WEBSTER, Juanita B^[1]

1903 - 2003  (100 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	WEBSTER, Juanita B
  Birth	9 Apr 1903	Grant, Bannock, Idaho, United States
  Gender	Female
  WAC	16 May 1923	SLAKE
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Death	8 Dec 2003	Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States
  Burial	11 Dec 2003	Ogden City Cemetery, Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I54439	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family ID

  F26724

  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	SWENSON, Donald Eugene ,   b. 7 Jan 1902, Harrisville, Weber, Utah, United States Harrisville, Weber, Utah, United Statesd. 19 Jul 1973, Ogden, Weber, Utah, United States (Age 71 years)
  Children	+ 1. Living
  Family ID	F2256	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Photos

  At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

  
  

• Notes

  (This history was printed in the Thomas Daniels Brown and Esther Wardle-their ancestors and Descendants, compiled and published by Vance M Holland, Salt Lake City, Utah 1962) I was born on the ninth day of April, 1903. I was the seventh child born to George Franklin and Esther Louise Daniels Brown Webster. I had three brothers (George Merlin, Lemuel and Ralph Vern), three sisters (Elva, Idella and Virga). There was one sister Vivian born later and one lost in death six months before I was born. It was a four-room log cabin where I first saw the light of day. It had been built in front of a one-room log house which was my parents first home upon homesteading in that country and was now used for a granary. It was a humble home, built by my father and made into a home by my mother; factory lined and white-washed every spring. We had no fine furniture; bare wood floors in the kitchen and unpainted chairs which my mother used to scrub with sand. She was a meticulous housekeeper and her pride and joy was her floors and her stove. The bedrooms had homemade carpeting stretched over a straw padding. While living in this house we children had almost every communicable disease there was and when I contracted scarlet fever it was almost fatal. It was here I began my first school years in a three-room school house. In 1911, at the age of eight, I was baptized by my father in a swale which ran through our yard. In 1913, father had a large seven-room frame house built once again in front of this log cabin. It was a nice home with things more modern than we had ever dreamed of. One memorable thing I can recall in this house was the time when mother completely lost her voice for six weeks after a serious goiter operation and then one morning she called us for breakfast from our upstairs bedrooms. How we scampered out of our beds and fairly flew downstairs at the thrill of hearing her voice again. We didn't live here long; about nine months. My father had asthma and it was decided we should move to Utah. So it was when I was ten years of age that we moved to Five Points, Utah, in the vicinity of Ogden. We rented a home on 2nd Street. It wasn't easy to leave our new home and lovely neighbors and friends. The ward held a farewell party for us, which I shall always remember. They asked that every member of our family stand and sing that evening and together we sang "Oh Home Beloved Where Ere I Wander." There were tears but fond memories that will always remain. Father had been stake chorister for 30 years there and also taught music and as an inherited talent we all sang. While very small they used to stand us on a box so we could be seen when we sang at church and parties. About six months after renting this house at Five Points, father bought a home which was located about three blocks west on 2nd Street. Here we lived for about one and one half years. I attended the Lincoln School. We then bought a home in Harrisville, Utah, a suburb of Ogden. I was twelve years of age when we moved there and attended Harrisville School. Here I lived until I was married. I graduated from the eighth grade in 1917. I had many good friends, good times, romances and fond memories through these eight years of my life. I attended the old Ogden High School on 25th Street for one year and in the summer worked for O. A. Parmley, owner of the Ogden Troy Laundry, for whom I did housework. They always marveled at the bread mother taught me to make and said it was cake for them. They were very nice to me and I enjoyed my summer there. I was paid $5 a week and my board and room. The next year I attended Weber Academy and that following summer worked in the Ogden Troy Laundry on the mangle at $10 a week. My mother decided I should know something about sewing, so the next year I worked and was taught by Madam Capeau, then a seamstress on the second floor of the Wright Store now J. C. Pennys. Mother paid $50 tuition. I can't say that I either learned or enjoyed anything there. We just sewed together what she pinned. She was the most temperamental person I have ever known. I recall she was always threatening to jump out of the window about something. It was rather humorous at times. But I did meet my sister-in-law there and took her to my home where she met my brother Ralph and they were later married. So if I didn't do any other good there I was successful in playing cupid. While living in Harrisville, I enjoyed very much the singing I took part in. My sister Virga and I sang duets all around the country, at funerals, churches, parties, etc. At one time, two fellows accompanied us on a steel guitar and mandolin and we sang at house parties, wards and used to go to different towns and wards and sing between acts for ward dramas. This we enjoyed immensely. I also was active in Mutual, religion class and other activities in this ward. In 1921, I had my first date with my husband-to-be, the cutest boy in that town, Donald Swenson. I used to go out with his brother Lloyd, but it seems we didn't get along too well and it was on one of these occasions that Don came along and seeing we were having trouble took me home. Then one night soon after that, a car stopped in front of our house and thinking it was another fellow, I said I wasn't going, but when I was told it was Don, I was delighted and thus began our courtship. We had many good times together, a few lovers' quarrels and breakups which ended in marriage two years later, May 16, 1923, in the Salt Lake Temple. We stayed overnight in Salt Lake City and returned home the next day to a wedding reception. We bought a little three-room house at 628 Adams in Ogden directly across the street from my sister, Virga, who had married Don's brother Melvin a year before. My husband worked at the Southern Pacific Railroad for 47 cents an hour. But we were happy in that little home and I was mighty proud of it and loved to clean and fuss with it. People used to say they would never think from the outside it was so nice inside. A year after our marriage I went with Mother and Father to San Francisco, California, where my father underwent an operation for stomach ulcers. Mother and I lived in a room not far from the hospital. This was the first time either of us had been in a large city. Father was very ill. We were there three weeks and I got so terribly homesick, I shall never forget it. It was while we lived on Adams, our first child, a daughter, came to bless our home on May 10, 1925, Mother's Day. We named her Gwen. We belonged to the Eighth Ward and I was active in the Primary as chorister and my sister Virga and I did a great deal of singing together and sometimes my sister Vivian joined with us as a trio. We sang at churches, parties, a lot of funerals and at the tabernacle during stake conference. In the fall of 1930, October 4, our first son, Dale was born to us and we felt very blessed for now we had each kind. In 1931 we bought a nice four-room modern house at 923 16th Street, Ogden. Here we belonged to the Seventh Ward and I was immediately called to work in the Primary as chorister. Here our second son, Gary, was born, May 5, 1934 and we now were indeed blessed with three lovely children which comprised our family. While living here we took many trips with our friends and family. We took our family and vacationed a couple of times in California, our friends and our families went through Yellowstone. Life was good and we enjoyed it. Then nine year later, in 1940, we had a nice brick home built on 567 13th Street, still in the Seventh Ward where we now live. This indeed was the fulfillment of our dreams. I have worked nearly all my adult life as chorister in Primary, Mutual, Sunday School and ward and sometimes all three organizations at the same time. I was activity counselor in the Mutual, MIA Maid, Jr. Gleaner and Beehive teacher. I have taken part in drama and been drama director. In 1958 I received my 20 year Mutual pin at a surprise party given by the Mutual and Bishopric. I am at present ward chorister which position I have held for the past ten years. I have been responsible for all special music at Sacrament Meetings under direction of the last four bishoprics. I directed my choir and the congregation in the tabernacle at stake conference, which was a great thrill. I have been especially active with the young people directing choruses and went to mutual camp every year for about 15 years directing their activities. Also each year for six years I and some other adult would take from 12 to 16 girls and camp in the mountains overnight, sleeping on the ground in the open. My girls called me "Swens" and I love everyone of them. My daughter went with me many times to girls camp when she was small as one of the girls and later after she was married as an assistant director. Two years ago, I was honored at a meeting as one of three outstanding people of the ward. They said I had been chosen by the girls themselves. I was presented with a corsage which they themselves had made for me. I was deeply touched and honored. it was from this ward our son, Dale, was called on his mission to Japan and served three years. This again was a fulfillment of our dreams. My mother passed away March 8, 1942. May father, May 14, 1943. My fond memories of them and respect for the things they taught me and thankfulness for all they did for me will always remain. In the past 20 years, I have had the privilege of travelling quite extensively. We have visited Mexico City, Canada--where we saw the Queen of England and her husband, Chicago, Rose Bowl Parade, Imperial and Death Valley and several trips in different parts of California, Atlanta City, Georgia, Texas, Yellowstone and last year the Black Hills of South Dakota. We have two lovely daughters-in-law, a fine son-in-law and eight adorable grandchildren, four girls and four boys, one of whom is now serving in the U.S. Marines. Our family gets together often and they are indeed good to us and we are proud of them. They are all active in the church and living good, honorable lives. In 1941, I worked outside our home for the first time since my marriage. It was during World War II. I worked at the Utah General Depot as a clerk until 1943. Then after our family had gone--Dale on his mission, Gwen and her two children in France with her husband who was in the service and Gary away to school, I started working at J. C. Penny Company in 1951 as retail clerk where I am still employed. My hobbies are dancing, young people, music and the joy of housekeeping. I have retained reasonably good health with one minor and one major operation. We have had the heap of living in sorrow and happiness that it takes to make a home. But though we have never been rich neither have I ever wanted for the necessities of life. My husband has been an ambitious, considerate and loving mate and I feel that I have been abundantly blessed in every way with a good husband and fine family. I thank God for his goodness to me and my loved ones. Postscript: Don died 1973 in Ogden. In 1976 Juanita Married Gilbert Myron Wheelwright and spent several years with him traveling a great deal. He died in 1999. Juanita died December 8, 2003 in Ogden, Utah.

  
  

• Sources

  [S147] Imported GEDCOM file.