THE AUTO/BIOGRAPHY OF
ZELLA GUYMON DEWEY
20th Century Centurian (1901-2002)
(Written by ZGD in 1977, typed up and edited by daughter Moine, later typed into computer by latter’s son Greg, who has since added notes in [])
[What else happened in 1901 – Theodore Roosevelt became president after McKinley was shot. Queen Victoria died. Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Etta Place left for Argentina. American-Philippine War continued. Boxer Rebellion ended in China. Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. Wright’s Glider #2 failed at Kitty Hawk. Clark Gable, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, and Marlene Dietrich were born.]
Histories of ZGD’s ancestors are at –
www.gatheringgardiners.com/2010/03/noah-guyman-1819-1911.html
www.emerycountyarchives.com/uploads/1/4/0/7/140735053/guymon_noah_thomas.pdf
www.emerycountyarchives.com/uploads/1/4/0/7/140735053/guymon_thomas.pdf
historylines.com/story.jsp?person_id=RPB2861919ARP
history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/noah-thomas-guymon-1819?lang=eng
By Perdita Guymon, circa 1960s
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ZELLA GUYMON DEWEY
From Horse & Buggies to Airliners -- 1901-1961
I was born in Huntington,
Emery County, Utah on May 29, 1901, and lived there until I was married. We then remained there one year.
Mother and father – although not good on camera, by accounts Almira was a very friendly person.
My mother was Almira Brown Guymon. My father, William Albert Guymon, Jr. My brothers and sisters (in order) who grew up together were, Eugene, Elizabeth (Beth), Clarence, myself, Lee, Alice and Katie. In addition, she had three children who were still born and two who died young. I was named Zella after a friend of my parents, Zella Truman. I found that Zella is an unusual name. I have met only four other people with that name [a great-granddaughter has been named Zella]. [Note that out of 12 births 5 died young.
Huntington was a small country town of one mile square [population ~2000, on the dry flatlands of central Utah, just to the west are the low mountains of the Wasatch Plateau]. The town had hard dirt roads and sidewalks. One street running through the center of town, north & south, we called Main Street. There were two department stores and a post office on the west side of the street. Another department store and hotel on the east side. The road running east & west through the center of town had a garage on the corner of this road and Main Street. On the south side of the road and Main Street was a large block called Town Square. They had planted trees and grass in one corner and put benches to have a place to sit in the shade. I lived two blocks east on the south side of the street. At first the house was a log cabin with a lean-to kitchen. When I was seven the cabin was replaced by a six and later eight room brick house, one of the nicest houses in Huntington. We got water from a ditch across the street, light was from lamps. The only telephones in town were in the places of business.
Some of my earliest memories are of going for rides in the two seated buggy with fringe around the top, pulled by two horses, and of my grandfather's one-seated buggy pulled by one horse.
ZD and older sister Beth
I played in the back yard under poplar trees with my two small sisters, Alice and Lucille, and brother Lee. Lennis McCarther, a cousin, played with us a lot. Lee was handy. He made little corrals with twigs and string. He cut green branches into small pieces about four or five inches long, one end he made to look like a horse's hoof. He put on tiny metal horse shoes, the brand markings from a chewing tobacco product from the store. These were our play horses.
We also played under the beautiful big crabapple tree near the house. It was cool in the shade. Here we made our play house. We had a toy cupboard, small table and chairs, small rocking chair, doll bed, etc. We used small wooden boxes for more chairs. Mother pieced together tiny quilts and made little pillows, pillow slips, and little sheets for Christmas presents from Santa. The furniture came as gifts to different children from Santa over the years.
Another memory of a summer when I was quite small, maybe about 5 years, my father and Aunt Luella Guymon, his sister, were working in the co-op store. Aunt Luella asked me to go to my grandmother's and bring her lunch. On my way back a rain and hail storm came up suddenly. I was going through the town square where I could not get shelter. I was carrying the lunch in a paper bag. The bag was soaked and fell apart. I carried the sandwich in my hand. The rest of the lunch was lost. I had a pretty new dress on and a small light umbrella for sun. The hail ripped through the umbrella and left holes. When I arrived at the store crying, the candy drummer was there with his case spread out on the counter. A drummer is called a salesman now. He lifted me up on the counter and wiped my face with his handkerchief and let me choose any of the candy I wanted. I knew this man many years. He had one brown eye and one blue one.
My sister Lucille was a lovely pretty child. She became ill and died February 14, 1907. She was two years old. Another sister was born February 19, 1909. Her name was Lavera. She was such a beautiful child. She died October 20, 1912. I loved her very much and was very sad when she passed away suddenly.
In a small town, church, school and friends are the important things in one's life. Primary was a church organization held once a week after school for children from three years old to twelve. I liked going to primary and Sunday school, listening to the lessons about religion, building tiny houses with salt and flour dough to learn about Jerusalem, and especially learning the songs and being in the little plays the Primary did. In the Mormon Church the family is supposed to go to Sacrament Meetings. Children after twelve years of age and adults were supposed to go to the organization called Mutual. They had classes for learning different subjects - gospel, etc. This organization also planned much of the recreation for the church members. Baseball and basketball for the boys, dances, dance contests, plays and musicals for the teenagers. Adults were invited to the dances and to be audiences at the dance contests.
The church gave the young men an assignment each fall to provide a load of wood for a widow in our town of Huntington. Two young men went on each wagon to the forested canyon west of town. As a reward there would be a dance and these young men and their dates would get in free. Ralph Grange asked me to go with him, my first date. My dress fastened in the back (no zippers in those days). I called mother to come and fasten it, but she made me come to her. Ralph was already there and I was so embarrassed.
The Mutual had what was called a basket dance once a year. The young ladies would decorate boxes or baskets and put a nice lunch for two in it - fried chicken, salads, cake or pie, etc. Someone would auction the baskets off. The lady was supposed to eat with the man who bought her basket. You were not supposed to let your date see the basket, so it was wrapped up. Some did not bother. If a young man started to bid and someone suspected he was bidding on his girl's basket and they wanted to eat with her they would keep bidding. Normally the baskets went for 1-2 or 3 dollars.
Leta Brockbank was my girlfriend. We liked each other when we met in the first grade. Leta's aunt lived near her. The relatives called her "Aunt Zell". It sounded so harsh I made up my mind very early that I wouldn’t be called Zell. "Aunt Zell, Aunt Zell".
As Leta and I grew up we spent many happy hours at her house. More than at my house. One of the pleasures was the peanut butter we ate. In sandwiches, but also right out the five gallon can by the teaspoons full. They ordered it from Montgomery Wards. Leta took music lessons and as the years passed we spent hours around the piano. Sometimes just the two of us with the encouragement of her mother, and sometimes with other friends.
In a small town neighbors did many things together. Nearly every day or night in good weather we played hopscotch, kick the can, hide and seek, etc. One of the neighbor boys, the age of my brother Clarence, played the guitar. We would build a bonfire and sing around it. My dad liked the song "Red River Valley".
When I was in the third grade my father was sent on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He went to British Columbia. This was hard on a family with five children. My mother became very ill. I was kept out of school to stay with her, as my sister Elizabeth (Beth) was in the eighth grade and mother wanted her to graduate. There was no high school in Huntington at that time. I remember walking part way to school at noon, hating not being able to go. I had to repeat fourth grade. The doctor ordered eggnog made with red wine for mother twice a day. I always made enough for me to have a small amount.
Can you imagine a very sick mother left with a small child most of the day? My mother was a lovely patient all of the time. I loved her very much. The neighbors were very good to mother, especially Liz Gordon and Mrs. Lizzy Roeberry, a nurse. My father was called home from his mission after six months because mother was so very ill.
We rode horses from the first time we were able to. There were many horses and animals on the farm and out town yards. May was a smaller horse we rode around the yard and streets. One time when I was riding her she became tired and refused to cross a wide shallow ditch. She just stiffened her front legs and put her head down. I was riding bareback and I slid down her neck and head into the muddy ditch. Our favorite horse of all time was Old Bolly. This horse lived 21 years. He was a pacer so he was very comfortable to ride. All the family and friends were able to enjoy him for all those years. One time Alice and I went to the farm pasture to bring the cows home, both of riding Old Bolly. We stopped at Uncle Will's orchard to get some apples. We had crawled through a barbed wire fence. On her way out Alice got her hair caught in the fence. Old Bolly moved by her and urinated in her upturned face. Lucky there was a stream of water nearby. She ducked her hair in after I released her hair after I could stop laughing.
My father was a farmer. The land was dry so all the farms were irrigated. Some years my father hired Frank Guymon to run the farm and dad managed the co-op store. We all helped when the crops had to be gathered. Potatoes as they were dug, picked peas, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, string beans, summer and winter squash. Pulled carrots, radishes, turnips, dug parsnips and celery from the garden. Picked currants, gooseberries, raspberries from bushes and strawberries from plants. Picked pears, plums, apricots, prunes, crabapples and apples from the trees.
When the grain, wheat and oats were cut and thrashed it was stored in gunny sacks if it was to be taken to the grist mill to make flour or cereal called Germade, bran for the pigs, or if it was to be sold. Some of it was stored in big bins in the granary for feeding cattle, chickens and pigs. The horses were fed oats and hay. Dad would load the sacks of wheat and oats he had for sale in a big wagon, put a canvas cover over them and take them northeast to the larger town of Price to the co-op store. It would take nearly all day. His brother Orson was manager of the co-op. I was happy to go with him to stay overnight at his home. Aunt Ellen made us so welcome. My cousin Nina was my age. We liked each other and had such good times. Florence and Edna were younger sisters. They always had such good food from the store, canned salmon and olives.
Living off the farm we had lots of fruits and vegetables, pork, beef and chicken. Mother canned string beans, tomatoes, pears, apricots, peaches, apples and prunes. She made pickles, sweet and dill, bread and butter, catsup and chili sauce. She made lots of preserves of different kinds. My cousin Lapreal said my mother made the best preserves she ever tasted. The preserves were kept in large pottery jugs. Preserves are made with enough sugar to keep very well. Jelly was in different size jelly glasses. Both were sealed with paraffin wax. We bought five gallon cans of honey. We liked Bla Monge, a pudding made of milk, sugar, cornstarch with vanilla or lemon, and Christmas plum pudding made with homemade bread (the store did not have bread then). Biscuits, corn bread or thickened milk were made also. Thickened milk; bring to a boil milk salted a little, stir in flour very slowly to thicken as it cooks. It had to be done just right or it wasn't good. Lee made it better than I. We ate it with cinnamon and sugar or syrup. We ate our large meals at noon.
We had what we called a milk safe, a cupboard with four shelves. The sides and front were metal with small holes in them so there would be ventilation. The milk was strained and put in round granite pans for cream to raise. I think the pans held 4 quarts. Bread was so good spread with heavy cream and sugar. The cream after it was skimmed from the milk was kept in there in crock jars until we had enough to churn. It had to be watched carefully so it would not go sour. Milk soured and went to clabber. We made our own cottage cheese. Later mother bought a milk separator. A machine that you would pour the milk in and turn it. It would separate the cream from the milk and come out different spouts.
I had a special friend, Ivy Ward, who moved to Salt Lake with her mother. They lived a block away from me. She was planning a surprise party for my birthday. In elementary school the kids were whispering and leaving me out, so I became angry and after school started home. Ivy was feeling sorry for me and ran after me to tell me about the party. I was really angry then. I would rather have been surprised.
Rulon Hardy was the first boy who carried my books home from school.
There was one dance and recreation hall in town. Primary plays and parties were here. In fact all ages attended as we grew. Halloween, Christmas parties, etc. Dances for all ages. The adults had age limits for some dances. Over 16, I think. There was a stage where the adults put on plays. They were called Melodramas. I had an Uncle Will Green, my mother's sister Emma's husband. He was the kindest man I ever knew. He always played the villain. Many of the kids were frightened of him after seeing him in a play. They would cross the street if they saw him coming.
Dad was active with jobs besides the farm. He was treasurer if the water company. People came to our house to pay their water assessments. I was able to accept money and make out a receipt for them. From 1911 to 1912 he was asked to supervise the building of the Huntington Reservoir Dam to store water for drinking. A large lake reservoir was built in Huntington Canyon. Some of the time the family was able to go up for a few weeks. We made many trips to the canyon and on top of the mountain. Alice and I would play on top of very large, flat rocks.
One summer Alice and I went to the canyon with Beth, her husband Leo and family. We made our beds in an old log cabin. It rained very hard and the roof leaked. We ended up in one end of the canyon, our bedding pulled together. Another summer when Katie was 3 or 4 we went on top of the mountain. It looked so unbelievable to see her galloping on Old Bolly. One fall I went with my father when the men and some other daughters and sons went to gather cattle and horses from the mountain to drive them down to the farms to winter. They drove them to the mountains to feed in the summer. We were rounding up some horses, when one of them bolted from the herd. Dad said, "You are on the fastest horse, you get around him". I was surprised when the horse jumped over the sage brush instead of running through them. More surprised that I stayed on. I shot a small rifle at targets a few times. Sometimes bears came into camp, they wanted the food and honey so we had to keep it in tight containers. On time, a bear came into our camp in the mountains. Dad said to take a shot at it so I did. I did not hit it.
Image outtakes from the pamphlet for ZD’s 100th BD celebration showing her in preteens and teens.
When I was 15, I was taller than most of my girl and boy friends. I asked grandfather where I got my height. He said, "The tallest main in Washington's army was a Guymon". I thought he was kidding. Later, reading my genealogy, I learned this was true. It says in the Guymon's history of my great, great, great grandfather that "he was the tallest soldier at Valley Forge.” [This may be a family legend.]
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(The Manti Temple Excursion)
When I was a young girl, each summer in August a group of Saints from the surrounding towns of Emery County, Utah, would get together and go by covered wagon train west over the mountains to the location of the Manti Temple in the town of Manti, Sanpete County, Utah. The purpose of our going was for some to be sealed in the Temple, have their families sealed to them, and for others to do work for the dead.
Our caravan started from Huntington with groups of people from Emery, Ferron, Castle Dale and Orangeville joining us for the ten-day trip of seventy-five miles through the mountains. Our wagon train was quite like the wagon trains of the pioneers.
My sister and her husband had decided to go with the group to the Temple. They had two small children and asked me to accompany them to care for the children while they were in the Temple up to the time the children were needed to join their parents to be sealed to them. Being just fifteen, I was delighted to be asked to go. People of different ages with families of various sizes and ages including other children younger than I were along.
It turned out to be a hard trip. When our wagons and horses got up into the mountains up through the canyons, we found that heavy storms had washed out the road in several places, making it necessary for our caravans to take a different route. We traveled where there wasn't any road at all over washes and cow trails. It was so rough and difficult at times, we would have to put the saddle horses we were riding on to the end of the wagon tongues with ropes to help the teams that were hitched on to the wagons pull the wagons and their contents, food, kids and all up over the rough trails. It was real scary at times but the good Heavenly Father was with us.
But what a lot of fun it was at night pitching tents and camping, and cooking our food over the campfire. The first night the people had a wonderful get-acquainted party for all the travelers. Among the young folks were two young Buchanan boys who were about my age. They had joined us with the group from Orangeville. These boys were good looking and I, as a young fifteen-year-old girl, was glad they were friendly.
The women brought delicious food to eat. The scones of hot bread baked in a bake oven over the fire, the corn of the cob bubbled and spurted in the kettle. I especially remember the many kinds of yummy cookies tasting so good with the cold homemade root beer which had been carried in ice-packed boxes.
We had a large bonfire after dinner. The group sang songs, including the very familiar song “Come, Come Ye Saints” as the pioneers did. We toasted marshmallows too and watched our elders. I'll never forget the newly arrived married couple suffering from a bad case of love sickness - quite a sight in the eyes of a someone just shy of sixteen.
Before retiring, we all kneeled and one of the gentlemen gave a beautiful sincere prayer asking God's blessings, protection and guidance for our journey.
In those days, the roads were very rough, mostly just wagon tracks, and riding in the covered wagon was rough and uncomfortable. The Buchanan boys were riding horses, and after getting better acquainted, they asked me if I would like to ride with them. I was delighted to accept. My brother-in-law had an easy riding saddle horse along so I rode horseback nearly all the rest of the way.
Everyone was tired at night but we always had a circle for family prayer. We thanked God for the success of each day and asked his spirit and blessings for each of us. With his guidance, we made the trip through Straight Canyon, Jose Valley [later partly filled by a reservoir] and down Ephraim Canyon, arriving in Manti on time to make the Temple sessions. I don't remember where everyone camped after we arrived in Sanpete County, but we went to the town of Moroni not far from Manti and stayed with my brother-in-law's aunt. These people were glad to see us and made me feel welcome in their home.
We pressed our clothes and made ourselves presentable to go to the Manti Temple. I thought this was the most beautiful building I had ever seen. There was a room inside the Temple especially for the children to wait until needed. I was happy to be permitted in this lovely white room - the Temple was as beautiful inside as outside - and hoped someday I would be married in the Temple [www.ldstemple.pics/store/manti-utah-temple-evening-light].
After visiting the Temple, we went back to Moroni and stayed for a few days. One evening was a dance. My cousins took me to the dance where I found the young people I met very friendly. I was dazzled by one young man who was so tall that I had to look up at him while we were dancing. I had a wonderful time.
After the dance, my cousins asked some of their friends to come home with us. We were all in a gay mood. To my surprise, there in the middle of the dining room table was a birthday cake. My sixteenth birthday and all this has been one of my fondest memories.
The next morning, my brother-in-law went out to the corral to feed his horses. He found that one of them he used to help pull the wagon had been badly injured. The flesh was all torn from his side. A horse had kicked him with a sharp shoe. We were really worried how we would get back home. But as it turned out, the roads had been repaired in places so they were not so rough. And we did have three horses so we got by without using the forth horse to pull. The horse died from his wounds after we arrived home.
We knew our Heavenly Father had been with us all the way on our journey. Those who went through the Manti Temple said what a wonderful, delighted privilege it has been.
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[This section is presented here in a distinctive manner because it seems to have been written as a separate account. It appears to cover the one year that ZG went on the excursion. Having driven some of the above canyons, it is remarkable they got a wagon train through them. The Wasatch plateau to the west of Huntington is not classic high Rocky mountains, it is more modest elevation table lands cut by a complex of valleys. ZD later called them “the hills of home.”]
One of the better off families in town bought the first automobile, a Model T [probably sometime in the 1910s, production of the auto began in 08]. Their teenage sons used to drive it around. Those boys were not popular until they had the car. Later we got a Model T, which I drove sometimes. One time I was driving with Bernice Howard. I drove into a stream of water crossing the road too fast and killed the engine. Bernice had to stand in the water and crank it to start.
When I was 17 my friend Ivy Ward had moved to Salt Lake. Her mother invited me to visit them. We had another friend doing work in a home as a maid, cleaning, cooking, etc. I phoned mother and asked her to let me do the same. I got a job to work for a couple. She asked me to make a pie. I called my friend to come and help me. I never made a pie. The work was easy. I enjoyed working that summer.
These were probably taken in SLC
My cousin Melvin Porter was stationed at Fort Douglas in the Army, He took me to picture shows. One night after the show after he took me home he missed the last bus to Fort Douglas. He had run all the way home to get in by the time he was supposed to.
Ivy lived across the street from Liberty Park in Salt Lake. We would go to the park. There were many soldiers there. Her mother said, "Stay away from the soldiers". We said, "OK, but the whole idea was to talk to some of them". We didn't accept dates. [This is 1918 during WW1, Bill Dewey was in the stateside army at this time.] I went home in late summer to get ready for school. I made many of my clothes.
Soon after that Dad and Mr. John Brockbank bought a store. A Mr. Glassman had gone bankrupt. I worked in the store and mother came and helped us sometimes. We were not paid cash. We took what we needed and put the cost down in a book. Mr. Brockbank was my friend Leta's father. Leta and her mother went to Salt Lake to live so Leta could study music.
Dad wanted me to go to Salt Lake to business school so I could help him with the books for the store. I helped in a home for my board and room. A couple and two children. I enjoyed the winter. The gentlemen was very kind to me. The lady I was working for asked me to bring some balloons home for her child's birthday party after school. I bought them at Woolworth's. She said to have them blown up. I felt it would be hard to board the bus on Main Street. I walked a few blocks and boarded it after it turned on another street. The bus driver was real nice. The balloons would not go through the door, so he held the balloons while I got on the bus and handed the strings to me through the open window. I sure felt foolish when I told her how I got to the bus and the men on the street said "going up", and "you really broadcast (I had a bright red blouse and the balloons were red)", because she really laughed. She said I had walked through the red light district. A friend of theirs had something to do with the theater. He gave me free tickets for Saturday matinees. Ivy and I went about once a month. Her mother would not let us go alone so she paid for her ticket and went with us.
Before the Christmas holidays I spent a long time in the dentist's chair to finish the work he had started, so that I could go home. Someone broke into my locker and stole money I was to buy a new dress with. When I arrived home Beth had just had twins. She was trying to decide what to name them. I had just been enjoying the company of Ambrose. She named one Ambrose and the other Melrose Leo. Melrose did not live. Leo was her husband's name. Ambrose asked to be called Lee when he grew up.
I went back to school. I was very proud of meeting and becoming friends with President Grants (of the L.D.S. Church) niece. She and her girlfriend lived near enough for me to walk from the place I lived. We saved money from our school lunch money to go to the Z.C.M.I. Store lunch room near the school. They had the best pecan pie and German chocolate cake there occasionally.
The Great Flu epidemic broke out that year, 1918. My cousin Evan Porter, Melvin's brother, lived in Idaho. He had been to Huntington and stopped to see me on his way home. Three days later the flu epidemic was so bad they closed the schools. I went with a mask on my face covering my nose and mouth. When I arrived everyone was crying. I thought it a big joke with the mask, and I should stay by myself for three days, until they handed me the telegram they had just received. Evan, whom I had just seen a few days ago, was dead. My father helped in many homes with the flu patients and never got it. I don't think any of my family were sick.
[In the 1970s ZD filled out the story about Evan to her granddaughter-in-law Hart. Evan had just gone into the Army as part of the war effort. ZD had seen him off. They had planned to get married upon his return.].
I went back to school and worked in the Paris department store on Saturdays. I will never forget when I sold $135 dollars [now worth well over $1000] worth of ladies’ stockings in three hours. I stayed in Salt Lake and worked at the store that summer. I paid my room and board with mother's help. In the fall when the teachers came up for teachers' institute, Vida Sherman told me my mother was very ill and I should go home. I quit my job and went back on the train, the same one the teachers went back on. I told them I was going home to take the good looking teachers I heard they were dating away from them. Vida Sherman was dating Bill Dewey and Vesta Wakefield was dating Bill Jarvis, both were teachers. Vesta said, "You can have them". They had not taken the girls out in Salt Lake, but had gone out to Sandy [south end of Salt Lake Valley] where Bill lived and dated girls he knew. Vesta married Bill Jarvis.
BD in his teens – earliest available photograph – and ZD’s husband. His hairstyle never changed.
I worked in the store across from the school where they taught. I went over to school to take some past graduate courses. The principal, Henry Pace, said I had not had much arithmetic and should take some. Bill Dewey taught it. I went to class two days and decided I did not want arithmetic. Bill Jarvis told me Bill Dewey did not want me in his class. He wanted to date me. Not knowing I had decided to quit. I took cooking and music. When Bill would come over to the store to talk to me and I gave him candy, Mr. Brockbank watched me very closely and saw that I charged it to myself. I finally dated Bill Dewey and Vida never spoke to me for a long time. We rode horses and played cards at my house, besides going to the activities of the town. We had good times at the school and church dances. I had dates since I was in my teens, but I never was so happy and proud as I was dating a high school teacher. He was young to be teaching high school. Bill Dewey asked me to go to a dinner dance. Bill Dewey was the host. He picked up his jello in a tall glass and thought it was a drink.
[BD’s siblings Alice (infant death), Irene, Gwen, Tom, Laurel, Alfred]
One night I had a group at the house. Dad came in so proudly showing them my coat I had turned inside out. I was so embarrassed. Gene, my brother, was on a mission so I couldn't get a new coat. I had a beautiful brown coat, and the material looked good on the inside when I refinished it. No one would have known, as I had worn the coat mostly while I was in Salt Lake going to school.
When I was going to High School I had been in the school Operettas [ZG had a fine voice]. The music teacher, Everett Johnson, would use people who had graduated to help make a good cast. We took one of the Operettas to Castle Dale to play. We had great fun. While I was going back for post-graduate work, he gave me the part of a princess, the leading lady. Bill said some kids behind him whispered loud enough for him to hear, "that because I was so pretty as a princess must be why he fell in love with me".
Bill and I chaperoned the kids Lee's age on different trips to the canyon. One of the trips was the day after the Operetta ended. Alice had the leading lady part in the Operettas after I had.
Bill and I walked in the moonlight. Lots of time to kill in a small town. It was after one of these walks that on our front lawn he asked me to marry him. I don't think anyone could have been happier than I was.
Classic old photo of Z&B shortly before or early in marriage, probably central UT.
After school closed that year I went to Salt Lake. I bought me a beautiful brown suit at ZCMI wholesale because our store in Huntington traded with them. Bill took me to Sandy to meet his folks. Bill and his brother, Alfred, drove down to Huntington that summer.
We were married February 17, 1923 on Saturday by Mr. John P. Brockbank in the living room [ZD’s hopes expressed above to be married in the Temple were therefore never fulfilled, BD was not a dedicated church goer]. The furniture was taken out of the large bedroom and tables arranged around three sides. I made my wedding dress. It was long white satin and lace. Bill and I were sewing beads on the belt and cuffs very late the day before the wedding. It was the custom for the Bridal Couple to sit at the head of the table until everyone in attendance had been served dinner. I think there were three seatings. It was a long tiresome time eating a little with each new group. Lee, Lennis and friends put junk in the foot of our bed. They gave us a chivvy most of the night - which means all kinds of noises. We had no honeymoon. Bill never took a vacation in his life.
In our home we had two large rooms used for entertaining. With our large family, two of us may have guests at the same time and not want to be together. Mother planned to have the one room as a bedroom, but put a hide bed in there. There was room for the guests to visit. We rented Clarence and Ruby's two room home furnished. We lived there until school was out in May. We stayed with Tom and Lorraine for awhile, paying our way. They rented a house Bill's father owned.
Image outtakes from the pamphlet for ZD’s 100th BD celebration. Top apparently shortly after marriage to BD who typed in the caption. Zella probably written by daughter Carolyn who had pics in her possession for many years.
When summer school started we all went to Logan in northern Utah. Bill, Tom and I went to the Agriculture College, now called Utah State. We rented an apartment together. Lorraine was pregnant., so she didn't go to school with us. We bought our milk from the school's dairy. I took singing lessons from Charles Johnson, the music teacher who had been raised in Huntington. I also took drama. I had been chosen by the drama class in high school to represent them by giving a long poem at graduating exercises. In high school the teacher criticized us. In college the students criticized each other. They tore me apart. I surely found out I was not as good as I thought I was. Bill refereed ball games for the Logan players. Tome had classes. Lorraine and I would go. We wore long white gloves which were the style then. We laughed and said, "we may need them to defend Bill". The comments in the stands around us were not always complementary. We went to Logan Canyon on picnics and fishing. Tom was not catching any large enough to keep. He said, "Gee, they're little bits of cusses, but trist how many?". He and Bill did not swear. We enjoyed summer.
Top is ZD’s new step sister Irene and her brother Everett shortly after her and BD’s marriage. Bottom is an also extremely small photo, same processing so presumably taken about the same time. BD third from left top row. Very possibly Jordon school with faculty/staff. Cannot fully read sign on wall, nor know meaning of typed caption which are both presumably by BD. Label Dad with arrow probably placed much later by daughter Carolyn who had pics in her possession for many years.
Tom and Bill worked for the Jordon school. Tom was mechanical arts teacher at Jordon High. They built bodies for school buses the rest of the summer and for many summers.
We left to go to Beaver, in west central Utah, where he taught for two years in High School. We rented a large eight room house furnished. The older man whose wife had just died stored his personal things in two bedrooms and let us move in. There was a nice front parlor with a piano, a large dining room, a small kitchen, and a library which we lived in mostly. We used the parlor and dining room only when we had company. There was no central heating. My first dinner for company was for some of the school teachers at Thanksgiving. The principal had gone to Salt Lake and returned just married. He bragged so much about her. She was beautiful and wore a beautiful fur coat. All the coats were hung in the hall. Frank Smith was a crazy as Bill. They slipped out into the hall and came back and whispered, "I touched a hundred dollars worth with my little finger", etc. I had a lovely dinner, but as the food was being passed around I finally realized I had not put the turkey on the table. I went and got it, Bill said "I didn't dare ask about it, I was afraid you had ruined it" [ZD enjoyed telling this story for years].
The town people were all very friendly. They spoke to me wherever I went. Frank and Evelyn Smith were to become good friends. We had lots of dinners and played games together. They had 2 lovely children. Bill was a good teacher. He taught mechanical arts and other subjects. English literature was one he enjoyed. He memorized many poems and stories and helped his students to enjoy his class. We both went to Church and taught young people in Mutual. We asked many of them to the house. Several of them played the piano. Bill and some of the students were planning a program for one of the recreation nights the Mutual had for young people. One of the young ladies was Hermoine. She was beautiful. She gave readings. They had a good program and took it to two other town's Mutual programs. Hermoine went on to broadcast on radio in San Francisco.
In the spring before school was out I had a chance for a ride to Provo. We moved out of the house. Bill boarded for the rest of the school year. I went from Provo to Huntington for awhile. I was always homesick every year in the spring and arranged to spend some time going to Huntington. We went back to Beaver in the fall and found a small apartment in a large house. Lowell was born September 8, 1924. Mother came to be with me. She stayed for quite awhile, and Clarence came to get her in a car. We enjoyed living in Beaver.
We continued to have a few students visit us. In 1924 we heard about radio. A student in high school built a small set with ear phones to listen to it. We would take turns using one ear phone each and listen to music from San Francisco.
BD probably sometime in the 1920s in Huntington, Beaver or Salt Lake, as high school teacher. Another very small photo although different processing, on back has been written “Uncle Bill Dewey, Zella’s Husband.”
Bill decided to teach in Midvale outside of Salt Lake. He received a contract to work in the Midvale Jr. High School. In the spring we bought a Model A Ford car to drive home in. We couldn't find a home so we moved to nearby Sandy. He drove from there to school. Bill enjoyed teaching school. He played kick the can with the students at recess. He had to buy a new pair of shoes every month.
Bill drove the car most of the time, especially to work. Sometimes I drove him a short distance to where he joined a carpool. I was not driving enough to get good at it. I especially had trouble backing up. A friend suggested I practice when I had the car. Once practicing backing up I got the car stuck in a rut. A policeman came by and found out I did not have a license. A policeman drove the car home and told me not to drive with out some one else in the car. I never did get a license [she would rely on rides and buses for the rest of her life].
Bill was anxious to have a place of our own so he bought an acre of land in nearby Draper. His mother and father had lived there, their house had been torn down. We built a small white frame house. Bill did the work after school or work. I would have dinner ready and we would pack it in the car. Bill would work until it was time to eat. I would hold boards and help any way I could. We worked until just before dark, ate and drove home. Lowell had a wonderful time with his little hammer.
Moine [note that it is here Moine rather than the original Hermoine, she hated the latter and it is not clear if she changed it while typing this up – she had her name legally changed in the 1970s, as did her son Ric from Rick/y/Richard] was born October 31, 1926 [same Halloween Houdini died]. Moine was in a hurry to come into this world. She was born an hour after the first pain. Bill rushed to get his mother. She came and saw the situation. We had called the doctor and nurse. I had to stay at home as we had no one to leave Lowell with. The nurse would care for Lowell as well as me and the baby. Bill's mother asked one of the school children to go for Mrs. Hand, a mid-wife. Mrs. Hand was ill. Mr. Hand, the barber of Sandy, came to the kitchen door. The baby had already arrived. Bill's mother was alone with me when the baby was born, Bill had gone to get the nurse. She was excited, and not knowing just where things were, she got my pretty night gowns instead of the sterile white cloths in the same drawer to put over the plastic pad on the bed. The doctor arrived right after to take care of things. Bill and the nurse arrived also. The nurse was a lovely person. She was good with Lowell. He spent much of the time with me while I was in bed for ten days. He learned many of the nursery rhymes. When I got out of bed my feet hurt badly. The arches had fallen [thus the beginning of ZD’s leg-foot problems that would plague her for the rest of her life.] They hurt so badly that I crawled to get clothes to dress Moine after the nurse left. She stayed two weeks.
The house was nearly finished. We had to have help with the electricity and plastering. We had to wait for the plaster to dry before we could move in. We could not afford to put a furnace in yet. We used a coal range and a stove in the dining room. We had built the kitchen, living room, dining room, bath and hall porch at the back entrance. We used the dining room for a bedroom, planning to add two bedrooms on the back of the house and to put the furnace in later. We moved into the house during the Christmas holidays. We bought a cow, a pig, and a few chickens. The ground was so rich we had a lovely garden. Bill still taught in Midvale. I enjoyed Draper very much. Bill wasn't interested in going to church, but was willing to tend the children while I went. I joined the choir, sang in the ladies chorus and taught in Primary. Bill's father's brother lived on a farm near Draper. We ate dinner early and took the children out to watch the cows being milked. Uncle Alf and Aunt Mary made us so welcome. She could see us coming and stirred a cake up in a hurry. The well water made the best tea I have ever tasted. They had three sons and a daughter. Dean, Harold, Julian and Mary. The house was across from the schoolhouse. Lowell was anxious to go to school. Lowell finally went to school in his new blue and white striped bib overalls. All the small boys wore bib overalls, either blue denim or the stripped ones, except when dressed up for church. Lowell was so proud of his overalls. I had made his clothes. Bill had so many good suits and silk and other shirts. I made Lowell's clothes from them.
Jack Ernest Dewey was born March 16, 1929. My doctor did not arrive in time for the birth. My neighbor was a nurse and I had engaged her. She and Bill were alone with me. The doctor came soon after.
The school bought our property. That year we moved back to Sandy. The children came down with measles and whooping cough at the same time. They were very ill. Uncle Ed and Will Stalworthy were to my house for dinner. Mother was visiting us. People were going outside to take pictures. Mother picked Jackie up and said, "this baby has a fever, don't take him outside". He was coming down with measles and whooping cough after the incubation period, Jackie died May 2, 1930.
We moved to Midvale near the school. Also near to Gwen [BD’s sis]] and Earn. I've always thought Gwen a special person. Their children were June, Earl, Ruth and Afton. Ruth and Afton played with Lowell and Moine. I was able to enjoy more of the dances and programs at school after we moved to Midvale.
Gordon was born August 22, 1931. I went to a special small nursing home a lady ran for a small number of maternity patients. Moine and Lowell were able to come and visit through the window.
In September we moved to Copperton for Bill to teach in the Bingham High School. Bingham was the famous copper mining town, next to the big open pit mine in the hills south of the Great Salt Lake. Copperton was a small company town of homes built by the company for their workers to live in. Bingham town was a one street place between the mountains. Bill taught mostly woodwork. There Gordon became efficient with a hammer. The teachers lived in an apartment house. We became good friends with Paul and Katherine Kuhni. We had similar families. Paul Jr., Katherine, Connie and Louise. Louise and Gordon enjoyed playing together, so did Moine and Connie. Paul and Lowell didn't always get along so well, Paul being older. [ZD’s mother died in October.]
One of the teachers told me of a good foot doctor. I went to him for one summer. He raised my arches and bound them with tape each week. He then made me arch supports for my shoes and I could wear nice shoes. My feet didn't hurt so much.
Henue not known, included because taken at same time as MJ mentioned below. Typed captions by BD.
We all attended the basketball games. Our friends Milton and Kate Jensen came up from Sandy. They would come to my house or Katherine's and have dessert, etc. Laurel Dewey [BD’s sister] would drive up with a few friends. I would make a graham cracker crust and bake it and make a pineapple filling. It was quick and easy pie. There was also a group who went to Salt Lake to dance. The Kuhni's, Milt and Kate, and another couple from our apartment. Others joined us from Midvale and Salt Lake. Earn and Gwen, Everett and Irene. We had wonderful times.
We moved from Copperton to Salt Lake City, 425 Westminster Avenue. Bill taught in West High School and Mechanical Arts Career School two nights a week. He taught the problem boys. One night they stole Bill's car. They did return it - thinking it was a big joke. Coy Fife taught sewing at the Career School. The teachers would have parties and we had good times. Coy was friendly and put me at ease with the group. She dressed so smart and attractive. Bill and I went with him one night a week to music class. Music appreciation and chorus singing for one winter. Laurel and I went to stage and theater at Capital and the University of Utah.
Our neighbors on Westminster Avenue were the Massaras. They had two daughters. They were Italians. Lovely people. Mrs. Massara was the salad maker for the Chamber of Commerce Club, and Mr. Massara was a professional chef. When he cooked spaghetti at home, Mrs. Massara would bring us some for our dinner. Bill and Mr. Massara joked a lot about their beautiful roses. One early summer, Mr. Massara tied a paper rose on his bush. He really got a kick out of it when Bill fell for it as a real rose.
Earn and Gwen, Bill and I went to the club to celebrate New Year's Eve. Earn was principal of the Midvale Jar High School, and Bill had been a teacher there. Some Midvale Jr. High students were the entertainment from the Primary Group. We were all surprised and it delayed our celebrating with a drink. We ate our dinner, but couldn't have a drink until after they left. Earn was so mad. Church wasn't the way we expected to be entertained on New Year's Eve. We had a delicious dinner, and we have since had many good laughs about it.
While we were living on Westminster Ave, my father married a lady he and mother had known]. She had been mother's girlfriend. He came to Salt Lake to see her and did not let any of us know. They were married quite soon.
Katie was still in high school. She stayed with them until she graduated. She came up to live with us so she could get a job. She was able to work for the telephone company. We though so much of Katie. She and Bill enjoyed listening to the program on the radio called Hit Parade. They sang and guessed were the song was placed from 1 to 10. The children loved her. She was a very sweet girl.
While we were living there, Moine got Scarlet Fever. I washed my hands after leaving Moine's room every time. They called me "Iky go wash". Bill and Katie lived in the garage. Katie soon went to stay with Beth. Don and Carolyn were born so she did not come back. She married Chad Goodin and had a daughter, Cheri, and son Lee.
Don was born on October 24, 1936, and Carolyn on May 24, 1938. Laurel kept Don while I was in the hospital. He was 18 months old. One day she missed him. He had slipped out of the door when some one came in. He was down by the canal close by. When Carolyn was born Moine and Lowell did the work as best they could. The oldest Massara daughter helped them. We could not find hired help. Gordon was so good and played by himself, making playdough [although used as a wallpaper cleaner at this time, actual Play-Doh was not a kid’s toy until after the war] animals when I was busy with Don and Carolyn. Gordon was the first of my children to go to school when he was only five.
[Moine never mentioned it to her sons, but according to Sylvia the preteen spent one or more summers with relations in Huntington in the late 30s. Apparently she enjoyed that time so much that she chose to be buried in that remote town, she never explained the reason to Shirley or Greg.]
We decided to look for a larger house. We rented one out on Highland Drive. Far enough to be out of the smoke of Salt Lake. We later bought the house. I always looked for a house near school and church and near a bus. Here the bus was on Highland Dr. Moine and Lowell did have to ride a school bus to Jr. High and High School. [This house was almost directly downslope and west of Sylvia’s place her clan moved into in 1960 to today, on the east edge of the valley flats. The house is no longer there, it may the house Lowell later saw being moved and regretted not following it to see where it ended up, one or two of the same kind of houses are on the block.]
On February 17, 1940, our good friends, the Keugeles, gave a party for our 17th Anniversary. Some of us went to see "Gone With the Wind". Mrs. Kuegele had magazines and each guest made a page representing our life and signed it. I kept them and put them in a scrapbook. I later used this book for a memory of things our family accomplished.
Our grocery shopping was quite different in Salt Lake. We went to the grocery store and arranged to charge by the month. I would order my groceries over the phone and they were delivered. A small store was near us where we bought a few things we needed. Moine said she got a loaf of bread, can of soup and a quart of milk for 30 cents. Each item was 10 cents. I had to limit my monthly bill to feed a family of 7 to $35 per month [almost twenty times as much in current money].
I never liked cats. When the children had one it had to stay outside. Gordon rescued a pretty white one. It was floating down the canal back of our property. He brought it in and said, "can I put it in a box by the stove to get it warm?" I let him put a baby blanket in the box when the cat was dry, and Gordon fed it. It went into the front room and did not get on the furniture. It was a beautiful cat with one yellow and one blue eye. It was the only cat I allowed in the house. I don't remember how long we had it, but I was sorry when it was killed on Highland Drive.
While we lived on Highland Drive, I felt very sorry that the letters I had received from my father while he was on his mission, and letters from Lowell in the service which I cherished, got molasses spilled on them in the cupboard and soaked them until I could not read them at all.
During the war Bill began to work for the government. While Bill was at Hill Field in Utah he was asked to do training for the Air Force. I later asked Coy Fife to help me to say what she did and she wrote me as follows: "You asked me what the training that Bill was doing when he came back there [to Washington DC?]. I guess I didn't ever answer. Well, it was the same as what he did at Hill Field except it all had to be rewritten for the Military-new charts and everything. You remember that was Job Management, Job Methods, Job Instruction. After the war he had other assignments". They sent him to Dayton, Ohio. While Bill was in Dayton they asked him to stay there. He called me and said, "rent the house, I am transferred to Dayton". This I did. After all this trouble he called again and said, "hold everything, I have a chance to go to Washington DC". He had no chance to come home. He was traveling and holding conferences for the Air Force.
[Not exactly clear is when Bill was at Hill Field which is north of SLC. According to Ric he saw a film narrated by his grandfather about personnel management of bomber operations that may have been shot at Hill, during or after the war, but he is not entirely reliable.]
Lowell was in the navy in California. He called and said he wanted to get married to Betty Lou Smith. Betty's parents and I said no. I called Bill and he said "no way". Lowell said he could get leave if he got married and they were being sent overseas, also Betty said they would elope. I called Bill again. He said he could not possibly come home. They were married in November. We were in the reception line when a telephone call came for Lowell. He was ordered to report to the Navy next day in California. We all broke up. People where still coming, we were weeping and no one was in line. Lowell and Betty left soon after for a little time together. We said goodbye to him at the airport the next morning. When he arrived in California his squadron had left. They flew him out to his ship to join them [but see below]. He could not tell us where he was going, but he said he was going where he and Betty wished they could go on a honeymoon. Betty said that was Hawaii. He spent much of his time in the South Pacific on a carrier. The planes flew from these.
Taken at the LDS chapel ward – Lowell in his USN uniform, new wife Betty Lou, Lance Draper in US Army uniform, Moine, little Carolyn at end, don’t know the others.
[Lowell was training in CA before the marriage. The ship he had to catch was the small and slow escort carrier CVE 84 USS Shamrock Bay commissioned earlier in the year and just arrived in the Pacific – after escorting the also brand new battleship USS Missouri – to San Diego (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shamrock_Bay). The SB departed San Diego on Dec 2, so the wedding occurred either on the last day of Nov or the first of Dec. According to Sylvia, Betty Lou’s folks had withheld the telegram telling Lowell he needed to report to the ship until morning after the ceremony, which was why he was late getting to the ship. Sylvia also says he took a fast boat to the already departing ship, which makes sense because the carrier was unlikely to have been set up for operating aircraft just after leaving port. The ship did stop at Pearl Harbor, and then was involved in heavy combat at the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Lowell was the lower gunner and radioman in the 3 crew Grumman Avenger torpedo/bomber. Lowell kept an illicit war diary that Sylvia has. When I went out to SLC in 1962 Bill D suggested I ask his son about the war, but he had little to say if I asked. Lowell hated being on the carrier because it was so dangerous. In part because of the kamikazes. And Lowell was getting word that his new wife was stepping out on him, apparently with the Lance Draper mentioned below.]
An Avenger taking off from the Shamrock Bay (note clover leaf insignia on tail), it is possible Lowell is in the plane manning the gun that can be seen below the tail. Taken from the ship’s island, in the distance is an escorting cruiser in the center, a fast light carrier in the upper right, all sailing into the wind during flight operations.
Bill was holding a conference in Alabama the time of the wedding. I had to rent our house and prepare to go to Washington DC. Bill had been to Washington. It was hard to find a house to rent. He went over to Arlington and put a deposit on a house. The basement was being dug. They had one house finished for people to see what they would be like. The house was to be ready by the time we left Salt Lake. Soon after the wedding Bill made arrangements for the Air Force to ship our furniture.
A truck came down from Hill Field with no real preparation for packing our possessions. They shipped them by train. We had them ship our mattresses by express so they would get there faster to have beds to sleep on. Freight took much longer. We left a short time after the December 9, 1944 wedding. Lance Draper, a friend of Moine's, drove us to St. Louis, Missouri, where Bill was to hold a conference. The night before we left my sister Katie and I went out for a Chinese dinner. We sat and talked in the car in the driveway until two o'clock in the morning. I went upstairs to bed, came back to the head of the stairs and reached out to turn off the light, and fell down the stairs. I went to bed and the next morning I felt bruised over most of my body. I was uncomfortable all of the way. We ate breakfast in restaurants, took food to eat lunch in the car without stopping. We had dinner in restaurants. Gordon told me, not long ago, that Don picked up the change he thought we left on the table by mistake. Water covered the road most of the way across or through Kansas. When we stopped for the night we found it was a flood. We were lucky the car didn't stop.
We had a pleasant trip. We went to St Louis, Missouri. Lance went back to Salt Lake by plane paid by us. Bill was holding a conference for the Air Force at the Coranado Hotel. He had a beautiful suite of rooms we are able to use. It was like a vacation I never had. Gordon, Don and Carolyn went to the movies while Moine and I went sight seeing in the afternoons. We were there 2 or 3 days. Bill drove us from St. Louis to Arlington, Virginia. It was snowing so badly in Pennsylvania we had to stop in a very unsuitable place. A room back of a saloon - they put cots in the room. It was so noisy we could not sleep.
We were really glad to arrive in Washington DC. It was a real thrill to see and know we were going to live near the capitol. Bill had a hard time finding the correct road to go into Arlington. Where Constitution and Pennsylvania come together, he went past several times. I asked him why he didn't stop and ask a policeman. He finally saw a bus going to Arlington and followed it. The house was not yet ready to live in. Some friends of Bill's had invited us to stay with them in Arlington. I felt it was an imposition for us to stay with them, but they made us feel very welcome. Places were very hard to find, but I was lucky and was able to rent two rooms in a tourist home on Arlington Boulevard. It was very expensive. A cot was put in one bedroom. Moine, Gordon and Don slept there. We put large chairs together to make a bed for Carolyn.
[With Lowell being left behind, he was largely out of the family picture until he came out east after his father died. Upon getting back from the Pacific his wife asked for a divorce the first night they went out dancing. Lowell refused for some years and they had two son’s I believe, one that died early, and another I met at least once. In the early 50s Lowell met Greek Orthodox Sylvia and began a successful marriage, they moved into the house that Sylvia still lives in in 1960.]????????
Moine was able to find work for the Air Force [a superb typist, she had a high level security clearance and typed for the top generals/admirals, she was later invited to work at the Eisenhower White House but preferred being a house wife]. She and Bill went to work at the Air Force Annex down by the National Airport. They took the car and went to work. They had breakfast on their way. I could prepare breakfast for the rest of us in the kitchen. We ate lunch in our rooms - took the bus to Buckingham to a restaurant, met Bill and Moine for dinner.
It was one of the coldest winters we have had. We had never seen sleet and rain on everything, trees and especially cars. I thought we were coming to the south. I left my fur coat in the store where I had put it to be mended. I didn't want to bring it in the car. My spring coat was not nearly warm enough. I wrote for them to send my fur coat. I took Gordon, Don and Carolyn to Washington to buy a few Christmas things. We wanted to get a few Christmas tree decorations. There were so many people around the counter we couldn't get waited on in time to catch the bus we needed to in order to meet Bill and Moine for dinner. Dan and Gordon cut a very small pine tree. They and Carolyn made decorations out of Christmas stamps. I had brought Christmas presents from Salt Lake, including a doll house for Carolyn. Bill had to put it together after the children went to bed. We had to be careful not to wake up Carolyn.
We had to stay in the tourist home six weeks before our house was finished. We moved in as soon as the bathroom was finished. Our neighbor came over and offered for us to use her bathroom. I told her that with my big family I thought we had to wait until the bathroom was ready. The kitchen stove was not in. I cooked cereal in the fireplace. I thought cold cereal was not enough. Sent lunches to school. I met Don and Carolyn after school and went to Evans restaurant for dinner. Gordon was in Jr High School and he met us at the restaurant. Gordon played the cornet and was in the school orchestra. He had to go by bus when he had to stay for things after school and for programs at night. He dated by this time. I worried about him being out at night. The electricity went off when we lived on 26th St sometimes. We would sit in the dark and Gordon played his horn.
Bill was out of town a lot. I told him he always managed to be sent out of town at moving time. Moine drove the car to work. We had to have ration stamps to buy meat. After our stove was in and I was able to buy a pot roast, they all said it was the best meal they ever had. Don could never feel he had enough to eat at the restaurants. He thought it great when they passed a tray of condiments to us at the Evans restaurant.
Moine stayed until May and decided to go to Salt Lake to school and work. She and I went to New York before she left. We went through the Rockefeller Center. They were showing television from another room. They asked Moine to be on TV. She had a red hat and purse and Navy suit. She looked very pretty. The first TV I saw - May 1945. We thought we were standing in line to go to the Radio City Music Hall, but to our surprise we were in a line to buy cigarettes instead. The line for cigarettes was longer than the one for the show. We switched lines and saw the Rockettes. We were in Times Square the night of the false VE Day. It was so crammed you could hardly move. It was just like you now see on TV of New Year's Eve in Time Square. A young sailor put his arm around Moine's shoulder, looked up at me and said, "if you were not here, we could have a wonderful time". I said, "that's the reason I'm here". We all had a good laugh. Everyone was cheering and shouting and happy to have the war in Europe over. The morning was a great shock. It was not true.
There was a theater close enough to us in Arlington to go to on Saturday afternoons or at night when Bill could go with us. He and Moine worked on Saturday. When it got warmer Bill wanted to go sightseeing on Sundays, the only day he was free. We thought we would be going home (Salt Lake City) in a couple of years when the war ended. This made it so we did not go into church when Bill was in town, but when he was working out of town I took Carolyn and Don to church (Sunday School) in Washington at Columbia Rd and 16th St. We took the Arlington bus and changed to the city bus at 12th & Pennsylvania. We went out 16th St. We came back to a cafeteria on G St between 14 & 15th streets and had lunch. We then took the scraps from our food and went to the park across from the White House and fed the pigeons before returning home. Gas was rationed and there were no sightseeing buses. I would go to DC by myself and take a city bus to the end of the line and back.
Ruld Parry had two daughters. They lived near by. She would take Don and Carolyn to primary. Later, Carolyn took dancing lessons. We would ride to class with Sister Parry. Two little girls who lived on the next street also took dancing. They were all in a play. I had to make a costume. Carolyn had naturally curly hair. She looked so beautiful with her long curls.
One of Moine's Salt Lake friends, Elaine Walker, worked in the Pentagon [at same time Moine did?].
We saved enough money to buy a house. I had to look with a real estate man and if I saw one we liked, Bill would go and see it. I wanted to stay near the bus to get to church. We decided to buy one on Four Mile Drive, a good walk to the bus, but near the elementary school and grocery store. The bus went into Clarendon on Wilson Blvd on its way to Washington. I liked to shop in Clarendon at J C Pennys. It cost 5 cents to go there.
I was very disappointed. This house had beautiful parquet floors, and hard floors in the kitchen. They made the veins in my legs enlarge. We had to find another house. We had asked for a loan for the house. The owner found he had to pay a large fine to pay off his loan. He asked us if we would take over his loan. When we told him we could not stay in the house, he let us stay and use our down payment as rent. Once when I was looking for houses, I told the real estate man I had to go home. He asked me to go to lunch as he had more houses to show me. I looked at the menu and ordered oysters, thinking they would be cooked. To my surprise they were oysters on the half shell. I did not want to admit my mistake - so I dipped them in the sauce and ate them.
Bill had to go to Biloxi, Mississippi. There were so many men being laid off Bill was afraid he would lose his job and wanted a house that would sell easily at 4% interest rate. Some were 5%. Bill talked me into buying the house at 1124 Edison Street in March 1947. I wasn't satisfied with it because it was too small [Note: the house is still there and it is small -- has been recently enlarged]. Another reason I didn't want to buy it was because it was about a mile to elementary school and 5 or 6 blocks from the bus. John and Moine helped us move.
Bill bought bicycles for Don and Carolyn to ride to school. In bad weather they had to walk. I was worried about Carolyn going so far. She was 9 years old. I would go outside and look for her to come home. My neighbor across the street said I should not worry, it would do them good. She had to walk two miles when she was going to school (I don't remember where she lived) in cold weather and all. Bill was in Biloxi for a month.
Moine and John were married by Brother Dixon on April 5, 1947. They were married in the Relief Society room of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and the reception was in the room where parties were held. We had it catered - small sandwiches, cakes, punch. John's army friends couldn't understand why there were no hard drinks. Moine and John got an apartment in Alexandria. [Moine and John spent their honeymoon in part in SLC visiting Lowell and Laurel]. Their son, Rick, was born on November 25, 1948. They moved to Salt Lake when he was 6 months old [to attend the Univ UT until Army Reserve member John was recalled and sent to Asia during the Korean War].
Don met boys his age. George Howell and Don Geer became very good friends. Carolyn and Norma Hayes met at school and enjoyed being together. George moved. The two Dons, Norma and Carolyn were still good friends when they grew up.
Gordon was in high school. He took the school bus which stopped nearby. He caddied at the golf course to make extra money. He met Barbara Holkin? [an insert in longhand and am not sure of spelling] at school. Her parents were building a new home in Arlington and were living with Barbara's grandparents on a farm. Gordon came into the kitchen one night and asked for some money for gas. I said "you'll just have to get a girl who lives closer", not knowing that Barbara was in the front room. They wanted to get married. Her parents and us thought they were too young and said no. They said they would go to Maryland and get married. They kept asking Barbara's parents. They came over and talked to us, and we decided to let them marry. They had a beautiful wedding, November 4, 1949.
A new-car proud ZD in an equally nice coat in 1950. This is probably on the inlet of the Potomac River on the southwest side of DC. Photo probably taken by BD.
[BD tried to set up his own management consultant business, Dewey’s Dynamic Management Service, in 1949, this did not succeed. He published management articles in the McGraw-Hill Factory Management and Maintenance (2&6/53) and Office Management 5&7/56. He apparently contracted for a book with McGraw-Hill in 1953 titled Dynamic Management, illustrated chapters of which appeared in the two FM&M magazines, but there is no evidence the book came out.]
Beth came back for Eisenhower's inauguration. She and I went down and stood on 15th St and Pennsylvania to watch them come down Pennsylvania to go to the White House. It was cold. We took turns with others holding our places while we went into a little car and got hot chocolate. She stayed for four or six weeks.
For quite awhile we went to Arlington Ward. The people of Alexandria decided to start a branch of the church. That is what they call a group smaller than a ward. Those south of Columbia Pike belonged to the new branch. It was a long way to go. When Bill was out of town, I took the bus. I had to change just as we entered the District on 14th St for an Alexandria bus. They held church in a room of the school on Washington St. The teenagers still went to Arlington Ward for Mutual. I was asked to speak one Sunday. They held Relief Society in a room in Gadsby's Tavern. The spittoons were around the room. Gadsby's Tavern was like a hotel in those days. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson stayed there while traveling. We later were able to meet in the YMCA. While here the group was small. We had no one to lead the singing. I went to Carolyn's music teacher in junior high school and asked her if she would give me lessons in conducting and help me with my timing. I took lessons from her for awhile. Mrs. Smith who lived on Edison St gave me piano lessons. I told her what I was doing. She said she would be glad to help me. When I thought I could, I offered to conduct the songs in Relief Society. We had a practice period for new songs. I would go to Mrs. Smith on Monday and learning the songs, how to conduct and time them properly, and then teach them on Tuesday in Relief Society. I paid Mrs. Smith the same as he she charged for piano lessons, which was $2.00 an hour. We began to sing in a ladies’ chorus. A young lady who played the violin, but worked and could not go to relief society, helped me. They sang in church. The Bishop asked us to sing in Conference. I was scared, but I conducted and the ladies did very well. I did this for three years. Then ladies moved into the ward who knew music and played the piano and organ. I was glad to return to sing in the chorus with a good conductor. I also sang in the church choir. Enough people moved into the area and we became a ward.
A church was built on King St. At that time the church hired men to do most of the work, but men of the ward on Saturday worked. The relief Society Ladies took turns cooking lunch for the men. I helped with that quite a few times. I also made cookies for our many bake sales. The Relief Society was assigned a certain amount to pay on the church. We had bazaars to make money. We quilted quilts for people who had made them. It was wonderful to have the beautiful church to go to.
We enjoyed our neighbors Rose Mary & Fred Allen, and Cecil & Ruth Taylor. After Rose Mary died Evelyn stayed with the children. Ruth and Evelyn remained good friends. I bought a wardrobe closet to put in the large bedroom. I asked Gordon to help me take off the legs. I stooped over to help him hold it. In doing so I caused a hernia. We cooked hamburgers outside. Barbara was pregnant. She went to the hospital the next morning. They met Bill in the hall and he told them I had just gone up for emergency surgery for the hernia. That night was also Don's Junior Prom.
Z&B in Williamsburg VA, while also visiting with Carolyn going to William and Mary in the area (and maybe soon to be husband Frank) who was along on this visit to the colonial village. That may be Moine and Greg on distant right, photo very possibly taken by John. Combination of leaves still on trees and warm clothing indicates was taken in early fall, as per Greg’s vague memories of trip.
One day after we had lived on Edison St for eight years, we saw a beautiful house at 1201 South Forest Dr for sale. Later Bill surprised me and said, "Let's look at it". We sold our house and bought it. I felt this was my dream house. It had a nice big kitchen, and a pantry which was unusual to have. We had a second toilet for the first time. It was in the room connecting the house and garage, where the washer and dryer were. It was good to have. The children were all gone. Don went to college in Maryland, Carolyn went to school in southern Virginia. Moine and John moved into an apartment not far from the house. Later they moved into a house just around the corner from our home Rick and little Gregory often stayed over.
[After her husband returned from managing an officer’s club in Tokyo during the Korean War while a lonely Moine and Rick lived in the Seattle area, they moved to the then new Levittown style Pimmit Hills development until a bad business deal forced the clan including infant Greg into the above mentioned apt – Greg has a memory of seeing ZD walking along Frederick St. from her place to his apt – they then moved into the house on that street even nearer Z&B the summer of 1959.]
[Donald was the subject of a 1958 Baltimore Sun article by William Tanton titled “Wing over Jays’ 11 “must for Dewey.” It is about Donald’s passion to win his last game as captain of the Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College Green Terrors over the Hopkins Blue Jays, there being a historical rivalry between the two – the GT had won only 4 games in last 3 years. Apparently not his fault, Donald had been on two all-star teams. GT lost to BJ 10-0. Article mentions his upcoming marriage to co-ed Shirley.]
Date on back of photo is July 1960. Northern VA outside of DC. Back row Barbara, BD, Gordon, Moine, ZD looking good in a pillbox hat, Beth; front row Darrell, Karen, Monty, Denny (Barb & Gord’s brood), Ric/k. Why Greg, Donald, Shirley are not here is unknown, probably taken by John. Exact location and event not known, Beth had come out from SLC.
Taken Aug 61 at the Montgomery State Fair, BD at left, Rick in cap, Greg on the horse. Do not think BD had had his first heart attack yet, ZD not on this expedition.
We had big dinners with all our children and grandchildren from Virginia and Maryland.
The best photo of the Forest Drive house, one of the many big dinners, probably BD’s birthday on 8/5/60 (from Moine’s datebook). Behind is living room with official front door (not used that much) with TV watched Mercury/Redstone launches on. Hallway to bedrooms and office to left of that, pantry and kitchen to immediate left. At table -- also used for ZD’s projects including sewing -- are little Greg at far end which was his usual place at these events, counterclockwise his mom Moine, Donald, Shirley, ZD, Ric/k, Frank, BD. Probably taken by John, Carolyn maybe in kitchen.
Forest Dr house, 12/23/61 according to Moine’s date book (flashless photo jacked up as light as possible). The living room is on the left, the dining room with the big table on the right, the kitchen more to the right. Barely visible to the distant left is BD who had had serious cardiac issues earlier in the fall and been hospitalized. Looking back at him is Moine, then it’s Darrell, Karen, Greg, Monty, Carolyn, Denny, Frank. The last big party at this house, early next year BD & ZD moved into the apt.
The three troublemakers, Greg, Monty and Karen, in their grandfather’s den (literally) damaging his typewriter. The stapler and three-hole puncher have still in use by Greg.
Bill worked six days a week. He did not go to church [sometimes he did, and took offspring to get donuts immediately afterword:]]. He rested on Sunday after working in the yard or woodworking in the garage. Dorothy Reynolds was a good friend from church. She lived further out in Culmore. She picked me up and took me to church. We both sang in the choir. We also sang a few duets in Church. The Relief Society had dinners at different homes, once a year. My new home was ideal for a large crowd to eat on card tables. [BD purchased a pink-grey 1957 Chevy Belair with tail fins.]
[A May 1960 article in the social section of the Salt Lake Tribune details the upcoming business-vacation travel plans of BD’s sister Gwen Greenwood and husband Earn to Europe, after stopping to see B&Z in DC.]
Probably 1950s. No info on location although likely to be DC area, or the persons.
BD’s staff and/or students at American University 1950s, no identifications of persons. Son-in-law John took the course, and then substitute taught when his father-in-law was out of town.
Moine and her mother on left at front door of Forest Dr house, photo probably taken by BD.
Bill taught graduate students at the American University on Tuesday nights. He would invite some of his foreign students to dinner. He would have me cook an American meal. We entertained the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture from Pakistan, his wife, son and daughters of about 7 and 4. He could speak English, she could not. Her eyes were so large, she would look up at you like she would surely know what you were saying. The wife had on the most beautiful, smart, expensive looking suit. Another dinner we had two young men from Pakistan, a couple and their children, a boy and a girl about 6 and 9. The young men brought me a kettle of stuffed vegetables. The most interesting dinner was a man and his wife from India. He had a PhD, she was an MD [probably this wife had a ring in her nose which amazed/shocked Greg]. They had a small son.
BD getting a certificate for superior performance from April 59 to Feb 60 from a two star USAF general. On the back of this large format photo it is stamped as an official USAF photo.
[This is the end of the main autobiography]
(Below supplement was written by ZD during editing of autobio, Nov 1977)
I am feeling nostalgic watching in amazement the arrival of President Sadat of Egypt in Israel on a mission of peace for their country and the Arabs. I am thinking how very old I am [Note: actually just 76 at the time].
When Bill and I lived in Beaver in 1924 the schoolboys were making crystal radios. One day one of the students brought his set over to our house. There was a pair of earphones. We could separate them so four of us could listen. We were listening to a voice coming from San Francisco.
I wish I could write so you could feel the excitement we felt.
One of the students (the girl I named Hermoine after) had gone to San Francisco to try out for the radio. She worked there for awhile. I don't remember if we heard her that day. I don't think so.
Watching the wonderful things on TV made me think of all the inventions, etc. that have happened in my lifetime. The cars, radio, airplanes, television, satellites and going into space and landing on the moon.
ZGD/MDP/GSP
Biographical addition (by GSP) based on accounts of Sylvia, Shirley, Hart, Gordon, Karen, etc.
The woman
As one can sense reading her account, ZD was a quiet, unassuming, kind, even keeled person, who rarely expressed strong anger or opinion. Was generally level-headed and practical, not prone to out-there ideas. Pleasant to be around, was not enthusiastically positive, but not negative either. Greg who spent a couple of years or so total time with her from infancy to her passing does not remember a single sharp harsh word, although she could occasionally be exasperated. Was not gushingly loving but nicely affectionate of family. Although not buoyantly cheerful nor prone to jokes, she could enjoy herself immensely, especially when around family and friends, and had a ready smile. While she did not talk about herself or her thoughts all that much except nostalgic incidents of her part particularly UT related, she occasionally let loose a zinger. While watching a variety show circa 1962-64 featuring a chorus line of Rockettes style female dancers at her daughter Moine’s, she suddenly exclaimed, “all they’re doing is shaking their fannies!” to the amazed and amused shock of all in the room. Her prime talent was a superb singing voice. Although not into the latest hip fashions, she was a smart dresser. ZD was a skilled American cook who made real whipped cream, as were her daughters.
It is notable that in her account ZD never offers an opinion on the society or politics of her time. We do not learn who she voted for, or if she did exercise her franchise, granted to women at almost the same time she became old enough to vote. She rarely, if ever, discussed such matters with family, and unfortunately we neglected to ask – or if we did she declined to comment.
Missing from the years prior to 1962
A major absence from the autobiography is the relationship between ZD and especially her husband BD with Evelyn and Douglas Wood of Speed Reading fame. At the surface this is odd because of the importance of the connection to the Deweys. Apparently the Woods met BD when they all lived in the Salt Lake valley sometime between the world wars. It was probably the interaction between the three that inspired and/or aided BD to shift from teaching grade school to personnel management consultation and later university teaching, leading in turn to his moving first himself and then most of the family east during the war. During the 1950s the Woods moved to the DC area, Greg remembers them at his grandparent’s house, although he had no idea who they were at the time. Evelyn in particular worked with BD to develop what would become Reading Dynamics – the last term had been used by BD in his own writings to promote his business -- with the assistance of Moine, the degree to which ZD was involved is not known. Rick was used as an experiment on teaching RD to children, this dubious effort failed and may have done him harm. The first Reading Dynamics Institute was established in Washington DC in 1959. Immediately after BD’s death, the Woods filed for a patent on RD that excluded the involvement of the former. ZD and Moine were furious and cut off contact, this is why the Woods are not mentioned in the autobio (after returning from the funeral Lowell informed Sylvia, who provided this information). As a result, ZD was denied considerable income in her widow years. {Because his terminal condition was rather short and his sudden death not expected, and he was still engaged in his career, BD never had the opportunity to write an autobio. Had statins, etc. been available he probably would have had that time.}
Evelyn and Doug Wood with ZD, Moine to left, BD to the right, probably John took the picture which is on the SW side of the Forest Dr house in the front lawn (house in view is a neighbors, Moine and family’s house less than a block away in direction of this view). Note that ZD’s lower legs are swollen, which started when she was carrying Moine in 1926.
Nor mentioned in the autobio are ZD’s two trips back to the west in the 1950s, perhaps because they were not happy ones. Once for the funeral of her beloved sister Katie in summer 1955 in UT – this was her first plane flight. And for her son Lowell’s son Mark (from 1st marriage) childhood death in early 1957, that was in Riverside CA.
ZD’s husband had gone to Hill Air Force base in 1953 on USAF business, he then took the opportunity to meet Lowell’s new second wife Sylvia at a big Dewey family get together in SLC attended by Laurel.
In some ways the time Z&B lived on Forest Drive was a height of the extended family that was now largely an eastern seaboard clan. Z was living in her dream house. Her and her husband’s children were all making their way, most living in the immediate area, except Carolyn was down in the tidewater area connecting with future husband Frank, and Lowell was with Sylvia back in SLC.
Living just a block from their house, Greg knew ZD perhaps more than any other of the grandchildren (Carolyn would in the 2000s say he had known them better than she had). He spent maybe a fifth of his time there, being babysat, overnights, watching endless hours of I Love Lucy and Bold Journey reruns and the new Flintstones, saw A Night to Remember and King Kong on their living room set, the early space shots. BD was a bit on the gruff side – Greg recalls him telling his dutiful LDS wife once to shut up in the car and she did – but he doted on Greg. For years later he thought the Washington Monument was called The Pencil because of him. Took Greg to the National Zoo – doing so then meant driving along a section of road that literally ran under Rock Creek. Son-in-law John Paul was a favorite of ZD and BD and he liked them back. John nearly got his head injured using the whirling wood bowl working machine in his father-in-law’s workshop, and then stopped. Z&B slept in separate rooms, maybe because he snored. When staying overnight Greg would try to see the TV wrestling matches his grandfather would watch in bed by peering over his bulk, and BD would tell him to go to sleep. One warm day while his grandfather was out of town, opening the living room door to go out into the yard a startled 6 yr old Greg let a garter snake into the house while ZD was taking a shower. Quite hysterical, ZD had Greg go get brother Rick to catch the slithery reptile.
The Later Years, From Jetliners to Computers -- 1962-2002 and Beyond
Although written a decade and a half later, ZD’s account ends in 1961 just before her and her husband moved from her favorite house on South Forest Drive a few blocks (still in Columbia Forest neighborhood) to a modest sized high rise apartment (now Infinity) on Columbus St close to Columbia Pike. This move was necessary because of her difficulty walking on the concrete floors of the one-level house, and especially his declining health due to cardiovascular disease – BD had a major coronary event in fall 61. Apparently LDS ZD did not consider her life after she and her husband moved and the subsequent events worth inclusion in her autobio.
In June-July 62 Moine and John’s nuclear family made a road trip, via Ohio and Huntington IN (John’s home town) to Utah. Upon returning Greg continued to be a guest at his grandparents, at the new apt. Greg was taken home by grandfather the evening of 8/10/62 according to Moine’s date calendar, where at the dining room table BD marked out the growth rings on a piece of beaver cut wood cut by latter’s brother Tom Dewey up in the high Uinta Mountains near Mirror Lake a few weeks before. Don and Shirley then had dinner at their apt, and dropped by our house. BD had another emergency to which D&S responded when ZD called, Don rode with him in the ambulance (in which the oxygen failed), Shirley, Moine and ZD followed in the car, and he died at the hospital late that evening – the only entry Moine could bring to put into her date book next day on 8/11 was “Carolyn came up” -- and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in recognition of his serving in the U. S. Army stateside during the Great War. The funeral brought much of the family together, including Beth, Lowell and Laurel from UT. Beth had made visits east, once in 1960 according to a dated photograph, their other siblings never traveled east.
At ZD’s apt 8/12or13, she is tired, etc. in the immediate wake of loss of husband. On left sister-in-law Laurel just in from SLC is complaining about being sneak photographed, Moine and Barbara behind.
Moine at her home, Carolyn talking to ZD, Shirley, Beth to her sister’s right, Barbara and her kids, Lowell on right in 8/14/62, evening of BD’s funeral. This and next slide taken by John.
Same living room with ZD in front, Lowell, Donald, Gordon. Fish on walls made by John from fossil sharks’ teeth collected on Chesapeake Bay, also side tables which are still in use by family, as is coffee table.
ZD with an unusual smile for the moment with Donald during extended family trip to Luray Caverns in Shenandoah Valley, 8/19. This and below slide taken by John.
Also at Luray, In distance Barbara with Farside glasses and Beth behind her, bench Moine, Greg, ZD, Shirley and Barbara’s kids. Tall box like thing with glass is a phone booth.
ZD, Donald, Moine, Lowell Aug 62. Again the Farside glasses.
ZD and all her surviving children in a classic photo taken in Aug 62 soon after her husband passed – note that she does not look as happy as one would normally expect in a family pic. From left to right Gordon, Moine, Lowell, Carolyn and Donald. This is first time they had all been together since late 1944, when Lowell went to his carrier day after wedding, and at same time the rest moved to east coast.
ZD continued to live in the high rise for about three years, shifting apartments once because of concerns about a hard floor. Not being a driver and no longer having a husband for that purpose, ZD was expert in using the DC area bus system despite her difficulty walking concrete sidewalks, and was very active. In August 1964 she gathered some of her grandsons (Darrell, Denny and Greg) and rode with them to downtown DC to see the new Beatle’s movie A Hard Day’s Night amidst the screaming fans (when G asked years later why she did so she replied that she liked their music). In the mid 1960s ZD moved a couple of miles to a first floor apartment in the low rise South Fairlington WW II era development at the juncture of Shirley Highway and King Street, on 38th St. This was a short distance from the Alexandria Ward on King St. that she attended religiously. Some of her nephews and nieces were overnight guests, and she hosted big dinners for her family. She often visited the families of Moine, Donald and Gordon who lived in the area, and often traveled to the tidewater Virginia in the Hampton Roads region to see Carolyn and her family. Among her old friends was Cory Fife, who had moved to the DC area in the 40s or 50s.
ZD and Coy Fife at Moine and John’s who took slide, around Christmas 1963
Her oldest son Lowell become an accomplished Utah ophthalmologist, as did his son Steve, wife Sylvia (Protopappas -- Greek Orthodox, from Price, Bill & Steve. Gordon went into banking in NoVA, wife Barbara (Hohein, VA), Darrell, Denny, Monty, Karen, Dana. Donald into management and was involved in the building of the DC Metro subway, Jennifer and Jo Dene with Shirley (Ream, western MD). Moine was a sometimes part time office worker and later full time office manager, her main career was housewife to her entrepreneurial husband John and Ric/k and Greg. Same lifestyle for Carolyn who also ventured into side efforts, her husband Frank Simmons (Alabama) became the editor of the regional newspaper, Cary Lynn and Christopher. Don and Gordon were big on fishing, often together. Frank sometimes joined in, Gordon was a hunter, sometimes with bow, Lowell hunted, Donald raised racing pigeons. A number of these folks golfed, and some were members of the Westwood Country club outside Vienna VA. ZD was very social, being involved with church activities, as well as local senior groups.
Widow ZD out and about at a social event in 1965. Label Dad with arrow probably placed by daughter Carolyn who had pic in her possession for many years.
The girl born before aviation, ZD became quite the jet traveler, beginning to regularly visit relations in Utah, the first was in 1962 shortly after the loss of her husband, a regularly during extended visits in the summers, often staying with Lowell et als., and other relations as well. There she was, and is, known by Sylvia and children as Ghea (because her little grandson Steve could not say grandmother, this was never used in the east). Sisters ZD and Beth were especially close. It has been said that when together and not knowing others were around their chat could get a dash salty. Often visited was her hometown Huntington, where she called the Wasatch highlands to the immediate west “the hills of home.” During one of the visits she was asked to consider marriage by a Mr. Peck who owned the Highland Dairy farm near Kamas. They dated for a good while, but with her mobility issues ZD did not think she would work out as a farmer’s wife, and in any case he died while she was back in Virginia. Sylvia drove her Steve and ZD and her sister-in-law Laurel from Salt Lake to Yellowstone, during which the two seniors kept trying to one-up the other.
Moine and ZD’s daughter-in-law Sylvia summer 1968 in UT, as was ZD.
Moine and Greg enjoyed Zella/Ghea’s presence when they spent most of the summer of 1968 in Utah, and Greg the next summer. Folks from Utah visited the DC area in summer 1972 while returning from Sylvia’s legacy country of Greece. Side trips were made to other parts of the west, including Arizona where she learned about and became a subscriber to Arizona Highways.
ZD’s brother-in-law Tom in UT
The jetsetter also flew to Europe -- she brought Greg a harmonica from Germany that he still has -- and Hawaii. These were done as senior tour groups at a discount. As she noted in her final comment, she marveled at the space shots (Greg watched some of the earliest ones at their house) and voyages to the moon. Among ZD’s favorite TV programs was The Lawrence Welk Show, she enjoyed opera on PBS, and was a football fan! Her grandson Ric and his wife Hart lived a short walk away in South Fairlington for about a year. When the development converted to condominiums in 1972, ZD had to move a couple of miles north to the similar vintage Filmore Gardens between Arlington Blvd and Columbia Pike near Arlington Cemetery. Hart continued as a frequent visitor. For some years ZD lived in a first floor apartment. After the standard concerns about the hard floors, she moved to a second floor apartment in another building in the same development, where she continued to frequently play host to family and friends. ZD liked dining out, I-Hop and the like being favorite food venues. Among her old friends was Cory Fife, who had moved to the DC area in the 40s or 50s. ZD attended plays, including Jesus Christ Superstar. It was during this time that ZD (presumably at Moine’s urging) wrote out the account of her life, which her Greg did not yet know about when he unwittingly drove through her hometown while on a Johns Hopkins paleontological expedition next year on 6/27-29/78.
ZD with Moine and her offspring, plus daughter-in-law Hart who became very close to her grandmother-in-law. Early or mid 1970s.
As her legs further deteriorated in the later 1970s ZD gradually became less active, and eventually ceased using buses locally. She continued to attend church regularly, and was excited by the opening of the Maryland Temple on the DC Beltway. Her partaking of her beloved Lipton Tea and not paying the tithe on her fixed income led to her having temporary trouble visiting the Temple to her distress, being in charge of her finances her banker son Gordon corrected that situation with her ward bishop. In 1981 her 80th birthday was celebrated with a large party at the Westwood Country Club attended by her regional extended family, as well as sister Beth and son Lowell from Utah. Beth passed in 1984 and ZDs last -- and physically difficult – jet trip was to her funeral (ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWCX-PPT/marcella-elizabeth-guymon-1896-1984). Laurel passed the same year.
ZD with her oldest son Lowell in front of his east Salt Lake Valley house in 70s or maybe early 80s, Wasatch Range in the background.
It eventually became impossible for the increasingly disabled ZD to leave her apartment without professional assistance – specifically, after Greg and Moine could barely get her back up the stairs returning after TG at relations in 1985 (she had had serious trouble going up steps at Lowell & Sylvia’s duplex the prior year). Despite her desire to remain independent, near immobility combined with a fall forced her to be moved to the Cherrydale nursing home on Dominion Dr. near I-66, in 1988. No longer ambulatory, her general condition was at first so poor that it was assumed she would not last much longer. ZD was informed of Lowell’s death due to a heart attack at about this time (ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KWCC-PYZ/lowell-guymon-dewey-1924-1988). She was aware of Moine’s cancer diagnosis. To everyone’s amazement and delight ZD improved markedly, perhaps in part because her medications were improved as well as eating better and so forth, and she became increasingly active in nursing home events. She was sufficiently healthy to attend the sad DC area funeral of Moine in summer 1991, who after another ceremony in Salt Lake was then buried in Huntington UT (because Moine had spent so many happy summers there as a preteen prewar child, as did younger Gordon during the war -- www.findagrave.com/memorial/28957858/hermoine-paul, elephant image on tombstone is by Greg). Thus ZD outlived three of her offspring. All trips outside the home were handled professionally, including visits to the Temple arranged by church members who visited her on a regular basis (she was sealed to her husband during this period). She also made some holiday visits to nearby relations. Otherwise holidays and birthdays were celebrated at the home with relatives, her 90th birthday was an especially large affair. ZD participated in musical events at her home. Aside from the problems with her legs and feet, ZD did not suffer from major medical issues.
Grandson William (Bill) E. Dewey visiting from SLC at Cherrydale in 2000, is association with a family reunion at Donald and Shirley’s.
As the new century approached she became less active, but always remained mentally aware (including of 9/11). Although she did mistake Greg for his brother on his second to last visit (Hart being there also).
In 2001 a very large party was held in celebration of her 100th birthday with much of her extended family in attendance, she enjoyed the occasion immensely. Also pleasant later that year were Thanksgiving and Christmas. On 2/25/2002 she died quietly in her sleep from sheer age, no cause was determined. The funeral was held at the Arlington Ward on 3/6, a police escorted procession then accompanied Zella Guymon-Dewey to Arlington National Cemetery where she was buried by a precision military honor guard with her husband – watching the honor guard move so exactingly was amazing (www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/zella-dewey-obituary?id=5453393 which gives wrong year for death of BD).
The big 100th BD bash at Cherrydale with just a few of ZD’s greatgrandchildren progeny, plus Shirley.
Of her then surviving children Donald passed in 2012 (www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/william-dewey-obituary?id=5990219), Gordon 2017 (www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/notable-deaths-in-the-washington-area/2017/07/21/f1b1b9d2-6e5f-11e7-96ab-5f38140b38cc_story.html), Carolyn 2020 (www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/dailypress/name/carolyn-simmons-obituary?id=12823219). Two daughters-in-law survive in 2025. Her grandchildren numbered eleven to thirteen depending on how they are counted, there are many great-grandchildren and going beyond, one of whom (GD of D&S) is named Zella in her honor.
Zella Guymon Dewey Has a Big Dinosaur Named After Her
In the late 1930s a Smithsonian expedition led by Charles Gilmore excavated the partial skeleton of a gigantic (65+ ft long, 20+ tonnes) titanosaur sauropod dinosaur that had lived shortly before the final dinosaur extinction (over 66 million years ago) from a quarry high on the Wasatch Plateau. That was near North Horn Mountain on the southeast end of Joe’s Valley, 20 miles southwest of ZD’s hometown of Huntington. By the time she and family had moved to Washington DC the fossil was in the Smithsonian collections (not on display), of course she often visited the Natural History Museum on the Mall. During the Johns Hopkins expedition Greg and party visited the quarry location on 6/25/78, after unwittingly driving through Price and Huntington the day before.
North Horn Formation badland near the dinosaur quarry, 6/25/78. Greg on right. Taken by Mike Brett-Surman.
Gilmore placed the specimen in Alamosaurus sanjuanensis, a previously named titanosaur species a few million years older he had earlier found in NW New Mexico, based on a shoulder blade. In the 2010s and 20s Greg who is a paleozoologist – he first saw King Kong on the telly at his grandparents, and designed the Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus (www.gspauldino.com) -- was writing and illustrating the Princeton Field Guides to Dinosaurs. While working on the 3rd edition he noticed that the Utah fossil was too different from the one from Arizona to be the same species. So in the academic journal Geology of the Intermountain West Greg renamed the dinosaur Utetitan zellaguymondeweyae. The genus title is after the Ute people of the area, the species is after ZD and her family who lived near the fossil as a child, and then as an adult.
Stratigraphic and anatomical evidence for multiple titanosaurid dinosaur taxa in the late Late Cretaceous of southwestern North America. https://giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.php/GIW/article/view/156/205
Utetitan zellaguymondeweyae, by Greg