Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook (1918-1999) Autobiography-Part 12

Are you ready for the next exciting episode of Mother's life story.  In this episode she tells of our adventures in Lovell, Wyoming and of our move back to Menan, Idaho.  She tells of the Menan First Ward's girls' baseball team that she coached.  She loved those girls and they loved her.  

Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook (1918-1919) Autobiography Part 11

Time for the next episode of Mother's autobiography.  Hear more stories about Theron and his escapades along with one from Joyce.  Kay and I make our appearance into the family.  Mother relates how I got my name.  It is a delightful episode.  Enjoy.

Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook (1918-1999) Autobiography Part 9

In this episode, Mother tells of the birth of Theron and Joyce and of the time Franklin and Theron locked Joyce in the outhouse.  You will find it quite amusing.  

Homes of My Ancestors Part One

     In doing my family history, I have come to realize just how very very blessed I am and how very thankful I am for those ancestors who have paved the way for me to have the great blessings that I enjoy and so often take for granted.  I am come to appreciate their great sacrifices for me.  They gave so much so that I could have so much.  Sometimes I feel guilty for all that I have when they had so little.  Anyway, I thought I would post some pictures of some of the homes that my ancestors lived in. Some I have visited and some I have not.  It is fun to reminisce about these people and places. Hope you enjoy!

Grandpa and Grandma Cook

James Edward and Christina Magdalena Buchmiller Cook

Of course this was taken along after anyone live in it.  Below are some pictures of what it looked like back when they were living in it.

Grandpa Cook holding my brother Franklin.

My mother, Ruth with my brother, Franklin

My brothers, Franklin and Theron 

Franklin and Theron again.

My Dad, Cleo taking a picture of someone or thing.

My sister, Joyce, Mother, and Franklin

Franklin, Theron and Joyce

A modern day picture of the home of my Grandpa James  and Grandma Lena Cook in Grant, Idaho on the Lewisville Highway.  The lived here with several children.  

My Dad and Mom

Cleo Earl and Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook

Dad and Mom in Roberts

Wayne Rottweier, Theron Cook, Dean Rottweier, Franklin Cook in Roberts

Franklin and Theron in Roberts

Theron and Franklin in Roberts.  

Mother, Franklin, Theron, Joyce and me Lois at our home in Rigby, Idaho.

Me on Old Pal at our home in Rigby, Idaho

Dad at our home in Menan, Idaho

Dad in Menan

Lena Beyeler with Theron and Cindy Cook at the home in Menan, Idaho

Karl Heinrich Buchmiller and Christine Gertrude Walz

    Grandpa and Grandma Buchmiller actually lived in a dugout in the side of the canal in Rexburg, Idaho.  After Grandfather Buchmiller passed away, Grandma Buchmiller married Fiedrich Ludwig Klingler.  They built this home 376 West 4th South.  Now it is used for BYU-Idaho student housing. It must have been quite the lovely home when they built it and lived there.  It is just around the corner from where the dugout home was locate.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - December 29

Question:  Is there anything else that you would like me to know about my childhood?

Answer:  You didn't like to play with dolls.  You were a good baby and grew up to be a very special young lady, a super daughter and a super Mom and Grandma.

You can see from this picture of Joyce and me and that I didn't much care for dolls.  Mine is on the ground while Joyce is loving holding her doll.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 24

Question:  What do you remember most about my first month of life?

Answer:  You were a good baby and the pride and joy of our family as we had 2 boys and now 2 girls.

Back row:  Theron, Franklin

Front row:  Lois (me) Joyce

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 16

Question:  Tell the full names, birthdays, and birthplaces of all of your children.

Answer:  Vergil Franklin Cook, 31 August 1939, Rigby, Idaho
                Theron Earl Cook, 24 May 1941, Rigby, Idaho
                Joyce Cook, 6 November 1943, Rigby, Idaho
                Lois Cook, 11 March 1947, Rigby, Idaho
                George Kay Cook, 27 April 1953, Lovelle, Wyoming
                Darrell James Cook, 22 October 1954, Rigby, Idaho

By the way, today is Mother's birthday.  She would have been 96 today.  Happy Birthday, Mother.  Hope you have a beautiful day!!!  We love you and miss you so very much.

Back row: Theron, Lois, Cleo (Dad), Ruth (Mother)

Front row:  Kay, Frank, Darrell, Joyce

Mom Share Your Life with Me - July 29

Question:  Share the most unpleasant vacation experience you can recall.

Answer:  When we were in Yellowstone Park, Joyce almost fell off the wall around Tower Falls.  Her Uncle Walt Formo grabbed her as she lost her balance.  How thankful we are that he could get to her so fast ans that we still have her with us.

Lois and Joyce Cook in Yellowstone Park

Mom Share Your Life with Me - July 26

Question:  Tell about a family vacation trip.

Answer:  We took our family to Yellowstone Park and slept in tents.  My sister, Ethel and her husband Walt Formo went with us.  Had lots of fun even though Franklin, Theron and Ethel's, daughter, Leanne, got lost in the forest at Fishing Bridge.  We were so lucky there were found and so thankful.

Aunt Libby (Lydia Elizabeth Staker Proctor, Joyce and Lois Cook

Mom Share Your Life with Me - July 20

Question:  Share a birthday party memory.

Answer:  When all my family but Theron, and he called, had a surprise party for me at the home of Jim and Shannon Youngstrom.  Shannon is my granddaughter.  Did they ever surprise me.  We took pictures.  Ilene sent me the pictures they took.  Received so many lovely things.  Was I ever surprised and what a lovely meal we had.  I am so thankful for my family.  I love them with all my heart and I'll always be there to help them when ever I can.  The party was November 1995.

Max L Wilson-Life Sketch Part 4

Max L Wilson

Life Sketch

Given by President Myron Hancock
15 October 1997

     Max and Joyce were later blessed with four sons.  Ryan, being the oldest, born in 1969; Greg in 1970; Mike in 1972; and Josh in 1978. 

Lynette, Greg, Joyce holding Josh, Max, Mike and Ryan

Max's boys: Greg, Ryan, Mike and Josh

     One time while Max was working at Boise Cascade and I didn't know where he was working at the time, I had the opportunity to go into Boise Cascade for something.  I didn't know anybody in Boise Cascade and I was in there walking, looking around and I could hear somebody hollering, “Myron, Myron.”  I turned around and looked and nobody was there that I knew and I just looked.  Three or four times this happened and finally I just pulled my hat down and was ready to head out the door.  I could hear somebody laughing and I looked down behind the counter and there was old Max down on his hands and knees.  Every time I would turn my back he would stand up and holler Myron and when I would turn around he would duck out of sight. 

Max at Gatorland in Florida

     While he was working at Boise Cascade, he played city league softball.  This was a fun time for him and their family.  Joyce related that they would load up that old yellow Datsun station wagon of their’s and put a port-a-potty in the back, that was just for Mike though, and take off and go to Tautphaus Park or somewhere to watch Max play softball. 

     Before he went back to college, they lived in Ucon and Lincoln and Garfield.  He served as counselor in the Bishopric with Bishop Bird in Ucon and then with Bishop Knutson when they divided the Ucon Ward and made the Milo Ward. 

     They family later moved on to Garfield and he quit his job at Boise Cascade and started a dairy there.  The reason they started a dairy there was he wanted to be his own boss and he wanted to teach his boys how to work.  These were growing times for his family.  They spent a lot of their time in little league, basketball, hunting and fishing. 

     Mike related an experience that while they were there on the farm, it was his job to go and gather eggs.  One time he was gathering eggs and he dropped one.  It didn't really break but it cracked.  He was afraid he was going to get in trouble so he went and hid it.  He was being careful so he wouldn't be seen while he hid the egg.  During the process of hiding the egg, his Dad caught him.  He said his Dad could have done a lot of things to him-paddled him or kicked his pants or whatever.  But instead he took the opportunity to teach like he did with many others.  He taught him that it was important to be honest and always fess up to the things that he had done. 

     After they lived in Garfield, they moved into Rigby where Max went back to school at ISU.  He graduated there in 1987 and started teaching at Ririe High School.  He was the assistant coach there at Ririe High School when Ririe took the state championship in basketball.  He was always really proud of the kids at Ririe and loved them. 

     Before moving to Blackfoot, he taught at the Midway Middle School and helped coach the junior high basketball team.  This came back to haunt him a few years later as this same team was Ty Shippen and Micah Randall, and Brandon Andrews and the ones who beat Blackfoot to go to state. I remember going to the tournament games there.  I saw Max in the stands and there was a place to sit down by him.  So I thought I would just go and sit down by him because he is a loyal Rigbyite.  Josh was either playing that year or the next year. I sat by Max and Ryan through the first quarter, and then went and found another place to sit.  They weren't routing for Rigby.  It was a little uncomfortable being there. 

     Max enjoyed watching Josh play and went to all his games and was his coach.  I know he was to all of Ryan’s games and helped coach him too.  Ryan played on the Rigby team that took State in A2 and then took it again in A1 the next year.  

Max L Wilson-Life Sketch Part 3

     Max L Wilson

Life Sketch

Given by President Myron Hancock
15 October 1997

    Some of the highlights of Max’s growing up life were spending time with the gals and the guys next door.  And of course one of those gals next door was Joyce.  There were many times that you would find a whole group of kids including Max over at the Cook’s eating ice cream or at least they always assumed that they went there to eat ice cream. But I think that Max probably had his eye on Joyce for a long time.  

The Cook Home in Menan

Ruth Cook and Max Wilson on porch

     There was always a baseball game or a football game going on in one of the pastures either over in Beus’ pasture or at Fullmer’s.  You would find Max with his brother Danny, Ed, Robin and Steve Beus, Theron and Franklin Cook,  Dean, Ross and Lyle Fullmer, Ted, Mark and Marlin Berrett, Gayle and Gary Morgan, and Frazier always ready for a game.  This same group of guys made up the Church softball team.  Back in those days we had the opportunity to go to All-Church in Salt Lake and many times this group of young men went and played All-Church.  Several times they took the All-Church championship down in Salt Lake. 

Kneeling: Mark Berrett, Gary Morgan, Gail Morgan, Kerry Frazier, Edwin Beus

Standing: Theron Cook, Jack Danks, Max Wilson, Marlin Berrett, Lew Johnson, Ted Berrett

For those of you who are not associated with Menan, Menan is the place that you want to be on the fourth of July.  It has been that way since the beginning of time.  The Fourth of July is kind of a hometown, apple pie and baseball atmosphere in Menan.   Growing up that was the highlight of the summer being able to go and spend time on the Fourth of July.  We always played softball, had foot races, and plenty of food to eat.  Max kept that tradition alive with his family even after he married and moved away.  One of my highlights of the Fourth of July after we were married was to see Max and his family and Frazier and his family come back on the Fourth of July.  They would bring their darn kids and win all the footraces.  I think they started missionary funds from the money they earned from the footraces there. 

     After Max graduated from high school, he received a scholarship from ISU to play football.  We were all excited for Max to have that opportunity because I knew his family wouldn’t have been able to support him to go on to college.  But late that summer he began to have severe headaches and after a spell in the hospital the doctors told him that there would be no football in his life.  I remember at this time of Joyce being at Max’s side all the time.  I remember my sister Marie telling me that she didn’t think that Joyce ever left Max side while he was down.  I think it was Joyce and her father that took Max to the hospital. 

     After he wasn’t able to go to ISU to play football, he decided instead to go to Ricks College.  He went to Ricks for one year and then decided to serve a mission.  He was called to the Northern California Mission.  I might mention that just before this he and Joyce had gotten engaged.  I think that Max got cold feet and decided that he had better go on a mission before he got married.  So he went ahead and went on a mission and while he served on his mission he had the opportunity of being mission companions with his high school buddy, Bob Dansie.  Bob said that the Northern California Mission was probably never the same after him and Max were companions together.  He said we could have had too much fun. 

     After completing his mission, he came home and on October 21, 1966, Mr. Touchdown married his sweetheart in the Idaho Falls Temple for time and for all eternity.  

Myrna Ball, Janae Cook, Cindy Cook, Lois Berrett, Joyce and Max, Best Man, Leah Wilson, Cleo and Ruth Cook

Ruth Cook, Joyce and Max, Cleo Cook holding Craig Cook

Kay, Theron, and Cindy Cook, Mark and Lois Berrett, Frank and Ilene and Darrell Cook

     After they were married, Max went to work for Kenny Waters in a cleaning service.  He had the special opportunity of helping to clean Golden Valley Packers out by Roberts.  It was a slaughter yard.  If any of you have ever been by there, it really really stinks.  During this time, Joyce became pregnant with Lynette.  Joyce related that Max would come home and he stunk so bad from being there at that slaughter house that she would make him stand out on the porch and take his clothes off.  She said he really did stand out there on the porch and take his clothes off and luckily they lived far enough off the road that not too many people saw him. 

Joyce and Max first home

     Besides working with Kenneth Water’s, he worked for All State Insurance, Boise Cascade and Deseret Industry.  He went on to have his own dairy for a while and then he went back to school in 1984.  It was during this time that the five children were born.  Their first child was Lynette, a special little daughter that was the love of her father’s heart.  Lynette is one who has special needs and as a young girl, Max would sit with her on his lap hour after hour, hold her facing him and talk to her syllable by syllable so she could learn to speak.  I might mention also at this time that Max has a brother, Quentin who is a special needs person.  Quentin is somewhat older than Max and all of us who have lived in Menan know Quentin and love him dearly.  But even as we grew older and would go hunting with our own boys, Max would always take Quentin with him.  We would go up there and build a little fire and put on some firewood.  Quentin would stay there by the fire, chop wood and keep that fire going all the time.  Quentin was always included in our hunting trips or fishing trips.  Max always had a special love for these two people. 

Max L Wilson-Life Sketch Part 2

     Max L Wilson

Life Sketch

Given by President Myron Hancock

15 October 1997

       Another experience he had, as soon as he got his driver’s license, he wanted to drive like all the rest of us, I suppose.  They were coming out of Roberts and I think they had the old red panel wagon at the time and Max, and it might have been Frazier or somebody with him, they were gawking off looking at ducks flying.  Max drove the old panel wagon off the road and rolled it over on its side.  Joyce related that she didn’t think that Max ever got to drive again until he was about a senior in high school. 

     During the growing up years, he worked a lot for a couple of farmers there.  He worked for George L and Bud Hart in Menan.  He helped them haul hay.  That was back when you did it by hand.  He always loved working for Bud and George L.  George L’s wife had passed away and Bud was an old bachelor, so when it came dinner time, they loaded up the haying crew and took them over to the Roberts Café and told them they could have anything on the menu that they wanted to eat.  I know that all the young men liked to work there because that was a good experience in those days.  He also worked for Milt Hammon and the Fullmer’s picking spuds and different things. 

     As Max entered junior high and high school, he was always an out-standing athlete.  He played varsity basketball as a sophomore.  And Joyce related to me that one time in a game out to Salmon that he scored 40 or 50 points as they beat Salmon.  He was always a tremendous athlete. 

     He was always a good natured person when you were playing sports with him but you didn’t want to push him too far.  Bob Dansie related an experience about playing basketball with him.  He said that one night it was either in Burley or Marsh Valley or somewhere they were playing.  He had fouled a young man and the young man picked the basketball up and as he walked by Max he just kind of gently stuffed it in his stomach for him.  Max just caught the ball and gently bounced it off the guy’s head for him. 

      One night they were playing Shelley and they were behind by one point.  The game was coming to a close and Max was fouled.  He went to the foul line.  He had the opportunity to shoot two foul shots and he missed them both.  So Shelley won.  The family waited for him to come out of the locker room.  They waited until everybody had gone and still no Max.  Finally Bill went down to the locker room and Max wasn’t there and so he went out to the car.  Max was sitting out in the car with his head wrapped in a towel.  He had been crying because he felt like he had let the team down and had lost the game for them. 

     When Max was in junior high, he had the opportunity to start playing basketball.  I think there is where he had an experience with a teacher that probably helped develop in him the special love that he had for people to teach.  He wasn’t quite eligible to play basketball because of low grades and a teacher there by the name of Gene Palmer took it upon himself to tutor Max at every opportunity and to help him get his grades up so he could play sports. 

     Later on in his high school years, two coaches that were significant in his life were Coach Roh and Coach Stokes.  I had first hour Business Math with Max and Les Roh was our math teacher.  Especially during tournament time or something like that Max wouldn’t show up to Business Math but Coach Roh would mark him there because he wanted Max to rest up because of his bad heart.  All these years in sports he played with a bad heart because of the rheumatic fever and I don’t think too many people really knew that. 

     I was talking to Bob Dansie the other night and he related an experience that Max had with Coach Stokes.  He said that they were playing football one night and Max was the quarterback.  He said every play Max would run off that field to get the plays from Coach Stokes and he stepped on Coach Stokes’s foot every single time.  I can see Coach Stokes out here in the audience and he might still have a sore foot. 

     There was always been a rivalry with Rigby and Madison in football.  Madison had beat Rigby three years running by one point in football.  Bob Dansie said that Max was quarterback and Rigby was ahead.  They decided that if Madison scored a touchdown rather than let them beat them by one point they were going to fumble the football and let them beat them by at least a touchdown so they couldn’t say that they had beat them by one point.  But Rigby went on to win the ballgame. 

     Max was friends with everyone in high school with all the guys and all the gals but dating wasn’t really high on his list.  But his senior year he started to date a gal from down the street from him by the name of Joyce Cook.  At homecoming that year, he was voted Mr. Touchdown.  I was visiting with Joyce the other night and I asked her when she got her first kiss from Max.  She said that after they got home from the dance he asked her if Mr. Touchdown could get a kiss like all the other boys had gotten from their dates.  I asked Joyce if she had kissed him and she said she didn’t remember if she had or not.  But she must have done because this started a lasting relationship that would go on forever. 

     She related an experience that as they were dating and getting a little bit serious that Max liked to hunt and fish a little bit and he had this opportunity on a bright sunny day on a Sunday to go fishing.  She told him, “Max, you have got to make a choice it’s either me or fishing.”   He went fishing.  But Max had a great love for hunting and fishing.  There is a special spot up Medicine Lodge up on Steltzer’s up on Irwin Creek.  I know his family and the Helm family spent a lot of time up there and later on Max and I and our boys were to spend a lot of time there. 

     Joyce related that it was always a Wilson tradition that they would go fishing and camping and she said it was on Easter Sunday.  I told her I didn’t know whether it was Easter Sunday  because fishing season really doesn’t open until Memorial Day weekend.  And then I got thinking remembering Bill and Max and the rest of family and I said “Well, maybe the Wilsons did open that up.”  It was probably really good up there at that time.  

Max, Leah, Bill, and Quentin

Max L Wilson-Life Sketch Part 1

Max L Wilson

Life Sketch

Given by President Myron Hancock

15 October 1997

     If I might begin by one of Max’s favorite phrases “This is tremendous!”  Joyce and family may I extend to you my sincere and deepest love.  I love this family like it was my own.  I am grateful for an opportunity to be asked to participate here a little bit today. 

     Max L Wilson was born March 28, 1944 in the Idaho Falls LDS Hospital to George William and Emma Leah Lane Wilson.  He was born in humble circumstances and was born to loving parents.  His growing up years were mostly spent in Menan and he was raised in a large family.  He was the 8^th of 9 children.  The oldest George Lee and a sister Betty Jane have both passed on.

Living are Donna Jean, Walter Keith, Quentin R., Earl Dean, Vonda Rae, and Danny Kay. 

     In his early growing up years his family moved and his father was working on a ranch up in Montana.  He related the experience of being just a little boy and that he remembered his older brother, Lee, killed a deer.  And how impressed he was to think that his big brother could shoot a deer and take care of it and how grateful they were to have the meat to eat.  That was one of the early remembrances that he had of living in Montana.

     Later they moved to Annis and lived there for awhile.  My association with Max was to begin after they moved into Menan.  That’s where he spent most of his growing up years and was raised there. 

     Max was one who always enjoyed life. I never remember Max being down or anything like that even though they didn’t have a lot of worldly possessions.  For as long as I can ever remember him the people in Menan called him Smaxy Maxy.  I have to tell you that the people in Menan have a real claim on Max.  I’m the Stake President there and last Sunday as I announced in our high council meeting that Max had been killed, one of the high councilmen there from the Menan Ward, the first word that came “Was it our Max Wilson?”  We are possessive of Max.  Everyone there claimed him as my Max Wilson. 

     When Max was a young boy and in the fourth grade, he contacted rheumatic fever and missed quite a bit of schooling.  This rheumatic fever affected his heart but it never did his spirit.  He was always happy and upbeat and he always had a zest for life.  Like most young people in life, there are experiences in our lives that kind of chart our course and maybe make a turning point in our life.  Max had one of these hard lessons.  He and a couple of his best friends one night decided that they were a little short on gas.  They went to one of the local farmers and borrowed some gas out of the gas tank of the tractor without the farmer knowing it, at least for a little while.  But anyway they got caught doing this and they went on home.  They were sleeping out on their lawn at their home place.  That morning at about sunrise Sheriff Howard Shaffer come along and he just picked ole Max up out of the sleeping bag and threw him in the car and took him over to the court house.  His Mom was in hot pursuit right behind him.  She was backing the Sheriff all the way.  Max said this was the best thing that ever happened to him and I might mention that the individual who they borrowed the gas from later became Bishop when Max was to serve his mission.

     Another experience he had, as soon as he got his driver’s license, he wanted to drive like all the rest of us, I suppose.  They were coming out of Roberts and I think they had the old red panel wagon at the time and Max, and it might have been Frazier or somebody with him, they were gawking off looking at ducks flying.  Max drove the old panel wagon off the road and rolled it over on its side.  Joyce related that she didn’t think that Max ever got to drive again until he was about a senior in high school. 

     During the growing up years, he worked a lot for a couple of farmers there.  He worked for George L and Bud Hart in Menan.  He helped them haul hay.  That was back when you did it by hand.  He always loved working for Bud and George L.  George L’s wife had passed away and Bud was an old bachelor, so when it came dinner time, they loaded up the haying crew and took them over to the Roberts Café and told them they could have anything on the menu that they wanted to eat.  I know that all the young men liked to work there because that was a good experience in those days.  He also worked for Milt Hammon and the Fullmer’s picking spuds and different things. 

     As Max entered junior high and high school, he was always an out-standing athlete.  He played varsity basketball as a sophomore.  And Joyce related to me that one time in a game out to Salmon that he scored 40 or 50 points as they beat Salmon.  He was always a tremendous athlete. 

     He was always a good natured person when you were playing sports with him but you didn’t want to push him too far.  Bob Dansie related an experience about playing basketball with him.  He said that one night it was either in Burley or Marsh Valley or somewhere they were playing.  He had fouled a young man and the young man picked the basketball up and as he walked by Max he just kind of gently stuffed it in his stomach for him.  Max just caught the ball and gently bounced it off the guy’s head for him. 

      One night they were playing Shelley and they were behind by one point.  The game was coming to a close and Max was fouled.  He went to the foul line.  He had the opportunity to shoot two foul shots and he missed them both.  So Shelley won.  The family waited for him to come out of the locker room.  They waited until everybody had gone and still no Max.  Finally Bill went down to the locker room and Max wasn’t there and so he went out to the car.  Max was sitting out in the car with his head wrapped in a towel.  He had been crying because he felt like he had let the team down and had lost the game for them. 

     When Max was in junior high, he had the opportunity to start playing basketball.  I think there is where he had an experience with a teacher that probably helped develop in him the special love that he had for people to teach.  He wasn’t quite eligible to play basketball because of low grades and a teacher there by the name of Gene Palmer took it upon himself to tutor Max at every opportunity and to help him get his grades up so he could play sports. 

Life Story of Cleo Earl Cook-Part 4

LIFE HISTORY OF CLEO EARL COOK

Written by Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook

Mom and Dad (Cleo and Ruth Cook)

Cleo couldn't work for awhile and when he could he couldn't go back to work for Westergards so he worked for Ray Pettingill in Idaho Falls.  Mirl Pettingill also worked there and he helped Cleo.  Ray decided there wasn't enough work to keep all the men, so Cleo was laid off.  He worked a short time at the Menan Produce.  Then Verda Munns called and asked him if would like to work at the Idaho Fresh Pak.  He started to work there in March 1966.

Kay, Dad and Darrell

Theron and Cynthia Viera were married in Chula Vista, California, 28 May 1966.  Cleo couldn't go to their wedding but he let Ruth, Kay, and Darrell go. 

Theron and Cindy Cook

The same year on 21 October, his daughter Joyce was married to Max L. Wilson in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple.  He was able to attend that wedding. 

Front Row:  Mother, Joyce, and Dad

Back Row: Kay, Lois, Theron, Frank, and Darrell

Myrna Ball, Janae Cook, Cindy Cook, Lois Berrett, Joyce and Max, Best Man, Leah Wilson, Cleo and Ruth Cook

Front Row:  Mother, Joyce and Max, Dad holding Craig,

Back Row:  Kay, Theron and Cindy, Mark and Lois, Frank and Ilene, and Darrell

After a few years went by, on 25 August 1972, George Kay as married to Carla Jean Holyoak in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

Kay and Carla, with Dad and Mom

Dad and Mom

  Everyone was able to be there.  Darrell James and Becky Sue Walker, Cleo's last son, as married 14 June 1974 in Rigby.  Cleo wasn't able to be there in person, but he surely was in spirit.

Darrell and Becky 

Theron, Kay, Darrell, Mom, Joyce and Lois

Cleo enjoyed hunting and fishing. 

Dad opening up his new fishing chair

Dad with some of his fishing buddies

He enjoyed his boat and camper.  He liked to go on camping trips into many different states.  He liked to take his sons out hunting with him.  He taught them how to use their gun and have respect for them.  He enjoyed taking his grandchildren with him in his pick-up or for boat rides or anywhere with him.  Cleo loved his grandchildren.  He had 14 grandchildren-eight grandsons and six granddaughters.  They all loved him too.

Mom and Dad with grandkids

Front Row:  David Cook, Shannon and Brian Berrett

Back Row:  Craig Cook, Lynette Wilson,  Mother holding Cari Cook, Dad holding Ryan Wilson and Shellie Cook.

Dad and Darrell

Cleo was asked to be athletic director of the Menan First Ward.  He really loved this job and held this church position until he was called to his heavenly home.

The morning of 30 December 1972, Cleo and Dee Raymond were getting hay in Cleo's pick-up at Bill Raymond's farm.  Dee said the hay was loaded and they were on their way home and were laughing and talking when Cleo put his head back and took a quick breath.  Dee grabbed the steering wheel and stopped the pick-up and went for help.  He got Terry Fullmer and they drove to the Idaho Falls hospital.  Theron was working there when they brought his Dad in.  Theron said he just knew they didn't get there in time for his Dad had been called to his heavenly home.

Cleo's services were held in the Menan First Ward Chapel, 2 January 1973, at 1:30 p.m.  Bishop Lyle Cottle conducted the services.  He was buried in the Grant Central Cemetery.  The day of Cleo's services was very cold.  Ruth was told it was a large service for the weather being so cold and there were a lot of beautiful flowers.

Cleo was loved by all who knew him.  He was always dependable and always cheerful.  He never complained.  Ruth never heard Cleo say anything unkind about anyone.  He had a way of making everyone around him feel very special.  All of Cleo and Ruth's sons and daughters have been married in the temple and it makes them both very happy.

Front Row:  Kay, Frank, Darrell and Joyce

Back Row:  Theron, Lois, Dad, and Mom

Cleo's sisters gave me, Ruth, help in writing Cleo's personal history and I want to thank them very much.

Here are some pictures of Dad that I thought you might enjoy. The first few were taken on Dad and Mom's 25 Anniversary.

Dad and his boys Kay, Darrell, Frank and Theron

Kay, Dad, and Darrell

Darrell, Kay and Lois

Joyce, Dad and Mom