World War II

Kristine, Judy, Steve, Florence around 1944

Once the family had buried Florence’s father, they turned their attention to the draft notice that had been burning a hole in Elwood’s pocket. Elwood assumed that the military would reject him, due to a heart murmur that had prevented him playing basketball during high school. Still, the possibility remained that he would have to serve. On Monday, January 10, 1944, he traveled to Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City along with 22 other Iron County men to report for induction. He dutifully reported his heart murmur to the examining physicians, who questioned him in some detail and then, to his surprise, determined him fit for service.  Apparently, the military had recently released a memo lowering the physical requirements for active duty. Elwood was to report for duty around the first of February.

The rest of January brought a flurry of activity. Florence and Elwood had just signed on a loan for $3,000 for the house. Military pay would bring the family $66 a month, less than one third the income the family reported on their 1943 tax return. With a house payment and three children, the family would need more than his military pay to pay the bills. Elwood’s insurance and real estate business had just begun to give them a modest income. Florence would have to join the flood of women entering the workforce. Fortunately, she had studied business in college and had worked in the insurance office from time to time. They determined that she would take the licensing exam to become a fire and casualty agent. The real estate business would stay on hold until Elwood returned from the war. Florence passed the exam, and Elwood taught her everything he could in the three weeks before he left for basic training.

Around February 1, Elwood and the other Army men left for Camp Barkeley, Texas. Kristine remembers Grandpa Corry offering to drive Florence and Kris to Salt Lake City so that they could see Elwood one more time before he left for Texas. They only got as far as Fillmore, though, before snowy weather stopped them in their tracks. Florence called Elwood from the hotel, and the next day Grandpa drove them home to Cedar.

Camp Barkeley, located 11 miles southwest of Abilene, TX, had a population of about 50,000 at its peak and was dismantled near the close of World War II. Elwood managed basic training there rather better than he expected. His heart gave him no trouble, and he felt like he held his own. After several weeks, he was transferred to Clerk’s School for an eight week course.

Back home Florence tried to make life as normal as possible for the family. Kristine was seven when her father went off to war, halfway through her second grade year. She remembers the excitement of having a soldier father with a neat uniform, and she remembers a quiet house with Dad off to war and Mother working. Judy was just five years old at the time, and Steven was only two. Grandma lived next door, of course, and neighbors like Miss Wanda helped with the children, but beneath the excitement lay a certain emptiness, a sense of light gone.

As usual, Florence managed to make each of her children feel special, even in difficult times. Kristine remembers a particular event that spring. Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly starred in the new movie “Cover Girl,” which came to theatres at the end of March 1944. Mother and daughter went downtown to see the movie and stopped next door for a treat afterward, just the two of them. This was a rare outing and Kristine remembers it fondly.

In June, Elwood completed training and came home for a brief furlough. He traveled from Texas to New Mexico and then caught a ride to Cedar with his sister, Virginia. After a short visit, he took the train to Camp Beale, California, located 12 miles east of Marysville, in Yuba County.
Abish (known as Abby), Elwood’s mother, wrote to Elwood in July, not long after he arrived at Camp Beale. The family had gathered at Florence’s for dinner that afternoon, and she described the after dinner scene:

“Dad is having his after dinner nap on the davenport in your living room. Florence and Virginia [Elwood’s oldest sister] are washing up the dishes in the kitchen. Beth and Ruth [Elwood’s sisters, ages 22 and 25] and Martin and Lloyd [Elwood’s brothers, ages 20 and 16] are playing Rook while Kristine is reading a book. Stephen is watching the game and Judy and Pat [Virginia’s daughter] are outside playing.”

Elwood must have been able to close his eyes and picture his family on that Sunday afternoon, gathered for the big meal before evening church. Abby also described the barbecue up the canyon, the fish Dr. Edmonds caught, and the visit from L. C. Miles, who had just come home on furlough. Those little tidbits from home bridged the miles between southern Utah and California. L.C. Miles expected to ship out soon, and folks speculated on whether he would find himself at Pearl Harbor. Left unspoken, but certainly looming in the minds of Elwood’s family, was the question of where Elwood himself would be stationed.

Elwood remained in California for about three months. Kristine remembers that her mother took the train to see him during that period. Florence reported that the trains were crowded, and she had to stand up for much of the trip (in high heels, no less!). A photo of the couple, probably from that visit, shows the two of them appearing rather subdued. Elwood holds the hand of an unidentified little girl, perhaps considering his own little girls back home.

On September 14, 1944 (Kristine remembers clearly, because it was the day before her eighth birthday), the phone rang. It was Elwood, calling to tell the family he was shipping out soon. Florence was still at the office, so Kristine took the message. He would be shipping out shortly, heading west. He had yet to see the specific orders, but west meant the Pacific Theater. Florence stayed home the next day, just in case Elwood had a chance to call again. When she had to run to the grocery store, she left her sister-in-law Ruth by the phone. As luck would have it, Elwood picked that moment to phone, so Ruth dashed to the store and brought Florence home to take the call.

Mel and Elwood in Hawaii 1944 or 1945

Before going overseas, Elwood was transferred to Fort Lawton, just outside of Seattle, Washington, where he spent about three weeks before shipping out. When they did finally board ship, the soldiers still had little clue as to their final destination. Eventually, they landed in Hawaii, where Elwood spent the remainder of his WWII service. While in Hawaii, Elwood connected with his little brother, Mel, who served in the Navy as a Pharmacist’s Mate. They were able to spend quite a bit of time together over the next few months before Mel shipped out. Elwood worked as a clerk during his time in Oahu and made several lasting friendships with other LDS men stationed on the island.

Meanwhile, Florence ran the insurance business and kept her family afloat. She and Elwood discussed business matters through airmail, and the light envelopes with red and blue bars around the border became a familiar sight in the mailbox. She proved an astute businesswoman. In November 1944, in fact, the monthly bulletin from Northwestern Mutual Fire Insurance Company featured Florence along with two other women in an article entitled “Women in Agencies.” The author wrote,

“Little did Mrs. Florence Corry dream that her studies in the Business Department of the Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City, Utah and her experience as a bookkeeper would stand her in good stead. But they are—now that her husband is in the Army and she finds herself running their business (besides taking care of their three lovely children). ‘I am happy that Elwood was engaged in a business that I could assist in during his absence. As the months go by, I anticipate not only holding the business he has established but I am anxious to increase it so that things will be in a sound condition when he returns.’ We salute you, Mrs. Corry, for your courage to carry on.”

Florence succeeded in running the business and even managed to pay several months ahead on the mortgage. When he returned home, Elwood would be able to pick up where he left off.
Though far away from the actual fighting, even Cedar City residents felt the effects of the war in their everyday lives. Many families, like the Corrys, sent husbands and fathers or brothers overseas. Everyone found creative ways to deal with the rationing of food and gas and other essentials. Florence’s friend Lillian lived on a farm with cows and regularly sent butter in to town to Florence and her family. Florence, always quite proud of her nice legs, took special care of her silk stockings. Since all of the silk went to make parachutes during the war, she had to make her remaining stockings last, so she meticulously mended them to keep them in good shape for church.

Without her husband, Florence was forced to get creative about home maintenance. She began to hold lawn parties, inviting neighborhood children. They would mow and rake the lawn and then gather for homemade root beer after they finished the yardwork. The Southwick boys helped out. Even F. Burton Howard joined the yard crew. Of course, back then he was “just as scruffy-looking as the rest of us,” Kristine reports. The Howards rented the upstairs apartment of the Corry house. On one occasion, when Florence was backing the Ford out of the driveway, the door flew open, caught on a pillar at the edge of the driveway, and came off. Florence roped the door back on to the car until she could get the car fixed.

Once, perhaps for Elwood’s birthday in March 1945, Florence and the children made a record to send to Hawaii. Florence recited poetry, and Kris and Judy each sang solos. Judy remembers singing “I’m So Glad When Daddy Comes Home.” About this time, Kristine started learning the piano. The Corry musical tradition had passed to the new generation.

Kristine, Judy, Florence, Steve 1945

Despite working full-time and running the household, Florence found the time and energy to focus on her children. She took them on hikes, outings to Zion National Park and even a trip to the cave just east of town. For Kristine’s eighth birthday, Florence hosted a supper for Kristine and her friends and took them to the movies afterward. She wrote to Elwood about Kristine’s moodiness, Judy’s bubbly personality and tomboy ways, and the funny things toddler Steve said or did.

As Kristine entered 4th grade in the fall of 1945, her body began changing, and it was clear she would enter puberty rather early. The aunts were alarmed. Florence must have had her own private worries, but she never passed those concerns on to Kristine. She simply guided her calmly through the process, helping her deal with the periods and the acne that her friends would not have to worry about until middle school. In October, the school determined that with her physical development and academic ability, Kristine would feel more comfortable in the grade ahead. Consequently, she moved immediately to the 5th grade. Elwood must have felt some concern about being so far away from his daughter at a difficult time, but Florence managed the situation beautifully and with great sensitivity.

As World War II wound its way to a close, the adults back home continued to support each other. Florence held regular meetings with her committee on the Girls’ Coordinating Council. While the calling must have seemed overwhelming at first, coming as it did just as Elwood left for war, the association with the other women on the committee must have brought Florence much needed support. In addition, she had her literary club, as well as the study group she and Elwood had joined before the war. At some point during Elwood’s tour of duty, that study group met at the Corry home. Elwood kept a letter they all wrote to him that evening. Calvin Frame wrote, “Nice family group you have…Still smiling, all of them.” Another friend reported, “Your good wife surely did herself proud tonight. Everything tip-top as only Florence could do it. Keep happy and remember we’re all pulling for you and looking forward [to] when you will be home with us again.”

Elwood (on left) at end of WWII

The May 8 Victory in Europe and the Japanese surrender in August brought that homecoming much closer. One evening in October 1945, Kristine came home from Primary to a sight she says she will never forget. In her words, “It was dark outside and when I came in the front door the whole feeling was one of light. Artificial light, of course, but there was something even more. Mother was sitting on a chair still with her coat on, as she’d just gotten home from work, and to me it looked like a halo of some kind was all around her. I thought of the pictures I used to always see of Mary and Christ where they had that halo of light around Mary. Mother had this letter in her hand, and she told me Dad was coming home and should be in Salt Lake in two weeks. Her voice was soft and happy. I guess when people ask what I think heaven is like, I always think of that night.”

In a small notebook Elwood kept for addresses and jotted notes, he wrote a few drafts of the telegram that Florence read that night. The most extensive draft reads, “Coming home. Will phone on arrival mainland. Have civilian clothes ready in Salt Lake. Love Elwood.” Another draft read simply, “Get those civilian clothes ready.” Private Corry was coming home at last.

With the war over, the family began preparing for his homecoming. “Only seven more letters, Elwood, and you’ll be home,” Florence wrote her husband. She helped Kristine pick out a song to play for her father when he got back, and they settled on “Robin’s Return.” Finally, on a cold, windy November night, Elwood’s boat pulled into the harbor at Stockton, California. From there, he traveled on to Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City. To his surprise, when he happened to knock on a random door, the Red Cross worker who opened the door burst out laughing. It was his sister, Beth, chuckling at his Army overcoat that was much too long and hung almost to his ankles.

Florence, too, had traveled to Salt Lake City, anxious to be there for Elwood’s arrival. She had met all of the trains at the depot but finally left to go back to her hotel room. Eventually, they found each other. In his characteristic fashion, Elwood says little of the reunion, reporting only that “it was really great meeting my good wife again after such a long separation.” Florence had her “Corry” back again, and life could return to normal.

Beginning a Family

E.M. Corry Farm 1936

When Elwood was a young boy, his father and his Uncle Willard purchased about 700 acres of land in the area later known as the intersection of Midvalley Road and Lund Highway, northwest of Cedar City. Roughly half of the land lay on the west side of Lund Highway, with the other half on the east. In time, Elwood’s father, E.M., and Uncle Willard broke up their partnership, and E.M. took all but 90 acres on the east side of the highway. Over the years, he purchased additional acreage in the vicinity, and “the farm” became a constant in the lives of the Corry family for decades to come.

Soon after Elwood returned home from England at the end of 1932, he took over operation of the farm. This was in the midst of the Depression and just before the advent of mechanized equipment replaced the work horse. Though meager, the farm income provided enough to put Elwood through two years at the BAC (Branch Agricultural College).

In the spring of 1935, Elwood worked the farm, anticipating his quickly approaching college graduation and marriage. That year’s hay crop and corn silage was to pay for his studies at Utah State Agricultural College, and the newlyweds planned to move to Logan in the fall. However, the hay failed to sell. As a backup plan, Elwood took the advice of some neighbors and borrowed money to buy 40 head of cattle. Through the fall and winter of 1935-36, he fed the cattle, finally taking them to Los Angeles in March, where he ended up selling them for less than their purchase price. In the end, he had to sell a milk cow just to repay the loan.

The spring of 1936 found Florence and Elwood with no money to live on, no money to run the farm, and a baby due in September. Elwood was able to make a little money feeding lambs that summer, and they rented the farm adjoining the Corry farm, primarily because the rental farm included a house they could live in. The house had no running water, no indoor bathroom and no telephone, but it provided shelter and electricity, and they had food. They also had the use of an old car of Elwood’s father’s, although they only used it when they had to, as they had little money for gas. Elwood hired a boy to help him with the farm work, paying the boy in hay. Florence had resigned her job at Cedar Mercantile due to her pregnancy.

In these conditions, Florence entered the third trimester of her pregnancy. She must have worried some about starting a family in such hard times, but then Florence had weathered her share of poverty over the years, and she had inherited a bit of her Grandmother Decker’s pioneer spirit. Besides, the Corrys were not the only young couple at the time to know the pinch of an empty pocketbook. Elwood later said that, although they realized virtually no income in those years, he remembers their early marriage as a happy time. They worked hard, and they recognized the Lord’s hand in their lives.

1935 model Heatrola

One day, for instance, Roe Palmer came over and asked Elwood if he would mind taking Roe’s men into town at the end of the day. Elwood agreed, although he privately wondered how he would buy gas for the car. He and Florence determined they would have to use $2.50 in tithing money they had saved, and so he pulled the money out of the drawer, and they headed into town, planning to repay the tithing as soon as they brought in some more money. Just a short distance down the road, a neighbor flagged them down, handing Elwood $5.00 toward a pasture bill that would not come due for some time. No one paid their bills early in those Depression years! When they arrived in town, Florence stopped by to see Fae and found, to her surprise, that her brother Alpine had left her $15.00 to apply toward some money she had loaned him years before. Elwood said, “Not only did the Lord enable us to preserve his tithing money, but he provided us eight times over its value.”

The Lord continued to bless them. On September 15, 1936, Florence and Elwood welcomed their first child, Kristine, at County Hospital in Cedar City. Her birth ushered in the coldest and snowiest winter Elwood had ever experienced. He reported that the temperature dropped to 40 degrees below zero, and the snow was higher than the fence. They spent much of the winter snowed in, gathering around the Heatrola to stay warm. They kept a fire roaring constantly in those frigid weeks, bringing coal a sack at a time from the highway. And yet, only hindsight revealed the precarious nature of their circumstances, stranded with no telephone six miles from town.

Moving into town

E.M. Corry Farm 1937

Early in the spring of 1937, LeRoy Davis returned to Cedar City. He had farmed the meadow land for E.M. from 1918 to 1920, and he called on his old friend to renew their acquaintance and inquire about the farm. Roy was enthusiastic about the possibilities of the new mechanized machinery, and his enthusiasm was contagious. An initial friendly meeting turned into a partnership agreement wherein Roy would take over operation of the farm, and he and E.M. would split the final returns for crops and livestock 50/50.

Elwood described the hum of activity that took over the farm over the next few years. New tractors replaced the horses. The men bought additional acreage and built a farm home and outbuildings. Roy introduced crested wheat grass into Southern Utah, and they raised pinto beans, potatoes, and other crops. The new partnership brought E.M. out of the depression that had plagued him for several years, and he was more optimistic about the future than ever.

The changes on the farm also brought about significant changes for Elwood and Florence. Elwood had about decided to make farming his occupation when Roy came to town. He and his father discussed the proposition of Roy taking over the farm, and Elwood decided to try his hand at life insurance. Early in 1937, he and Florence moved off the farm, renting a three-room apartment in the basement of Abner and Jenny Perry’s home.

Elwood

Insurance did not provide immediate success for Elwood. He began selling for Mutual Life Insurance of New York, with whom E.M. had worked successfully some years before. The company sent one of their top salesmen down from Salt Lake City, and together the two men made several sales. Elwood began to think he had found the right occupation and that finances might begin to look up. However, left on his own, he discovered that sales came with a great deal more difficulty to an unseasoned salesman. For a time, the family lived from commission to commission, barely making ends meet.

Christmas Day 1937 found Florence and Elwood with 47 cents and a pile of unpaid bills. They purchased a small gift for Kristine and then left the house for the day, not wanting visitors to see their circumstances. Elwood began to feel a bit depressed and bitter.

One evening, about that time, O.C. Bowman called on Elwood. Brother Bowman had been called as the new Cedar Second Ward bishop, and he wanted Elwood to serve as his first counselor. Elwood had already served as counselor to the two previous bishops, beginning in 1934, and he felt the time had come for him to get his financial affairs in better shape in order to serve the Lord more effectively. However, he agreed to ponder the matter. Eventually, he took the advice of his father, who said, “If they want you to take that position, you accept it and don’t turn it down.” When Elder Joseph F. Merrill set Elwood apart for the calling some weeks later, he said in the blessing, “Brother Corry, you have a number of financial obligations troubling you at the present time, but within a very short time there will be ways and means opened up to you whereby you will be able to take care of all of them.” Miraculously, within six months of that blessing, Elwood and Florence were out of debt.

Before long, Elwood began to find his footing in the insurance business. He and his father opened an office on the second floor of what was then the Bank of Southern Utah building (later the First Security Bank). Elwood sold insurance, while E.M. carried on his wool marketing and farm business. In 1939, they organized the Cedar Real Estate Company, of which Elwood took over active management. Florence worked as his secretary to save overhead expenses. Her experience learning the business would prove critical during the war years just ahead.

Extended family happenings

While Florence and Elwood celebrated a new marriage and prepared to welcome their first child, the Decker family also marked more sobering milestones. Just two weeks before Florence married Elwood, Aunt Annie died in California. Annie (referred to as “Anna Willette” in the 1920 and 1930 census) had been living in Los Angeles for some years, running a business on Santa Fe Avenue called the Shamrock Restaurant. She was Harriet’s only sister and next older sibling, and the two remained close through the years. When Mahonri and Harriet returned from Delta in disgrace, they lived in Aunt Annie’s home. When Blanche and Harriet needed space to convalesce, they stayed with Annie in California. No stranger to sorrow or the messiness of life, she seemed to provide a safe haven. She had married three times and lost a daughter along the way. Harriet’s children loved their aunt, even if her life hinted at the scandalous, and her death at the age of 57 must have cast a shadow.

Then, in January 1936, about the time Florence became pregnant, her half-sister Rachel died of pneumonia and heart trouble, leaving behind a husband and four children.  Rachel’s own mother had died almost exactly 34 years previously, just days after she gave birth to Rachel. Mahonri traveled to the funeral from St. George, where he was serving a temple mission. He had buried two wives, his infant son, a daughter-in-law and now a daughter. This once towering, vibrant man was beginning to feel the weight of life. He still sang, and he loved his temple mission, but years of exposure and heartache had crippled him.

By the time of Rachel’s death, the Decker children had all grown up. The older children –Virgil, Alvin, Gertrude, and Earl—had well-established families by this point. Fae had finally regained much of her health after spending several years under the thumb of tuberculosis. She and Cleo and their son, David, lived in Cedar City, where Cleo began working as a correspondent for the Salt Lake Tribune. Blanche lived in Salt Lake City, and Woodrow remained in Parowan.

Alpine herding sheep in 1938

The youngest living brother, Alpine, struggled to find his place in the world. By the end of 1937, he was herding sheep out of a camp on the west side of Delamar Valley in Nevada. He appeared to like the herding life, at least for the time being, although he missed his sisters. Florence and Fae seemed to be constants in his life, even more than his father. Around Christmastime he wrote to Florence, “Please write me soon and make it a long one…I always carry yours and Fae’s letters in my pocket and read them every day till the paper wears out and now my pockets are empty.”

A few months later, Al wrote to Florence that he had taken her advice and decided to quit herding. “If I don’t quit herding,” he wrote, “I’ll be all the same as married to them and never quit.” He worked for the Union Pacific Railroad for a while before joining the military in 1941.

The family grows

Florence with baby Judy and Kristine (about 1939)

With the move into town and with the insurance business beginning to pick up, life eased a bit for Florence and Elwood. They both remained actively involved with the BAC Alumni Association and other civic groups. Elwood served in the bishopric for several more years and continued to compete in tennis. In September 1939, Florence gave birth to their second child, Judy. Around the same time, Fae also gave birth to a baby girl, Nancy, and the sisters raised their daughters as close friends. The bullets of World War II began to fly overseas, but back on the homefront war took a back seat to more peaceful concerns.

Corry family at Elma's wedding (September 1940)--Kristine in front of Florence and Elwood

In September 1940, Elwood’s sister Elma married Orrin Beckstrand.  Elwood was the second of eight children born to E.M. and Abish Corry (also known as “Lyle” and “Abbie”), and Elma was just two years younger. Their older sister, Virginia, had married Bill Palmer in 1931, and the Palmers lived in New Mexico at the time of Elma’s marriage. The other sisters were in various stages of their studies and careers. Mel and Lloyd still lived at home with their parents in the family home at 264 South 300 West in Cedar City.

About this time, Florence had started working afternoons at the welfare department downtown. Kristine, about four or five years old, cried one day because she hated to see her mother go off to work. Florence quit her job just a few days later. Although the war would eventually send her back to work, for now she would stay home with Kris and baby Judy.

Culture (or, what the Corry family did for fun!)

The 1930s and 1940s saw the rise of quite a number of social clubs, so much in fact that Utah boasted its own Federated Clubs of Utah association. The Iron County Record reported in April of 1940 that the state director of that organization and the president of the Southern District of the Federated Women’s Clubs came to Cedar City to help organize several new organizations aimed at involving the young married women in town. Among those clubs was a new literary club named En Avant (French for “forward” or “onward”). Florence was named the secretary and treasurer of the new club.

The En Avant ladies met about once a month, usually in the home of one of their members. Generally, the program included a musical number and a presentation. The club apparently defined “literary” rather liberally, as they discussed a wide range of topics at their meetings, from essays and poetry to interior decorating and famous women. Kristine remembered that the club held a social every summer. The women clearly bonded through the years. In 1953, when Florence died, the En Avant ladies served as flower girls at her funeral.

Zion Easter Pageant

Florence also continued her acting. In the spring of 1940, for instance, she played the part of Mary Magdalene in the Zion Easter Pageant. For several years, from 1937 through 1941, the colleges and communities of Southern Utah, in cooperation with the National Park Service, presented an Easter pageant in Zion National Park on Easter Sunday.  It was a huge production, with a cast of 600 and an audience of over 10,000. Grant Redford of the BAC wrote the pageant script, and the actors presented the play on the mountainside east of the road going out of the park towards Springdale. The pageant began about sunset so that the final scenes would play out after dark in the light of huge floodlights. The climactic resurrection scene occurred on Zion’s Resurrection Rock.

Later in 1940, Elwood and Florence joined the cast and crew of another significant dramatic performance, a pioneer play titled “In the Tide of the Empire.” This time, Florence worked on costumes while Elwood took the stage as George A. Smith. This play, also written by Grant Redford, took to the road for several performances around the state.

Saying “good-bye” to Father

After his temple mission, Florence’s father returned to his home in Parowan for a time. His granddaughter, Trudy Adams Jones, remembers visiting him in the afternoons after school when she was a young girl. Her generation never knew their grandfather as the huge man who could toss a 40-gallon barrel filled with water onto the top of a wagon. Instead, they knew an old man with gnarled hands and crippled legs who walked with a cane. He used to like to say, “My name is Mahonri Moriancumer dig-a-hole-in-the-ground Decker.” And he sang. Always, he sang.

By the early 1940s, Mahonri’s children felt he should no longer live on his own. For a time, shortly  after their marriage, he lived with his son Woodrow and Woodrow’s wife Vera in their small house in Cedar City. Mahonri lived his religion strictly and had no tolerance for people he perceived as stepping over the line of righteousness. One afternoon, after he and Vera argued about religion, Mahonri parked himself on the front porch and refused to step foot inside the house. Woodrow took him down to Florence’s house to stay, and when he returned a few weeks later to check in on his father, he found that Florence had moved Mahonri across the street into an apartment. “Even that angel Florence had had enough,” Woodrow explained.

For the next couple of years, Mahonri lived across the street from Florence. She washed his laundry and cooked him dinner, but he rarely ate with the family, either preferring his solitude or not wishing to intrude.  Sometimes, 3-year old Judy and Nancy would sweep his floor to earn mints. Kristine remembers that her grandfather would get furious if his paper arrived late, one time taking after the paper boy with his cane. During the summers, he spent time with Virgil and Edith in Manti.

A few weeks before Christmas 1943, Mahonri fell ill. He had suffered from high blood pressure for some time, but his condition worsened significantly as the holidays approached. Florence and Elwood moved him into their home so that Florence could care for her father. They sent Kristine and Judy next door to stay with Elwood’s parents and gave Mahonri Kristine’s little room off the kitchen.  Always a stubborn man, Mahonri proved a difficult patient, refusing to take his medicine just to keep alive. Two days after Christmas, he passed away. He was 75 years old.

Calm before the storm

For Kristine and Judy, the war raging overseas had little impact on daily life for a time. Kristine later described the peace that pervaded her early childhood:

“When I was around three,” she said, “I recall waking up one morning in the baby bed that it seemed each of us did our time in until about age three or four. There was a sort of half light in the room, and I remember Mother standing by my bed with this kind of light in her eyes that she used to get. Dad was behind her. I still remember the good, warm, happy, safe feeling I had as they both smiled at me….That warm feeling is the thing that stands out most in my early memories.”

Florence with Steven, Judy and Kristine

In July 1942, a new baby came to interrupt the quiet of the house, if not the peace.  On July 12, Florence gave birth to her first son, Steven, in the hospital just half a block from the family’s home. The girls could not go inside the hospital, both because of their age and because three-year old Judy was recovering from a case of the red measles. However, Florence wanted the children to be part of this event, so Elwood and the girls stood outside while Florence held the baby up in the window for them to see.

The spring after Steven’s birth, Elwood was released from the Cedar 2nd Ward bishopric after serving as a counselor to three bishops over a period of nearly 10 years. About that same time, he was elected president of the Cedar City Junior Chamber of Commerce.

With their family growing and their finances improving, Elwood and Florence finally found themselves in a position to think about buying a house. In the fall of 1943, an opportunity presented itself for them to do just that. Elwood’s mother and her sister, Irene Andrus, together owned the family home at 246 South 300 West (next door to Elwood’s parents). Florence and Elwood had been living in the basement apartment of this home for some time. Hoping to buy property in Salt Lake City, Irene sold her half of the house to Elwood for $3,000.  For several years, they lived in the basement and rented out the upstairs apartment, first to the Smith family and then to the Howards.

In November 1943, the Cedar Stake presidency, under the direction of President David Sargent, called a special meeting and asked Florence to attend. During this meeting, they organized a stake committee to encourage the young ladies of the stake to maintain good Latter-Day-Saint standards and to provide entertainment for them. By this time, most of the young men in Cedar City had been drafted into the military. In their place, the 316th Corps of Army Air Cadets had been stationed in Cedar City, training at the BAC and the local airport. These young men came from all walks of life and brought rather different standards than those of the young LDS men they replaced. Sensing a growing need to support their young women in clean living, the church leadership organized a Girls’ Coordinating Council.  Florence was called as the committee chairwoman and served in that capacity for the next four years. She worked closely with her assistants–Bee Roberts, Elva Tueller, and Elene Jensen–along with Ione Bradshoaw, Abbie Riddle, and Morris Buhanan.

Another call to serve

The winding up scenes of 1943 brought a whirlwind of unexpected activity to Florence and Elwood and their family. First came the move into the new home, then Florence’s new calling. She had hardly had time to contemplate the enormity of the task ahead of her with the Girls’ Coordinating Council before her father became ill. Before long, it became clear that he would not live long. As Christmas approached, the extended Decker family came to pay their last respects to Mahonri.

The day before Mahonri died, Elwood unexpectedly received notice that he was being drafted into the army. Unwilling to add to Florence’s stress, he carried the letter around in his pocket for a few days, waiting for an opportune time to break the news. One evening, as the Decker family gathered in Florence’s living room, someone remarked, “Well, it is surely a good thing that Elwood is not being called into the army now with things as they are.” Elwood kept quiet then, but the next day he broke the news to Florence that he had been drafted. She was understandably quite upset.

Florence, Kristine, Steven, Judy, Elwood

Days later, they buried Mahonri. At the same time, Florence and Elwood began planning for his army service.  Elwood was to report for initial induction on January 10. Florence would take over the fire and auto insurance business.  A family photo taken just before Elwood left shows Kristine (age 8), Judy (age 5) and Steven (age 2).

College, Courtship, and Career

Freshman Year at BAC

Florence at BAC 1931

In September 1930, Florence headed off for Cedar City with her friends Lillian Adams, Georgia Jensen, and Della Smith to attend the Branch Agricultural College (BAC). Lillian was a pro at the college scene, having already completed a year in Cedar. For the other girls, this was their first time living away from home. Florence moved in with Fae and Cleo and secured a part-time job as a secretary for Cedar Mercantile. She was paid $50 a month and managed to put herself through college with her salary. While the rest of the world slipped into the economic famine of the Great Depression, Florence remembered this time as a relatively prosperous period for her personally.

The new co-ed plunged straight into an active freshman year. Continuing her love of the theater, Florence auditioned for the Peruke Club and was one of 10 new members admitted to that drama society. She performed with the drama club and also gave periodic dramatic readings. In addition, she participated in the Sunset Dance Festival as a dancer and a speaker. On the social side, Florence pledged the Phi Alpha Beta sorority and joined the staff of the Agricola, BAC’s yearbook. On weekends, she returned home to Parowan to help her father and her teenage brothers.

Elwood's Missionary Passport

Not long after Florence arrived in town, Elwood left on a mission to England. They knew each other briefly before his mission, perhaps through Lillian or through the activities of the Second Ward, which they both attended. Elwood remembers that he thought fleetingly of asking her for a date, but mission plans took precedence over most things. Tennis may have proved an exception, at least for a few weeks. In September, Elwood won the men’s singles portion of the Cedar tennis tournament, beating out Mike Jones for top honors. Elwood and N. J. Barlow also advanced to the championship in men’s doubles, beating out Mike and his brother Demoin, a good friend of Elwood’s. Tennis over for the time being, the new missionary left Cedar on October 29, stopping first in Salt Lake City for his setting apart before heading to New York City and across the Atlantic to England.

For her part, Florence took little notice of Elwood at first. He had missed a year of school when the Spanish flu epidemic came to Cedar City in 1918, and, for a time, Florence thought she was older than Elwood. “I didn’t know he was dumb enough to get held back,” she used to joke.

While Elwood preached the gospel on street corners in England, Florence entered into a busy year of work, drama, family and social engagements. Along the way, she managed to make an impression on her professors, as well as her fellow students. Ira Hayward, the director of the drama department at BAC, chose Florence as the narrator for the grand 4th of July pageant to be held during the summer of 1931. Florence’s niece, Trudy Adams Jones, remembers this as a huge honor. Florence had returned to Parowan for the summer, and the pageant directors arranged for her travel back and forth to Cedar for rehearsals.

Shortly after the 4th of July pageant, Alvin Norris died in San Diego. The Decker children were close to “Uncle Al” from the days when he lived in Nevada and came to Parowan to visit his sister Harriet. Much further away, and perhaps unknown to Florence for a time, another uncle died. Long lost “Uncle Fred,” William Norris’s son from his first marriage, passed away in 1931 from Bright’s disease. He lived in New York City, having retired from his post as an Episcopalian minister.

Sophomore Year

Florence at BAC 1932

As she had before her freshman year of college, Florence celebrated the end of summer 1931 with a trip to Mammoth. This time, she and her friends Della Smith and Ruth Clark joined with  three boys (Elmer Gurr, Grant Benson, and Bill Dalton) for a weekend outing and fishing trip to Mammoth and Panguitch Lake. In an interesting side note, Della later married Elmer Gurr. Whether any romance blossomed between Florence and one of the other boys remains a mystery.

Blanche joined Fae and Florence in Cedar City for the 1931-32 school year. Following a short-lived marriage in the spring of 1930, Blanche returned to the University of Utah and earned her teaching certificate in the spring of 1931. She was able to secure a position teaching fifth grade in Cedar City and consequently moved back to Iron County for what she once called the happiest period of her life.

This year proved successful for Florence, as well. Not only was she elected president of her sorority, but when the student body secretary failed to return for fall semester, she was appointed to that position, as well. She earned a leading role in the BAC production of “The Youngest,” an autobiographical comedy from the playwright who created “The Philadelphia Story,” and she was voted one of two students to receive a drama award for the year. In the spring of 1932 she earned her two-year degree in business.

Life After College

Shortly after Christmas Day 1932, Lillian dragged Florence to church for a missionary homecoming. Elwood had completed his mission in England and sailed home just in time for the holidays. In his history, he makes no mention of seeing Florence at the homecoming, but she did make a striking impression shortly thereafter. A mutual friend, Bertha Seaman, threw a house party at her home on 200 West in Cedar about two weeks after Christmas. Elwood went to the party alone and arrived just after Florence.  He describes seeing her: “As I stepped inside the house, she had just taken her coat into another room and was returning in my direction. I was struck by her appearance, and the thought flashed through my mind,’Here comes the bride.’”

Unfortunately, the bride had come to the party as the date of Waldo Adams. Elwood thought about asking if he could take her home, but decided against it and returned home alone, still thinking about her. About a week later, on an impulse, he called Florence at her work and asked her to go with him to an M.I.A. party at church. Thus began a courtship that would last more than two years.

Courtship

Neither Florence nor Elwood left much record of their courtship. In his 1968 personal history, for instance, Elwood writes six pages about his mission and includes the following sentence about his courtship: “Soon after returning home I started taking Florence Decker out and on June 21, 1935, we were married.” In his history of Florence, he devotes just a paragraph to their courtship. Florence, apparently, did not keep a journal. From newspaper records and stories the couple told their children, however, one can piece together a picture of those years.

Elwood arrived home in the midst of the Great Depression. The scene that greeted him that Christmas 1932 made a lasting impression. For the first time, he began to realize what great sacrifices his family had made to keep him on his mission. The Bank of Southern Utah, with which E.M. Corry (Elwood’s father) was closely associated, closed its doors in December 1931. Although the bank reopened just a few months later, through the herculean efforts of the community, the experience sent E.M. into a deep depression for the next four years.

At the same time, those early years of the 1930s brought a drought that affected the farmers severely, including the Corrys. Elwood ran the Corry family farm, first with Clifford Norton and then with Rex Maxwell. Although he earned enough to pay his way through two years of college at BAC, the farm provided only a meagre return for their labors.

President Roosevelt took office in March 1933, bringing his New Deal to a distressed nation. Although Iron County remained firmly Republican until 1936, in the years between 1933 and 1935, one quarter of the population of the county received either direct relief or work relief through government programs. National unemployment soared to 25%, and between 1929 and 1932, the income of the average American family was reduced from $2,300 to $1,500 per year.

Still, even in dire circumstances, life moved along. Movies provided an escape with the likes of Errol Flynn, Bela Lugosi, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, Katherine Hepburn, and Alfred Hitchcock. Away from the big screen, folks gathered for board games and parlor games or crowded around the radio to listen to the Yankees and to President Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats. Agatha Christie and other writers gathered a following with their mystery novels.

Elwood at BAC

Against this backdrop, Elwood completed his schooling at BAC and worked the family farm while Florence continued working at Cedar Mercantile. He played tennis, competed on the debate team, and served a term as Student Body President. He was also president of the Ag club and joined the Chi Theta Iota fraternity. She kept up with her sorority, continued doing dramatic readings and plays, and became involved with the newly formed Business and Professional Women’s Club.

While they waited to build sufficient finances for their marriage, Elwood and Florence watched close friends get married. One of those friends was Lillian Adams, who married Hunter Grimshaw in 1934. In later years, Florence shared her admiration for Lillian for not letting the love triangle with Elwood interrupt their friendship.

As time passed, day-to-day life and increasing responsibilities crowded in. Florence and Elwood each supposed the other had begun to lose interest in the relationship. In the summer of 1934, Elwood accepted a call to serve as Leland Perry’s counselor in the Cedar Second Ward bishopric. His bishopric duties sometimes overshadowed romance. Florence recalled sitting in the living room at the Corry home one evening, listening to cries of “horsler” from the kitchen. Elwood had a bishopric meeting and needed someone to take Florence home. In time-honored Corry tradition, the last one to yell “horsler” pulled the short straw and played chauffeur.

But Elwood got a wake-up call one day from his friend Demoin Jones, who announced that Florence was dating someone else. As the story goes, she even kissed the competition. Perhaps that was just the motivation Elwood needed.

Elwood’s writings mention nothing about their courtship after the first date until an incident that occurred the day before the wedding. It was June 1935, and Elwood was putting up hay on the farm with Rex Maxwell. Rex had no idea about the quickly approaching wedding until Elwood casually mentioned that he would be gone for a few days as he “had a little detail to take care of.”

“What detail?” asked Rex.

“Oh, I’m getting married.”

A bit put off by Elwood’s casual approach, Rex raised his voice. “Man, you call that a little detail?” Elwood says Rex went on to lecture him about the importance of the step he was about to take. Apparently, he took the lecture to heart. In any case, Elwood and Florence married on June 21, 1935 in the St. George LDS Temple. He was 24, and she was 23. Following their marriage, they took a weekend trip to the Grand Canyon before settling into family life.

Growing Up: 1924-1930

Seventh grade and the autumn of 1924 brought big changes for Florence and her gang of girls. For the first time, they had different teachers for each subject, and classes grew more complicated. The kids from neighboring Paragonah joined them in the upper grades. Among the significant events was that, having entered junior high, the students now had the opportunity to take swimming lessons in the swimming pool underneath the auditorium. Parowan High School was the only school in Iron County, Utah to boast a swimming pool. Girls and boys had separate swim classes, and Miss Stucki taught the girls. For the timid farm girls in their gray tank-type suits, the thought of swimming across the pool seemed an impossible goal. Gradually, they learned proper breathing, floating, and the basic strokes. They had mastered the impossible!

Florence is front row, center. Hilda Harwood sits 2 people to Florence's right. Georgia Jensen sits 2 people to Florence's left, with Lillian Adams next to Georgia. Della Smith is right behind Lillian.

Like her sisters before her, Florence began to get more involved in school and community life as she entered the higher grades. For instance, Lillian Adams remembers that she and her friends (most likely including Florence) frequently served at banquets held in the town. Florence also gave a reading at the seventh grade assembly in January, one of many readings she gave through the years.

As Florence entered the upper grades, her older sister Fae was preparing to graduate, with Blanche in the junior class. Fae said once that Mahonri made clear his expectation that his children would perform, whether that be through music or drama or other activities. The 1924-25 school year proved no exception to that tradition. Fae excelled on the debate team, and Blanche earned a part in the school play. Fae and Blanche both worked on the school yearbook (back in the day when yearbooks captured the essence of school life). Fae also set the academic bar for the family by graduating as valedictorian of her class. Her sisters seemed to accept that standard readily.

In September 1925, Fae left for college in Cedar City, and Florence entered the eighth grade. That October, Earl and his wife, Ethel, were sealed in the St. George temple, along with their little daughter. As always, Mahonri worked hard to make ends meet for the family, spending the winter with a group of men building a road in Zion Canyon.

Harriet’s health continued to decline. Fae worried that their mother worked too hard. She worked hardest, perhaps, at trying to be well, but in the end Harriet’s illness had a marked effect on the family. Florence (and probably her sisters, as well) remembered coming home at recess and lunch to help around the house. Fae, in her usual dramatic way, says that the children “walked in the shadow of despair, not knowing if she’d be alive as [they] opened the door each night after school.” Harriet’s siblings, as well as her children, rallied around her in those years. In May 1926, for instance, William Norris came down from Shelley, Idaho with his wife for a visit. He called Alvin and Clair to come over from Caliente, Nevada, and the brothers enjoyed a reunion with their sister. Florence and her siblings loved those visits.

Blanche graduated in 1926 and remained at home for a few months to care for her mother. Fae came home for the summer, as well, though she did travel to Yellowstone for a bit and sent back glowing reports.

Beginning High School

Florence’s ninth grade year began in mid-September 1926. In those days, the school year followed the farmers’ schedule. School began once crops were harvested and continued through the beginning of planting season at the end of April. To make up for the long summer vacation, students had few holidays. They enjoyed the usual two days off at Thanksgiving and another ten days at Christmastime. Only Washington’s birthday gave them an additional day off from school.

Fae with her college sorority (middle row, left)

With Fae and Blanche graduated, Florence filled the Decker tradition in high school activities. She gave several readings for various school and community events and had a part in the freshman play. In May, both Florence and Lillian participated in the Stake MIA Day held in Cedar City. Florence won the contest for declamation, an event involving the re-enactment of famous speeches. According to the newspaper, Florence chose to give her rendition of “Sail On” for the contest. Quite likely, this referred to a famous poem by Joaquin Miller entitled “Columbus,” with the stirring stanza,

“Brave Admiral, say but one good word:

What shall we do when hope is gone?”

The words leapt like a leaping sword:

“Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”

The book Winning Declamations and How to Speak Them suggests that the orator use “clear, ringing tones” and address the climax with “large volume and strong force.” Presumably, Florence did just that. At any rate, her performance earned her first prize and a spot at the district meet with two other stakes later that month in Cedar City.

Blanche lived at home during Florence’s ninth grade year. For a few months, she cared for her mother. Then, in January 1927, Blanche herself came down with complicated case of appendicitis and spent the next 17 weeks in bed. She had surgery in January and again in February, according to newspaper accounts. Florence would have been quite busy caring for Blanche, in addition to Harriet.

In May 1927, somewhat recovered, Blanche traveled to California to spend the summer with Aunt Anna and convalesce. It was her first trip to California, and she spent much of the summer working as a cashier at Aunt Anna’s Shamrock Restaurant on Sante Fe Avenue in Los Angeles. Harriet went out to California in August, as well. She took Alpine, and they brought Blanche back with them on their return to Parowan. Fae had spent the summer working at Bryce Canyon.

Losing a Mother

As the summer of 1927 drew to a close, Fae left for Cedar City to teach school, having by now graduated from the Branch Agricultural College (BAC). Harriet’s health was failing fast, so Blanche stayed home another year to help take care of her mother and younger siblings.

As Harriet’s tuberculosis (or, as the doctors had insisted on calling it, her poisoned goiter) took its toll, she spent much of her time confined to bed or a chair. She would lie in the bed in the afternoons, reading the Book of Mormon. Sometimes, she could talk a little.

Still, even in the face of death, life had to continue on. Florence started the tenth grade in 1927 and looked forward to her sixteenth birthday. She wrote articles about school events for the local paper and managed the debating team. In fact, she beat out her cousin, a senior boy, in elections for the debating post. Her friends Lillian Adams and Georgia Jensen won elections to student body offices, as well.

Among all the other activities, it seems Florence was developing a love of acting at this point that was to last for the rest of her life. In November, Florence, along with her friends Della Smith and Ivy Dalton, presented a one-act play for the Dramatic Arts Club and for parents’ day. That same month, 30 students competed for 7 parts in the school play. Florence was awarded the part of Ma in a play called Applesauce.

By the end of December, however, the Parowan Times reported that Florence’s own mother lay “at death’s door.” In the days that followed, Harriet called each of her children to her bedside for a few last, quiet words. She told them to “be good to papa” and to cherish the testimony they had of the truth of the gospel. She died on a Tuesday, the third of January, 1928, at the age of 47. Mahonri, at 59, was now a widower for the second time. Harriet’s children ranged in age from Fae, at 21, to 10-year old Alpine.

Several days later, Bishop Adams of the Parowan West Ward (Lillian’s father) presided over Harriet’s funeral in the tabernacle. Barbara Adams spoke, and the choir sang the hymn “Oh, My Father.” Other speakers included David Matheson and Walter Mitchell. Alvin, Frank, and Clair Norris returned to Parowan for the funeral, as did Earl and his wife. The paper made no mention of Aunt Anna or Uncle William, so presumably they were not able to make the journey home.

Carrying On

Mahonri took his wife’s death very hard. Fae reports that he was a broken man, and that his children used to find him weeping silently. He had always kept Harriet on a pedestal and loved her dearly, despite his rough ways. Now, for the second time, he found himself burying a wife in the midst of a cold January.

Blanche, date unknown

Undoubtedly, losing a mother deeply affected each of the children. Harriet’s stepchildren all had their own families by this time, and they likely found comfort within those families. Fae returned to Cedar City, to her post as a school teacher, though she came home on weekends to help out and secured a teaching position in Parowan for the 1928-29 school year. Blanche moved to Salt Lake City with “Aunt” Lillian (a cousin, really, perhaps the granddaughter of James Bean Decker) within a few weeks after Harriet’s death. She waitressed for a time before beginning her studies at the University of Utah. Blanche had a volatile relationship with her father and little love for the town of her birth. Without Harriet, Parowan offered her nothing in the way of peace or healing.

Florence remained at home with her father and, at the age of 16, essentially took over the mothering of Woodrow and Alpine. Even with the work at home, however, she found time to live her life. Late in January 1928, she tried out for the Parowan High School debate squad, earning a spot on the team of six debaters and competing in the Triangle Debates that spring.

Fae returned to Parowan in the summer of 1928. Near the end of the summer, Florence organized a 60th birthday party for Mahonri, combined with a birthday party for Blanche. Alvin, Mahonri’s oldest son, had begun to date his second wife, Verena, by then, and they were serious enough that she joined them at the family party. Alvin had lost his own wife five years previous to Harriet’s death, and he had been raising two boys on his own since then. Verena was seven years older than Florence, but she quite liked Florence and was happy to have a “sister” in town who was just the same age as the little sister she left back home.

Almost Ready to Leave the Nest

September 1928 found Florence back at Parowan High School for her junior year. She continued her acting, playing the part of Auntie in Elenor Gate’s whimsical farce, We Are Seven, and appearing in the PHS opera, The Belle of Barcelona. Fae had returned to town for the year to teach fourth grade.

The following spring brought significant changes to Florence’s circle. Her close friend Lillian Adams graduated from high school and prepared to enter college at BAC in Cedar City. In May, Fae married Cleo Dix, a newspaperman. They also settled in Cedar City. A few weeks later, Alvin married Verena Stevens. Blanche came south after a year at the University of Utah, but she opted to work at the Grand Canyon for the summer. Florence spent the summer at home, although she did get away for a few days in September to visit friends in Payson.

Senior year began with some excitement as the town gathered for the dedication of the new high school. Florence’s graduating class had been the first class to enter the old school building, and they would be the first to graduate from the new one. The new high school boasted a large gymnasium, six classrooms, and offices. The students would continue to use the East wing of the old school for home economics, shop class, and labs.

Florence won a spot as student body treasurer for the year, and she and her friends Georgia Jensen and Della Smith began their senior year with their characteristic enthusiasm, presenting readings and skits. In April, Florence and her friends presented a play at High School Day in Cedar.

In May, Parowan High School graduated the largest class in school history. Florence gave the valedictory address for her class of 30 students, and the newspaper spoke glowingly about her school record. Twenty miles away, in Cedar City, Elwood Corry also graduated from high school. He had dated Lillian Adams for some time, following a friendly bet over a basketball game in January, but Elwood decided he had better not date anyone too steadily before his mission.

Florence celebrated that summer with a hiking trip to Mammoth (through the mountains from Parowan, near Brian Head) with her friends Lillian and Georgia. On a Tuesday morning in July, they left town at 3:00 a.m. to begin their hike of roughly 15 miles. Bishop Adams (Lillian’s father) followed later by car with their camp outfit, accompanied by Lillian’s mother and sister and other ladies. They were to spend a few days at Mammoth while Bishop Adams repaired fences.

Apparently, at some point around Cedar Breaks, a passing motorist stopped to offer the girls a ride. As they approached the car, the man said, “I didn’t think you’d make it.” Needless to say, the girls finished the hike. Independence had carried them this far, and they were not about to give in when someone challenged their abilities. Born of pioneer stock and raised during the suffrage movement, these young women stood strong, ready for the world.

Grade School Years: 1920-1924

September 8, 1920, page 8 of the Parowan Times: MM Decker and family have moved back to Parowan after having lived for nearly a year at Delta. Mr. Decker state that he liked Delta very well, but as his wife’s health was not so good there as in Parowan he deemed it wise to return.

September 9, 1920, classified ad in the Millard County Chronicle: FOR SALE—5-room house, with full city lot, bath room, all well plumbed; 1/4 interest in the best well in town. For further information, see M.M. Decker, Delta, Utah.

Gone were the 80 acres of land Mahonri had bought with such enthusiasm the previous November. Gone was the new home he built in Delta for his family. Gone was the new car. The Decker family arrived back in Parowan just one month after burying baby Homer. Instead of returning to their fine home with the stained glass windows and the wide veranda, they settled into the old Norris family home, now owned by Harriet’s sister Anna. Florence described it as a humble home, part log, with two bedrooms of concrete. Mahonri and Harriet and their five children settled into the four simple rooms and began to rebuild their lives.

Early School Years

On a Monday morning in late September 1920, the Decker children started school in the long, yellow school house. Florence and Woodrow would have lined up with the other elementary school children outside the west wing of the school in time for 9:00 a.m. classes, while Fae and Blanche attended the higher grades in the east wing. 1920 marked the first year that Parowan offered all twelve grades. Previously, once Parowan teenagers finished the tenth grade, they had to travel to one of the bigger towns like Cedar City if they wanted to complete high school.

Josephine Peterson taught the third grade class that year, and Florence once again joined her friend Lillian Adams in her studies. The old three-story school house remained just east of their building for a while. Though the old building was considered mostly unsafe, occasionally the students were allowed to rollerskate in the second story gymnasium.

Florence (undated)

In fourth grade, the girls had Mrs. Myrtle Brown for a teacher. Lillian remembers that year, particularly. Because of overcrowding, one row of desks in the fourth grade was reserved for students from another grade, and the fourth graders had the opportunity to join the other class in some of their work. Mrs. Brown taught them geography and the history of Utah, bringing in some of the older townsfolk to tell them about pioneering. Many of the students, like Florence, had pioneer grandparents, so the stories held particular fascination.

During the 1921-22 school year, the Iron County Irrigation Company hired skilled workers to help with a project to irrigate land west of the Parowan Gap. They were to cut a drainage canal from the south end of the Little Salt Lake through the Gap to the Mud Spring wash, draining the lake and then building a dam. It was a large project, requiring a substantial labor force. The men hired from out of town brought their families, and several of the new children joined the fourth grade class. Mrs. Brown urged her students to treat the newcomers well, and they eventually became good friends.

Back at home, Harriet’s health continued to decline. In late October, she traveled to California for a few weeks to see if a change in climate would help. She likely stayed with her sister, Anna Norris Willette, who lived in Los Angeles and ran a boarding house. By early December, Harriet felt much better and traveled back to Parowan, stopping in Caliente, Nevada to visit her brothers. Upon arriving home, she reported that she felt better than she had felt in six years. About this time, Florence’s half-brother Earl returned to Parowan after living in Payson for a year or two.

Occasions Both Momentous and Mundane

September 1922 found Florence in Miss Robinson’s fifth grade class. According to Lillian Adams, Miss Robinson introduced a series of contests and tests to encourage her students to read. Florence and Lillian always ranked among the best. Although the students gave Miss Robinson quite a hard time that year, for some reason she petitioned the board to let her continue on as their teacher for sixth grade.

Around this time Hilda Harwood returned to Parowan after living up north in Smithfield for a couple of years. Hilda’s mother, Nellie Harwood, died in November of 1921, just a year after the family had purchased a farm up north. The six Harwood children were distributed among relatives, and Hilda returned to Parowan to live with Bain and Libby Matheson. She and Florence quickly became friends (or perhaps resumed a previous friendship), a friendship that would last throughout their lives. They were part of a larger group of close girlfriends that included Lillian Adams, Georgia Jensen, Della Smith, and a handful of other girls.

Hilda’s daughter remembers that her mother used to tell stories of the long stockings the girls had to wear back in those early days. All the girls wore them, and they probably all hated them. In the winter, the stockings would be black wool, knitted from “Germantown” yarn ordered from the Sears, Roebuck catalogue. The coming of spring brought a welcome change to cotton stockings in a lighter tan. In either case, the girls wore a complicated harness with garters to hold the stockings in place. Florence and Hilda used to walk to school together, and on spring mornings they would duck behind a lilac bush and roll down the long stockings before continuing on to class.

Florence’s fifth grade year brought both tragedy and joy to the Decker family. In the fall, Alvin’s wife, Natine, gave birth to their second son. When Udell was just six months old, Natine passed away. She had suffered from heart trouble for years, with bouts of serious illness, but she had always pulled through. This time her heart had had enough.

Just weeks later, on 31 May 1923, Florence’s half-sister Rachel married Woodruff Pendleton in the St. George temple and settled in Parowan. That July, as the town prepared for their annual 24th of July celebration, Earl surprised everyone by announcing that he believed he would get married before going to the canyon for the celebration the next day. Earl and his fiancé, Ethel Frisby of Payson, managed to secure a marriage license and were married later that day.

Decker Family, probably around 1923, Florence on bottom left.
Likely Virgil and Edith, with their boys, next to MM.

Summer 1923 brought another momentous occasion to southern Utah with the visit, in late June, by President Warren G. Harding and his wife. The railroad had just reached Cedar City, and the Harding entourage took a special train south from Salt Lake City. 6,000 people lined the streets of Cedar City as the Hardings motored on to Zion National Park. With the railroad finally connecting Southern Utah to the rest of the country, and with the highlight of President Harding’s visit, Zion National Park began to emerge as an attractive travel destination, and the national parks grew to prominence. Just five weeks later, on August 2, President Harding died mysteriously in his hotel room in San Francisco. (Oddly enough, the Parowan Times managed to report the president’s death in their August 1 edition.)

Sixth Grade (1923-24)

Life rolled along its usual course that sixth grade year. In October, Uncle Al and Uncle Clair visited from Nevada, always a treat for the Decker children. In November, Mahonri and his son-in-law Ancel left for Nevada to work on a new road being constructed there. This was one of a number of odd jobs Mahonri took through the years to make ends meet. Though he worked hard, he was never quite able to recover financially from the Delta disaster.

Early in 1924, nine-year old Woodrow was rushed to Cedar City for an appendix operation, and by March Harriet felt well enough to serve in the Primary organization. Earl and Ethel had their first baby, a girl, early in the summer. That July, Harriet threw Fae an eighteenth birthday party. Fae would graduate from high school soon, with Blanche just a year behind her. Florence was just about to move into the west wing of the school with the high school students, and in fact she and Fae both earned parts in the school play that December. Harriet’s girls were growing up.

The Early Years in Parowan: 1911 - 1919

Old Rock Church in Parowan, Utah

Florence was born November 21, 1911 in Parowan, Utah. She drew her first breath in a world tingling with exciting changes. The first automobile arrived in Iron County in 1907. In 1910, just a year before Florence’s birth, telephones and electricity reached the town. The Rex Theater opened, showing silent movies.

By 1911, Mahonri and Harriet had been married for nearly six years. All of the children from both families were still at home: Virgil (age 19), Alvin (17), Gertrude (14), Earl (12), Rachel (almost 10), Fae (5), and Blanche (3). Mahonri chose the name for his youngest daughter from his favorite missionary companion, Samuel S. Florence.

Extended Family Nearby

Mahonri’s brother Oscar lived in Parowan with his family, as did Harriet’s brother Frank and perhaps her brother Charley. Uncle George Decker lived in nearby Cedar City. Harriet’s sister Anna probably lived in Parowan for a time when Florence was quite young. Aunt Anna soon moved to California but was very good to the family through the years, although her colorful language did rub off on her young niece.

Verena, who married Alvin some years after his first wife died, remembers a story Alvin used to tell about his little sister and Aunt Anna. Anna had been visiting the family for some time, and she had a tendency to use language that was rather more colorful than one usually heard in the Decker household. One day, Harriet took Florence for a walk and stopped to visit with a Mrs. Evans. Mrs. Evans had her own sense of style, apparently. After the visit, as Harriet and Florence walked on their way, Florence turned to her mother and said, “Mamma, when I looked at Mrs. Evans, I thought, ‘Good Lord Almighty.’” Needless to say, gentle Harriet must have exhibited some surprise.

Aunt Anna and her brothers—Uncle Al, Uncle Clair, and sometimes Uncle William—visited Harriet and her family frequently, bringing with them the faraway air of Nevada and California. The Norris uncles would buy the children ice cream at Taylor’s Ice Cream Parlor or treat them to a night of traveling theater at the Parowan Opera House. Fae remembers the uncles buying them their first lollipops or their first box of chocolates and taking them for their very first ride in an automobile. Uncle Al had lost his arm in a train accident, and his nieces marveled at how he never needed help with anything.

Of the grandparents, only Grandfather Norris lived to meet Florence. In fact, some of Florence’s earliest memories were of long afternoon walks she took with her grandfather to his sister’s home on the edge of town. (This was probably Sarah Ann Norris Evans, who died in 1917.)  Aunt Sarah would always provide her niece with cloth, needle, and thread and tell her to sew whatever she pleased.

Grandfather Norris lived with the family during the last year or two of his life, probably from the time Florence was two until his death in October 1915, just before Florence’s fourth birthday. Fae remembers Grandfather Norris for his kindly ways, his impeccable manners, his carefully trimmed white beard, and his tidy suits. He used to sigh a great deal as he sat deep in thought. Sometimes, he would quietly gaze at a small picture he had bought once on a trip to San Diego. The picture showed a young girl sitting in a boat in the marshes. Aunt Anna said he bought all of the copies of the picture in the shop. No one seems to know what intrigued him about the girl in the marshes.

During thunderstorms, Grandfather jumped at every flash of lightning, exclaiming “Oh Lordy…Oh Lordy!” while Harriet sat beside him, trying to divert his attention with cheerful chatter. Woodrow was just a baby when his grandfather died. Grandpa Norris used to stroke his tiny hands and say he hoped those hands would never be ruined with rough work. Of course, Woodrow was a Decker, and hard work came with the heritage.

Home with Mamma and Papa

The house that MM built, as seen in 2012

When Florence was three or so, her father began building a new house right next door to their current home and west of the town square in Parowan. Fae remembers the excitement of playing around the unfinished home and imagining how the new parlor would look, all carpeted. In the evenings, Papa would build a fire out of the wood shavings, and the family gathered for stories. Papa took special pride in the two stained glass transom windows, one for the dining room and one in the parlor. Harriet loved the new home, as well, with the piano and the handsome phonograph and one of the early electric washing machines.

The girls played near the lilac bushes in a playhouse Mamma persuaded Papa to build out of the piano box. And on lazy summer afternoons, as a particular treat, Papa would take the family back to the field with him after lunch. They would pack lemonade and cookies and make a picnic while Mama rested in the shade. After sundown, Papa would lift the children up onto the wagon, and they would nestle in the hay for the ride home, tired out from an afternoon of play. Fae, at least, was terrified of the ride atop the swaying load of hay, but the afternoon in the field was worth the terrifying trip home.

Mamma and Papa formed quite a team, proving along the way some measure of truth to the old adage that “opposites attract.” With frail health and timid demeanor, Harriet stayed to the background of community and church life, constantly in awe of her children’s confidence in public speaking and performing. Despite her gentle nature, however, she commanded the respect and love of her children.

For his part, Mahonri kept his wife on a pedestal, treating her with honor and respect, saving his more demanding nature for his children and those who failed to live up to his high expectations. Even then, Fae said her father had a firm voice rather than a firm hand. One look or word from him meant instant obedience. He swore often, in the way of farmers, but he never profaned. In fact, his daughters used to wonder at the fact that he would swear and pray with equal fervor. The Deckers were no wilting violets, proud of their reputation as “fearless” men, and Mahonri always felt the Lord had blessed him with exceptional strength in order to protect others. He loved his mission to the Eastern States, loved singing in the choir for decades, loved trading stories and making the occasional wager during evenings around the campfire with other farmers as they hauled freight in the off-season.

Fae remembers family nights, gathering around the organ to sing while Papa played in long, drawn-out chords, or popping corn and listening to Papa’s mission stories. Mahonri took great pride in his mission nickname of the “Walking Bible” and he delighted in recounting tales of killing a copperhead snake, taking a canoe ride down a wild river, and preaching until three in the morning. Mamma would read bedtime stories or poetry in her clear, light voice. When it was his turn to read, Papa read the Bible, usually Isaiah, or a novel such as Ben Hur or Zane Grey.

Sunday mornings had their own ritual. Regular church attendance was a given, and by some miracle the entire Decker family settled into their pew 15 minutes early for services each week. Mamma curled the girls’ hair on papers or pieces of torn sheets on Saturday night, brushing them out Sunday morning while Papa tied the sashes. They met in the Old Rock Church then, with Sunday School in the morning, Sacrament meeting at 2 p.m., and M.I.A. for the young people in the evening. In between Sunday School and Sacrament meeting, the family gathered for Sunday dinner. Alvin’s job was to whip the cream for the traditional whipped cream cake that always accompanied dinner.

Like most children, Florence and her siblings loved the magic of the holidays. On Christmas Eve, Mama and Gertrude (quite a woman by this time) shooed the younger children off to bed, where they lay in the dark and listened for reindeer hooves on the roof. Every year, a group of young men came serenading. They would harmonize under the windows for a time, and then Papa would throw the door open and invite them in for treats.

Fae tells the story of the beginning of this traditional Christmas Eve serenade. It seems Papa had been assigned as a monitor at the town dances, watching for the evils of the foxtrot or couples dancing too closely. Around Thanksgiving one year, he ejected a group of young men from the dance for some offense. Though some in the town grumbled behind Mahonri’s back, these young men showed up on the Decker doorstep a month later, caroling nervously and making amends. Mahonri welcomed them warmly, and they returned year after year.

Christmas morning brought its own magic, with stockings filled with candy and nuts and oranges and presents like the new dolls that Mamma and Gertrude dressed in rose-colored dresses and glass beads. Sometimes, Papa would rent a sleigh and take the family for a joyride behind his prize team of horses.

During these years, Mahonri farmed and raised sheep. Like most farmers in the area, he also hauled freight. Local farmers hauled loads of timber over to the mines around Delmar, Nevada and then loaded their wagons with ore to take to the railroad in Milford. In Milford, they traded loads of ore for dry goods destined for the towns of southern Utah. Mahonri gained quite a reputation for his strength on these trips, and folks boasted that he could single-handedly lift a forty (or was it fifty?) gallon barrel of water onto a wagon loaded high with timber.

Silas Orton told another story of the freighting days: “One time on our way home from Milford, I came down with smallpox. The company was scared to death, but Mahonri took me into his wagon box and put his own blankets and buffalo robe over me. At night he would climb in bed beside me. He took care of me until we got home. I credited Mahonri with saving my life.”

The War Years

To a young girl whose entire world stretched little further than the fields outside of town, the Great War must have represented little more than a topic for grownup conversation or a reason for a parade. And yet, even for Florence the war years gave her a first acquaintance with life and death.

Florence’s brother Woodrow was born on May 10, 1914, just two months before the start of the Great War. In addition to the death of Grandfather Norris, Florence also lost two uncles during those years. Uncle Charley Norris died in 1916 at the age of 48. Uncle Ernest Norris died the following year at the age of 40. Ernest died in Nevada, and Florence likely had little contact with him. Uncle Charley, however, probably lived in Parowan until his death. On June 13, 1917, just after the draft began, Florence’s brother Alpine was born.

Fae tells a story from the summer when Florence was perhaps five years old. Mamma had taken the girls to buy fabric for their 4th of July dresses, an absolute necessity in those days. They walked down to the old Equitable Store, where Fae and Blanche chose a lovely voile fabric printed with summer flowers. The storekeeper then pulled out a bolt of blue cloth, which Florence disliked. “I would ratho have the lavendo,” she said. Although little girls of the time did not usually voice opinions so bluntly, her serious face and childish voice charmed the shopkeeper. Mamma gave in, and Florence wore lavender for the 4th of July.

Florence, age 5

Florence seems to have worked her way into the hearts of her family from the beginning. To her half-brothers, Virgil and Alvin, she was particularly special. She remembers sewing buttons on Virgil’s shirts when she was just five years old and he was in his mid-twenties. One day, Virgil whisked her off across town to have her photo taken in her beautiful white embroidered dress. Looking back on that photo, Florence thought the heavy black stockings and shoes looked hideous, but Virgil was entranced by her Sunday curls and dainty dress and wanted to capture the moment.

Virgil had few opportunities to dote on his sister. By the time she arrived, he had his own life, attending college in Cedar City and then Logan and only returning to Parowan periodically. In September 1917, he married Edith Kjar. Just a few months later, in February 1918, Alvin also got married. But war interrupted family bliss. Both brothers were drafted into the army and went off to war in the summer of 1918, leaving pregnant wives behind. Uncle Frank had already left for war around January 1918. Happily, the Great War ended within a few short months, and all three men arrived home in January 1919.

While her brothers and uncle went off to war, Florence started 1st grade in the long, yellow school building in Parowan. The elementary school children had their classes in the west wing of the school, with the junior and senior high students in the east wing. Florence’s first grade teacher was a Miss Parry from Cedar City, and it was in Miss Parry’s class that Florence met her lifelong friend, Lillian Adams. Lillian remembers that the friends made an agreement right there in 1st grade that they would each read more books than the other. They kept at it until Florence’s death.

About the time the men returned home from the war, Florence’s half-sister Gertrude married Ancel Adams on January 10, 1919. The two sisters had grown quite close, and Florence had warm memories of sharing a room with lavender wallpaper. Perhaps Mahonri and Harriet hung the lavender wallpaper to please Florence, or perhaps she loved the color because of her memories of time with Gertrude. In any event, lavender remained her favorite color for years to come.

Back from the war, Virgil moved north, eventually settling in his wife’s home town of Manti. Alvin and Gertrude stayed in Parowan, in close contact with the family. Earl and Rachel still lived at home during Florence’s early years.

Florence started second grade in Parowan in 1919. Her youngest brother, Homer, was born in September, right at the beginning of the school year. With a new baby, the beautiful home that Papa built, and the older boys home from war and beginning their own families, this must have been a happy time for the family. Still, Mahonri grew restless. He had tried to leave Parowan once before, as a teenager, but his mother persuaded him to stay. Now, once again, the promise of new opportunities beckoned. Nowadays we would call it “mid-life crisis.” In any event, just a few weeks after his 50th birthday, Mahonri bought land in Delta and prepared to move his family.