Eyvonne's Life Story

I would like to begin my life history with my testimony. I know the the Father, Jesus Christ his Son, and the Holy Ghost make up the Godhead.

I know Joseph Smith was ordained to bring forth the Book of Mormon for the restoration of His church here in the Americas.

I know that the Book of Mormon is a second witness to the bible and to Jesus Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is true.

I know there is no better way to live ones life than to Follow the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ.

I only have one real memory of my early life in Susanville, California and that is leaving my bicycle on the front porch of our little house in Susanville. We lived right next door to my Uncle Cutler and Aunt Vesta and their children Vernon and Phyllis. Down the street lived my Uncle Guy and Aunt Irene and their four boys: Boyd, Dale, Ned, Kent. All my Father’s brothers had gone to Susanville to work in the lumber factories during the depression and also one sister, Bernell. I’m not sure where Aunt Bernell and Uncle Eddie lived at that time. Also Uncle Lamar and Aunt Jean and their son David. My Uncle Earl had retuned to Utah in 1930. All 5 brothers worked in the fruit growers supply company in the box factory or other parts of fruit growers.

My parents, Var Niels Porter and Forrest Nielson met when my dad was driving the school bus for Richfield high school from which he graduated. He was 3 years older than mother who went to South Sevier high school [in Monroe, Utah]. Dad [Var] drove the Richfield High school for a ball game where he met mom.

After my dad went to Susanville to work he mailed mother a ticket to Fallon, Nevada so she could come out to California and get married. They lived for a short time in a tent in Uncle Lamar’s front yard then were able to get a small house. Grandmother Nielson had never met dad because as soon as the older children [Nielson children] were able they found jobs outside their home to help Grandma [Nielson] money wise. Mother was living with a school teacher and his wife because his wife just gave birth to twins and needed some help. Their name was Melville. So Mother and Dad’s courtship took place between Melville’s and Central. Grandma Nielson wrote Dad a letter telling him how much Mother meant to her and for him to be kind to her, and take good care of her—which he always did. I never rememberer Father going to work without kissing Mom goodbye each morning.

Grandpa Porter [William] was very good to his children and to provide for his family he hauled freight over the Nevada desert to the mines, operated a threshing machine, and operated 3 saw mills (one up Fish Creek Canyon, one on the banks of the Sevier River, and one on Cove Mountain). He also owned a farm west of Central up above the rail road tracks. He was physically powerful man, known as one of the strongest men in the territory. He could lift a wagon load of lumber by his shoulder. He used this method to tell if the wagon was sufficiently loaded for the horses to pull. I loved my grandpa Porter—he was so good to me.

Grandma Porter was a sweet gentle woman. Her mother was Danish [actually her father was Norwegian] and while grandma never spoke Danish she could understand anyone speaking Danish. She had a beautiful singing voice and loved to sing and dance. The older children remember Grandpa and Grandma dancing around the kitchen to the radio. Tragically she experience severe postpartum depression at the birth of some of her children in a time when nothing was known about how to treat this. This is why some of the children lived with other relatives. The first 5 children with Grandpa and Grandma Frederick Porter and Cutler with grandma’s sister in Salt Lake. My dad was the second to the youngest and by them Grandma was able to care for her family even though she was different. She would not leave home but raised a beautiful yard with a big garden and beautiful flowers. She had a large tulip garden and one day Garry picked all the tulips. It’s a good thing it was Garry or this may have been trouble with us living so close. Garry was her favorite so will some stress the problem passed.

There was large trees along the north side of Grandpa’s yard and lawn which still stand at this time. It was a beautiful place at that time. My brother Garry lives in the house today.

By strange I mean her house was grimy, because grandma would not use hot water or soap to clean with. She was always cleaning with cold water. One Thanksgiving Grandpa invited us to dinner. Now my mother was Famous for her hot rolls, butter, and home made jam. Grandma served baking powder biscuits, no butter, no jam. To this teenager [this was] entirely unacceptable. I look forward to know my real grandparents.

Their children:

William Guy 11 Aug 1892

Hyrum Ray 14 June 1894

Earl LeRoy 17 Nov 1900

Victor Lamar 22 Jan 1903

Norman Cutler 7 Feb 1095

Margaret LaPreal

Lillian Melissa 6 June 1906

Var Niels 13 Feb 1909

Bernell 6 Sept 1910

Grandpa’s house was built in 1926 it was the largest home in central at that time. 3 bedrooms, large kitchen, 2 front rooms with an arch between, I never could figure that out. And a room for a bathroom and a large porch front and back. Here is another example of grandmother’s strangeness. She would not allow Grandpa to put in a hot water heater because it would blow the house up or would she not allow Grandpa to put in the toilet, tub, or washbasin because she would not go the bathroom in the same house she cooked in. As soon as she died Grandpa installed both the bathroom fixtures and the water heater.

Grandpa had the walls and the partitions up on the house when the great depression hit the Central area. He lost everything except the house, one threshing machine, and the sawmill on Cove Mountain.

We left Susanville to live in Grandpa and Grandma’s old house that stood just south of the new house. It had 3 rooms [hand drawn picture of house set up] all in a row. We lived in the 1st and 2nd rooms, Grandpa Frederick lived in the 3rd room. He [Frederick] died just short of 94 years old.

Before we got to Central we stopped in Salt Lake for a year and then went to Vernal for a while. Dad sold Everware pots and pans. Mother would cook a large meal using all of the pans and have 3 or 4 couples to dinner. Then they would sell the everware. I don’t remember any of this part of my life. When mother died I got the large turkey roaster which I gave to my son Ted. After a short stay in Vernal we finally got home to Central. (WearEver Cookware can trace its origins back to 1888 when Charles Martin Hall, a young inventor from Oberlin, Ohio discovered an inexpensive way to smelt aluminum by perfecting the electrochemical reduction process that extracted aluminum from bauxite ore. WearEver Cookware helped aluminum consumption by introducing one of the first widely accepted and available aluminum based consumer products of their time. Initially this cookware was sold door-to-door by college students.)

I don’t know why we left Susanville but suspect Mom wanted to be closer to her family in Monroe. The depression caused the mill to shorten the men’s working days to 3 days a week. At 35-50 cents an hour not much to live on and Grandpa Porter [Will] had to move his father Frederick up from the the farm where he had lived 17 1/2 years since his wife died and [he] needed help. Grandpa Will really had his hands full with a sick wife to care for and his ailing father. *picture of Grandpa and Grandma Porter.

Where were you and what were you doing on 9/11?

I was home making cinnamon rolls.

What are your food preferences and how did they come about?

I like everything that is not good for you: candy, cake, pie, cookies, salads with a lot of dressing, hot rolls with butter. My eating habits are terrible and I need to change them today.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

When Russell was the Bishop we had a large party at the home of Jeanine Iverson. One of the games was to take off your shoes and throw them into the middle of the floor. When Dad [Russell] took off his shoes he had big holes in both stockings. It had been arranged before hand.

What do you think about movies—what are your favorite movies and why?

I like the movies, Gone With the Wind, Hello Dolly, and How Green Was My Valley. They are clean and great story in real entertainment. The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, On a Clear Night [Day?] those kinds of movies I really liked.

Tell about each of your children—personalities, talents, traits, who makes them special?

I was excited and could hardly wait for each of my children.  I love each one and wanted each one.

Jill was the first, a girl, blond and a mind of her own from the very beginning. She was a good baby except at nap time. She would dress up in the most awful combination of clothes when she was little. She didn’t learn to walk until she was 14 months old because we lived in a trailer house and she could go anywhere she wanted to by holding onto something. She didn’t play much with dolls but would direct a play or a parade. We had lots of parades when she was small.

When she was 6 years old she was hit by a car and was in the hospital for 7 weeks. She broke her femur bone in her left leg and her right hand, also had a concussion and bruised kidney. She didn’t go to school much the winter of her first grade but had a home teacher.

She was a good student, in lots of plays, and sterling scholar in drama and speech her senior year. She was also in pep club her junior and senior year.

She went to BYU 1 quarter then married our neighbor boy John Larsen. They had 5 children. While she was having her children she was in city politics for Highland City, took painting classes, and held many church jobs and was involved in family genealogy. Later, as the children were older she went back to school and graduated from BYU with her youngest daughter, Samantha. She now teaches at the BYU. I always enjoyed our relationship and I enjoy it more now. 

She didn’t get to be the baby very long because her sister, Susan, arrived just 15 month later. She [Jill] was born Easter morning and her father was in the Army at Camp Ord California so she was 3 days old before he knew she had arrived. She lived in Utah, Texas, and Kentucky before she was a year old.

Susan our second was as different as two girls could be. She was dark where Jill was blond, she loved her dolls and played with them all the time. She was a good baby. Born in Kentucky while Russell was still in the army and he was not at her birth either because he left the hospital to go back to our trailer to check on Jill who was left with neighbors. She cost us $5.75. She was a real easy birth weighing only 5 lbs. 6 oz. When she was 5 months old Russell was discharged from the army and we moved to Logan, Utah to attend the Utah State University. Susan had to have everything match, from the barrette in her hair to her stockings. She never got dirty, even when they played. She won a baby contest while we were at Logan.

From Logan we moved to Granger it was called at that time. Jill was in first grade and couldn’t find her shoes for school so she had to wear Susan’s new suede Sunday shoes. She [Jill] had them on the day she was hit by a car. The shoes were lost and Susan was really upset over this—much more than her sister getting hit by a car.

When we moved to Highland the next house which was 1/2 mile to us was a girl her age, Karen Larson, and they became best friends, always together. I was their 4H teacher and they had to make a simple apron. I made Susan unpick her’s until it was perfect. Karen’s mother made hers and she won a prize for it. But when they started Jr. High Susan got a wonderful sewing teacher named Mrs. Porter. She taught Susan so well the she [Susan] became a wonderful seamstress, making all her drapes, pillows, things to make her home lovely, beautiful clothes for her 3 daughters, and lots of wedding dresses for nieces and her daughters. Also lots of sewing for her mother. 

She was so tender headed it was a nuisance to do her hair. One Summer day in Granger the bathroom window was open and I was washing her hair in the bath tub and she cried so loud the neighbor rushed in to see what was the matter.

She was also in pep club. In about 6th grade she started to hold hands with a boy who lived down the street. She married him after he came home from his mission. She worked so Mark could go to school. The sealer in the temple told them not to put off having a family while he was in school. I know the Lord told them this because the older Susan got the more trouble she had with miscarriages, so they were thankful for their 3 girls. 

At one time Jill and Susan were Relief Society President and Mariann was 1st counselor so all three of our girls were in the Relief Society at the same time. At this writing she works in the Draper Temple and her husband Mark is the Bishop. We like the same things and one time bought the same sweater set, she in SLC me in Yuma.

Bruce our first sone and the first grandson on my side of the family was the biggest baby I had 7 lbs. 15 oz. The doctor said if he would have weighed him before he peed he would have been a 8 pound baby. He had a pretty hard time getting here because he was breach. He had red hair and Russell was there for the birth. Everyone was just thrilled that he was a boy. Such joy for our whole family. I don’t know for sure but I think his lungs were not totally developed because he had pneumonia twice by the time he was 3 months old. Once at 6 week, once at 3 moths and he has had lung problems all his life. He fell out of a tree at Dwaine and Rhoda Barney’s when he was about 5. He was really high up when he fell. I rushed him to the Richfield hospital where they took every x-ray possible and found nothing—he was a tough little guy.

He was always very independent and at about 10 he rode his bicycle about a mile to milk cows night and morning. Russell’s Uncle Spencer bought some ground about 2 miles from our place. It had lots of fruit trees and many little pine trees that needed to be watered. Russell was working in Jackson [Wyoming] for a construction company so it was up to Bruce and me to do the watering. At 3 in the morning we would go in the pitch dark with only a flashlight to help us and put in the large canvas dams that would send the water to the trees only to find out some mornings that our Bishop had come after us and sent the water to his place. When I look at 10 year olds now I am amazed at the responsibility that little boy assumed. 

He was also a Sterling Scholar in Industrial Arts in his senior year but could not accept it because he had missed so much school skiing. When we found out he wasn’t going to school Russell took him to Trade Tech where he earned enough credit to graduate from high school plus 1 year of college. He graduated from trade tech the next year and received an associates degree in heating and refrigeration. He has been in that business all the rest of his life. He now works for his so Charlie who owns his own business called B2.

Bruce built his first home when he was 19 years old. I have always been proud of him. He is now shift supervisor at the Mount Timpanogas Temple. He sent 2 of his 3 boys on missions and all 3 are eagle scouts. His daughter is working on an engineering degree at this time.

Our fourth child, Ted, was due the first part of April so on March 21st I felt so good that I took all the curtains down in the house, washed and starched them, and got them ready to iron (in those days everything needed to be ironed). We had planned to go out to dinner that night because it was our wedding anniversary. I was sitting on the front lawn talking with our neighbor, Lee Christensen, when my water broke so that night I spent in the St. Marks hospital and not out to dinner. Ted was born at 6 the next morning making his birthday March 22. We were over joyed to have another son making 2 daughters and 2 sons.

Where were your favorite places to go with your family when you were young?

My favorite place was to grandmother Nielson’s, also we took lots of picnics up Monroe canyon. At that time it was real nice and kept up real good.

What games did you play as a child inside and out?

Inside we played jacks and paper dolls by the hours. We also played a lot of monopoly.

Outside we played “run sheep run,” this is where you form a line and one line tries to charge through the other. We played “No bear are out tonight,” which meant one person hid and the others had to find them.

We jumped the rope a lot and swung from the derrick. The derrick was made with a big fork to dig into a haystack and the long arm would then swing the hay where ever it was needed. When the big arm wasn’t needed the fork was taken off and we could swing on the arm over the corn silage and drop into it.

Tell about home cures or old wives tales about hiccups, toothaches, earaches, etc.

I wrote a whole term paper on the very thing. Russell needed one at Logan when he went back to school, but it has been lost. What I remember from home was [when we] had earaches my mother put a light globe in a round oatmeal box and put it over my ear. The heat would sometimes stop the earache.  Cayenne pepper was good for most anything. Also sassafras tea. To stop hiccups you get a mouth full of cold water and hold it. This should stop the hiccups. We also had some salve made from the sap of the pine tree that cured infection and it really worked.

We used lots of milk poultices to draw out infection. A cold washrag wrung out in alcohol over your forehead would stop a headache.

Tell about retirement—when, where, what will you do with your time?

My only long time job was school lunch at A. F. High School where I worked for 5 years. After I retired I went back to school  at Utah Valley Community College and got an associates degree which I should have gotten when I went to college when I was single. I also volunteered as a teacher helper at Shelley Elementary and as a pink lady at the American Fork Hospital.  

What are some enjoyable times you had with your cousins?

My cousins in California were too far away to have much to do with them except when we went to California or they came to Utah. I did keep in touch with 2 of my cousins till they died: Phyllis, Uncle Cutler’s daughter, and Sharon, Aunt Bernell’s step [adopted] daughter. Aunt Bernell lived in an apartment house when we were little sometimes my folks took us and grandpa and grandma Porter to Oakland so they could take them to the Worlds Fair in San Fransisco. We were left home so we filled paper bags with water and dropped them out the window onto the sidewalk below. We got in a lot of trouble.

My cousin Mona Lou Jensen in Elsinore and I wrote to each other even when we were on a mission. She crocheted the doily I usually have on my kitchen table for me.

My Nielson cousins were all younger than me except Doug, Kent, and Rhea whom I didn’t have anything much to do with. After I married Russell, Rhea and her husband Floyd Mill went to Nephi to the Utah Stampede. It was a rodeo. After the rodeo we went to a restaurant and Rhea and I acted like shit-heads [behaved poorly]. Floyd and Russell were embarrassed. They could have killed us—and should have. As I look back I’m so embarrassed. I willingly followed Rhea’s actions and added to them. That I hope I learned a valuable lesson and never again acted like I know is not lady-like or Christ approved. Rhea is mother’s liter's daughter and 2 years older than me.

What were your pregnancies like—sick, great, gained a lot of weight, etc.?

I was morning sick with 3 of my children and not with the other 3. My pregnancies were pretty normal except for Bruce who came breach. That was a little difficult but we were so glad to have a boy, the first grandson on both sides of the family. My babies were not very big so they were all normal births. Other than morning sickness and having to wear those awful elastic stockings that came clear up to my thighs it wasn’t bad at all.

What is an important lesson, message, or advice that you might share with others?

Take every opportunity seriously and make the most of it that you can. That is my biggest regret. That I didn’t take advantage of opportunities that were mine during my life.

Write about some places you went with your mother.

My very first airplane ride was to Denver, Colorado with my mother. We went over to Longmont, Colorado to visit my Uncle Morris and Aunt Bonnie, mother’s brother and sister-in-law. While we were there we went to visit the famous Molly Brown mansion. She was one of the survivors off the Titanic ship wreck.  There was a movie made about her life and many books. It was so much fun.

Do you have a favorite animal? Why?

On my birthday many years ago my daughter and son in law gave me this little ball of fur which grew into a medium small dog named Maxine. Named after one of my husband’s old girlfriends from college days. There was a show called Benjie about this darling little dog and Max looked just like her. She was the best dog for children, let them play with her and drag her around till she got tired of them then she would disappear. We had some large evergreens in front of our house and she had burrowed a little hole just big enough for her to snuggle down into and that’s where she would go. It was shady in the summer and warm in winter. 

She had darling pups and they were not hard to get rid of but one day I went outside and she had 5 or 6 puppies hanging from her trying to nurse, she looked at me like “help.”

After the puppies were ready to leave I took her to the vet and she had a hysterectomy. When I went down to the vets to get her she looked like “oh, thanks, thanks.”

After we were gone a year on a mission when we came home she came out from under the shrubs barking and jumping on me she was so glad to see me. I loved that little dog and she loved me. We had her about 14-15 years. She died while we were on another mission. Sometimes I still look where the shrubs were expecting her to come out and greet me. She only jumped on me that one time—she was so excited.

Tell about your favorite author and your favorite books as a child and adult.

As a child my favorite was the Nancy Drew series mysteries. and Girl of the Limberlost by Jean Thornton [Gene Stratton-Porter]. The Nancy Drew series were about a teenage girl who solved mysteries. The Girl of the Limberlost, her name was I think was Elenor, her mother hated her, she blamed her for her father’s death. But Elenor remained a happy girl inside as well as outside and continued to love and respect her mother. She spent lots of time in the forest and raised many successful flowers which were rare and got her enough money to go to college and become someone other than the girl from the swamp.

What is your father’s best trait? Worst? What traits do you share?

He was very patient, calm, liked music, loved the Sons of the Pioneers especially, the song “Tumbling Tumbleweed,” and Leslie Uggums who sang with Mitch Millers band once a week on the radio. He liked piano music and would have Uncle Vance play the piano whenever they came to visit. He loved mother and wasn’t afraid to show it. He kissed her goodbye every morning when he went to work. I only remember once when he was real upset with me and that’s because I said mother should do her own work when he told me to get supper before I went to a basketball game. He hated gossip and unkindness to anyone. He really got upset with anyone who was cruel to animals. He was real sick from the time he was 35 to when he died but didn’t complain much, really not at all. When someone needed help he would be the first with money to help because he couldn’t physically do anything for them. He took real good care of his mother and father, loved history. Wrote the history of Central for the 100 birthday which was read by Guy Staples a representative to the Legislature who never returned it and so was lost.

I love music, history, and family that I’m sure came from my father.

Did you do household chores? What were they? Which did you like most? least?

My mother worked most of my growing up teen years so we had lots of responsibilities. The house had to be clean before we left for school. Mother didn’t have to work until 10:00 so she would do the washing in what was called a double dexter washer. It had two tanks one had a ringer where you put the clothes in soap and Clorox first. handmade soap.

The soap was made outside in a bug tank. The recipe for the soap was: 2 quarts of water take out 1 cup, add 1 cup Clorox, 3/4 cup borax, 1 cup ammonia, and 1 cup lye. add 1 gallon grease minus 2 1/2 inches. Stir all the time. The more you stir the finer the soap. This was cooked over a fire outside. When the soap was done it was cut into bars and then shredded with a potato peeler when put in the washer. 

After they [the clothes] were washed you put them through the ringer into clear water and ringed them back back through the ringer to squeeze out the water and hang on clothesline outside to dry.

After school I had to take them off the clothesline when they would be frozen to the clothesline and stiff as a board from the cold, then take them in the house and scatter them everywhere to finish drying.

We didn’t have a furnace so we would stoke up the kitchen stove and heater in the living room to get the house warm.

Dad would bank the coals in the stove when he went to work and when we got home we had to add wood and stoke up the coals to start the fires going. I hated to bring in the cold clothes—my hands would be so cold.

I also hated to dust the old treadle sewing machine. It had so much decoration on each end it took forever. I hated to defrost the refrigerator and clean the oven. 

Did you go camping? Tell about your experiences.

Grandpa Will Porter had a cabin on Monroe mountain or Cove mountain as some people called it. So we went up there all the time. He had a saw mill and would bring down lumber. My dad was sick so we went with Grandpa. However, Dad would take us on vacations every year. He said “he had a baking powder can with money under the derrick and each of us had to earn so much.” We went to Yellowstone, Calgary Stampede in Canada, and the World Fair in San Francisco. We went to California a lot because he had 3 brothers and 2 sisters that lived there, so we visited our cousins a lot.

What were prices like when you were younger—milk, gas, candy, home, etc?

We had our own cows so milk, cream, butter, and cheese came with the milk men who picked up the can of milk. Candy bars were 5 cents and you could get all kinds of candy for a penny.

When we got married our house in Granger [West Valley City] was about 10,000 dollars and Russell did most of the work or a big share. The house in Highland our payments were 69 dollars a month and we didn't finish the fireplace because we were afraid we couldn’t pay more than $69.00

Describe your first home as a young couple.

We lived in a two room apartment called Mrs. King’s apartment because it was in her basement. She was a nosey, she drove me crazy but we weren’t there much because we worked. It had a nice little kitchen, bath, and living room where the bed came out of the wall. We bought a new couch so it was real nice. It was in Richfield, Utah.

Describe and Draw your yard as a child, did you help with the yard work? Tell about your memories.

We had a lot of lawn and trees left the ground so poor that mother wasn’t able to grow many flowers. She did get a clematis to grow which she was real proud of. We had ditches in front and on the north side so  she could also grow sweet peas which i love and never have been able to grow. My dad and brothers worked long hours on the farm so didn’t do much in the yard. Mother tried to have a garden but without any help because us girls started weeding beets as soon as we would have been any help. I love to garden and have a lot of flowers in my own yard. My grandpa Porter lived a block away and grandmother Porter could grow anything. She had a huge garden and the best parsnips you ever tasted. Grandpa Porter raised a large amount of corn so we always had veg to eat. There was a man named Johnny Lane, he lived about 2 blocks from my grandmother Nielson and raised acres of garden and for 50 cents you could buy all the vegetables you could carry. Mother always stopped there for asparagus.

Did you have a favorite General Authority? Who and why?

Mark E Peterson while I was growing up because he talked to the youth so you could understand what he was saying. Paul Dunn as my family grew up for the same reason. Brothers Bednar and Erying now. They seem to say what I need to hear.

Tell about your civic and political activities.

The only thing I ever did in politics is to put up signs for Ted when he ran for state senator, however, I did much civic work. I was on the board for beautification of Highland, the PTA for Shelley Elementary and AF High School. I helped design the costumes for the AF Jr High Junior Patriots (a musical group which Bruce was in the first group ever). I was room mother every year for 1 of the six children and was an aid for Sandra Boley’s 4th grade class, Steve was in the class, served 5 years as a pink lady at the A.F. hospital, and went on drives for the heart, lung, and cancer funds. Served every time I was called to help with food for sick or funerals and tended kids for sick members of the ward and did ironing for them. Picked beans and worked in the cannery in Highland ward and pick grapefruit in the snow bird branch in Yuma, Arizona.

Describe a Christmas tree as a child, when did you put it up and decorate it?

I don’t remember any special tree as we were growing up but we always had a real pretty tree because we owned some property up on Monroe Mountain and my dad would always go up and get a nice fresh tree. What I remember is how good our house smelt. After my father died my brothers always got mother a tree from the mountain. Russell called them stick trees because he was used to the big bushy kind. Mother loved to decorate so she would have all of the Christmas done by Thanksgiving and give to us at dinner then she would spend the rest of the time decorating the house and tree. Each year it was different. One year she sprayed pine cones pink, had pink lights and pink ribbon tied to the pinecones, it was gorgeous.

What do you fantasize about doing or being?

I would like to be a college Dr. of Religion and know all about the Book of Mormon. Also I would like to conduct a great orchestra.

How do you feel about school.

I loved grade school, Jr. High, and High school. However, I really blew college which is the biggest regret of my life. I know it was hard for my parents to put me through 2 years of college money wise and I just messed up royally. However in 1984 I did go back and get an associates degree. I sure wish I could start school all over and take every opportunity that was given me.

What kind of extra-curricular activities did you participate in at school?

There is the problem of my education. I was in everything: school play, debate, chorus, yearbook staff, school paper staff, and class officer. Because of this I didn’t go to class 1/2 the time. I thought how great at the time but now I see the minor parts I held in school activities were detrimental to my education. I’m sure school would have served me better later in my life. However, I loved school and had a good time.

Tell about family reunions.

I can only remember 1 reunion the Nielson’s had, mother’s family. It was Uncle Morris who got all the cousins for a reunion at his home in Monroe. We were all married and hadn’t seen each other for years. My cousin Doug, who is dead now, took a picture. It’s somewhere in the den at home.

The Porter’s however had a reunion every year, one in Susanville, California, and the next year in Central. This was my father’s family and was always fun and kept us knowing our Dad’s family including his Porter cousins. Most of these people are dead now. I can only think of two cousins of Dad’s still alive: Frances Markey and Kenneth Porter. They must be in their 90’s. I talked to Kenneth just a few months ago about some genealogy and he still seemed sharp.

Dad’s family had a reunion up at the cabin since before Dad died every Labor Day.  I think we missed only 1 when Joy died. My children know all their Porter cousins and their children because of these reunions and we have many pictures. Some of us are getting too old to go that high because of oxygen so we have them early at Central and the younger ones still go up to the cabin after.  We always made a quilt and raffled it off so our grandchildren and great grand children know the art of making a quilt.

What are your greatest joys and your greatest sorrows?

My greatest joys—my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and their father, grandfather, and great grandfather. My greatest sorrows-all the opportunities that I had that I didn’t take advantage of.

How did your father spend his time supporting his family?

When my parents were first married they moved to Susanville, California to work in the lumber mills. It was depression time and jobs were hard to find. Dad worked for 50 cents an hour. Later they moved back to Utah and bought 1/2 of Great Grandpa Porter’s farm. Uncle Earl Porter bought the other half. After Uncle Earl died Dad bought his half and farmed till his health failed when he was about 35 years old. He then became the manager of the Western Creamery in Monroe, Utah and later a state dairy inspector.

A short bio by Russell adds this info: “Eyvonne Porter Black was born in Monroe, Utah on April 16, 1932. Her parents, Var Niels Porter and Forrest Nielson were residing in Susanville, California but had arrived home to Monroe for the blessed event. Eyvonne was their first child.

After the birth, the Porters returned to Susanville where Eyvonne’s father was employed in the Lumber industry. They continued to reside in Susanville until Eyvonne was in the fourth or fifth grade of school then they returned to Utah. Her folks sold aluminum cookware for awhile and in that job they lived in Salt Lake City and Vernal. But they were not to be content until they returned to the farm in Sevier County, Utah. They returned home to Central, a small farming community located midway between Richfield and Monroe. Her father obtained employment with the Pet Milk company creamery in Monroe and bought the family farm from his father so the family settled into the rural farm life.”

Eyvonne’s mother, Forrest adds: “We spent the early part of the depression years in Susanville, California where Var was employed in the Lumber Mills. He was making 37 1/2¢ an hour and we were very lucky to have a job. Later we went into the selling business [selling Everware pots and pans] and moved to Salt Lake City. We worked there for about a year and then we were transferred out to the Uintah Basin. I never saw so much snow in my life as we had that year. Trenches were shoveled under the clothes lines so we could hang out our wash. People started their cars by fires in small pans under the oil pan of their cars. We were working for the day when we could come home. Part of each payday was put aside for the payment on a small farm that we hoped to someday come home to. Spring broke and the highways were opened and our dreams materialized and we followed the mail truck out through the Strawberry stretch and came home. With three little children it was a risky thing to do, but youth has more faith than good sense.”

Write a description of your husband.

Russell is very good looking a little over 6 ft., blond, blue eyes, very neat, even in work clothes and work area like his shop. He is neat, smart, can fix anything except sewing machines and vacuums, doesn’t much care about fixing old things, makes friends easily, has built us 3 houses and helped Jill, Susan, Bruce, Ted build houses. Has a testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a great missionary. Takes good care of me when I don’t feel good which is most of the time.

Describe a favorite childhood friend and something you did with him or her.

Gloria Staples. In Central there were no girls my age, only me and 2 boys Kent Mason and Robert Nielson the age one year older was 2 boys Richard Christiansen and _______ Larsen so I either had to have friends 1 year younger which were my sister Joy’s friends because we were 1 year and 3 days apart in age or have friends 2 years older. You can imagine how some of them felt when then went to MIA first as Beehives and a 10 year old got to come. There was a large group 2 years older: Joyce Nielson, Marjorie Christiansen, LaDona Barney, Gloria Staples, Jean Rogers, Carla Mason. Some were really mean to me, especially Joyce but not Gloria.

Of course they graduated from High School 2 years earlier than me and Gloria and Carla got jobs as telephone operators and an apartment in Richfield. When I graduated my parents wanted me to go to college so I went to Snow for 2 quarters then Gloria got me a job at the telephone office. 

The really fun thing we did was take my car and go to Provo and stay in the Roberts Hotel for a week end and shop in Provo: Gloria, Carla, Carol—Gloria’s sister, and I went. It was the greatest trip. Gloria died about 15 years ago. So did Jean and Joyce.

Tell about your teenage social life—friends, dances, dating, church functions, etc.

I was 2 years younger than the other girls in Central so my friends in Central were 2 years older than me. There was quite a group 2 years older: Jean Rogers, Joyce Nielson, Margie Christiansen, Gloria Staples, Mona Lou Barney, Carla Mason. The group just naturally divided: Jean, Gloria, Carla, and sometimes Mona Lou; and Joyce, Marjorie, and sometimes Mona Lou.

The problem started when we were through Primary and going into Young Women’s. Margorie and Joyce especially, didn’t want me to go to Young Womens with them. There was  a big meeting. My mother was YW President and she was crying and the other girls were crying or angry. The spirit go the Lord was not in that meeting. I went with the girls one year younger that put me in the same group with my sister Joy, so the Bishop just said I would start YW with the older group. What started on such a negative note blossomed into a lifetime friendship. Jean, Carla, Gloria, and sometimes Mona Lou accepted me whole heartedly and Joyce, Margie, and sometimes Mona Lou just ignored I existed.

The four of us had a ball as teenagers with playing in the school square, made candy every Sunday afternoon that we didn’t go to Richfield to the shoes [shows?]. Everyone brought a cup of sugar and a cup of cream and eggs. We all had cows but the taro syrup was a problem. One day we were making divinity and I was pouring the syrup into the egg whites. Joyce was stirring the mixture and somehow got her hand under the hot syrup—it was a really nasty burn. 

We also played monopoly lots of times and collected movie star’s pictures which we plastered [pasted] all over our rooms. One day we were at Jean’s playing monopoly in her bedroom because her parents had company in the living room. I left the bedroom to go to the kitchen to get a drink of water and I heard Arthela, Jean’s mother, say some really unkind things about me. I was really surprised because our mothers were such good friends and I thought she like me also. Year later, after I was married, and lived in an apartment house in Richfield, she and mother would come to our apartment everyday and take off their shoes and eat their lunch there. The both worked at Christensens department store.

None of us were big into dating. Example, one gold and green ball the church held each year the Laurals were honored with a corsage. We decorated the church rec room had a floor show with the golden green ball as part of the food show. The Laurels honored. I sang a solo, not that my voice was that good, it’s the best Central had and all the boys in Central brought girls from Annabella or Monroe to the dance and all the girls from Central sat on the side humiliated to death.

Jean and Carla got married right out of High school and Mona Lou went to Bryce Canyon where she met some guy from the middle west and went with him to his home. She returned to Central 3 years later looking like a skeleton so thin her eyes bugged out. She must have nearly starved to death with the husband. Anyway she had a little boy with her and never looked back. I guess she divorced him because she married a Conder from Ashton and never left again. Jean died years ago, Carla just dropped out of the picture and Gloria, my best and closest friend died a few years ago of cancer.

My first years in Central were not the greatest nor were my mothers—we just didn’t fit in and then “wham” a miracle happened. They bussed the Central and Annabella kids to Monroe and closed the 2 small schools and Virginia Nielson moved into an empty house about 3 blocks from our house. She and mother hit it off from the first and became close friends till mom died. Virginia was a native of Central, being a  Staples before she married. Whether or not his made a difference I don’t know but from then on we were in.

My first day at Monroe was awful! My mother would brush my hair into long red ringlets every night and put 2 bobbie pins in each curl. The kids from Monroe danced around my desk and chanted “red headed wood pecker—peck, peck, peck.” I went home in tears. The next day was totally different. The kids learned they were children of my moms old school friends and then I could be one of them. Jeannine Madsen asked me to go home with her for lunch. She lived close enough to school she could walk home for lunch. Her mother Madelyn and her Aunt Melva owned a very small department store in Monroe and both had gone to school with Mom.

There were many great friend in Monroe and lots of fun and parties. Dawn Baker, Jeannine Madsen, Beverly Swindle, Sherrie Lee, Annabelle Lest, Louise Hanson. I stayed over lots at least 2 nights a week for something or other. My Uncle Vance and Aunt Gladys lived just across the street from the department store and next door to the drug store in the old hotel they had restored. And Grandma Nielson lived on the second to last street going south out of town so I always had a place to stay.  We always had lots of sleepovers where I spent the night with one of the girls.

Write one word on how to live successfully.

FAITH in Jesus Christ.

Tell about your favorite trip or vacation.

We had many fun trips but one that stands out in my mind was our trip to the World’s Fair in San Francisco. My Aunt Bernell, Dad’s youngest sister, lived in either Oakland or San Francisco in an apartment at that time, I don’t remember which, however it was on the second or third floor of the building. My cousin, Sharon, was between Joy and me in age and we were left home while the adults went somewhere. We filled tracing paper sacks with water and dropped them out the window to the people on the sidewalk below. The brown paper sacks didn’t hold the water very good so we didn’t hit anyone directly but we sure got in trouble when our folks got home. The apartment seemed really elegant and impressive to this Central girl.

Did you have a close relationship with your grandparents? Tell about it.

Yes, very close with my grandma Nielson and Grandpa Porter. My grandfather Nielson drank to excess and one day he just went to work and never came back. He was very talented and made good money at whatever he did, but would drink it up before he got home. Grandmother Arvena Nielson raised 9 children by herself. She ironed for people, did washing and sewed, later when school lunch came into being she worked as a school lunch lady. The LDS church had a welfare system where they would deliver food to the homes of worthy poor. Grandma said that the commodities truck would never be seen outside her door.

During the 2nd World War she had 4 sons and a daughter-in-law in the service: two, Dee and Morris were in the Navy; Mack was in the 8th Army with General Patton; Vance was somewhere in the states. He was a secretary. Aunt Gladys was a lab tech in Corpus Christy, Texas, she was in the Navy. 

I lived with grandma from Monday to Friday so she wouldn’t be alone if any news came. I would go home on the weekend. We, or I should say Grandma had a large world map on the kitchen wall and every night we would listen to the news then place stick pins where every one of the children were. I learned a lot from Grandma Nielson. At night when we would say our prayers I would be done in about a minute but grandma prayed forever and I didn’t want her to think my prayers were not as good as hers so I would kneel down as long as she would. 

She was meticulous in her house and in her personal self. She said “a bar of soap only costs 5 cents and there was no need for anyone to be dirty no matter how poor they were.”

She went with me to the temple to be married because my parents could not go. I’m not really sure sure why except Dad was quite sick.

At her funeral the Stake President said “He was sure she went straight to the Celestial Kingdom.” She had unwavering faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grandpa Porter was my dad’s father and lived on one end of the block and I or we lived on the other end. He was so kind to my mother and especially to Grandma Porter who was sick as long as I knew her. He made excuses for her strange behavior which would now be called baby blues [postpartum depression] and which medicine can cure now. Any time us kids needed anything fixed we would take it to grandpa.

The ground where Joy’s house is now was a field grandpa planted into corn and every summer he would pick it all and shuck it and us kids would carry it up to our house in a wagon where Mother and Aunt Marva canned at least 100 pints of corn for each of them.

After Grandma Porter died Grandpa ate with us except breakfast which he had at 5 in the morning. Grandma Porter always made hot biscuits for breakfast so mom got Grandpa a box of Bisquick so he could make his own biscuits. He said, “ I can beat Lissa [grandma] all hallow making biscuits.”

I was the only girl in Central my age and the girls 2 years older was only ones for me to go with. There were no girls a year older either. Some time a couple of them treated me really rotten. Joyce Nielson and Margie Christiansen, The others were always real nice and good friends. One day Joyce invited me to a pot-luck party and I was to bring a package of punch powder (kool aid). I wanted to go so bad but knew my parents didn’t have the money. Dad was real sick and had rented his farm which didn’t bring in much money and mom made a little selling eggs and that was what we lived on. So after stewing about the situation for a week I asked Grandpa Porter for the money. He gave it to me willingly it was 5 cents. He was the kindest man.

When the church was built in Central somewhere between 1940-1945 Grandpa sat on a little stool and painted the picket fence that went all around the church. He painted 3 coats. I never saw him in church except for funerals but there was never anyone in need he was not there to help. When he painted the church fence he was 70-75.

Did you have a childhood hideout? Tell about it.

Yes, I did. Our neighbor west and diagonal across the street was at least 150 it seemed to us kids, I don’t really know how old he was, however he had a pig pen he let us use. it had a roof so shaded us pretty well. It was filthy, we worked so hard to clean it up. Can’t remember ever working so hard. My Uncle Earl Porter was the shop teacher at South Sevier High School and he had made Joy and me a cupboard, it was really quite large so we never used it at home, so we hauled it over and other odds and ends. Our first meeting we had a party where Gloria Staples brought an apple pie. They were very poor, their father had died of a heart attack and left ten children. She was really embarrassed about that pie. It was the only thing her mother could come up with. Now I think “what a sweet lady to go to all that trouble.”

Describe a perfect Spring day and activities on that day.

I lived in a small town in Central Utah. My bedroom was the south east corner of the house with a double wide window on the south. The sun shined through that window on a Spring morning, it was just beautiful as it shone through the white organdy criss-cross curtains on the polished wood floor. 

The biggest event in school was the 2nd week in May, the tulips, daffodils, and sweet peas were all in bloom and lilacs every where and girls day. We had a luncheon in the afternoon for our mothers and a dance at night, girls choice. All the gym was decorated with lilacs, everyone was glad to let us cut them, not too many tulips or daffodils though. This was at the end of the 2nd World War and cloth was not very often in the stores, however Christensen’s department store was getting some in and Mother got up at 4 in the morning and stand in line with all the other women in Sevier County to get material for Joy and I (Joy, my sister) to make us new dresses. My material was white with purple lilacs, it was gorgeous and I got new white sandals because Dad had not used his shoe stamps.

During the 2nd World War sugar, rubber, gas, shoes were all rationed so the boys and girls in the armed forces could have what they needed to fight Germany and Japan.

At the dance I discovered another girl from Central had the same shoes. I was furious because I thought I was just a mite better than she was. What a brat I was.

It was warm enough we also started to go up Monroe Canyon for either breakfast or supper. Mother’s whole family lived in Monroe then and usually some of them would come.

My birthday comes in the Spring so that was also a big event. 

Were you ever in a drama, speech, sports, pep, or glee club? Tell about it.

I was in all the school plays because I tried out for minor parts. There were a couple of people in our school that always got the lead in everything: Dix Cloward, and Dawn Baker. I knew I didn’t have a chance at the lead, anyway, all I really wanted was to be a part of things. 

I was on the debate team, not real hot at that, better at speech.

As for sports, I could tie my own shoes.

In college I was in the drill team. It was the girls counterpart to the ROTC (reserve officers training corp). It was called Sponsors. We marched in parades and met big shots in the military when they came to Cedar City. We had sharp looking uniforms.

 In a short bio written by Russell he adds: “At BAC Eyvonne was a member of the Air Force ROTC Girls auxiliary, called the Sponsor Corp. This was a precision drill team that traveled extensively as invited to preform. The highlights were the Heldorado Days celebration in Las Vegas, Nevada and competition at Oxidental College in Pasadena, California. Her commanding officer was Cadet Major Russell Black.”

Tell about family traditions—Christmas, birthdays, 4th of July, etc.

Central Ward only had one ward so we could have the church whenever we wanted to so it was tradition to have a large Primary play Christmas Eve. They were really grand and practiced for a couple months before. Then they had Santa come and every child received a sack of candy, nuts, and an orange. After the program, we raced through the school square to unwrap one present which was new flannel p.j.s and get quickly into bed. (hand-drawn map of the school square).

For Christmas, mother always made a fruit dish with grape juice as the base then fruit cocktail and bananas, and waffles for breakfast. We didn’t have a furnace so we would have to wait for Dad to get up and make fires in the heater in the living room and cook stove in the kitchen. One of us usually called about 3 in the morning “is it time to get up yet.”

Mother worked at Christensen's in Richfield and one time Garry was sick and had to stay home from school. He found all the new p.j.s Mother had made and tried his on. He pinned a note on all his stuff, “this fits” “this is too big” etc. Mother found it when she went to get them on Christmas Eve.

We always went on a nice vacation. Dad would give each of us so much money to earn toward the vacation, then he said he had the rest in a baking powder can under the derrick. A derrick was used to take hay off the hay wagon and put it in a stack for use in the winter to feed cattle.

We went to the World’s Fair in San Francisco, to Yellowstone Park, all along the Oregon/Washington highway 101. When we got a hotel in Washington state late one night it was so filthy Mother put newspapers all over the floor before she would let us out of the car. We spent a lot of time in Northern California where Dad had lots of family in Susanville, Oakland, Sacramento, Ukiah—3 brothers and 1 sister: Uncle Guy, Uncle Cutler, Uncle Lamar, Aunt Bernell; and two cousins: Frances Markee and Lee Porter.

We visited all the parks in Utah, but never the Grand Canyon. 

During the 2nd World War when gas was rationed and tires we spent a week on the mountain, Usually with Grandpa Porter.

For our birthdays we could have anything we wanted for dinner. I would have tuna fish salad. Can you believe? But it was expensive then and we didn’t have it very often.

Describe a childhood birthday.

We could have anything we wanted for supper on our birthday. One year so I picked tuna salad. It was lettuce and green onions, miracle whip, and tuna fish. I thought it was grand. Tuna was a real treat when I was growing up.

Describe your conversion to the gospel.

As I was raised in an active family, my father in the bishopric, my mother Relief Society president 3 times, the last time when she was 61, Primary President, and Young Women’s President and about every other job in the church. Dad was real active in scouting and both mother and Dad had good voices and sang in the choir.

One Sunday I had spent the weekend with my cousin Reah Parsons and went to church with her. They had an excellent teacher and the lesson was about Paul. It so impressed me. I wanted to learn more. So, I took seminary and institute in school and all the night classes that the institute brought to American Fork. I really enjoyed them, with my good friend Margaret Thompson.

Our mission to the Dominican Republic helped to bring it all together.

What Church callings have you had and which did you enjoy most?

I started as Primary organist which I wasn’t very good at, because I didn’t practice like I should have and my parents spent money they really didn’t have to give me piano lessons. That is one of my biggest regrets that I didn’t take advantage of. 

Then I taught the Beehives, next the Laurels, and then I started writing roadshows. I was at the old Highland Church house when my father died, painting scenery for the roadshow. My family wasn’t able to get hold of me so they called Russell at school and he came and got me, but we didn’t get to Richfield until after he had died. My brother Jim stayed at the hospital so he could tell me; and not hear it from someone who worked there.

I wrote many roadshows and helped to direct them. The last one I was too sick to finish so your mother, Mariann, finished to for me. 

I taught Primary and Relief Society. We are now the activities committee in the snow Bird Branch; I don’t must like it.

One time only I was a counselor in the Young Women’s. I loved this job and when I went to girls camp Jill, Susan, Bruce, and Ted got to stay with my sister, Joy, in Pleasant Grove. Their Uncle Dee taught them how to roll sleeping bags. 

The job I truly love was the hardest; I had to pray and study a whole lot. It was the Gospel Doctrine class. It was very good for me.

How do you feel about winning and losing?

It all depends. If I’m losing at playing a game and am doing my best I don’t really mind at all because I play only for fun. That’s why I don’t make a very good athlete. On the other hand, I would hate to lose my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because I know it’s true and would be in real trouble if I did something to lose it. 

I hate that I am losing the battle of weight losing, because I know that I would feel better and have more control over my physical body. I believe Heavenly Father expects us to be able to control our appetite so I would surely like to win this one.

In the Beginning

I was going through some family history information and ran across this pink notebook.  Several years ago Mariann's girls gave Mom {Eyvonne) a grandma jar. A grandma jar is a bottle of questions. Mom had pasted the questions into a notebook and then answered the questions--66 pages of pure gold. I'll post them here for you all to enjoy.

Disclaimer: I corrected some spelling and punctuation but I didn't touch the content. Every word is hers.

"For Marin, Makada, Marjorie who gave me the grandma jar."

What would you like to be remembered for?

I would want people to remember a kind, caring, and unselfish person. My grand-daughter Mia Lisa Astle, who lives in Texas, was in Sunday School class where the teacher asked, “who is the kindest person you know?” 

Her husband, John, turned to her and said, “I think Marin Taylor is the kindest person I know.” 

I can’t think of any thing nicer to be said about me. The Savior was kind to everyone, including His enemies. He said, “Love your neighbor as I have loved you.” What better way is there to live?