In Town

“Lila and I were taken into Grandmother Clements care. She was a widow and was trying to run a hotel and creamery in Rexburg. She felt she could not take the baby Minnie as she had much more work than she could handle and didn’t feel she could give that much time to such a small infant. Father’s brother, Eugene Clements, and his wife having only one child wanted to take the baby. Father was afraid they would get too attached to her and not want to give her up. They convinced him that would not happen. It did happen. Father would never sign adoption papers but as soon as she was of age, they adopted her. I am sure Father thought he and Mother would get back together or that he would be able to care for her before many years went by but that did not happen.​

“My schooling started in Rexburg, Idaho at the Washington School. My first teacher was Miss Waltz. We all liked her. During recess I played in the swings, sliders, [unintelligible], and played jump the rope. At noon, I would go home to lunch as our hotel was only about a block from the schoolhouse.”

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Visiting Her Mother

​”My Grandmother Cantwell lived across the railroad tracks so as soon as my sister and I got old enough to be able to walk across town and across the railroad tracks we could walk down and visit Grandmother Cantwell and my mother. We’d get to Grandmother Cantwell’s and about the first thing she’d say was, ‘How’s your Grandmother Clements these days? Is she as fat as ever? I wouldn’t be that fat for anything!’ And then we would go home  and my Grandmother Clements would say, ‘Well, how’s your Grandmother Cantwell? Is she as thin as ever? I wouldn’t be that thin for anything!’”

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