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.