I Believe – My Values

PAUL L. BLACKHURST

My Dad had to leave school after the 8^th grade because his Father was a dairy farmer and he had excepted a job at Ironton which is a steel manufacturing business half way between Springville and Provo. My Dad worked full time with the dairy farm and was never able to finish his schooling.

When my parents got married my Dad started his own dairy heard with 2-3 cows that he was able to purchase and when I was very young he purchased 8 more cows from Mr. Chapman who lived in Lindon.

 

In Paul’s Priesthood Line of Authority, was the name of John A Widtsoe, who was a member or the quorum of the 12 Apostles. I thought it was very singular that this name appeared on Dads line of authority as Elder Widtsoe, then I discovered that Elder Widtsoe at one time had lived in Pleasant Grove.

 

~Paul’s Obituary~

The beloved patriarch of our family, Paul L. Blackhurst, 88, of Pleasant Grove, passed away peacefully on May 4, 1995 after a productive and faithful life.

He was the son of Lafayette Gardener and Gertrude Bullock Blackhurst, born September 10, 1906 in Pleasant Grove, Utah. He married Wanda Berniece Berry December 19, 1936 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

He was an active member of the LDS Church, serving as a Seventy, Bishop, High Councilman and various other leadership positions.

He served as a Pleasant Grove City Councilman for four years and was involved in other city activities.

He was a full-time dairy farmer from age 15 until his death. He loved the land and his animals. He was an avid gardener and raised many flowers, especially roses.

For the past 15 years he presided over a family home evening on the first Sunday of each month. The meeting included his complete extended family (children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and spouses).

He is survived by his wife of Pleasant Grove; a daughter and four sons: Mrs. Harold (Colleen) Judd, Salt Lake City; Larry Blackhurst (Carol) and Kent Blackhurst, both of Pleasant Grove; Pharis Blackhurst (Pam), American Fork; M. Dean Blackhurst (Chris), Lindon; 28 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; a brother and a sister: LaMont Blackhurst, Pleasant Grove; Elizabeth Harding, American Fork; two sisters-in-law: Beth Blackhurst and Zola Blackhurst, both of Pleasant Grove; He was preceded in Death by two brothers and a sister: David, Rollo, and Clara Cook.

Burial will be in the Pleasant Grove City Cemetery.

 

 

WANDA B. BLACKHURST

 

My Mother came from a family of 5 girls and 3 boys and she was the youngest in the family. When Mother was age 5, her Father, Lysander Berry passed away. He had been a farmer and since Grandmother was not able to run the farm she studied and took a Federal Exam and passed it and she was made the first Post Mistress in Cedar Fort. For years she handled all of the mail for the town of Cedar Fort and Fairfield and 2 mining camps, Ophir and Manning and did so up until she passed away.

 

My mother had several illnesses; she had diabetes, bruised skin and arthritis the last 10 years of her life. She slipped and fell and broke her hip. Then she slipped again and broke it again right after she got better. And then the third time she fell she got a rod and she was on walker the rest of the time.

 

~Wanda’s Obituary~

Our beloved mother and grandmother, Wanda Bernice Berry Blackhurst, 82 Pleasant Grove, passed away on July 1, 1995 after a life of loving service to family, church and community.

She was the daughter of Lysander and Fannie Neat Berry, born October 8, 1912 in Cedar Fort. She married Paul L Blackhurst on December 19, 1935 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. He preceded her in death on May 4, 1995. She was an active member of the LDS Church and served in many and varied positions including music and choir director and teacher in all organizations. She was in the presidency of both stake YWMIA and Relief Society. She was a member of the Singing Mothers organization for many years.

She was a member of the Variety Club which performed community service and service in the Strawberry Days celebration for many years.

For the past 15 years she has presided with her husband, Paul, over a family home evening on the first Sunday of each month. The meeting included their complete extended family-children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and spouses.

She is survived by a daughter and four sons: Mrs. Harold (Colleen) Judd, Salt Lake City; Larry Blackhurst (Carol) and Kent Blackhurst, both of Pleasant Grove; Pharis Blackhurst (Pam), American Fork; M. Dean Blackhurst (Chris), Lindon; 28 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; a sister, Arvilla Hacking, Littleton, Colorado. She was preceded in death by a brother and two sisters: Woodruff, Mary and June.

Burial will be in the Pleasant Grove City Cemetery.

Juanita Carol Hood Blackhurst was born February 17, 1943 in Ft Smith, Arkansas to Howard Thomas Hood Sr and Ethel Imogene Chomor. She was a beautiful and loving child and was adored by her mother, aunts and grandparents with whom she lived with for the first few years of her life. Her “daddy” was stationed in Germany for World War II when she was born and she would not meet him until she was 3 years old. He carried a picture of her in his pocket until they would meet. Her mom, Imo, was the most pivotal person in her life. She has always had an enormous love and respect for her. Carol was a joy to those around her and she always felt so lucky to have so many love her. Her family consisted of her young mother, 3 aunts and grandparents all in a small home in Union Town, Arkansas. Carol always told us that this is where she was most happy. When her “Daddy” returned from war he found work in California and the family followed him and set up a home where she would be raised. Carol told us that, although she was very young she was devastated to leave her Aunts and Grandparents home in Arkansas. She was a true Southerner at heart.

As a child, she loved to roller-skate and dance and helped take care of her sister and brother. She did not like milk as a baby and so her mother replaced it with chocolate milk and she was hooked on it from there on out. Chocolate was her vice. She was a beautiful girl with her dark hair and green eyes. She enjoyed all things a typical girl would; her dolls and her dresses and watching her mother cook and sew. She always had a love for animals, especially dogs, some she loved to hold and pet and others she would love from afar. One of her biggest fears was to be near anything with feathers. One of the funniest stories she would tell would be of her being chased and pecked by a chicken at a young age and she would never recover. Then later, when Aaron brought home a fighting rooster to the house on Geneva Road, she was once again terrified every time the rooster would attack anyone within range. Needless to say, she was leery of anything with feathers.

 

At 12 years old, she was introduced to the Gospel by her Aunt Madge when she invited the Missionaries to teach Carols family. Carol was able to to Baptized along with her Mother and Sister when she was 13. As a teenager, Carol had many friends and was a great example to all. She loved to dance and while attending Pacifica High School, was part of the drill team. She also went to all the church dances on Saturday nights. As sweet as she was, she was never without a date. She had a weakness for any boy with great hair and a cool car. Many boys tried to catch her along the way but it was extremely important for her to find a worthy priesthood holder. Carol loved to listen to music on her record player that she received one Christmas as a teenager. She listened to Elvis and other rock n roll music that she could dance around her room to.

 

After high school, she applied and was accepted to BYU. She then got cold feet because she didn’t want to “move to Utah and marry a farm boy”. As fate would have it, that is exactly what she did. As Larry finished up school, Carol worked as a telephone operator to make ends meet. After he graduated, Larry got a job with the scouting organization and they moved to Half Moon Bay, California for a year or so. Carol was thrilled to be a bit closer to her parents and she was even more thrilled to learn she was pregnant with her first child. In 1967, they moved back to Utah and built a house on Geneva Road where they would go on to raise their family. Carol’s greatest joy in life was her children. Her kindness and unconditional love was apparent to all those who met her. Aaron was born in 1967 and was a very active little boy that tried her patience daily. When Brook followed in 1970, she was very ill after the delivery and always claimed she had the “Hong Kong Flu”. In 1970, she had her hands full with 2 little boys and was expecting a third any day. Her Doctor told her she was measuring far too big in her pregnancy and maybe they had miscalculated her date. He decided they should induce her labor and get this baby out. Chad was born and was much smaller that the doctor anticipated. While they allowed Carol to rest, the nurse kept noticing that her belly was not quite going down as it should and about 30 minutes later the idea occurred to the Doctor that he had better check for another baby and sure enough, Chris was born and Carol was surprised and shocked with twins. Carol was a devoted mother and worked very hard every day to be the nurturer that her children needed. A couple years later, while expecting another child again in 1974, Carol and Larry had a little fight and Carol was so upset that she packed some bags and was taking her 4 boys under the age of 6 and going to go back to her Mom in California. She took the old farm truck and made it all the way to a hotel in Provo. The boys drove her crazy all night jumping from bed to bed and she decided maybe she had not completely thought out her plan. Angela was born soon after that and Carol and Larry were thrilled to finally have a little girl. They thought she would mellow out the boys, little did they know, Angela would be more trouble than all the boys put together. Heather was born next in 1977 and from the minute she was born she was in Carols back pocket. Heather adored Carol and wanted to be like her in every way. After having 6 kids, Carol suffered a couple of heart breaking miscarriages but knew that her family was not complete. Lafe came to her later in 1982 and was Carols baby and he still is. She was fiercely protective of all her kids but when it came to Lafe she would not tolerate anyone that would even look at him the wrong way. Carol did not in any way have a temper but the few times we would see her get riled up were the times that she was defending her Children. One time in particular, Brook, Chad and Chris were fighting on the school bus and the bus driver had had enough. Mid-route he pulled into Carol and Larrys drive way and laid on the horn as loud and as long as he could. Carol came running out in a panic thinking something was terribly wrong. The bus driver proceeded to tell her what the boys were doing hoping she would handle it and he was very upset with them. Well, that bus driver didn’t know what he was in for that day with Carol. She bit back in a way he never expected and let him have it. She told him that her boys had NEVER done anything wrong and if he had any sense at all that he had better get the bus off her property. Shocked, the driver quietly let the boys out and realized that he had messed with the wrong momma bear that day protecting her cubs. Whether they were right or wrong, Carol ALWAYS stood beside her kids. In additional to her natural children she hosted 3 Foster children at different times, and was also a surrogate mother to countless friends of her children. So many people have reached out to tell us that she was their “second Mom”; such a tribute to her nurturing spirit. Carols entire existence was devoted to her husband and children. She spent many hours cooking, canning and trying to feed every soul that walked in her house. She was always worried about everyone else’s needs before her own. She had a funny little trick that when you would ask how she is doing she would change the subject back to you. She was the most selfless person ever to be born. She attended countless ball games, school functions, dance recitals, stock shows, parent teacher conferences, principal offices and other functions for her children; always by their side and always helping them be their best.

 

Carol never realized that there was one thing that would rival being a mother. But when she became a Grandmother her world changed again and she was over-joyed to be at almost every single birth of a grandchild. She was blessed to have 22 Grandchildren and one on the way. 2014 she was thrilled to welcome her first great-grandson. She has babysat countless hours and been there to rock babies, change diapers, take naps with, read to, tickle backs, drive to school and make every single child and grandchild feel special. She had a way about her that made everyone feel like they were her favorite. She knew specific details about every person’s life in her family. When you would visit with Carol she would know about tests at school, ball games, situations with friends, health issues, who was dating who, work issues and any other detail that she sincerely paid attention to.

 

So many special memories from the grand children to share: here are just a few. Listening to Elvis and dancing in the kitchen, feeding stray cats, sitting on the porch eating a Popsicle and watermelon, watching the boys haul hay, making lunch together, teaching the kids how to work and earn money, buying old toys at the DI and cleaning them up, cutting out articles from papers and magazine for everyone in the family, buying school supplies, having cookies in the kitchen at all times setting up decorations for each holiday and taking the kids to Strawberry Days.

 

Carols character was unmatched. She touched so many hearts quietly and humbly not looking for attention or accolades. Her acts of kindness were done anonymously. We would find out years later about notes that she sent or people that she reached out to during trails. She loved to write personal notes to friends and family giving them strength and encouragement. For example we would find out years after her passing from the ladies that she served in the Young Womens and Relief Society that each time a member or teacher would have a birthday she would bake a cake and take it to their home and spend time with them without wanting recognition. She made phone calls to her children daily and knew all the details of their lives and made sure the sons and daughter in laws felt loved and appreciated too. Sometimes, Mother in laws get a bad rap, but Carol was cherished by each of her in laws and especially by her children’s spouses.

 

As long as we can remember, Carol has struggled with her health, always feeling tired and run down. While raising her family, she pushed through tough times everyday. Her last few years were especially hard on her little body and we all watched her try to smile through her pain. Another little “funny” she would do is, I would say “mom, how are you feeling today”? She would say “pretty good”. I would say “do you lie”? An she would smile and say “yes”. As kids we were blessed enough to serve and care for her over her last 2 years and try to emulate the love that she has instilled in us all of our lives.

I became an ordinance worker in the Timponogas Temple beginning September 2005 where I worked a Tuesday and Friday shift each week.

 

I have served as the coordinator for the recommend desk, the coordinator of the Baptistery, the coordinator of the Endowment room, the coordinator of the Initiatory and the coordinator in the dressing room.

 

During my service on Tuesdays I became well acquainted with a brother Frank Wirig who was 15 years my senior and he had worked in the CES department of the Church. He began to teach me about some of the wonderful symbolism’s that are found in each of the Temples and not always the same in each temple.

 

For example: When someone goes to the Baptistery to preform Baptisms for the Dead the Baptismal Font in all Temples are held up by 12 oxen. Their names are given from the 12 tribes of Israel. So, the question is,Which one of those oxen represents the tribe of isreal that is listed in your patriarchal blessing? Most likely you are from the tribe of Ephraim. So, how to you tell in each Temple which oxen is represented of Ephraim? This can be found in the Old Testament in the book of Numbers Chapter 2. In that chapter Moses received a designation from the Lord on where each tribe of Israel was to be represented around the perimeter of the Tabernacle and the Tribe of Ephraim is listed in vs 18 which designates Ephraim to be on the west side of the Tabernacle. So, in each temple you find the oxen that is on the west side of the Baptismal font that is always the one that is designated to Ephraim. The oxen that is on his right side represents Manasseh and on his left side in the tribe of Benjamin. These 3 represents the children from Jacobs wife Rachel.

 

A second symbol is found in the 7^th Chapter of 2^nd Kings where it tells that Solomon was building the famous Solomon’s Temple and he hired a man named Hyrum who was an expert in the work of Brass so Hyrum preformed many different acts of building of the Temple with his expertise in brass work. One of the first things that he did was to build 2 pillars that were attached to the outside entrance of the temple the one on the right he named Jachim and the one on the left he named Boaz. In the bible dictionary under the word Jachim is an explination of what those 2 pillars mean. The one on the right he refers to “He will establish” which refers to a person presenting his temple recommend. When he leaves the temple he passed the one of the left which is Boaz and it refers to “In Him Is Strength” meaning that after a person has been through temple ordinances he has greater gospel strength. These 2 pillars are found in the Mt Timponogas Temple (behind the wall where you present your recommend) but I am not aware of other temples with this particular symbolism.

 

In the old testament Jacob goes to visit a place called Penuel and while there he has a vision from the Lord in which he sees a ladder with people climbing the ladder to enter the Celestial Kingdom. This is symbolic of most all temples where you start with Baptisms in the basements and gradually move up to Initiatory and then to an endowment and then up a ramp to the Vail which represents entering into the presence of the Lord.

These are just a few of the symbols that you can find at each of the different Temples.

 

I served for 16 years in the Mt Timponogas Temple. I am very grateful for this very choice experience and have made life time acquaintances and friends.

We generally get together around the 4th of July every year and have a family reunion, and we try to make that in different areas or different places. We also go together to a lot of ball games. A lot of the grandchildren play on baseball teams, travel around to different states to play in tournaments as well as the young girls are playing on softball teams, and they do a lot of that. So, we spent a lot of time going to those types of activities.

 

Christmas was always the big thing in our family. Carol was always making sure that she had set up the festivities for every one of our children, and that we all enjoyed Christmas together. That was always an important thing in our family.

 

We always have a Christmas tree. Most years, we would go out and find a tree that we could cut down ourselves.

 

We always had a Christmas dinner. We’re all a family that come and enjoy time together and have great meals together. We have some kind of meat that was cooked and then potatoes.

 

We always had Thanksgiving together every year at Grandmothers house.

I am probably with my family, almost all of them, at least once a week. Not all of them at the same time, but I usually see all of them fairly often because all seven of my children live within five miles of where I live. Six of seven of them are doing business together.
It means that we have a lot of time together. We get together, and then one of the families is assigned to give a discussion taken from the scriptures, and that varies according to what we feel. They’re the most important things that are needed at the current time, but each one is assigned the role of preparing that in advance, as well as preparing and bringing a treat for the whole family for that get-together.

 

We also remember the birthdays of everybody in the family. We talk about any activities that are going on and remind family members where those will take place and who’s invited to be there and participate.

 

During those meetings, we also try to make contact with those members of the family who don’t live close by, which are primarily the grandchildren. We also try to follow up with all of the missionaries in the family.
My parents and my siblings started having this get-together in 1979. We’ve been doing that as a family ever since. Families grow up and split apart, but our families have continued this tradition. Many of my brothers and sisters still do that with their families every month.

 

We have a lot of twins in our family. We had twin boys, and then two of our children had twins. Four of them were all born the same night and so worked out to be the same doctor.
Cole and Kelsey (Brook and Val’s twins) were born Friday evening at 8pm. Berkley and Brighton (Angie and Ryan’s twins) were born 6 hours later at 2am Saturday morning.

Even as busy as I always was with working and my church callings, I always made it a point to make time for coaching the kids in little league baseball and softball, and taking them on hunting trips.  These included Cedar Fort, Nebraska, Wyoming, Book Cliffs, South Fork, Fairview and Provo Cirque. We also spent a lot of time participating in 4H and FFA where the kids would go to stock shows to show lambs and steers.

 

Every fall, we go on deer hunting trips and we take the horses to ride up into the mountains. I haven always taken the boys with me, and because of those experiences over the years, they have all become hunters. They became very interested in it because I always took them with me.

 

Every year in October, I would take the boys out to a place called Cedar Fort, Utah, which is where their grandmother was born and raised. There we would hike up into the mountains at 5 mile Canyon and Little 4 Canyon to go hunting for several days. We would hunt  deer and sometimes elk, but the most impressive animal for me is a buffalo.

 

Probably my most memorable hunt was the first hunt I ever went on. I shot my first deer out above Cedar Fort in little 4 Canyon when I was 26 years old.

 

30 something years ago my brother, Pharis, and I were friends with a fellow who was an accountant in American Fork, Utah. He arranged for us to go to one of his clients in Haigler, Nebraska who raised 25,000 acres of corn each year and we were allowed to go hunting on his property for pheasants. Pharis indicated that we should probably get a white tail deer permit the first year that we went. As the years went by we would hunt some pheasants and quail but primarily became a whitetail deer hunt.

 

We usually spend about five or six days every fall in that city in Nebraska and go out to various areas from there to hunt. They were usually split up in groups, so we went out maybe four of us in the group. We’ve also built excellent friendships back in that area with some of the local people. Every year when we go out, we end up going to dinner with some of them, renewing our acquaintances, and talking about old times. It’s just really been a great experience for my whole family.

 

Most of my grandchildren, if they’re not invited, get upset that they weren’t considered to go each time. Some of them who can’t go because of education or other things that they’re doing are upset because the rest of the family is going and they can’t go with them. That’s been a good family tradition.

 

We still go hunting here locally, in the state of Utah and some of the surrounding states like Colorado and Wyoming every year. We do quite a bit of riding on horseback, and we go to various places, usually taking the horses in a trailer to a certain area, and then we get out to ride up on top of the mountain. In the Uintah’s we do a lot of fishing on those kinds of trips, and most of the family have enjoyed that.

 

In the last ten years, it’s probably been mostly deer that we have hunted.

Shortly after Carol and I were married we received our first tax refund check and we used part of it to purchase 2 horses. One from Rex Coates and one from a rodeo in Cedar Fort where they brought the horses in from a ranch in Nevada where they had an auction. From that point on we always had horses.

The Horses that I have owned In chronological order:

-Old Blue- My Dad traded a calf from my uncle Rollo for Old Blue

-Duster- I bought in Wallsburg (was the mother of original ginger the mother of Ginny, star and chocolate)

-Original Ginger (bought from Cedar Fort auction)

-Ranger (bought from Rex Coates)

-Ginny

-Star

-Chocolate (the 2nd Gingers Colt)

-Ginger

-Poco

-Warrior

-Johnny

-Rebel

-Peaches

-peaches colt

-Honey (squishy)

-Angel

-Poco

-Junior

-Fancy

 

I remember when our sons were growing up, they all chose to spend a two-year mission for the church. Because of that, I raised a horse colt for each one of them.

 

I retired in the year 2006, and for those last 15 years I have been raising hay to feed their horses.  We cut, rake and bale the hay three times a year, and after doing that, they come by with their kids, and we usually make it a family affair. They go out and load the hay and carry it into the barn and store it for their horses for the year.  We have 15 acres that we’re farming.