In the News ~ It's Brother Jensen!

This blog is all about family history, but also highlighting current events too. Recently, Rick was featured in the Church News for his role as Seminaries and Institutes North America ASL coordinator and adviser. You can read the full article HERE. 

Sterling Scholars

Spring of 2016 ... Jase Jensen was named Sterling Scholar in Mathematics for his high school. He was not the first in the Westra line to achieve Sterling Scholar, nor the last, not even just within the Jensen family ... Wendy has created blog posts showcasing her Sterling Scholars (see links below).

• Janika  (FACS) May 2014~ Sterling Scholar Banquet, Awards Night 
• Jase (Math) April 2016 ~ Sterling Scholar Competition, May2016 Senior Awards Night
• Jaiden  (Drama) March 2022 ~ Sterling Scholar Awards Night, Documents, Region!

The Westra Sibling Generation produced two Sterling Scholars ... in 1984 and 1994, Chris and Shane respectively.  Christopher nabbed the position to represent Cottonwood High School in Business. He had some trips, to USU and Atlanta, Georgia, dealing with his business exploits.  Shane was Sterling Scholar for Art, also for Cottonwood High (all the Westra siblings attended there). A couple of his pieces are still on display in the halls of the school (see below). 

We have an ART label here on the blog, as while Shane was the only Sterling Scholar in this area, others in the family also enjoyed drawing and painting (although Wendy says the artistic gene skipped her). 

Jen totally planned on being Sterling Scholar for Drama her graduation year (1989). With many productions and leading roles and a 3.9 GPA, it seemed like a lock. Then Emilie DeAzevado (you may have heard of the DeAzevado name, well known in the LDS music world) moved from California, with even more experience and stellar grades, and the nod went to her. Jen was quite crushed to miss out on this goal ... but the whole Sterling Scholar process IS a lot of work in the preparation of a portfolio, interviewing, etc., and even more competition beyond the school level. So ... she survived (and still made it through college on scholarships to graduate debt free). 

I did some searches in newspaper/yearbook archives, I DID find a Shane showcase ...

He's there in the top left corner ... his quote says "This art stuff is great, but what does it have to do with the Iconoclastic controversy?" Asking Shane what his quote meant, he replied "Haha, that iconoclastic controversy quote was an inside joke that only the best of Mr. Bill’s art students would understand!" 

Here's clippings from the newspaper featuring Chris and Shane and the other competitors.

Tiny Dancers

 Mini Margie

Mom/Margie's memories from these photos ... I was maybe around age 7–9, just a guess.  In front of our house on 4568 Boxelder St.  Nelva and I both took dance lessons for a few years.  I took tap dancing, ballet, and toe dancing (now they call it "Pointe").  

Naughty Nelva

This would have been in 1949/1950.

Dancing Sisters!

In the News ...

... and here's a picture of Margie's group. 

A little older than in first few pictures. 

Mom/Margie is on the back row, second from the left.

Here's a few of Mom/Margie's memories inspired by these photos ...

Mother didn't sew, so my Aunt Neva made all our costumes. It seems like Mother was at one of our dance recitals in an auditorium somewhere when Mother was called out and told that her sister, my aunt Neva Dye, had been accidentally shot in the leg by her young son, my cousin Kelly.

I still remember how I would take the bus alone on State Street from our Murray home to the dance studio in Midvale or Sandy, past that cement bridge thing over the road. In those days, you would drop the fare/coins into a little clear plastic thing by the driver. When I went to get off, the driver said I owed ____ cents more. I told him I had put all my money in when I got on. I guess you paid so much for a certain distance and then paid the rest if you went further (kind of like the commuter lanes now). Funny how you can remember those scary times as a child, for 60+ years!

While Wendy and Jeni were heavily involved in singing and musical theater, neither was really a "dancer" per se. The girls would choreograph some numbers to Xanadu which they would roller-skate to in the unfinished basement. The Wonderful Westra Sisters! Both girls would be part of a baton brigade, marching in parades (Twirly Girls). Jen would be in a little song and dance group called Carousel Kids, and both Wendy and Jen would be in song/dance groups in college (Jen - LD Singers). There were roadshows and other performances too - but no "just dance" (although Jen would learn to tap for her senior year production of 42nd Street ... even though she was the ONE character in the show that didn't dance.)

... a second set of sisters!

There are some dancers among the grandgirls ...

Aniston in 2013 and 2016. Rella in 2016 and 2020. 

Jenna in 2016 and 2018. Jaiden in 2016 and 2018.

... and Janika in 2003.

I'd already created the grandgirl collage above when I did a "dance" search in Dropbox and found these additional photos of little Janny.  

Little girls in dance costumes ...

The years may change, but the costumes are always cute.

... and today (2021).

 

Unemployed?

 

Mom/Margie remembers: He worked there when I was in elementary school and we lived in Murray. At at the first of the year, in the lower grades, the teacher had each student stand and tell what their father did for a living. I would say that my Dad worked at the "Unemployment Office." They probably thought, "poor kid, her Dad is out of work!"

While Grandma Rex did have to rely on unemployment for a time (as many did in the Depression days) as the newspaper article above shows, he did actually WORK for the government in the unemployment office. Here are a couple of excerpts from his history. It was December 1940 and the young couple, with a baby girl (Nelva), had moved back to Mt. Pleasant, parking their little trailer house at Rex's parent's home.

I started drawing my unemployment checks and did some trapping of muskrats. After exhausting my unemployment benefits and still no job, I decided to go to Salt Lake and look for work. I had become acquainted with the Morrison-Merrill Lumber Co (while working with the construction company). They had once told me that if I ever needed a favor to let them know. So I went to see them and informed them that I needed a job. They asked how soon I could start and I told them at once. I went to work that day and was assigned to work in the storage yard unloading the lumber from the railroad cars. A short time later, I was told to spend my time loading the customer’s trucks. Four months later I received a letter offering me a job with the Dept. of Employment Security as a Junior Clerk. It paid $80.00 a month, which was $20.00 less than I was getting. I talked it over with the lumber co., and they suggested since it was more in line with the work I was interested in, to take it and they would hold my job for me if I wasn’t satisfied. I started working for the Dept. of Employment Security on August 26, 1941. My first assignment was in the Fiscal Department stockroom as the mail boy. In a few months, I was transferred to the Claim Section. There I moved up to Intermediate Claims Examiner and on to Senior Claims Examiner. The war, by that time, had reduced the unemployment to a low number. So they asked if any of us knew how to use a typewriter, and I told them I could. They then transferred me to the Statistical Unit as a relief operator on a key punch machine.

Then World War II was in full swing, and Grandpa Rex was drafted into the army. He moved his family back to Mount Pleasant so Zada could be near the inlaws ... another baby girl (Margie) had been added to the family, and a little boy (Merrill) was on the way. After fulfilling his service for about two years, Rex was able to come home.

On January 2, 1946, I went to Salt Lake City and back to work at my old job. At the time of my retirement, which was the age of 60, I had the classification of Computer Operation Supervisor at the salary of approximately $21,000.00 a year. I was credited with thirty-four years and eleven months of service, getting credit for seven months of unused sick leave. I was able to retire for $975.17 a month for life with a guarantee of ten years to be paid to my survivors in case of my death. With about $24,000.00 paid up life insurance until age sixty-five, then going down to about 2% a month until it reaches about $8,000. Upon my retirement, the office and my fellow co-workers gave me a nice dinner and gift of golf clubs, bag, card and golf balls. I tried playing, but I am not too good at it – someday maybe?

 

 

Normans in the News

This age of technology provides us so many links and looks to the past. Cousin Nikki recently let us know about a discovery she had found. https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/search ... this is a service that has scanned in old newspapers from all over Utah. From small city publications to the Salt Lake Tribune, old or new, you can search by date, by paper or even by keywords or names. Pretty cool!

When I (Jen) was young, once of my favorite fast food places was Skippers. I loved the fish and chips, but I also enjoyed reading the "paper" that the food was served on. Always interesting to get a peek of what is being presented in any time period. Here's just a peek at a paper from Mt. Pleasant ... perhaps Grandma Norman read this paper as she recovered from Nelva's birth a few days before.

(click here to get a closer look at this day 80 years ago!)

Grandma Zada and Grandpa Rex made some mentions themselves ... Marriages and Births

... and army activity

Looking back a little further - we can see Grandpa Rex's mom featured ... 

Little town papers and Neighborhood News.

... and one more of Grandpa Rex

The Newsworthy Normans!

Great-Grandpa Herbert was an OddFellow ...

 

What is the IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows)? 

From their webpage, the Odd Fellows are an organization that promotes personal and social development. For members, the fellowship emphasizes a "leaving of the old life and the start of a better one and of helping those in need."  As indicated in the image above, the Odd Fellows were established in the United States in 1819, but they were documented as far back as 1730 in England. The IOOF is still around today! The command of the IOOF is to "vist the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead and educated the orphan." Members are dedicated to the following purposes:

• To improve and elevate the character of mankind by promoting the principles of friendship, love, truth, faith, hope, charity and universal justice.
• To help make the world a better place to live in, by aiding each other, the community, the less fortunate, the youth, the elderly, and the environment in every way possible.
• To promote goodwill and harmony amongst peoples and nations through the principle of universal fraternity, holding the belief that all men and women regardless of race, nationality, religion, social status, gender, rank and station are brothers and sisters.

Mom/Margie's grandfather (Grandpa Norman's dad), Herbert Lavar Norman, was an Odd Fellow. In his history, he makes several mentions of his involvement and the impact they had on his life. Here are a couple excerpts: 

On April 18, 1918, I joined the Odd Fellow's Lodge in Brigham City. That fall, along in November (1918) I took the flu. There was a terrible amount of flu then. There were many, many people dying with it. They took me home from work. The doctor got there and told the fellow who took me home to get me to bed and take care of me. They fixed me up and asked me if we had any liquor in the house. Mother (Louella) said she didn't know what it was, but I had just purchased a case of something for Fred Rassmussen. He got me part of that, and he rubbed me with it. He then made a "hot toddy" for me. The Odd Fellow's Grand Noble got a nurse who stayed for three hours. Then he got another one, and she stayed for a couple of hours. That is the way it was for two or three days. At least they had someone there to take care of me night and day. When I got so I could go out, I went to pay the nurses because I felt they were the first ones who should be paid. I asked each nurse how much we owed them, and each one replied , "Nothing". The Odd Fellow's Lodge had taken care of all the expenses including the coal we had to buy from the lumber yard. I always maintained if it hadn't been for the Lodge, I wouldn't be here today. I paid them back. I couldn't do it all at once, but I did it as fast as I could. I figured if they could do that much good for me, they could do that much good for someone else. (See Quarantine for the full flu story). 

One day the Eagles Lodge had their Convention in Lovelock, and they went in the hole with their finances. They didn't make enough money to clear themselves out of it so they had to put on a home dramatic play. "Too Many Parents" was the name of it. One of the fellows they had in the play couldn't do his part so they came and asked me if I would take the part of the aristocratic old southern gentleman.  I did just to help them out. We practiced and practiced on it and finally we put it on. No one could tell it was me. But Mirriam was just a little girl, and she was pretty smart. When I came on the stage for my part she said "There's my Daddy." 

Herbert served as Grand Master of the Odd Fellows Lodge. On October 31, 1931 Herb had a meeting with the Odd Fellows in Salt Lake City ... he arrived home late the next day to baby Bonnie Lou just having been born. When he finished up his term as Grand Master, he was elected to be the representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in Springfield, Illinois in 1933. The next year he was elected to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in Toronto, Canada. Herb and Louelle went to Arizona for a job at the end of 1952... 

When I came home one night from work, I told Mother there was a party down to the Oddfellows' and Rebekahs' Lodge Hall. We decided we would go to it. When we got there it was open, and we went up to the door. I told the people in there who we were and showed them our card and reciepts. They invited us in. A little while later the superintendent for the government on the canal project came in. He looked at me and asked why I hadn't told him I was a member of the Lodge. When the Lodge opened, he had Mother and I go to the middle of the floor and he introduced us as a Past Grand Master and Past President of Utah. We were certainly honored. From that day on, anything I wanted to do on the job, all I had to do was suggest it.

In the history given at his funeral in 1986 his daughter Mirriam wrote " Dad joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows while they were living in Brigham City, Utah. He remained very active in the organization until it became difficult to drive because of the deterioration of his eyes. He served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Utah. He was Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge for 2 years and served as Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Utah for 6 or more years. He was given the Meritorious Service Award for his years of service.

A Odd Fellow Meritorious Service Jewel may be awarded to an Odd Fellow for meritorious service performed on behalf of Odd Fellowship beyond the usual and customary duties of membership.

mer·i·to·ri·ous  /ˌmerəˈtôrēəs/   

adjective

deserving reward or praise.

"a medal for meritorious conduct"

Looking through old documents (Dec 2020) 

Chris found the letter from the lodge requesting the medal ...

The Odd Fellows were "fellows" ... it was for the men, but there was a women's branch, the Rebekahs. Louella was part of this group. In the fall of 1952, Louella was elected to go to Dallas, Texas as a representative for the Rebekah Lodge IOOF and she was quite active in the group over the years as well.

Cousin Nikki found and added this little newspaper tidbit to Family Search. 

Twirly Girls

The Wonderful Westra Sisters! Wendy and Jenny were marching in parades in 1978 and 1979, dressed in these tiny, sparkly red costumes, and twirling a baton. Really, it was all in the wrist, we never even attempted a spin with fingers. It was more about the marching. A red bow on the back of the head, or a sparkly headband with a feather ... in the "winter" costume, note the white earmuffs and the red pom-pom on the shoes too.

The leader of this incredible group was our neighbor across the street from our Hermitage House. You can see the group really varied in age (and height).  We marched in several parades and participated in competitions and I'm sure Scott, Chris and Shane just loved coming to watch!

Here's some of Wendy's memories from her journal ...

• December 1978: My name is Wendy Westra. I am 10 years old. I take piano lessons and baton lessons... My sister, Jenny is 8 years old. Me and my sister made up a routine in baton lessons, We did it to "It's a Small World." Our teachers thought it was cute!
• February 1979: For baton I did a routine to "Music Machine." It was my favorite record but the record melted and I was really worried because we needed to listen to it to do the routine because it was my best one and there would be trophies and prizes! Now I will have to borrow our neighbors. 
• July 3, 1979: We went to swimming lessons and to primary and then we took a shower and ate lunch and started getting ready for the Children’s Parade in Provo. We ate there and saw Cannonball and Harvey and we won second place out of the teams like drill, baton, pom poms, etc. (Last year we won first). We goofed up but the judges thought we were cute both years, but everything turned out pretty good.
• July 4, 1979: It’s the 4th of July. We were in a parade at Murray in the morning. Mom and Dad, Chris, Scott, and Shane came and watched us. There were lots of horses and I’m glad we weren’t after them because they went to the bathroom all over! There were people dressed up like Spiderman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.
• July 18, 1979: We had a slumber party at Shauneen’s house for baton. We slept outside and everyone brought a treat. We played games and had a lot of fun. They have a trampoline that we played on. I didn’t fall asleep till 12:30.

There was even some video footage uncovered!

https://youtu.be/tIAgBv18dtU

**FLASH FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

In 2012, Mom/Margie uncovered the little red baton outfits in storage. 

She passed them on to Wendy, and the Jensen girls tried them on and had a little photoshoot. 

Janelle, Jaiden and Jenna

Wendy wrote "One thing I remember (probably a few days before the parade) is Shauneen Hadley telling all of us to wash our hair really well the night before the parade so that it would shine! Then she told us that after we washed it -- wash it again! I thought that was funny that we had to wash our hair not only once -- but twice -- to make it shine!"

That reminded Mom/Margie of a memory ... "Talking about washing your hair twice brought back memories of how my mother always shampooed us once, and rinsed, then shampooed a second time, then rinsed. Then she rinsed our hair either with lemon water or vinegar water. The way she would curl our hair when we were little is with little strips of rags. She would roll a strip of hair up with the small strip of rag, then tie the rag to hold the curl in place. She would do this overnight and take the rags out in the morning----and voila, curly hair." 

Maybe Wendy and Jen should resume a routine and perform it at a family function! *Ü*

Hello Dolly

Going through Scott's baby book, there was a newspaper article about a "Doll Contest" that apparently Scott and Chris had entered, and received ribbons (and a mention in the newspaper) for. Mom didn't have much of a memory in 2020 to explain or add when asked about it, and then this picture surfaced as Chris was scanning a box of old photos and documents.  Mom's note on the back of the photo ...

 It would be interesting to have a little more details about this doll contest and to get a better look at the dolls in the pictures. Chris's small doll is so small, I can't really even see it! Who knew Scott was so handy at making dolls?

Here's the clipping from the paper ...

It was August 1971, the Richland Recreation Department's Doll Show. Categories were Most Unique, Best Dressed, Best Homemade, Best Foreign, Prettiest, Largest Collection, Oldest, Smallest, and Largest. 

I wonder what happened to these award-winning dolls?

Scotty's Sacajawea School

 This will be backdated to 1970

It's always fun when you make the news! Proud parents clip out the articles and fold them to be set aside and preserved. Such was the case when the Sacajawea School in Richland Washington was featured in the Tri-City Herald on Thursday, September 24, 1970. This was young Scotty's school. You can see that Mom/Margie added some personalized notes to the newspaper clipping, pointing out Scott, his teacher, and the "3 team-teaching cluster" of grades 1-3.  In Dropbox, the picture of the paper is in the Newspaper/Documents folder, and it can be enlarged quite a bit to see the details if desired. 

Here's a close-up if you wanted to read the actual article ...

Interesting to note, that if a child is mentioned in the article, in addition to their name, their home address is listed. This was similar to birth announcements in the newspaper ... in the future, this would be unheard of due to safety and privacy concerns!

Here's a note to little Scotty before school started ...

... a little worse for wear over 50+ years. A few smudges and stains. The "Primary Green" section. School starts at 9:00 and ends at 2:45 - with a full hour for lunch, but encouraged to "eat at home" the first week before lunch is officially served at school?

Here's the end of year report for Scott's 1st grade year ...

Here's some of Mom/Margie's memories ...

I remember Scott went to Spalding Elementary first for kindergarten and was bussed. It was further away. There was also a Sacajawea Elementary school. Then they built a new Sacajawea school quite close to our old house in Richland and also to our new house in Richland. Then Scott went there. And Chris went to Kindergarten there. as I remember, both Sacajawea schools were in operation one year, so they called them Sacajawea 1 and Sacajawea 2.

The budget was so tight at the new school, parents were encouraged to donate computer paper that was used on one side but blank on the other side, so they could reuse it. And we had to furnish pencils, markers, etc. (which is the norm now, but I think it was new then--that the schools used to furnish those things-----if my memory is correct).

Then Scott was entering third grade when we moved back to Utah in Aug. 1972. We lived at my folks for a bit until our furniture arrived and I had to drive the boys to school at Woodstock. I remember the first day of school, I couldn't find a parking place and was nervous, but Scott said, "Just drop us off and I will find Chris's 1st grade class and take him there. They had a list by the door of each class of the students in that class. I will pick him up at his class after school and you can pick us up at the flagpole."

I had debated about having Chris repeat kindergarten at Woodstock. He was so little for his age and just going to turn 6---making the Sept. 10 deadline by 5 days. I thought there wouldn't be any stigma about him repeating because it was in a different state, so few would know. And in Washington, they didn't teach reading in kindergarten, but just "reading readiness." But in Utah, they did teach reading, so he would start behind the other students. But I really didn't want another year of 3 pre-schoolers at home, so went ahead and put him in 1st grade!

That year Chris went from the slowest reader to the best reader in the class by the end of the school year. The principal awarded him a big book (about cars, planes, and automobiles, as I remember). Chris was scared and overwhelmed to go to school lunch. So his teacher Mrs. Clark would help him pick up his lunch tray and take it back to their classroom and eat lunch with her. After while, he was able to handle the lunch room. Mrs. Clark's husband had Meniere's disease really bad and so she had to get her teaching degree and go to work to support their family.

She did the individual reading charts where parents wrote when titles of 20 books as their child read them and then rewarded them with a little storybook for each 20 books read. That's what I copied with the grandkids. Chris was always competitive and I credit these reading charts with him reaching the best reader award! I think maybe Mrs. Clark moved to 2nd grade and had him two years, if I remember correctly.

Scott had Mrs. Silver for 3rd grade. I think all of the other kids had Mrs. Bullock for 4th (old and not that great or fun!).

Jen correction ... Mrs. Bullock taught 3rd grade. If you did something bad, you'd have to write up "I will never _____________" 100 times. I never had to do that though ... I was an angel. My main memories of Mrs. Bullock was her introduction of two of my favorite books, "Baby Island" and "Sonny Elephant" during reading time. My fondness for those two book overshadows all else, so my memories of Mrs. Bullock are good.

... and just for fun, back to the newspaper shared at the start. You've seen one side, featuring the photos and article. What's on the back? Ads ... which are always interesting, as prices and commodities change with the times. Portable radio anyone? A black and white TV? Typewriter stand? Wig care or a diet scale ... your local Pay 'n Save is the place to shop!

Mom/Margie ... Model or Scientist?

Scanning old documents, this newspaper article featuring Marjorie Westra was discovered. After high school, Mom/Margie received a full-tuition scholarship to Henager’s Business College. She was voted by her classmates at graduation as “The Secretary most likely to Succeed.”  She graduated, got married, and started working as a secretary for the doctors (about eight of them) at the Cancer Research Department at the University of Utah. This article would have been published in the last half of 1962 or first half of 1963. Mom remembers ...

Since the doctors were doing research with radioactive things, one of my duties was to go around and collect their film badges each week and give them new ones---to track if the doctors and workers got accidentally exposed to radiation. One of the doctors tested me in this whole-body counter, seen in the background of the photo. It was like going into an MRI testing tube, but without open ends. Locked in. Scary! That's when I realized I was claustrophobic!