THE HISTORY OF LYNN
BROADBENT 1908-
Lynn
Broadbent, son of Joseph Franklin and Seretta Ann Passey Broadbent, was born in
Provo, Utah,
September 25, 1908. He was blessed and
given his name at a sacrament meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints by his father on December 6, 1908.
Lynn
was the fifth child in a family of nine.
They lived in a four room yellow brick home at 541 North 5th
East in Provo. He doesn’t remember living there and must
have moved when they were too young to remember. It was just one block from the home he does
remember in which he grew up. This was
his Grandmother Broadbent’s home, and she lived with them for many years. Her name was Mary Jane Nuttal Broadbent. Lynn
remembers this five room, red brick home well.
There was a barn and a spot for a good garden, a nice Concord grape
arbor, currants and Gooseberry bushes.
Three of
the Broadbent children died in childhood.
These were George, Leon, and Marjorie. Those with whom Lynn
was raised were Fern, Berne, Cecil, Maurice,
and Jay.
Some of the
neighbors whom he remembers are the John E. Hayes family, the Guymans, the
Hawkins, and the Johnsons.
Lynn’s father was in the mercantile business with his
father-in-law George Passey when Lynn
was born and during his early childhood.
The family lived in the Provo Fifth Ward. One bishop Lynn remembers was Bishop Soward who ran a
grocery store on about fourth north and fourth East. Everything to the east and north of their
area was fields and hills where they gather Sego Lilies, chased rabbits, and
hunted quail nests. He and his brothers
hiked all over Y Mountain and the ones on either side.
One of Lynn’s earliest
recollections was of the embarrassment that he suffered, because his mother
curled his long blond hair and had him wear a dress so that he looked like a
girl. He also remembers sitting in the
road, which ran in front of their home, using the six to eight inches of finely
powdered dust to make mud pies. Another
of these early recollections was of helping himself to the luscious
raspberries, which Mrs. Guyman had planted too close to their fence, until she
saw what was going on and asked him if he would like some. He said, “No, thank you.” He had suddenly lost his appetite. He recalls that the first car he ever saw was
approximately 1913, when he was about five years old.
Lynn was sent to school just as he turned six years at the
Brigham Young University
Training School. As he recalls, he lasted about two
weeks. A boy sitting across the aisle
was teasing him, so he took the boy down and proceeded to strangle him with his
tie. For some strange reason the teacher
objected and banished him to the hall to punish him. He kept right on going out to the
playground. He fooled around until
recess and played with the kids but wouldn’t re-enter the classroom. He kept this up for a couple of weeks until
the teacher, wondering why he wasn’t in school, contacted his parents. They decided to keep him home for the rest of
the year, for which he has always been grateful. The extra year permitted him to become more
mature and he excelled academically from this time on. He remembers that his First Grade teacher the
next year was Mrs. Petersen.
Another
teacher, who helped him a lot and will always be remembered. Her name was Fanny
McLean. She had a unique method of
organizing her class. She divided it,
with he slow learners in one room and the better students in another, but when
it came to Lynn
she had a problem. He was doing very
well in all of his subjects except writing, and she reasoned that one who
murdered the “Palmer” method as he did, had no business in there with the
better students so she arranged a spot for him, all by himself, on the stairway
landing that led to the men’s gym on the floor above. Here he was isolated but could still
participate in the advanced class. He
wrote literally hundreds of pages of each letter of the alphabet, but she never
did teach him to hook them together, so he was always a poor writer. He made more progress that year as a whole
than any other class in his elementary years.
Lynn’s family was active
and attended church in the Manavu Ward.
He was baptized July 14, 1918 by James H. Snyder and confirmed a member
of the church the same day by his father.
While Lynn was a small boy his
father went out of the mercantile business, because an employee of the store
absconded with all the company money.
They were then forced to close.
Upon leaving this business, his father purchased a farm out west of Utah Lake,
near Saratoga. He felt that farming would offer security for
his family and would also provide work for his five sons. The boys were kept busy plowing, cultivating,
hoeing and weeding. Lynn learned to work hard and to love
it—at trait that remained with him
throughout life. Lynn remembers going with his father and
assuming work responsibilities at a very early age. When he was approximately six years old he
recalls driving a team to drag a harrow over the field. His father had placed planks over the harrow
for him to sit on, but he got caught under the harrow and was dragged for some
time before his father stopped the horses and rescued him.
They raised
cows, sheep, hogs, and some real good horses.
One horse they particularly liked was named Star. Star seemed unique even as a colt. As a three year old, before he had been
broken to work, he saved Lynn’s
little brother Maurice’s life on one occasion.
Maurice, a two year old, had gotten into a buck pasture, where the
horses were also kept. One buck, that
was particularly mean, knocked him down and then proceeded to cut him to pieces
by stomping him with his sharp hooves.
Star came over and straddled the boy and by nipping and kicking kept the
sheep away until he was rescued.
They raised
lots of corn, hay, grain, and potatoes on this farm. There was an old granary, and they sometimes
slept in it overnite rather than drive the thirty miles to Provo, where they still lived. The family purchased its first motor vehicle
at this time, so Lynn’s
father and the boys did have transportation back and forth. This transportation was supplemented by and
old roan horse which they hitched to a two wheeled buckboard and drove to Lehi
and other nearby places. This horse was
named Fred. He had two speeds, slow and
slower. It was necessary to watch your
language when you had Fred hitched to that buckboard. If one used any word with the sound “o” in
it, Fred stopped so quickly that the occupants of that high seat on the
buckboard pitched right out over the singletree. Some of Fred’s idiosyncrasies were equally
evident when they were working with him in the fields. If while plowing, cultivating or harrowing
with Fred you headed the horses down-field, away from the barn and feed corral,
he always shifted into low-low and you wondered if you would ever reach the
bottom. But once Fred was turned around
and head for the corral on was wise to hang on for life. Each trip he set a new record. Lynn
remembers seeing lots of rattlesnakes, blowsnakes and coyotes in this area, and
ground dogs and badgers made irrigation very difficult.
When Lynn was about ten years old, his parents decided to sell
the Saratoga farm and buy a small one at the
mouth of Spanish Fork
Canyon and a large acreage at the base
of MT. Yvette in Mapleton. This property was called “Oak Springs
Farm”. The Farm was in primitive
condition and it had to be cleared of oak trees, sage brush and rocks. With the help of Joseph’s sons this was
accomplished, and the farm was planted into grapes, orchards, watermelons, sugar
beets, alfalfa, grain and vegetables.
There were four springs on the farm, which provided water for that land
which was above the Strawberry
Canal. It became one of the best farms in the
valley.
Lynn and
his brothers worked side by side with their father, trying to make this venture
a success. Lynn says they worked every day, not knowing
when there was a holiday. They all loved
the farm and no matter what Lynn’s
occupation was in later life, he still loved planting and watching things grow.
When the
work on their own place was finished Lynn
worked for farmers there in Mapleton each fall.
He topped beets in order to have money for school. He and his brothers also cut and sold many
Christmas trees each year.
The work on
the farm with his father and brothers instilled in him the value and love of
work. It also gave him a close
association with his father whom he loved, admired, and respected very
much. A cousin, Wendell Vance, whose
father did not have a farm to keep him busy, worked right along with Lynn, and they remained
good friends at work and at play for many years.
Lynn says that traveling to Sanpete, Sevier, and Carbon Counties
peddling fresh fruit and vegetables produced on the farm is among the many
choice experiences he shared with his father that he will never forget.
The family
home was still in Provo
except for one year during which they decided to live in the old home on the
farm at Mapleton. It was during this
year of 1921 that Lynn’s
little sister Marjorie died of pneumonia.
This was a real tragedy for the whole family. They all loved her so very much. It was this same year that Lynn attended the seventh grade in
Mapleton. He felt that he wasted the
entire year. He was so far ahead of the
other students that he didn’t need to study to get good grades and he
didn’t.
For the
eighth grade Lynn returned to the training
school at Brigham
Young University. He was far behind the other students. The teacher tried an innovation in this
class, seating all students according to their test scores. Lynn
found himself on the poorest row, but he found himself highly motivated by the
system and with hard work was able to earn a seat on the first row before the
end of the year. In later years he used
this same system very successfully in his own teaching.
After one
year living on the farm the old house was torn down and a small summer home was
built at the edge of the oak covered hill.
A stream from the springs ran directly in front of the new building. The boys and their father lived and worked
here during the summers, but they now had a home in Provo.
Lynn’s mother was a very good cook, but
part of the time she was busy in Provo,
and the fellows found it necessary to cook for themselves. The diet consisted of watermelon for days at
a time.
Extra money
was needed to keep the family going, so Lynn’s mother rented a large home close
to the college, at 694 North 1 East. She
took in B.Y.U. students for board and room.
She worked very hard and continued doing this as the boys received their
college education and went on their missions.
They were still in the Manuavu Ward when they lived in this home. Bishop Manwaring was the bishop when Lynn was made a
Deacon. He was ordained by Fred G.
Warnick on March 6, 1921.
When it was
time to start high school in the ninth grade Lynn
decided to transfer to Provo High School, where there were more activities than at
B.Y. High School. Lynn
was always a very good student, but since he had to do farm work every fall, he
always began school about two months late.
This made it necessary to really study to catch up. He was very active in debate and dramatics,
winning many honors and contributing much to the school. Among the honors won were: 1st
place in the “Aldous Dixon Extemporaneous Speech Contest,” 2nd place
in oratory, and he and his partner tied for 1st place in the state
in debate. Lynn also won the leading part in the
competitive school play. He served as
president of the Drama Club. He was
elected Student Body President his Senior year.
This was the only year he started school at the beginning of the
year. He graduated in 1927.
Lynn then attended the Brigham Young
University where he was
also active in speech, debate and dramatics.
After the first year he devoted his time mainly to dramatics and play
production. He took the leading part in
many productions and also played many character parts. Some of the plays he remembers best from this
period were Pygmalion and Galatea, the Little Clay Cart, Journey’s End, and
Gammer Gurton’s Needle. Teachers who
were a big help to him during this period were T. Earl Pardoe and Alonzo J.
Morley.
After
attending college three years, Lynn
was called on a mission in November, 1930.
He left for a thirty month stay in the German-Austria Mission for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He went by train to New York City and
sailed on the S.S. Washington, landing in Hamburg,
Germany. The trip across the Atlantic
lasted thirteen days. He then went by
train to Dresden,
where the mission headquarters was located at that time. His mission president was Pres. O.H. Budge
and his first assignment was to labor in Stendall. He spent four and one half months working
alone. These first months of his mission
were very frustrating because he had a lazy, no working senior companion. But, being of a dedicated and determined
nature, worked entirely alone. Being on
his own he learned the German language very quickly with the help of the
Lord. This was in accordance with the
patriarchal blessing he received before leaving home. It was given to him by the Patriarch of the
Church, Hyrum G. Smith, on November fourteenth 1930.
The next
assignment was to the Upper Silesien
area. Here he worked for three months
with Elder Merril Wood as his new senior companion. Merril was an excellent missionary and they
felt that they were doing a good job, but the area was strictly Catholic and
the work was difficult. The two remained
friends all their lives. After three
months with Merril, Lynn was called to Dresden to work in the
mission office. His specific assignment
was to supervise the Mutual Improvement Associations and the Boy Scout
Organization in Germany and Austria.
Seven
months later the mission office was transferred to Berlin.
This is where Lynn
spent the remainder of his mission.
While serving in Berlin he an his companion, Orson Cannon, who was in
charge of the Sunday Schools visited each branch of the mission to supervise
the work of their respective organizations.
Lynn
served his mission during the worst part of the great depression and found it
necessary to live on twenty-five dollars per month. Neither he nor his companion had the money
for train fare, so they purchased bicycles and rode them for more than three
thousand miles to all parts of the mission.
Lynn had learned all his life to be
frugal, but this method of traveling enabled them to really see Germany the
beautiful way. At home conditions were
such that there was no market for things produced on the far, and his parents
were hard pressed to meet interest payments.
Lynn’s brothers Cecil and Berne, both married, helped consistently with funds to
keep him in the field. This was always
remembered and appreciated by Lynn.
Lynn was in Berlin
during the political upheaval which saw the Nazis take control under Adolf
Hitler and heard him speak on several occasions. He was there at the time of the burning of
the Reichtag, or building of the German Congress, by the Communists. Years later, in 1962, Lynn
had the privilege of visiting this same congress while in sessions, after it
had been rebuilt in Bonn. At this time he was studying with Stanford University. While working in Berlin Lynn witnessed many
of the depredations of the Nazis.
On one
occasion one of the Boy Scout Troup Leaders, with whom Lynn
was working in the Berlin
area, was also a ranking official in the Nazi organization. He came to Lynn and told him to go to the
church leaders and warn them that the Nazis were going to take over in Germany,
there was no doubt about it and that the party would then put an end to all
churches in Germany. He said to tell
them that they should do nothing at all to antagonize the Nazis. Lynn
told the troupe leader that this was the work of the Lord and that Hitler nor
anyone else was going to do anything to stop it. Lynn was so sure in his own mind that this
was not going to happen, that he can’t remember whether he delivered the
message to the mission president or not.
A few months later the Nazis did take over the German government. They were voted into power. They immediately banned all the churches in Germany except
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The reason they made this exception was that
they needed the dollars the missionaries were bringing in to help their balance
of trade. LDS missionaries were self
supporting and didn’t live from local donations. Approximately two weeks after Lynn’s release from his
mission in May, 1933, Hitler did away with the Boy Scout and all other youth
organizations and made them “Hitler Youth”.
Lynn
didn’t feel that he ever understood what was happening all around him until he
returned home and read about it in the papers.
He was too close to the forest to see it for the trees.
Lynn was released from
his mission on May 24, 1933. He returned
home on the S.S. America. When they
arrived in New York
he and several of his companions purchased a second hand car and drove it home,
seeing the country and saving money in the process. They sold the car in Salt Lake City and divided the money among
them.
After he
returned home Lynn
joined with his cousin, Wendell, who had recently returned from the Canadian
Mission, and went looking for work. They
needed the money to finish school, so they hitch-hiked to Lamoine, Nevada,
where they heard hay hands were needed.
They had only ten cents for one loaf of bread between them when they
left for Nevada. Here they were successful in gaining the
desired employment; they worked hard and returned for school in the fall. During his senior year Lynn worked as stage manager for the Drama
Department at B.Y.U.
During his
last year at the university Lynn
was very active in dramatics and won the Ed M. Evans Award as the outstanding
graduate in his field. He graduated in
June, 1934 with a B.A. Degree. He earned a double major in Speech-Dramatics and
German. Although Lynn graduated with a double major, one being
German, he had no intention of ever using this, but took it simply because of
his missionary background. He has
concluded since that someone with more knowledge that he guided him in his
decision, since it later became his life’s work.
It was in
March of this year that Lynn
met the girl who was later to become his wife.
This was Wanda Rose Crandall of Peoa in Summit County, Utah. She was a Freshman at B.Y.U. They had a short courtship and were engaged
before school was out for the summer, when she went home and he to work with
his brother Cecil in a fruit market in Helper, Utah.
Lynn and Wanda were married July 18, 1934 in the Manti Temple. Times were hard in those depression years,
but Lynn had
worked long enough to buy the rings and had a few dollars left over for a short
honeymoon. They then returned to Helper
to make their home.
Lynn was educated to
teach school, but the going wage was eight hundred dollars a year, so he
decided to go into business with his brother Cecil. They bought two open fruit markets from Jim
Pinnegar, one in Helper and the other in Price, with Cecil managing the one in
Price and Lynn the other. The next winter
their brother Maurice joined them in their business. He worked in the Price store. A few years later their brother
Berne quit teaching school and came into the
business. They had big plans for
expansion. Their father trucked produce
to them from the farm and from the market in
Salt Lake City.
Lynn
did much of the driving with his father and after his death in August,
1942.
Berne
became ill and was off from work a long time.
When he was well enough he decided to go back to teaching school. He never returned to the business. During the Second World War Maurice and his
wife Geri decided they could both work at defense jobs in
Salt Lake City and make more money. They never rejoined the business either.
When Lynn
and Wanda were married they first lived in a one room apartment at the
Hillcrest Hotel in Helper, but after approximately one month they found a two
room apartment and moved to Ricci Apartments number one on Welby Street. They lived there for one year and then moved
into a three room home in a duplex owned by Pete Bosone on 50 North Main, a
daughter Kay was born while there on October 29, 1936. They lived in this home about five years, and
a second daughter, Lynda, was born to them there December 4, 1940.
In the
summer of 1937 Lynn and Wanda bought their first car. It was a new brown Chevrolet Coupe. It cost them nine hundred dollars and it
lasted them for seventeen years. They
were still using it after five children, who used to quarrel about who got to
sit up in the back window. Folks
wondered how they all got in.
On June 1,
1940, when Lynda was six months old, the family moved into a new home at
109 D street. The home was built with an F.H.A. loan. Lynn and his father worked for the contractor
and did a lot of the work. It was a nice
two bedroom home with a full unfinished basement.
Lynn
loved to garden and built a beautiful year.
He spent many hours digging out the large rock and sifting out the
smaller ones by putting all the dirt through a gravel screen, so that he would
have perfect soil for planting. Due to
the price he and his brother took in their yards they were able to influence
many people in the town with a desire for better surroundings. They also sold nursery stock in their place
of business making it easy for people to buy plants, shrubs, and trees.
Lynn’s
yard was a joy to him and those who looked at it. The shade trees, fruit trees, lawn, shrubs
and flowers were always well selected and well groomed.
Lynn
worked hard, with very little time off, so this for him was recreation.
Lynn also played a little
tennis, and, for the time he devoted to it, was really quite good.
Lynn remained active in
the church, although he worked long hours every day. At about this time in his life he felt that
his patriarchal blessing had been completely fulfilled, and desiring further
spiritual guidance, he and Wanda each received a patriarchal blessing on March
17 1943 from Carbon Stake Patriarch, John E. Pettit. In this blessing Lynn was promised that he would be called to
positions of high responsibility, and should therefore keep himself clean and
unspotted from the world. Three months
later he was called to be Bishop of the Helper Ward.
Lynn’s first son, Joseph
Lee, was born April 28, 1943. They were
blessed with a third daughter, Peggy, on May 23, 1945. The baby of the family, a second son, Alan
Lynn, was born March 7, 1949. This
completed their family.
It was at
about this time that Cecil and Lynn decided to expand their business and built
two fine new grocery stores, one in Price in 1947 and the other in Helper in
1949. They called them Broadbents’ Fine
Foods. Business was good until after the
war, then the economy began to go from bad to worse. The continued coal strikes, the decline in
rail road activity and lack of need for coal by industries which were starting
to use other fuels were all factors responsible for the economic recession in Carbon County
at this time. The advent of the diesel
engine to replace the old coal burning locomotives on the Denver and Rio Grande
Rail Road made it unnecessary for engines to be serviced in the round house at
Helper and also resulted in a great reduction in the number of rail road
employees.
Since
business was slow in the store, Lynn
got a job in the fall of 1953. He began
teaching school at Helper Jr. High and left his wife to care for the store,
helping her Saturdays and after school.
The children were all in school except Alan, who attended nursery school
in the mornings and then played around the store in the afternoon until the
older children were out of school to take him home. Lynn
took the teaching job with the intention of selling the store, but, due to the
times, he continued like this for eight years and the business did not
improve. It was still a partnership
business with all of Lynn’s
wages going into the common fund. Both
families lived with the idea that no one should spend anything that wasn’t
necessary and with one thought in mind, to get out of debt.
Business in the Price store held up
longer than in the Helper store.
Finally, in 1961, the Helper store building was leased to Nolan
Davis. Lynn moved the stock to the Price store. He felt like the weight of the world had been
lifted from his shoulders. During those
eight years of teaching he had not even been able to work in the store during
the summer. It was necessary for
financial reasons to continue with other employment. He worked during these summers for the Carbon County
School District tearing
down and renovating school buildings all over the county. Two summers he even worked in the timber,
where he cut and made ties for the railroad.
Because both families worked hard and together the payments on the loans
were kept up.
When the
Helper store was finally leased, the partners had separate incomes fro the
first time in Lynn
and Wanda’s married life. Lynn was free to take a National Defense Education
scholarship grant and attend the University
of Washington in Seattle to study German for his Masters
Degree. This he did during the summer of
1961. The following summer, 1962, he
again received the same type of grant to study with Stanford
University in Bad Boll near Stuttgart in Germany. These experiences were great for Lynn, because he was then
teaching German exclusively.
When Lynn started teaching he
taught Biology, English, Civics, Math, and Driver Training. He taught speech only one year. He did a good job with each subject and
learned much in a broad area. He feels
this varied experience gave him a well rounded education. One year he suggested a German class t the
principal and it was only a short time until he had a full load of German.
In
November, 1953 Lynn’s mother who had lived alone
in her home in Provo
for fifteen years passed away. He and
his family missed her frequent visits with them as well as her sweet spirit and
advice.
Lynn and
Wanda’s children all attended elementary and Jr. high school in Helper and then
continued their schooling at Carbon
High School in
Price. Kay, Lynda, and Peggy all
graduated from Carbon College ( now the College of Eastern Utah). They then went on to get their B.A. Degrees
at Brigham Young
University in Provo.
Lee went to Carbon College one year before leaving for Europe
to fill an L.D.S. mission in the South German Mission.
Kay and
Lynda were both married while the family still lived in Helper. Peggy was married the year after the family
moved to Cedar City.
However the wedding reception was held in Helper. They all married returned missionaries and
college graduates, and were married in the Manti Temple. Kay was married June 5, 1957 to Glen R Stubbs
of Ephraim, Utah. Lynda married Walter Sherman Gibbs of
Portage, Utah June 4, 1963. Peggy and
Ray Dean Terry were married June 5, 1966.
The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been a way of life for the Lynn
Broadbent family ever since Lynn and Wanda were married. Even before marriage Lynn worked in the Manavu Ward as Drama
Director for the M.I.A. He became active
in the Helper Ward as soon as they moved there.
Positions he held were: Drama Director, President of the Y.M.M.I.A.,
Aaronic Priesthood Supervisor, Young Adult Sunday School Teacher, Elders Quorum
President, and Ward Teacher. He taught
the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Class from 1946 to 1965. He taught this adult class, even though he
was bishop of the ward for much of this time.
He served as Bishop of the Helper Ward for twelve years, from 1943 to
1955. Lynn
was ordained a High Priest and set apart as Bishop of the Helper Ward on
October 24, 1943 by Marvin O. Ashton, a member of the Presiding Bishopric of
the L.D.S. Church at that time. He was assisted by Richard L. Evans of the
First Council of Seventies.
When Lynn became the third
bishop of the Helper Ward, the first chapel in the city was nearly completed. Previous to that time the ward had used and
old railroad building, and later the elementary school to hold their meetings
in. Lynn directed the completion of the chapel
and supervised the raising of money for the pews and other furnishings for the
building as well as the landscaping. He
insisted that the pews must be padded.
The final dedication of the chapel was on October 24, 1943. His counselors in the bishopric were Elmer
Parker and Frank Hartle with Leonard Thayne as Ward Clerk. Other counselors during the twelve years were
Waldo B. Gale, Owen Burgener, and L. Rodney Taylor. T. Don Burnhope was also a ward clerk. Many people were activated, and the ward grew
considerably, both in number and activity during Lynn’s term as bishop.
He enjoyed
his work as bishop and had many experiences which strengthen him
spiritually. On one occasion, while
returning from a soft ball game in Vernal, in the middle of the night, over a
strange road, and traveling at a high rate of speed with his brother Cecil driving,
they saw the lights of a large truck approaching out of the pitch darkness in
the distance. Lynn was prompted to say, “Cec, you’d better
slow down. You don’t have room to pass
that truck on that narrow bridge ahead.”
It was so dark that neither of them could have seen any bridge and
neither of them had been on that particular road before. Cecil, who at that time was President of the
North Carbon Stake, answered, “What bridge?
I don’t see any bridge.” But he
slowed down automatically. Lynn said, “I just had an
idea there was a bridge ahead.” By this
time the abutment of a long, one-way bridge became visible in the lights of the
car and the huge truck was crossing it.
Had they continued at their previous speed they must surely have met the
truck on the bridge and both would have been killed.
Another
incident that Lynn
will never forget began when Brother James Charlesworth, a fine member of the
ward, who had become inactive over the years came to Bishop Lynn one day in his
place of business. Jim had health
problems. He had lost his voice, and for
several months had been unable to speak, except in a whisper. He was a man of means and had secured the
best medical assistance, but it was to no avail. The doctors couldn’t even tell him why he
couldn’t speak, let alone what to do about it.
Unashamedly the tears rolled down his cheeks as he told the bishop of
his years of inactivity, of his reasons for it, and of his present regrets. He then made an unexpected and strange
request. “Bishop,” he said, “I am going
to be a good member of my church from now on, and I want to start out be going
back to the temple. Could you find it in
your heart,” he whispered, “to give me a temple recommend?” Lynn
was really surprised but feels that his reply was prompted by the Spirit and he
answered. “Jim, I’m glad that you want
to go to the temple and you may surely have a recommend.” Again the gratitude was expressed with tears
and hoarse whispers. Brother
Charlesworth went to the temple that very week, and as he entered that holy
place his voice was restored, and he spoke as well as anyone else from that
time on. But the wonderful and rewarding
part, to Bishop Broadbent was that he also kept his promise. He became a stalwart in the ward and stake
from that time on.
Lynn recalls many similar
experiences. One other that he remembers
also happened in the Manti
Temple. Bro. Stanley Kantor was a coal miner living
in the Helper War, who had recently joined the church and wanted to go to the
temple to be married. During the
required waiting period complications developed. Brother Kantor was afflicted with, what the
Dr. called, migratory rheumatism. It was
extremely painful, so much so that it robbed him of his sleep and rest. AS the date set for the trip to the temple
approached, his condition became progressively worse. It was so bad he could neither sit up, lie
down, or stand. In fact, there was no
position where he could get any relief from the excruciating pain, which
tortured hi day and night. He was
literally screaming with pain and his wife was near total collapse. Bishop Broadbent was called to come and
administer to him at two o’clock in the morning. The couple was scheduled to leave for the
temple three hours later. The bishop and
his counselor administered to him and asked him if it wouldn’t be wise to
postpone the temple trip, since no one in this condition could possibly endure
the long session and the flights of steps.
Both he and his wife Ruth insisted that nothing was going to keep them
from the temple that day. They felt that
they had planned it too long, and they were sure that Satan was trying to
interfere. At five o’clock that morning,
Lynn and his counselor, Brother Kantor, who couldn’t walk a single step, to the
car and placed his crutches in after him.
Later Stan and the group with him told what happened. It was necessary for friends to and up the
steps of the temple. The closer to the
door he got the more excruciating the pain became. Once through the door he was completely
healed and needed no further help from friends or the crutches. They had an enjoyable day at the temple, and
he was never thus afflicted again.
Lynn
has been endowed with the gift of healing and has used it on many
occasions. He recalls one such incident
when the six week old baby of Brother and Sister Monte Stanley, also members of
the Helper Ward, was near death with pneumonia.
They asked the bishop to come and administer, and together with Bro.
Lynn Overlade, he went to the Stanley
home. This couple had already lost a
baby about a year earlier under very similar circumstances and were now afraid
of losing a second. The child seemed
nothing but skin stretched over bone, the skin being a sickly green in color,
as Lynn and Brother Overlade took it in their arms. It was breathing like a saw in a wet
log. But when the laid their hands on
its head and Lynn administered the blessing, the breathing immediately became
entirely normal; the baby vomited a large handful of awful looking mucus, etc.,
and the skin color change to that of a healthy baby. The baby was entirely recovered in a very
short time. Lynn had many such experiences throughout his
life; and each added strength to the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and the power of its priesthood, which he always had.
As Chairman
of the Bishops’ Council, Lynn
was responsible for the work on the North Carbon Stake Welfare Farm west of
Price for many years. He personally
spent hundreds of hours working in the hay and beets. Later he worked many house in the church coal
mine at Orangeville. This was also a
church welfare project. After his
release as bishop, Lynn
was a member of the North Carbon Stake High Council from 1955 to 1965, serving
during the latter years as senior member of this body. Shortly before his release from this position
he supervised “Project
Temple” for the
stake. Under his supervision over a
hundred people were brought into activity and went through the temple at Manti.
During his
years in Helper Ward and North Carbon Stake, Lynn was a popular speaker, being invited to
speak at many funerals, church and civic functions.
All during Lynn’s life in the Helper
Ward he acted in, directed and produced many plays. Some of those he remembers are: Sun Up, a
play in which his wife Wanda was an old southern woman who smoked a corn cob
pipe all the way through; Seven Keys to Bald Pate; the Ghost Train; Polly with
a Past; June Mad; Charlie’s Aunt; Wing Tu’s Brother; and Is Zat So?. There were many others, including one act
plays and skits.
Lynn was also gifted at
giving readings. This he did in Provo, Helper and
Price. He also spent many hours training
his children in these skills, and they won many awards in readings, oratory,
and dramatics.
During his
years in Carbon he also took an active part in the Carbon County Community
Amateur Theater both acting and directing.
One play which was especially well done and received the highest rating
was Pin and Patches in which his daughter Kay and his son Lee too leading
parts.
Lynn was called to be an
early morning seminary teacher by the church and taught eleven years from 1950
to 1961. The students from Helper and
vicinity were unable to graduate from seminary at Carbon High, where they went
only for the eleventh and twelfth years.
For the ninth and tenth grades they attended Helper Junior High School
where no seminary was available. So Lynn was hired and asked
to build his own program and see that the students received instruction in both
Old and New Testament. On year he taught
Old Testament and the next he alternated with New. They then took Church History and Book of
Mormon at Carbon High School to complete their seminary
work. Students from, Castle Gate, Spring Canyon,
Spring Glen, Kennilworth, Carbonville, and Helper were involved. Lynn
had to work with the parents and students to make this a success. Car pools from each town were organized. Seminary was held in the Helper Ward Chapel
at seven A.M. The students from out of
town had to get up pretty early to participate, but nearly all L.D. S. students
in the area were there. After class the
students had to walk more than a half a mile to get to their classes at
school. Lynn and the elected officers
sponsored a lot of activities to help make it something that even the less
enthusiastic members wanted to share.
They had parties, excursions to B.Y.U basketball games, trips to Arches
National Par, Goblin
Valley, Dead Horse Point,
and they presented programs in the different sacrament meetings. Lynn
was very successful in his seminary work and has had many grateful students
praise him for his efforts. Even his own
children, who sat under him in school and in the seminary count him as one of
their very best teachers.
The first
of June, 1963, the Helper store building was sold to Nolan Davis, who had been
leasing it. A big loss was taken, but
Lynn and Cecil were glad to sell it and pay off part of the mortgages. This also lightened the pressure for Cecil
and Edna in the Price store.
The summers
of 1963 and 1964 were spent in Laramie,
Wyoming. Lynn, Wanda, and Alan lived there while Lynn was finishing his
Master’s Degree in German. They lived in
the student housing complex, all one story buildings, so that the wind would
not blow them away; but sometimes they thought it was going to. The other children were either married or
were working in the Utah
parks for the summer. AS a break from
study and research, with which Wanda was assisting, they enjoyed keeping up
with Alan in his baseball and tennis, even following him to Denver
to see him play in the championship Pony League game between Wyoming
and Colorado.
When Lynn decided to get his
Master’s Degree in German, he had gradually worked up a program in the Carbon
District where he was teaching at Helper Jr. High in the morning, eating his
lunch in the fifteen minute period required to drive to Carbon High School at
Price, where he taught three classes in the afternoon, then on to College of
Eastern Utah, where he taught in the evening.
He taught German exclusively. The
last year Lynn taught at Carbon
High School he conducted a research
project for the State of Utah,
which turned out to be very interesting and successful. During this project he taught a biology class
in German. He discovered that it can be
done successfully for both subjects.
This was the first time an experiment of this kind had been conducted in
the United States. It had previously been done in Russia. The experiment showed the students in Lynn’s classless, as compared to a high school group in Urbana, Illinois;
of identical I.Q., taking classes in both biology and German, but not
simultaneously, did better in both subjects.
This was possible because they concentrated more and more was demand of
them. There should have been a second
year follow up study to verify these findings, but this was impossible for Lynn to do, since he accepted a position to organize a
German Major at the College of Southern Utah in Cedar City, Utah. After the national publication of this
project, other teachers in the United Stats and Canada
wrote to Lynn
for information, wishing to try similar projects in their schools.
The spring
of 1965 was very eventful for both the Lynn and Cecil Broadbent families. The Price store was sold to Westar, a sports
equipment firm which received a government loan for small businesses, and they
paid cash for the building. This company
only purchased the building, and the groceries and equipment were sold at a
“Going Out of Business” sale. Enough
money was received from this transaction to pay off all of the stores debts and
the mortgages on both homes. In
addition, each family was able to receive some profit for the thirty-one years
in Broadbents’ Fine Foods stores in Carbon Count. At this time Cecil and Edna left immediately
for Frankfurt, where Cecil had been called to
preside over the West German Mission.
 |
Wanda--1965 a gimmick at the
Xochmilco Floating Gardens Concessions |
When the
last part of the business was sold, Lynn and Wanda bought their second brand
new car, a dark aqua blue Buick Skylark with a white top, and traveled to
Saltillo, Mexico. Here they spent the summer studying
Spanish. They enjoyed the school,
Escuela Normal, studying nothing but Spanish all day. There was a beautiful park right across from
the school, and here they spent many hours preparing their lessons and
practicing what they had learned in class.
There was a small library in the park, which was a big help to
them. They were each assigned a private,
native tutor to work with after school for about two hours each day. The school provided living quarters with
native families for all of its students, and only the better class families and
homes were chosen. Lynn and Wanda lived
in two different homes, the latter of which was very ornate with tile floors
and a balcony. This was the home of a
young Arabian woman by the name of Helene Iga, Aldama Pte #627,
Saltillo,
Coahuilla,
Mexico. The first family they lived with was that of
Senor and Senora George Garcia, Obern Sur 140,
Saltillo,
Coahuilla, Mexico. Here in
Saltillo
they found two strata of society, extremely poor, and the wealthy, with no
middle class. They found the local L.D.S
branch and enjoyed mingling with the saints in
Saltillo.
While in
Mexico Lynn and Wanda drove over two of the principal highways of the country,
visiting the beautiful high mountainous country on the east side, where they
saw quaint Indian villages, corn growing over the tops of very high mountains,
and banana and avocado groves, as well as other tropical fruits at lower
elevations. They visited the Temple of the Moon and the Temple
of the Sun pyramids, Mexico City, the Palace of Maximillian, and the floating gardens at
Xochimilco. They also drove thru the
desert country, sometimes seeing nothing much but cactus, road runners,
rattlesnakes and lizards.
When they
returned home to Helper the last of August they immediately moved to Cedar City, Utah where Lynn had been hired to
teach German at Southern Utah State College.
He worked with Professor Harry Plummer, Head of the Language Department,
to build an impressive program in German, Spanish and French. After two years Lynn had established a program for a major in
German. Two years later a major in
Spanish and a minor in French were added.
He also initiated an intensive summer program in German in which the
students took no other courses, but studied German all day long. They learned as much of the language during
this intensive eight week program as students normally mastered during and
academic year and received the same fifteen credit hours for their
achievement. Many teachers, who were
working toward doctorates, took advantage of this opportunity to meet their
foreign language requirement. One summer
their daughter Kay and her husband Glen lived with Lynn and Wanda and took this
course while Glen was working for his doctorate. This program, which Lynn taught personally for ten years, was so
successful that it continued even after he had retired.
The teacher
and friend who taught with Lynn
in the German program was Herbert Ludwig, a native German. They worked together for many years. In June 1972, Lynn was appointed head of the Language
Department. As Chairman of the
Department he was responsible for securing the appointment of Dick Carlson to
teach Spanish, after the death of his friend and colleague, Harry Plummer. About a year later Professor Ludwig retired
and Lynn then
secured the services of Terry Blodgett as Assistant Professor of German. Many of his students have made it a point to
thank Professor Broadbent, either verbally or by mail, for being such a good
teacher and an influence in their lives.
He always liked to teach, was never plagued with discipline problems,
and his students honored him on several occasions throughout his career. On one occasion the students at the Helper Jr. High School presented him with a beautiful
gold watch at the end of the year.
On moving
to Cedar City
in 1965 Lynn,
Wanda, and Alan lived in a rented house at 246 S 300 West. Peggy was attending B.Y.U. and Lee was on a
mission to Germany. They lived there only a short and then moved
to a home owned by the college which it rented to its faculty members. It was known as the Tucker home at 272 South
500 West. It was a fairly nice red brick
home, and Lynn and Wanda worked hard to upgrade and beautify it, both inside
and out. Lynn resurrected a dead weedy garden spot
into a splendid vegetable garden. They
lived there until September 1969, when they bought the Sherman and Lynda Gibbs
home at 222 South 900 West. This home
was built three years previously for daughter Lynda and son-in-law Sherman. Sherman came
to Cedar City to be a principal of the Cedar High
School Seminary. They lived with Lynn
and Wanda while the home was being built and they all worked together painting
and decorating it. Lynn and Wanda
enjoyed them and their family while they lived in Cedar City,
seeing a lot of them and their children, Randy, Sherlyn, and Christy. The two families went on lots of picnics to
the parks, lakes and canyons. When Lynda
and Sherm were transferred to San
Diego California,
even though Lynn and Wanda had their own building lot and a fine set of plans
for a home, they decided to buy the house.
The home
had a three bedroom basement apartment made especially for student
housing. For years they rented this to
boys attending Southern Utah State College.
When the new owners moved into the home Lynn continued to landscape and beautify the
place, and with Wanda’s help they built a fine block wall around the home and
extended this with chain link around the garden spot. He literally made the soil by hauling in sand
and manure to mix with the heavy clay soil.
He thoroughly enjoys being a successful gardener. There were a good raspberry patch, a row of
asparagus, two Chinese bush cherries, several clumps of rhubarb, a native
currant, and a gooseberry bush in the garden area. Here he always had plenty of tomatoes, corn,
potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and cantaloupe.
More of these ended up with the children and the neighbors than were
used at home. IN the space between the
house and the garden he planted a large lawn with eight fruit trees all of the
dwarf varieties and a nice flower garden.
Lynn
liked flowers of all kinds, but more particularly dahlias, gladioli, asters and
canterbury bells.
In 1966,
one year after their move to Cedar City, Peggy was married, and she and Ray moved to Salt Lake City where Ray had accepted employment with the Granit School
District.
Lee came home from his mission to Germany and attended Southern Utah
State College for one year. He then went
to Utah Sate
University one year before serving a
four year term with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam conflict. Lee then returned to Utah State University from which he graduated with
a degree in Range Management in 1974.
Alan
attended Cedar High
School during his Junior and Senior years, and then went to
Southern Utah State College for one year before leaving for a mission in Finland. He returned home in October, 1970. It was at this time that Lynn and Wanda
purchased a new Buick Skylark, a brown one, and gave Alan the old one, which
they had enjoyed so much and which was still in good condition. The old car served Alan well for several more
years. Alan lived at home and attended
another year of college and then joined the army for the following two years. This was also during the war in Asia. He was
married during that time, June 23, 1972, to Maureen Hansen in the Salt lake
Temple. Among other places, Alan served in Korea where his
wife joined him; their first son Alma Ray was born there. Following his release he returned to Cedar City
to finish his education there. While
living in Cedar they had two more children, Aleena and Jason. Lynn and Wanda came to love the children very
much. The two families had many
enjoyable outings and picnics at this time.
Alan graduated in June 1976, and they moved to Las Vegas, Nevada,
where he was employed with the Crawford Company as an insurance adjuster.
The family
home in Helper was rented at first, because there was no sale for it. The first renters were good, but subsequent renters
rant eh place down both inside and out.
After several disappointing experiences Lynn and Wanda paid another good
renter to add another room in the basement and redecorate the home. Shortly thereafter they sold it to him,
feeling that it was better to sell, even at a cheaper price, than to continue
to rent, since the home was so far away.
Then Lynn and his family moved to Cedar City
in 1965 they had many fond memories of the old home in Helper and missed the
many friends they left behind.
Lynn and
Wanda first lived in the eighth ward in Cedar City,
but after only a few months moved over to the seventh. In January, 1966, he was called to serve as a
High Councilman in the newly formed L.D.S. Southern Utah State College Stake. While
acting in this capacity he was advisor to the different wards, worked with the
stake missionaries and was advisor to the stake relief society. During these years his wife Wanda was also
working in the college stake on the Relief Society Board, so they were able to
enjoy working together and both were released at the same time in 1973. While working in the college stake and living
in their own home on 9th West, the family belonged to the ninth of
Cedar West Stake. When the ninth ward
was divided they belonged to the new thirteenth ward.
Shortly
after being released from the college stake in the fall of 1973, Lynn was asked to teach
the Gospel Doctrine Class in the new ward.
This was a particular assignment that he has always enjoyed very
much. He taught this until February of
1976 when the street on which they lived, 900 West, was returned to the ninth
ward.
During
their married life Wanda and Lynn have done temple work in both the Manti and
St. George temples and have been through the Salt
Lake, Provo,
Oakland, and Washington temples. They are proud and feel blessed to have been
able to accompany all of their five children to the temples when each was
married. Lynn and Wanda were called in
1977 to do sealing work in the St. George Temple. This assignment is continuing as of March,
1978. After transferring back to the
ninth ward, he and his wife were asked to teach the Family Relations Class in
Sunday School, an assignment they also still have as of the above date.
Lynn continued to teach
college until he was sixty-eight years of age.
He retired in June, 1976, nearly three years beyond the normal
retirement age. He has always been
convinced that mandatory retirement practices are a curse to the nation. He believed that the Lord’s statement, “By the sweat of the brow—“, was never
intended to be invalidated at the age of sixty-five. He also feels that if we as a nation are to
compete with other nations successfully we can’t do it by making drones of a
high percentage of our workers.
When Lynn left the college he
and Wanda left for a three week bus tour.
The tour was sponsored by the B.Y. U., and the tour directors were their
daughter Kay and son-in-law Glen Stubbs.
The tour took them to all points of early church and American national
history. They traveled across the
country to Virginia, Washington
D.C., Pennsylvania,
New York, Joseph Smith’s birthplace in Vermont, Niagara Falls in Canada, Chicago,
and home. It was a wonderful trip and
they made many new friends on the bus.
During the
years in Helper, when the family was growing up, there was neither time nor
money for traveling, but they did take one day or over a holiday trips. They visited Mesa Verde in Colorado,
Bryce Canyon,
Zion’s National Park, and quite often to Arches National Monument,
Goblin Valley and Dead Horse Point. Mud Springs, just nineteen miles from their
home, was an often visited favorite haunt.
In the summer of 1963, after summer school in Laramie,
Wyoming was out, Lynn,
Wanda, and Alan traveled south through Denver
and Pueblo, Colorado
to Taos, Albuquerque,
and Santa Fe, New Mexico,
then over to Phoenix, Arizona where Kay and Glen had just
moved. They had but recently gotten
their first child, Dian and this made some mighty proud grand parents. The travelers returned home through the
beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and Glen
Canyon, where the dam was
then being completed. After the summer
school of 1964 the three of them returned home via the Black Hills and Mount
Rushmore in South Dakota, Yellow Stone
National Park, the Grand Tetons, and Jackson Hole. The
family really enjoyed these trips very much as they were the last they made
while Alan was still at home. In 1965
Alan was left in Provo
with Lynda and Kay and their families while Sherman and Glen were studying at
the B.Y.U. Peggy was working at Zion’s National Par,
where she met her husband Ray Terry. Lee
was filing a mission in Germany. This left the parents free to study in Mexico. On the way down they visited Carlsbad
Caverns, and White Sands in New Mexico; they
then drove on to the Big Bend National Park I Texas and Mexico by way of Eagle Pass and Piedros Negros. They returned seven weeks later through Juarez, Mexico
and El Paso, Texas.
They returned home by way of Duncan,
Arizona and the Coronado Trail,
which winds through the mountainous eastern part of that state.
1966 was an
eventful year for the family; Peggy was married; Lee came home from his
mission; and they, along with Alan, all worked at Zion’s Park for the summer. The parents remained home where Lynn taught summer school
and worked on the yard. The enjoyed
having the children so close, where they could see them often. The following summer, with Alan again working
at Zion’s Park and Lee employed by the Forest
Service near Boise Idaho,
Lynn and Wanda toured northern California,
visiting Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, and the Red Wood Forest.
From there they continued down the California Coast to San Francisco and
over to San Jose, where Kay and Glen were living with their daughter Diane and
a second beautiful daughter, Julie Ann, whom they had gotten in Arizona a few
months before transferring to their new assignment. Lynn and Wanda then traveled further down the
coast to Big Sur, Hurst’s Castle, over to the
beautiful Sequoia National Park and back to Cedar City. One spring they took a short trip through Death Valley where they found snow and millions of
flowers, with great fields of them blooming in all directions.
Lynn and
Wanda have taken some nice trips with Kay and Glen and family seeing the scenic
parts of Idaho, the beautiful Saw Tooth
Mountain area and clear,
sparkling rivers and lakes. While on one
of these trips, they continued on to Glacier
National Park in Montana,
then to Cardston in Canada
where they visited the Mormon Temple, before returning home by another scenic route
through Idaho. A few years later the two families drove out
through northern Nevada into Oregon,
seeing Crater Lake and following the rugged Oregon
coast into Washington. They stayed in Seattle
and took the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, British Columbia,
in Canada. On the way home we saw Mount
Rainer, Mount Hood, and other points
of interest in Washington, Oregon,
and Idaho.
In June,
1971 the two families had planned a trip through the Canadian parks, but shortly
before time to leave Kay and Glen got word that they could pick up their little
baby boy, David Glen, at the adoption agency in Idaho Falls. They had waited a long time for him, so of
course could not go. Lee got a furlough
from the navy at this time, so he and his parents went on the trip, stopping in
Rexburg to see the new grandson. They
had intended to take the route through Glacier National Park,
but were forced to go around because the park was still snowbound. The trio continued its journey to Waterton Lake.
They liked this resort very much and were impressed by its
quaintness. It was very peaceful and
quiet. They then continued their travels
through Cardston, Calgary, and then on to the magnificent national parks,
Banff, Kootney, Yo Ho, Jasper, Glacier and Revelstoke. They hoped to drive clear up to Alaska. Lynn had to
get back in time to teach summer school, so they did not reach their objective
at this time, but they did drive to Prince George
and way over to Prince Rupert, the Tuna Capitol
of the World, on the British
Columbia Coast. At least one may see Alaska from that point. The return trip brought them down through the
pan handle area of Idaho. They also saw the Craters of the Moon and Sun Valley. It was
good to have Lee with them at that time especially since he had been away so
long. There ever Lynn and Wanda went
they always wanted to take a different route, feeling that each was like being
in a different world.
Colorado is quite familiar to Lynn and Wand and they have visited
practically every part of it at least once during their lives. They think it is a very beautiful state and
have returned to some of its more interesting places several times. One especially enjoyable trip was with Peggy
and Ray in 1973. The first went to Grand
Junction, the Grand Mesa, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument,
the Royal Gorge, and then through
Silverton, Leadville, and the mountainous mining area and then on to Steam Boat
Springs and over to Craig, where Lee was stationed while working for the U.S.
Bureau of Land for the summer. From here
they took Lee and Drove to the Rocky
Mountain National
Park, Aspen Ski Resort, and Glenwood
Springs. They traveled over most of the
extremely high mountain passes in Colorado,
including Monarch
Pass. They cam home via Flaming Gorge, Dutch John,
and Evanston, Wyoming.
After
Sherman and Lynda moved to San Diego, California, Lynn and Wanda visited them a
number of times, and with them and their seven children, Randy, Sherlyn,
Christy, Alysson, Michael, Martin, and Kerilynn they have visited most of the
points for interest in Southern California, including Disney Land, Sea World,
the Los Angeles L.D.S. Temple, the San Diego Zoo, the ship yard, where Lee was
stationed, and Tijuana, Mexico. On one
New Years Day they watched the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena.
One interesting trip home from such a visit took them through El Centro, Blythe, Needles, California,
and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Another return trip led them to Yuma, Prescott and Flagstaff, Arizona, around to Page
and home by way of Kanab.
During the
summer of 1977 Lynn and Wanda along with Kay and Glen and their children
returned to Canada by way of
Glacier National
park in Montana. They revisited the principal national parks
in Canada and enjoyed the sky ride at beautiful Lake Louise, where they spent
two nights in a luxurious motel while thy visited the nearby points of
interest. Sights they particularly
appreciated were the Columbian Ice Fields, upon which they rode in a
snowmobile; the Yo Ho Falls, the highest they had ever seen; Athabasca Falls;
the natural bridge over the Kicking
Horse River;
the Mountain Goats, and the moose in several of the parks; and the multicolored
lakes. The lakes they thought most
beautiful were Lake Loraine, which is Peyto
Lake, colored a beautiful robin egg
blue; Lake Louise, the best known among the countless numbers of lakes found in
the Canadian Rockies; and Emerald
Lake, which is nestled
like a gem in a beautiful setting and gets its name from the deep sparkling
green of its waters. Another lake they
liked very much is Waterton Lake which extends over the border into the United States.
On June 2,
1977, Lee was married to Marilyn Reynolds in the Manti Temple. Lynn and Wanda attended the temple with them,
then traveled on to Vernal for their reception.
The newlyweds established their home in Vernal, Marilyn’s home town
because Lee was employed in the Roosevelt Vernal area where he worked with the
Soil Conservation Service.
Shortly
after Lee’s marriage Lynn and Wanda purchased another new 1977 Buick, this time
a silver Regal with a red plush interior.
Except for
the indebtedness necessary to establish themselves in business and the purchase
of their homes, Lynn and Wanda have strictly adhered to the policy of staying
out of debt all their lives. Anything
they couldn’t pay cash for they simply went without. This policy applied to furniture, cars and
all other purchases both small and large.
Lynn
considered indebtedness a form of slavery.
On February 1, 1973, the Cedar
City home was cleared of
the final indebtedness, and since then they have been entirely free of all
debt.
Lynn worked hard all his
life and was blessed with exceptionally good health until the early nineteen
sixties, when arthritic troubles gave him back problems for the rest of his
life. He did not let this interfere with
working hard however, but work was sometimes very painful. At about this time he also had an operation
for a hernia.
Lynn was bothered somewhat all his life with
insufficient breathing space in his nose, so in 1972 he had an operation and
part of the septum was removed. His
sinuses were then able to drain, and he could breathe better from that time on. In the spring of 1976
Lynn was plagued with an attack of arthritic
gout and the following winter discovered he had Sugar Diabetes. He has been able to completely control both
diseases with diet and medication.
All the
children have been home frequently for holiday and summer vacations since they
established their own homes, but Peggy and Ray and their children, Cindy and
Brent, who live closer in Hunter, Utah, have celebrated Christmas and Easter
with them nearly every year, and Lynn and Wanda have come to look forward to
these visits.
At this
writing, March, 1978, Lynn
has fifteen grandchildren, seven boys and eight girls, and that is about as
evenly divided as one can get that number.
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