not exactly that, but the examiners for the banks--he decided that they would be better off iff they moved the bank to Mt. Pleasant. And my grandfather was president of the bank at that time. And there was quite a bit of confusion because people didn't want it to be moved to Mt. Pleasant, but, under the circumstances, they felt 11 that it would called it the Mt. Pleasant. they were be better for the bank. So they moved Sanpete Valley Bank. And in 1934 that And my grandfather said at our dining examining backing 100%." closed at that he was bishop help all the banks, and a very very generous man too. could always go to him, and he some Well missionary now, Ron, grandfather he said, "Well, And it was about the only bank in time. He was a very thrifty man. and you that was got me out grandmother, his mission. started and I'm very could tell let talking proud of along with them this area that He came up the And they said in would always get on I'm it to Mt. Pleasant and was that they moved to room table, and he said them, come; we have was not hard way, but his funeral that the a donation or always like and a they ..., but my celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. And when Jay and I had come home to visit after we had been in North Carolina for two and a half years, my grandmother was sick. And I can just see her yet, lying on the davenport there and saying, "Well, why do you have to go so far away to get your education?" And then we had a tipover going back to California, and we decided to stay in California. We stayed with Jay's aunt, his mother's sister, Aunt Alice, for a while until we became situated and I got a job in Weaver Jackson's on Hollywood Boulevard, and that's another story I many many others. But I started working for Weaver Jackson, and Freda Fredricks, who was the manager of Weaver Jackson's--it was a beautiful salon on Hollywood Boulevard. I used to do Hedy Lamar's hair and I used to do Mrs. Eddie Cantor's and Mrs. George Burns and many different celebrities. And then Freda Fredricks went out into Beverly Hills, wanting to get some new hair stylists. And most of the hair stylists said that they would work for her, but they wouldn't work for Mrs. Gadsby, who was the owner of Weaver Jackson's. So Freda got the idea that she would open up her own beauty salon. So she went across the street from Weaver Jackson's on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and she opened Freda's Beauty Salon, Fredrick's Beauty Salon. Well, she took me and one or two other girls with her in this beauty salon, and it was beautiful. There were upstairs, and they had a facial department there, which I was in charge of facials and I did a lot of facial work at that time. And two of the girls that I used to do was the ... Oh! Now I can't remember their names, but the anyway they used to own the waterworks in Oakland, California. And the one married one of the Parkers from Hawaii who had this big Parker's Ranch over in Hawaii, and later on in our life we visited that. Oh! dear, I can't remember Nevertheless, it was interesting because I met some very interesting people. And I used to go out to Mrs. Harold Lloyd's house, and they would answer there at the gate; they would ask where you were from, and they said the Fredrick's Beauty Salon. And they would let you in, and you would go up a long path, and you'd go in and you'd take an elevator and go up the right wing. And there was just a beautiful, gorgeous home, and would come in, and the maid would ask you what you'd like cold drink or something. And you'd sit and wait for Mrs. She would come in. And so I used to do her nails and her Mrs. Harold Lloyd to have to drink, a Harold Lloyd, and hair and a facial. was very very I start now? away. And a couple of times Harold interesting. You'd better Lloyd came in; she Well, now I'm getting stop for a minute Ron. 12 introduced carried me to him, Where and it should RS: Eathel, what was it like living in Fairview as a child? What downtown Fairview like and what was it like going in your ..., was grandfather's store, your father's? It was a Co-op Mercantile. was it your : EW: It was the Fairview Merc, the Fairview Merc. And he and several other men started these cooperative organizations--the sheep co-op and the cattle co-op and the mercantile co-op. They started these stores and one was the Fairview Merc. Well, my father, and some of my earliest recollections, or at least I don't know whether it's my ... my memory or someone telling me about it all the time, but my father clerked in the Fairview Merc. And we would go down there, and it was a big store! They had just shelves and yards and yards of material and groceries and, oh!, it was a big store really! And would give me a little wash dish full of candy. And oh! that was a thing when I'd go down there. And he'd always seem so happy to see my father thrilling mother and I. And my mother was so happy with my father; they seemed to be real real happy together. And then to think that when she was only twenty-nine years old that she was left alone with this tragic affair! But ... she survived, but it was a real heartbreaking thing for her to have to go through, and she reared four children for nearly fifteen years before she married Uncle Art. So anyway, my father was always jovial. And the Indians liked him very much and they'd always go there and trade with him, and sometimes they would trade these beaded bags. And so he would bring them home sometimes and show them to us, and we had some for a long time and I don't know what has ever happened to them. But the Fairview Merc was a big store, and then there was another store, and I don't remember exactly what that was called before. Allie Carlston and Sylvan Peterson bought that store together, and it was called the "Carlston and Peterson." But I don't remember what it was called before that, but it was a big store there in Fairview. Then they had this huge dance hall. But oh!, we would dance there when I was older; we would dance RS: EW: the And Eve I there, and Eathel, we'd where dance was almost the dance every hall place in Sanpete County, but ... located? It's located the same place as it is right now. And now they have redone dance hall and trying to improve it and trying to carry on dances there. I just hope that they are successful because they've had some New Year's dances there. I know we've attended several, a couple of them anyway, and appreciate those people that are trying to restore that, such as we "I could are trying to restore Fairview because it has gone down tremendously. seems like that ... I wrote an article one time, and I had it put And it in the buckets of tears to see the way market there, and a drugstore. a meat several Pyramid, cafes, and and a I said, bank, "What's and two happened meat it It has was to Fairview," I gone." And we very busy, and markets--there was one said, used to have popular, and right bank there and now the windows are all broken out of that pitiful. And the store, the Carlston Store, is closed. I happened to Fairview, but let's hope and pray to get this so that it will help to bring some people in, and we might attractions in Fairview that we can profit by some of the be going through. id on the cry end of and it's just don't know what's museum built there have other tourists that will the But we want this built for Sanpete, not just Fairview but to help all Sanpete. And I was to a meeting in Ephraim, and they have a map and they're doing a lot of advertising of Sanpete County. And they have a heart right in the center of Utah and it says, "Sanpete, the heart of Utah." And they're trying will big to improve help to attraction. before I'm enjoying but getting that RS: I life just Why back don't EW: Well, Arlene. RS: When EW: She our was was and know to... and wonderful. course, has Snow don't Oh! were to me about tell ... places Manti has College. Mt. and all the these temple Pleasant and things that's that a has Wasatch have a and I there's quit your We had lot so of many know time things I'm left! But nevertheless, that jumbling comes to everything my mind all up, children? our first child in California. It was born? November We came to California and the day. We were married and I I... children born Of Ephraim die, you she bed-and-breakfast in. Fairview doesn't have much of anything until we can get and I hope and pray that it is built and bringing in the I don't the people And Academy. And poor this museum going, tourists upon bring And then the 21st, right three years A.J. Oh! my goodness, we were at the after we were married. things comes stayed there, and she was born three years almost to 22 November, 1934. So, she ... has been a great joy we had so many my mind. My husband was working for the Fish and Game in California, and I was in Utah with my mother. And Jay's mother and I drove to California from Utah and in Las Vegas I thought I was so close to having delivery and Mrs. Winkelman was absolutely worried sick. So we traveled on though and we drove into our driveway, and I'll tell you we were both so grateful that we had arrived home without having the baby before we got there. (laughs) But anyway, A.J., received football or touch And then Oh no, no have the children when A.J. was born, hospital there, and Jay to the word and he came from Napa, California. And he brought a and he had poison ivy all over his body, and he couldn't even kiss me the baby or anything. (laughs) And so that was when A.J. was born. later on Pamela. He was born August the 29th and he is about 55 now. gosh! I can't remember. Anyway, then Pamela came along and so we three children and very proud of each one. We now have 21 grand and 12 great-grandchildren. 14