Autobiography of Rozella Proctor-Part One

Rozella Proctor

1 June 1909-12 December 1955

I am fortunate to have a hand-written copy of my Aunt Rozella Proctor's Life Story.  It is in a hand-made paper bound booklet tied with pink ribbon.  It is priceless to me.  Aunt Rozella fell from a tree and broke her back in 1919 and never walked again.  My Grandpa and Grandma Proctor took such great care of her.

Grandma. Grandpa and Rozella Proctor

 I can remember visiting them in Tooele, Utah and seeing Aunt Rozella's wooden wheelchair.

Inez, Grandma, Grandpa and Rozella Proctor

We liked to sit in it and ride around in it.  Grandpa and Grandma had her hospital bed set up in their small living room.

 She was always so pleasant and sweet.  I don't ever remember her saying a cross word or complaining about her condition.  I loved her dearly.  She died at the tender age of 46.   She was 10 when she broke her back and was never to walk again for 35 years.  As you can see from her death certificate, she died from old fractured back and coronary occlusion.

I think you will enjoy reading of this event in her own words.

Chapter One

My Childhood

   I guess I should begin my story by saying, I was born June 1^st, 1909, at Benjamin, Utah.  I was the oldest girl in a family of six.

Back row: Rozella, Elwood Leslie, and Ethel Proctor.

Baby standing in front:  Max Kidd Proctor

     When I was three years old my oldest brother was drowned while we were on a trip. [This brother was James Ezra Proctor.]

     While I was still a small child, I fell down the steps of a porch with a syrup bucket in my hands, and cut the side of my nose open.  Papa took some adhesive plaster and stuck the side of my nose down, and it was soon well again, although I have a scar there yet.

     One day the threshers came to our place to thrash our wheat, and at dinner time I went out to tell the men to come to dinner.  I had to go thru the cow pasture, where we had several cows.  One of them had horns, but she seemed gentle.  So I went into the pasture “as big as you please,” not thinking much about the cow.  All at once the cow with the horns came and hooked me.

     The horn struck me right by the eye.  If it had come half an inch closer, I would have been hit right in the eye, which would probably have blinded me.

     When I was about five years “young” we moved to Idaho.  We lived in a small house by the railroad track while our new home was being built.

To be continued