I was born in Grouse Creek, Box Elder County, Utah on October 29, 1909, a daughter of Joseph Smith Barlow and Elizabeth Christena Hansen.

My father was Bishop of the Grouse Creek Ward for several years and when I was thirteen years old he was sustained as second counselor in the Stake Presidency.  The Stake Headquarters were in Malta, Idaho so we moved there in June 1922.

I attended the first seven years of the school in Grouse Creek and my eight, ninth, tenth and eleventh years in Malta.

My father died of a heart attack in September 1925, and my oldest sister, Mildred, who was working for Sanders’ Mercantile Store, helped support the family.

My second oldest sister, Alice, was married to Alvin Kimber and they lived on the farm that mother bought after father’s death. They helped mother raise turkeys and take care of the farm to make money to put the rest of us children through school.  The family lived in a new house in town that father had built.

In the fall of 1928 my oldest brother, Shirley, and I went to Albion, Idaho to finish high school and take some courses in the Albion State Normal School.  Because we took high school subjects during our first year at the Normal it was necessary that we go to summer school to get enough credit to graduate.  We graduated from the Normal School in the summer of 1930 and both secured teaching jobs in the little town of Elba, Idaho.  We kept house in two rooms of a home that was near the church house.

The first year that I taught there I had three grades: first, second, and third and I received $80.00 a month.

I taught in Elba for the next three years and lived in the home of Bishop Elihu Beecher.  They were very good to me and I appreciated them and their family very much.  Times were getting harder, so I was only paid $60 a month.

I married Rulon F. Horne July 19, 1934 at our home in Malta.  We were married by Bishop Orson S. Sanders.  We were married in the morning and Rulon had to go to work that afternoon.  He was working on a road construction job twenty miles away at Strevell, Idaho. We lived in Strevell in a sheep camp until the highway job was completed.

We then moved to Malta and lived in an apartment in back of a service station that Rulon operated for the next four years.

Rulon then went to work for Sanders’ Mercantile selling household appliances and farm machinery so we moved into part of mother’s house.

Our first child, a daughter, Karlene was born on April 18, 1938 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  My sister, Alice and her family had moved to Bountiful, Utah some years before and I had gone to stay with them so that I would be near my doctor, Dr. Lyman M. Horne, when the time came for my confinement.

When Karlene was about a year old Rulon went to work as construction man for Continental Oil Company.  This job took him on the road and I often went with him—sometimes taking Karlene with us and sometimes leaving her with my mother.

Our second daughter, Julie Anne, was born in Salt Lake City, July 6, 1942.  I had again gone to stay with my sister and wait for the blessed event.

A year later, because of the teacher shortage during World War II, I was asked to teach the third and fourth grades in Malta. Mother took care of the two little girls and Rulon remained with his job on the road.

On July 6, 1944 on the same day that Julie Anne was two years old, our third daughter, LaRae was born at the Christensen Nursing Home, in Rupert, Idaho.  When she was one year old, I was again asked to teach school so this time I taught the fifth and sixth grades.

My younger sister, Ida, had married Rulon’s brother Lorin and they had moved to Burley, Idaho where he was agent for the Continental Oil Company.  He had learned to fly and he bought a new airplane and went back to the factory in Baltimore, Maryland to take delivery on it.  On his way home he ran into fog near Weatherford, Texas and in attempting an emergency landing, he and his friend who had gone with him were killed in the crash.  They both left three small children.  This was indeed a sad day for all of us.

This happened in January 1946 and Rulon took over the business left by his brother’s death.  I was still teaching school in Malta so we did not get moved into the home we had bought in Burley until June of 1946.

When our youngest daughter, LaRae, was two years old I began teaching in Burley at the Southwest School.  I taught third grade the first year and first grade for the next seven years.

While teaching at Southwest I made many dear friends among the other teachers.  Loretta Garrard and Eva Hedberg were two of the choicest.  Others were Olive Burt, Loaine McBride, Bethine Martindale, Elva Jones and Jane Rue.

On January 15, 1953, Rulon was transferred from Burley to Boise, Idaho.  Because I was teaching school the family did not go with him.  We sold our home so that we could move to Boise as soon as school would be out, but in April he was transferred back to Burley.  We then bought another home in Burley and lived there until November 1959 when Rulon was transferred to Tucson, Arizona where the company was building a new pipeline terminal.

This transfer came as a great shock to us.  We had plans all drawn up and a building lot purchased to build a new home.  We had figured that we would now be located in Burley permanently.

Karlene had finished Business College and had secured employment in Salt Lake City and Julie Anne was in her senior high school year so we left her with mother in Burley to finish school.  LaRae was a sophomore in high school and she had many friends.  She started school in Rincon High in Tucson.  It was a large school and she had quite an adjustment to make.

We made the move from Burley to Tucson about November 12, 1959.  We stayed at the Ramada Inn for two weeks while we located a house to live in.  It took us all quite a while to become adjusted to the big city and make friends.  We became acquainted in the Tucson Fourth Ward and made many good friends.

I worked in the Relief society as secretary with Margaret Risner as President for about a year.  Then I was made work counselor with Belva Slade as president.  Later I became the president with Beth Morgan and Betty Larsen as counselors.  I was president for about 3 years.  I then was work leader for several more years.

Karlene married Garry Crook from Afton, Wyoming on the 18th of November 1960.  They drove to Mesa and were married in the Arizona Temple.

Julie Anne finished high school in Burley and I flew up for her graduation.  Rulon and LaRae came up when her school was out in June.

Julie Anne attended the University of Arizona in Tucson one year.  There she met Ronald Melvin Taylor from Colonia Dublan, Chih.Mexico.  They were married September 7, 1961 in the Arizona Temple.  We drove down to Dublan about a week later to the wedding reception.  We were very apprehensive about going to Mexico because we did not speak the language.  We had to go around by El Paso, Texas and it was a long trip, but we made it OK.  On our way back a flash flood had covered the road and made it out of the question to drive a car through it.  We drove the car onto a big flatbed truck and they took us across the flood.  What an experience!

After graduation from high school LaRae attended the University of Arizona and met Lamon Wimmer from Joseph City, Arizona. He graduated that year and found employment in Holbrook, Arizona and they were married in the Arizona Temple on October 18, 1963.

In January 1966 my mother, who was still living in Burley became sick and was taken to the hospital.  She had been there ten days when she died on February 1.  She would have been 89 years on February 3.  She had always lived alone since my father’s death. She had always been real healthy.

Wayne had a heart attack and died June 27, 1965, then mother died in February 1966, Alice died July 10, 1967 and Shirley diedAugust 10, 1967.  Both had heart attacks.  Lois, Wayne’s wife died February 14, 1968 of cancer.  Up until this time our family had not had any deaths since my father’s death.

On Saturday, August 31, 1968, Rulon had a heart attack while at work at the terminal.  One of the truck drivers brought him home and I took him to the hospital.  He had two more attacks before they got a temporary pace maker installed.  We were taking care of Julie Anne’s children while they vacationed in Ruidoso, New Mexico.  They came back; LaRae and Lamon came from Phoenix. Rulon seemed to be doing all right but on the following Wednesday he had another attack and this one seemed to be fatal.  Dr. Jordan and Dr. Silverman gave up and said it was the end, but through the faith and prayers of the family and the Ward members he pulled out of it.  He was really low for a long time, his kidneys failed and they had to give him temporary dialysis.  He was in Intensive Care for twenty-one days and in the hospital for 39 days.  He was very weak and it took a year before he could do much. Conoco retired him.  Then in May 1970 we moved to Apache Junction where we operated a Maverick self service gas station.  The price of gas was low, sometimes down to .25 cents a gallon, and there was always a gas war going on.  The company furnished us with an apartment and paid all utilities.  We worked on a commission and business was not very good.  We only stayed there about two and one half hears.  We then bought a mobile home at Citrus Gardens in Mesa.  We paid fifty-five dollars a month rent on the spot in the park at first but the rent was raised each year until it was doubled in six years time.  We finally sold the mobile home to Norman and Dorothy Allen from Canada.  We bought a small home in Southwest Mesa, on 2343 E. Juanita Avenue.

We enjoy our home very much but we are in a very young ward so we feel kind of out of place. John and Marie Isaacson lived across the street from us and we became very good friends as we were about the same age.  Mare had diabetes and a bad heart.  She died in August 1982 while we were up at Karlene’s place in Afton, Wyoming.  We miss her very much and now we are the only couple in the Ward who are grandparents.

Each summer we would lock up the place and go to Wyoming and stay with Karlene and family.  It gets so hot here and Star Valley is an ideal place to spend the summer.  We also visit with Rulon’s sister, Myrle in Pocatello and with my two sisters, Ida and Mildred in Burley and Declo.  We also have many good friends in Burley.  We also visited friends and relatives in Salt Lake City and Bountiful.  We spent many happy hours with Boyd and Elda Moss.  She was Alice’s youngest daughter.  Boyd passed away December 16, 1978 with a heart attack and Elda died April 17, 1981. These were sad times for all of us.

As of now, March 1, 1983 we have sixteen grandchildren.  Karlene and Garry have six children. Lynn recently returned from filling a mission for the church in Oklahoma Tulsa Mission: Darrin, who is a senior in high school, Kendall and Matthew who are in high school, Lynette and Lance who are in elementary school.

Julie Anne and Ronnie have six children:  Brian who went to the Veracruz Mexico Mission is now married and lives here in Mesa while going to college.  Nancy, who graduates from high school this spring; Karen and John who are attending high school; Alice who is in elementary school; and Stuart who will be five years old in May.

LaRae and Lamon have four children; Bradley who will be twelve this month, Kristi who will be ten this month, Douglas who is eight and Martin who is three years old.

We live about seven miles from LaRae and family so we get to see them quite often.  We wish that we could get to see all the rest of our families oftener than we do but they live so far away.

Rulon F. Horne died of cancer on June 28, 1987.   Ruth had by-pass surgery two months after he died and she lived until August 19, 1990, when she died of a massive brain hemorrhage.  She lived alone in Mesa on Juanita Ave. until she passed away.  She died in Burley while visiting her sisters and a funeral was held in Burley.  We also had a service in Mesa, Arizona before her burial next to her husband, Rulon F. Horne.  She was a kind and gracious woman and did a lot of service for her family, church, and community.  She was a great example for us all.

Contributed by Julie Ann Taylor, Ruth’s daughter.