Edna Jane Cook-Life Sketch

Life Sketch for EDNA JANE COOK RIRIE

A tribute to our loving mother, grandmother, sister, and friend.  Given by her daughter, Marilyn, at her funeral service, December 4, 1993.

Edna Jane Cook - 1907-1993

            Part of this is taken from notes she had written about her life before failing health caused her not to be able to remember it anymore and part comes from memories of our family about her.  She begins this way:

            Edna Jane Cook Ririe – My life story as my memory will let me put it down on paper.  I fear I have waited too long.  I was born in a little log house with a dirt roof on March 12, 1907, at Labelle, Idaho.  I was blessed by William Gallup.  Mother says I was a very good baby, although she must have exaggerated a little as most mothers do.  My early childhood was a happy one as we moved to a dry farm at Taylorville with three of my Dad’s sisters’ families and Grandpa and Grandma Cook.  We would get together at Christmas and we children really had fun.  We didn’t have much in the way of conveniences but enjoyed each other’s company.  It seems we always had enough to share with others; everyone that stopped by was always welcomed in to a meal and a night’s sleep.  (And may I add here that that was also the case in Mother and Dad’s home; everyone was always invited in and Mother always wanted to feed everyone.)

            I attended school at Taylor in a little log school house and at one time my Dad really taught me a hard lesson about honesty.  A man stopped by (we called him a hobo but Father said never to be disrespectful to anyone), and he asked if he could chop some wood or something for a bite to eat.  Father told him to come in and eat and then we would see if we could find him some work.  He chopped wood most of the rest of the day and then said he must move on as he needed to find something permanent to do. Father told him he must stay the night and so he did.  It was my job to clean the upstairs rooms and this man had left some loose change on the little table so I took $1.45 of it to school and treated my friends to candy and junk.  The teacher, knowing we never had much, talked to my dad and I was taught a real good lesson on taking things that did not belong to me.  I had to do extra chores like slopping the hogs for three whole months and had no treats of any kind till my debt was paid.  Also, if I saw the fellow, I had to tell him I was sorry and beg him to forgive me.  Father gave him his money back, but to this day, I have not forgotten what an example that was to me.

            It seems Father was never too busy to spend time with his family.  There were many times after harvest when he would leave someone to take care of the animals and load us and provisions to last for a few days into the wagon on the straw and we would go to the mountains where he could teach us to fish and do cooking in the out-of-doors.  We really enjoyed these outings as our Father would play his guitar or harmonica and we would sing and dance.   Sometimes our cousins and Grandfather and Grandmother Cook would go, too.  I loved to have Grandfather put me on his knee and tell me stories.  He told me of one time when he was walking down the streets of Nauvoo with his father and the prophet came along and stopped to speak to them.  The prophet put his hands on Grandfather’s head and said, “Son, you’ll be a great man someday.”  How very special that story was to me.

            I was baptized by Bertie Wadsworth on the 4^th of July, 1915, in a canal down the hill from our home at a Church celebration in a bad hail storm.  I was confirmed the same day by William Priest.

            It seems school was easy for me.  I never had trouble keeping my lessons done, although I was kept out a lot because of the illness of my Father, leaving me to do his feeding and chores, also because of the weather.  It seems I was Dad’s helper until my brothers came along.  I caught up with my sister two years old than I and we finished school together.  I was always the smallest in my class but finished 2^nd highest.  I went to High School at Shelley for one year but then because of my dad getting sick again, I had to go to work at anything I could to help support the family.  I sewed for the neighbors, did housework, picked potatoes, thinned beets, and anything I could just to help finance our family. 

            We next moved to Coltman, Idaho, where I held my first Church job.  I was not quite out of Primary, just past 12, when the Bishop asked me if I would be Activity Leader in the Primary.  I never did get to finish my Primary classes but enjoyed working with the children and still do. 

            I came to Ririe to work in the seed house sorting pea seed.  I stayed with my Grandmother Cook who lived next to Uncle Tom and Aunt Nora Moss.  I attended church here and met Parley Ririe and right then I knew I wanted to go with him and after dating awhile my prayers were answered when he asked me to marry him and be the mother of his children.  We were married October 14, 1927, in the Salt Lake Temple. 

     We have raised five children—three daughters and two sons, as well as raising two boys, Warren and Blaine Dickens, whose mother was dead and their dad worked construction.  They spent a lot of time on the farm with Parley and when their father was transferred they asked to stay with us and we raised them until they were ready to go out on their own.  Both of our sons served missions, Sylvan in the Swiss-Austrian Mission and Warren in Uruguay.  We had a farm in Ririe which we worked along with milking cows and feeding chickens until Parley’s accident where he suffered a broken hip socket.  Then we had to quit farming and find other work but managed to put our children through school and college with their help.  We have a lovely family of 26 grandchildren, 60 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren.

            We have always loved doing for others even as we are getting along in years.  I know the Lord loves us and we owe our all to Him.   My patriarchal blessing promises me that I will never want for the necessities of life as long as I try to obey His commandments and live the way I should.  I am the oldest living member of my father’s family now.  All three of my brothers and three of my sisters have left this sphere of life.  I love to sew for my family and others also.  I love to crochet and do liquid embroidery and at 72 years of age, I started sketching and painting and enjoy doing that for family and friends also.  I love the gospel and know God lives and Jesus Christ, our Savior, is His son….

            This was Mother’s summation of her life but it doesn’t begin to cover it at all.  I would like to add a little more, first from a letter which I wrote to the TV station on Mother’s Day some time ago and then from others of the family.

To be continued