A: Yes we did everything with them dress their plays, made their costumes. And in the beginning my husband was the only one that went to the kids’ things. You know, back then men didn’t used to and then a friend of our, Keith Barker, got to going to the school things with the kids. Then it wasn’t too many years till the men did start going more but at the time my husband was the only one that went.

Q: Where are all your children now?

A: William’s back in Detroit working for the Jeep company. He worked himself up in the Jeep Company there. Virginia Gale died in her first year of college. She had a bad heart and she was born with a bad heart. The doctor always said twenty-one years was her life expectancy but you’re always thinking you can beat it but we didn’t. One month before she was twenty-one the doctor decided that it was time to operate and it was worse than they thought so she died.

Ronnie is in Kanab. Phillip is in Wilmington, North Carolina. Wayne lives here and Arthur lives here. He’s with the Sheriff’s Department. Barbara is living in Alabama and Douglas is in Montana right now and driving truck from (*) to Seattle. Robert works here and he processes animals.

Q: Is Barbara married? Last name?

A: Barbara’s last name is Little now.

Q: So you had mostly guys?

A: Yes, seven boys and two girls. We just took them as they came.

Q: They’re quite spread around. Do you get to see the grandchildren?

A: Quite often, of course, not the ones that are out of town, very seldom get to see them. And we had a lot of others we took. I guess about a dozen others and we took them and took care of them. A lot of them we hoped to adopt but in the end we wouldn’t get to.

Q: And these were foster children?

A: Yes, it wasn’t anything that you got paid for. You just took them.

Q: Were they babies or young children?

A: They were in different stages of their lives. This one boy was in junior high and he still calls me. We had a couple that were quite small. Their parents were having problems and so we kept them.

Q: Was this through the State or local agencies?

A: No, just because we took an interest. Of course this one boy was…he was from the State and they wanted us to take him. We had him for quite a while. He’s the one that still calls me. Middle of the night sometimes.

Q: When did you move into this home.

A: Well, it’s over fifty years.

Q: That you’ve been here?

A:Yes, that we’ve been here. My husband got most of the price because he had a lot of help and he built most of it. So it’s pretty well insulated.

Q: Were you involved in civic things while the kids were little or would that have been too hard to do?

A: Oh, I was involved in about everything.

Q: Tell me a little bit about some of the things you were involved in.

A: Well, let’s see, I’ve been President of the Daughter of the Utah Pioneers, president of the Literary Club a couple of times, and I’ve been involved in the auxiliary. I think I’ve done everything in the church, taught classes, been Relief Society President, and all that kind of stuff. I should have written all this stuff down. I taught primary for over fifty years, LDS church, and the Sunday school and Mutual and I’ve been Relief Society President and I’ve taught all the lessons in Relief Society.

Q: Have you always been interested in history.

A: Quite a bit of the time, genealogy and history

Q: Was you father LDS?

A: No, he was a Community Baptist.

Q: And your mother?

A: She was Mormon.

Q: And she raised you in the church?

A: Well I could pick any of them. I was just plain born a Mormon. I just always was. But I’d go up and help them at the Baptist Church with their little summer programs with the kids and I’d go up to Dad’s church quite often and there was just no conflict there. The church used to be up a block from here and our church was the Mormons, were right across the street so we’d go to the corner and I’d go across the street and Dad would go on up the street. But, like I say, I’d help with their church but I just always seemed to be a Mormon.

Q: And your husband?

A: He wasn’t anything until he finally joined the Mormon Church quite a few years after we were married.

Q: You said you were DUP also?

A: Yes all the positions in DUP, just like in the Relief Society. I’d teach the lessons.

Q: And that’s because of your parents’ history being in Utah such a long time?

A: Yes, that’s where you get the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

Q: And Moab was changing a lot during this time?

A: It was starting to, some, not too much at that time. It really started changing about ’53 .

Q: And how did that impact your life?

A: Well it just made it so that things started changing, you know. Growth and it used to be that the kids could go swimming or to the show at night and you’d think nothing of it. Go hiking, Now everybody’s afraid to do anything.

Q: What was your husband doing about that time? Was he still with that Forest Service?

A: No, at that time he’d had the store, he and Ken Erbes when the boom started.

Q: And you were living where?

A: We were living up in this…do you know where Merlyn Maxwell lived, just right up the block here?