Spencer Tanner Winn born 7 Oct 1920

Today is Spencer Winn's birthday and we are missing him.  He would have been 94. Here is a picture of him on his 92nd birthday. Hope you are having quite the party with some of our favorite people.  We love you!!!!  Happy Birthday Spencer!

Anna Rozella Forsgren Palmer Childhood

Anna Rozella Forsgren Palmer

4 August 1888 – 8 December 1967

 

Anna, the second child of Eli Forsgren and Francis Mary Smith was born on August 4, 1888. She had beautiful brown eyes and black hair.  She was taught to work and do it well.  Also, to build for the future. Eli, with others, worked long years to bring water to the higher land and when Anna was thirteen years old, on her birthday, they all went up to the banks of the canal to see the precious contents—water.  This was to quench the thirsty dry farms. The farms yielded too, in response to the people’s untiring efforts, and Riverdale Idaho began to blossom as a rose.  How they worked to care for their produce. They would keep the milk in pans until the cream came to the top, then to skim the cream and store it until it was ready to churn into butter, then to mould it into pound rolls, wrap it in paper with their name written on the wrapper.  This name on the butter meant the same as the name or brand on food today, and was just as important in selling the product.  Then with their eggs and butter they would travel to Preston in a buggy or wagon, some seven miles distance.  At the grocery store they would exchange their produce for items they needed.  Anna and her siblings always looked forward to the sack of candy the grocer would place in their groceries. For weeks before Christmas they would save this candy so as to have enough for the holidays.

Notwithstanding the hard work, they were a happy family enjoying the association with neighbors, friends and relatives. Many a winter evening the grown-ups played card games such as “Hi Five” and “Rook”, while the children went sleigh riding, played house and “raised the devil.”

Eli and Francis were strict with their children, they weren’t allowed to associate with anyone with a questionable character. Drinking and smoking placed people in this class. If a girl was to make a mistake of losing her virtue, she was ostracized from society. The other girls weren’t even allowed to speak to her.  Thus, Anna was raised to look on those things as real sin, and served as a background for standards by which she taught her own family.

Remembering Kevin Spencer Winn 

by Loni Ford Winn & Vance William Winn

Today I spent a couple of hours picking raspberries in our raspberry patch. I can’t pick raspberries without thinking of Vance’s mother, Thora. She also had a large raspberry patch and would pick raspberries and then make the most delicious jam. Then my thoughts wandered to Vance’s brother Kevin. Today, July 5th is his birthday. I only knew him a few short years. He was born in 1951 and died way to young in 1982 at the age of 31. I asked Vance to write about one of my favorite stories. This happened when Vance was about 6 and his younger brother Bob was about three years old. Here is what he wrote.

“My older brother Kevin had a very active mind. He didn’t think like the rest of us. He always noticed the funny in anything. One summer day just across the driveway from our raspberry patch was a performance stage Kevin had made. He decided to do a magician’s trick and so he stuck little Bob in a makeshift playhouse made out of straw. He had a little trap door set in the back so that Bob could move away, then he stuck a piece of bacon out there so I and all the other little kids would think he had turned Bob into a piece of bacon. When he lifted up the canvas top Bob was gone and the bacon was there. Then our dog Laddie came running in and ate the bacon in one bite. All the little neighbor girls (Robin Shaffer and the Bowen’s) when running home crying thinking the dog ate Bobby. Kevin got in trouble but that’s just the kind of guy he was, he was always thinking out-of-the-box and was funny. He always had a funny thing to say or different take on the situation.”

Remembering Amanda Matilda Johnson Nilsson born July 14, 1864.

Amanda Matilda Johnson (1864-1940)
By Ada N. Ford her Daughter

Amanda Matilda Johnson was the first child born in North Bend, now known as Fairview, Sanpete County, Utah on July 14, 1864. She was the third child in a family of six children born to Carolena and August Johnson who had immigrated to Utah from Jonkoping, Sweden. Because of Indian hostilities in this area the family moved to Salt Lake City in October 1865 it was there that Amanda spent a happy childhood.

Amanda, always eager to learn, attended school whenever one was available. Her teachers were often well-educated ladies from the East who made a deep impression on her. She especially enjoyed attending dramatic presentations in Salt Lake Little Theater and at times have roles in the plays given there.

Intuitively Amanda loved people. As a child she spent many hours with neighborhood children reading to them, organizing games and plays and reciting poems often of her own composition. She loved to pick the wildflowers that grew along the city creek near her home. She loved the stately mountains and the shimmering waves on Great Salt Lake.

During her early teens Amanda often visited her married sister who lived in Monroe, Utah. This Salt Lake City teenager was quite possibly the most vivacious person ever to visit this hamlet. She had a zest for good, plain fun quite alien to the Victorian sentimentality of that day. Her smallness of statute was compensated by flashing responses made more striking by her dark hair and pale, clear skin. These qualities made her the central focus of most any group. This prominence became a lifelong habit and was an inherent part of her nature.

Marilyn Winn Green 1945-2009

Marilyn 2009

Marilyn 1964

Vance's beautiful sister passed away 5 years ago today. She was the oldest daughter of Spencer & Thora Winn, and so much of her time was spent watching her younger brothers and sisters while her mother worked at Petersen Draperies. One day Vance really freaked Marilyn out.  He was running around and dove through the window and the window won.  He was bleeding everywhere and glass was stuck all over his body.  Marilyn got busy plucking glass out of his shoulder, head, and arms and then took care of him.

Vance after he ran through a window

Marilyn was very popular in Preston among her classmates and her friends.  She always took time to style her hair and wore the most fashionable clothes, which always looked really good on her.  She kept her room clean and tidy.  She also learned shorthand and Vance wondered how she knew what it said because it looked like a foreign language to him. If there was an award for the most likely to succeed of the seven siblings, Vance said Marilyn would have won it.

One of the main reasons we moved from Idaho to Utah in 1987 was because of Marilyn.  She loved to learn and always encouraged others to keep learning. When Vance was at BYU Marilyn would proof read his papers, because that is what she loved to do. She would read text books just for the fun and joy of learning.  She stayed up on all current events and could talk about anything.  She was an amazing conversationalist. She loved to listen to Rush Limbaugh and watch Fox News. If she couldn't find her glasses she'd wear her sunglasses inside the house so she could watch Fox News on her stool in the kitchen.

Even though it has been 5 years, it seems like it was just yesterday we were driving around town laughing after Ed tried to help her get into the mini van and yet it also seems like forever because we miss her so very much!

Spencer Tanner Winn & Thora Palmer Winn's Marriage

Wedding Picture taken April 20, 1942 of Spencer Tanner & Thora Palmer Winn

Spencer & Thora Winn were married 20 April 1942 in the Logan Utah Temple.

I married their son, Vance William Winn and loved to hear stories about them before I became part of the family. They accepted and loved me as if I was one of their own children. They loved each other very much and watching Spencer take care of Thora for many years while she suffered with Alzheimer's was truly touching. He always tried to make her life more pleasant and treated her like a queen until the day she died. They were such good people and I love them very much!

In remembrance of their wedding anniversary this week I decided to share how their love story began. 

Spencer Winn and Thora Palmer were in the same grade, but unaware of each other until 1935 when they were sophomores and had the same art class. That was when their relationship began.  They started as friends but Spencer must have had romance in his heart because he would walk Thora home from school, which was quite a tell-tell sign since he lived only a block from the Preston Academy where they went to school.  He would walk Thora home which was well over a mile farther north and then walk back home again.  They officially started dating when they were juniors and dated until he left on his mission in March 1940. While serving in the California Mission his Mission President gave permission for Thora and her friend to visit. After her visit Spencer was made District Supervisor and the mission was so large he had to purchase an old Chevy car with his own money. When his mission came to an end Spencer's mother and Thora took the bus to California and drove home with Spencer in that Chevy car.  They arrived home in March 1942 and Thora and Spencer were married April 20, 1942, just a month later.  Their love story of 65 years and union of almost 58 years, took a hiatus when Thora passed away April 16, 2000.  Spencer spent 13 years without her until July 18, 2013 when they were united once again.  Their love story now continues on eternally!

Spence & Thora Winn at my Wedding June 8, 1978

Thora Palmer Winn

Anybody know what happened on March 14, 1920?

Thora Palmer (Winn) was born at 7:45 p.m. in the Preston Hospital. I think sharing some memories of her would be a fun way to celebrate her birthday!

I asked Vance to think of 5 words that would describe his mother. He said Charitable, Funny, Loving, Energetic and Beautiful. He said one of the things he admired was that she would do almost anything for almost anybody. He also said she was the life of every party with her quick wit and fun sense of humor.

I remember Thora as being a hard worker. She spent many hours in the kitchen cooking delicious food and would only stop if there was a baby to hold. I remember her getting up very early in the morning with a dishtowel tied around her waist to go pick raspberries. She had a certain way to pick them and didn't like others to help for fear they might break a precious plant or not do it correctly. But she did let me help make her delicious Raspberry Jam! It was YUMMY!