Lester Albert Ballingham was born in Grouse Creek, Utah on January  3,  1912, a son of Albert James and Louisa Emiline Paskett Ballingham.

I had the following brothers and sisters, Bertha Mae, Melba Louise, Mertrice Geneva, Verda Emily, George William, Treasa Venette, and James Wendell.

I was reared and educated in Grouse Creek and married Jayne Smith on November 16, 1937 in Ogden, Utah. We are parents of Richard Lester Ballingham.

Left to Right – Lester Ballingham, August Rytting, Gordon Hadfield, Irene Warburton, Grant Kimber, Emily Kimber, Mertrice Ballingham, Fern Kimber, Wilma Betteridge, Myrl Hadfield, Bessie Shaw, Dave Thomas, Mildred Toyn & Louise Barlow

I am a member of the LDS Church and I presently go to a rest home every Sunday morning where they hold Sacrament meeting for the people in the rest home. I help wherever I am needed. It’s good to see the smiles on their faces when I help them.

I have lived in Ogden more than fifty-five years. I worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad for forty years. I later became an Engineer, running between Ogden and Carlin, Nevada. We lived in Carlin Nevada for a while and then returned to Ogden. When work was slow, I would build houses. I also built the home where I now live in Roy, Utah.

I am a member of the Railroad Engineers Club, also Old Timers, and Good Sam Club. I am active in all of them.

Ivan Kimber, Ellis Wakefield, Evan Kimber, Dorotha Christiansen, Archie Toyn, Lester Ballingham & August Rytting

Lester was a “Good Man”. He was afraid of little, least of all hard work. From an early age he earned by herding, haying, road building and breaking horses to help support a household of eight children. Not hampered by little formal education he was a builder by birthright. He built and sold new homes.

Les and Jayne touched all fifty states and twice traversed the Panama Canal. Though not always an active religious man, Les had a deep conviction in a just and good God who saw past labels to a man”s morality….how man treated man. Les attended and assisted L.D.S. services in the nursing home where he went daily for two and one half years to care for Jayne…to see that she, “kept her dignity” as Alzheimer”s disease slowly took her life.

Lester passed away peacefully on May 29, 2003 and he is buried at Washington Heights Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.