Melba Louise Ballingham Smith was born in Grouse Creek, Utah on June 5, 1910, a daughter of Albert James and Louisa Emiline Paskett Ballingham.

When Melba Louisa Ballingham was born her father, James Albert Ballingham, was 30 and her mother, Louisa Emaline Paskett, was 26. 

 

She had the following brothers and sisters, Bertha Mae, Lester Albert, Mertrice Geneva, Verda Emily, George William, Treasa Venette, and James Wendel

The following was taken from Melba’s life sketch on Family Search

I was born June 5, 1910 at our home in Grouse Creek, Utah. My mother was attended by the midwives Mrs. Hadfield and Mrs. Blanthorn. I was the second of eight children.

Our home was on seven acres at the mouth of the canyon. My father built the house we lived in. We were only about a block from the church and school. I attended the Grouse Creek School through the 8^th grade. I always got fairly good grades. I wasn’t really an angel all that time but I wasn’t too bad either. I did like music and always took leading parts in plays at school. I often sang solos at church.

We had to work hard. I used to feel we were deprived of a lot of things living in the country, but I later realized how much we had. We had things that kids living in the city never had like our own sleight riding trail, our own hills to roam and many things we enjoyed on the farm. Of course, it wasn’t all fun. There was plenty of work to do. We couldn’t go play until our work was done. We cooked on a wood burning stove so we had to keep the wood box filled. In the summer the water pressure wasn’t too good, so we had to carry water from the school yard. It would take a lot of trips to get enough water to do a wash. We also had to drive the cows up the canyon every morning in the summer time to their feeding ground. We would always go to the (Lone Rock) about a mile and a half.

Every Saturday we would clean house and cook food to be ready for Sunday. Often some of our relatives would come over after Sunday School and have lunch with us and then go to church in the afternoon.

Mother taught us girls to sew. I have always made my own clothes. When I was about nineteen, I was living with my sister Bertha and her husband. I worked at Ogden Utah Knitting factory running a sewing machine. I was making from $5.00 to $6.00 a week. While I was working there, I took a night course of Designing and Pattern making for women’s clothes. I worked at that part of my working time.

I only went through the 8^th grade in Grouse Creek. I went to the 9^th grade in Ogden, working for my board and room. I quit school before the end of the school year and went to Lucin, Utah to work for my Aunt Jane and Uncle Godfrey who ran a Hotel in the little railroad town. My father worked at Lucin for the Southern Pacific railroad. Lucin is thirty miles south of Grouse Creek so I as able to go home often. It was after I was through working there that I lived with my sister and worked at the Ogden Knitting Mills. I later had an offer from Utah Tailoring Mills to be in charge of the alteration department for 25 cents and hour. Ten cents and hour was a lot at that time so I left and went to work for them. I later went to Los Angeles, California and worked there until the owners of Utah Tailoring asked me to come back and work for $100 which I did for some time, but I went back to California and worked.

It was then that World War II started. It was soon after I met my first husband, Earl McKenzie. He was from Battle Creek, Michigan. He was born and raised in Decatur, Tennessee but later went to Battle Creek to find work. We were married three weeks after we met. He was station in Riverside, California. He would come into Los Angeles where we had an apartment every weekend.

One day they got their call to go overseas but he couldn’t call to let me know, but when he got to Oakland, California he called me. He asked me if I would come to Oakland. I took the first bus I could get and spent two nights and one day with him before he left for overseas (New Guinea). My sister Verda and her husband and little girl Sharon lived in Palo Alto. I stopped off there and spent the afternoon and night with them. I really had a nice trip although I hated to see Earl leave for overseas.

Earl was overseas for two years. My sister Treasa came to Los Angeles and lived with me and worked at the factory where I worked. Her boyfriend was also overseas.

My mother was living with my sister Bertha in Ogden. She decided to buy a house in Ogden. She called and asked Treasa and if I would come back to Ogden and live with her which we did. I went back to work at Utah Tailoring Mills. I worked there until my husband came home from overseas.

The war ended a few months before he came home. I remember that day well. We heard the news just before we got home from work. The town went wild and celebrated most of the night. It was also sad for us as my sister Mertrice’s husband wouldn’t come back from the war. It hurt to see how she felt that night. Her little 3-year-old boy was frightened. He said I don’t like it. She cried and said I don’t like it either.

It was a while before the soldiers came home. When Earl came back, we went back to Battle Creek, Michigan. We spent the winter there, but things weren’t too good there. We decided to go back to Los Angeles. I got a job but it wasn’t so easy for my husband. We couldn’t find a place to live. We lived in a hotel room which was all we could find. We had to pay $2.00 ever day that’s the only way they would let us pay. It was against the law for a hotel to rent by week or month. Earl finally left and went back to Michigan. In the meantime, the place where I worked burned down so I was out of a job. I was offered a job by Rose Marie Reed making bathing suits, but I decided I had had enough so I went back to Ogden. Utah and got my job back at Utah Tailoring Mills. Earl came to Ogden and lived there for a while but finally left me in Ogden and went back to Michigan. He couldn’t find a job there but found work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I went back to Milwaukee and found work but Earl decided we should go to Denver. He put in to work at Fitz Simmons Veteran Hospital. He worked as a cook at the Brown Palace until he got called to the Hospital. He worked there until he retired. I worked at a couple of different clothing factories. We had a hard time finding a place to live. All we could find for a while was just a room.

We finally found an apartment by paying $50.00 under the table as there was a freeze on rent and the landlords wouldn’t rent to anyone without extra money. Apartments were scarce and they could ask any price.

We had problems in our marriage. Earl drank enough it cause many problems. I would come back to Ogden and stay awhile then go back and try again. We finally bought a home in Aurora not far from Fitze Simmons where Earl worked. It worked out for awhile be we finally sold the house and I went back to Utah and stayed with my mother. I wasn’t happy and neither was Earl so we tried again and bought another house in Aurora not far from the other house we had. We lived there several years but not without problems.

He got fanatic over religion. I had been inactive but decided to  become active in my own church. I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I had gone to church regularly until I was 18 years old. Earl didn’t belong to any church but his folks were Baptist, so he went to the Baptist church. I couldn’t change to the Baptist church, so we still had problems. He was so brainwashed by different Baptist ministers and members we really had trouble. We finally divorced in March 1959. Earl married the same day the divorce was final. With all our problems it really hurt.

I stayed in Denver and worked for a while. Later in the year I met and married Eldred Smith. I moved to Salt Lake where Ed was working. We bought a home there and lived there for a year. Ed, as he wanted me to call him was an accountant for a scaffolding company. He applied and got a job at Hill Air Force Base. We moved to Ogden. We lived in a duplex for there years then we bought a home in Sunset, Utah.

We have both been active in the church. Ed was a clerk in the Bishop’s office in one capacity or another working in the office since 1964. He also played the organ in Sunday School for 17 years until they cut our opening exercises when the went to the block system. He then played in sacrament meeting. I taught Junior Sunday School in Denver, taught primary in Salt Lake. I was chorister in Ogden. In Sunset I was organist in Primary, then Junior Sunday School, then chorister in Relief Society, then organist in Relief Society for 13 years.

Retracting, I worked in the garment factories most of my working years in Ogden, Los Angeles and Denver. I took a course in pattern making. I worked at times making patterns and sometimes at some places I worked I ran a sewing machine. I did designing and pattern making at Utah Tailoring. After we moved to Sunset I worked about four years at Van Kampen Furniture making drapes. I had just planned to work there a while until I found something better. I wanted to learn how to make drapes. While I was working there, I had a nervous condition that put me in bed for a while. In fact, I was months getting back to feeling good again (This was the second time I had this problem). I didn’t work for sometime but I went back later on and worked part time but not for long.

I was 63 years old (1973) when I quit. Ed wanted me to quit. I wasn’t exactly happy there so I didn’t want to take any more jobs. I kept so busy I wondered how I worked and kept up with everything. One thing I was able to spend more time with my family and helping more. Ed worked six years after I quit. He retired in 1979. I was hoping we would travel more but Ed doesn’t like to travel. We do take short trips. In 1983 we started taking bus trips.

Ed didn’t like traveling so my sister Mertice and I sent on one. We had such a good time Ed decided to try it. He like it so much we went on many trips. Canada was my favorite trip. We even went to Victoria Island.

We were going on a trip to Catalina Island we had sighed up to go. I was down in the basement and started up the stairs. The phone rang and I turned to go back to answer, and I fell two steps and pulled a ligament in my foot. I was in a wheelchair for six weeks.

I broke my hip in May 2001 and have been in a wheelchair ever since. I still live in my home with part time help.

Melba passed away at her home Wednesday, July 23, 2008. She was 98 years old. She is buried in Washington Heights Memorial Park.