William Dean Evans and Bernice Hurren Evans

Logan Temple, 27 October 1937.

              LIFE HISTORY OF WILLIAM DEAN EVANS AND BERNICE HURREN 

My father, William Dean Evans, was born 13 August 1917 in Logan, Cache, Utah, to William Evans Jr and Mabel Wealthy Wilcox Evans.

My mother, Bernice Hurren, was born 9 May 1920 at Trenton, Cache, Utah, to James William Hurren and Ingra Toolson.  They did not write about their lives and times. I think they were too busy living their lives to write anything down for posterity. That is a shame for us because they led good lives and were examples of honesty and integrity that would be helpful for their posterity to know.

However, the following is information I know that mother gave about our family to be written by someone else in a ward publication I think about the year 1973.

MEET THE EVANS FAMILY

The word Amity means friendly and harmonious.  Have you ever noticed how very friendly the LDS families are that live south of Meridian on Amity Road?  Maybe the road makes them amiable, or vice versa.   I do know though, that Dean and Bernice Evans (yes, they live on Amity) are one of the friendliest families I know.  Also one of the busiest.  They moved to this area over 25 years ago.  They have been farmers all the while.  They came from Layton, Utah, where Brother Evans worked at Hill Air Force Base after having served in the Army during World War II.

Dean was born in Logan, Cache, Utah on 13 August 1917 while Bernice came into the world on 9 May 1920 (a Mother's Day) at Trenton, Cache, Utah.  Both were born into active LDS homes.  Dean received his education at Logan, including 2 years at Utah State Agricultural College.  Bernice attended grade school and Jr. High at Smithfield, Cache, Utah and high school at North Cache High School at Richmond, Cache, Utah.

Since Logan and Smithfield were only seven miles apart it was no miracle that Dean and Bernice should meet and eventually form a "mutual admiration society", which blossomed into love.  They were married in the Logan Temple, 27 October 1937.

The Evans' welcomed four bundles from heaven over the years, William Bruce, the oldest, with his family live in Overland Park, Kansas, where he is a dentist; Sharon, their only daughter, lives with her husband, Lynn Belnap and family at Brigham City.  Brent is married also and is serving his country in the Navy, stationed in San Diego.  Robert, their youngest, is presently living in Boise.  Both Bruce and Brent fulfilled missions--Bruce in the Eastern States Mission and Brent in the West Spanish American Mission.  Dean and Bernice are proud of their 11 grandchildren.

For the past six years Dean has worked for the Idaho Highway Department in addition  to his farming.  After the children were grown Bernice decided to get a job.  She has been a sales lady for several years and is presently employed by Brookovers in Nampa.

They have always been active in church and both held man positions.  Dean has been Elders Quorum president, both Sunday School counselors, assistant stake clerk and is now assistant ward clerk.  Bernice has served as Relief Society President, counselor and teacher; Primary president, counselor and teacher and YMMIA stake as a counselor, ward counselor, attendance secretary and teacher.  She was also on the Stake Sunday School board and is presently a teacher in the Jr. Sunday School.  In addition they are faithful members of the choir.  They love to sing and seldom miss an opportunity to participate. 

To sum up, the Evans Family, they believe as King Benjamin, "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

The above is certainly not the entire life history of my parents, Dean and Bernice Evans. I have subsequently found out that my mother, Bernice, gave more information to my daughter, Lisa, and Lisa used that information at mother's funeral. 

 That information will be intertwined in the history to come.  I will try to research and remember other more detailed happenings in their lives. This way we can get a glimpse into what made them so strong in their convictions and loyal to their God, family, and church.  I am going to begin with the early life of my mother and then the early life of my father and join the writing at marriage and write about the entire family from that point on.  

Although Bernice is my mother, I will refer to her as Bernice in this history for clarity

MARGARET, ALICE AND BERNICE HURREN

Bernice was the fourth child born to James William Hurren and Ingra Toolson.  The family lived in Hyde Park where her three siblings were born.  Then her parents bought a farm in Trenton and moved the family there.  She was born there and after a year they moved back to Smithfield.  Her father, J.W., farmed land in Trenton and Amalga.  They had a small acreage in Smithfield where their animals were kept.  Her brothers and sisters, who were born before her. were William Keith, Alice, and Wendell Toolson.  Her sister, Margaret Ruth, was born after they moved back to Smithfield.

Bernice was raised in a family that was active in the church as all their ancestors had been. Bernice said she had a pleasant childhood.  The family was very close knit.  Her mother Ingra came from a family that was well organized and she was the same.  All the children had chores to do and they did them willingly.  When Margaret Ruth became ill with rheumatic fever when she was six years old, she had to stay in bed and required complete bed rest.  All her needs had to be met by the family members and she was tutored in her studies as well.  The brothers and sisters brought home assignments for Margaret to work on and all did their part to see that she didn't get behind.  The little boys would bring candy, beads and bracelets to Bernice because they liked her.  She would bring them home to Margaret to help cheer her up.  This was during the Great Depression and there weren't antibiotics to help with the situation.  All they had to offer Margaret were pioneer remedies and aspirin as a source of relief.

Bernice remembered during the Depression and one Christmas when her brother, Keith, was on his mission that Christmas was going to be lean.  Her father was out with the cow buyers and had made $100.  He was thrilled to bring it home helping to make Christmas more bounteous that year.  Mother Ingra immediately sent father, J.W., over to the Bishop's place to pay it for tithing that was owed.  The lesson learned concerning the payment of tithing has endured many years, far longer than the material things they could have purchased.  Grandma and Grandpa Hurren always encouraged the family to pay their tithing and do as the Lord wanted them to do.

Bernice's sister, Alice, was the more aggressive sister.  Bernice was always quite shy and reserved although she had many friends in her growing up years.  There were a couple incidents while growing up that bear telling here.

The family lived in a two story white house on the corner of second south and main in Smithfield.  There was another house that was similarly located about two blocks away on a corner lot.  This house was owned by Linda Chambers.  She took in borders.  She had a border who did a lot of walking and one night Grandpa Hurren left the front door unlocked.  The border, who mistook their house for his house, walked right into the Hurren house and up the stairs to the second floor where the children had their living quarters.  He did not turn on any lights and was fumbling around in the dark.  Bernice awoke and saw him and froze with fright.  She could not speak.  She poked her sister, Alice, and Alice awoke and yelled at the top of her lungs, "Da-a-a-a-d!"  It frightened the border and he ran down the stairs and out the front door.  Everyone thought he was probably a little drunk.  It goes without saying, all the children were quite upset and especially Bernice.

Grandpa Hurren went to talk to Ms. Chambers and asked her to talk to her borders and make sure an incident like this did not happen again.  She pacified him with assurances  and it was left at that.

Sometime later on a rainy night the same border mistook the house again, but this time the front door was locked when he tried to get in. So he got a ladder and put it up to the second floor window and tried to get in the house that way.  Bernice again was the first to see him and again was frozen in fear but had the good sense to poke her sister, Alice, again, and Alice at the top of her lungs yelled, "Da-a-a-d!"  This again frightened the border and he climbed down or fell and ran away.

Grandmother woke up grandfather and he said, "go back to sleep".  All the children came downstairs and went to the bathroom. 

The next day grandmother made grandfather go tell Linda Chambers what happened and when she heard the story she said, "Now William, he didn't do that.  I think you are wrong."

At one time Bernice had a lovely pink dress she was going to wear for Health Days.  Sometime before going to the event she had an upset stomach and vomited.  She felt really badly because she had to stay home from Health Days and couldn't wear her new pink dress.  Wendell tried to cheer her up but it didn't work very much.  The siblings were always doing that for each other.

They had a union hall up town across from the grocery store.  They held activities there.  They dressed up in costumes and put on plays.  They also held dances there.  One time Bernice was supposed to sing a song.  She had a lovely voice.  Her cousin Terry Hansen played for her.  He was dressed in costume and for some reason his pillows under his costume started to fall down.  Everyone started laughing while mother was singing and she felt humiliated, but they weren't laughing at her, they were laughing at Terry and the pillows.  She, however, didn't see it that way.  Wendell and Terry were brownies.  The union hall burned down and everyone was very sad.  They had had all their activities there.  One time Bernice was chosen as Apple Blossom Queen.  She was 8-9 years old.  She wore a hat tied under her chin and it had a big wide brim.  Her dress was white ruffles and long to the floor.  She really liked that dress and hat.

The family had a big yard and all the cousins would come to play.  They played Run My Sheepy Run, tackle and knock ball (like football) and other games of the day.  They sometimes would go in the house to play if the weather was not good.  They had a big round table so everyone could sit around the table and play.  They played Pit and Old Maid and other card games.  There were lots of nights the cousins would come and stay all night.  Everyone seemed to like to come to grandma and grandpa Hurren's house.  In later years Bernice was a good card player and I am sure she learned that from her times with her brothers and sisters and cousins playing cards.

Bernice and her sisters liked nice clothes.  They didn't have a lot of clothes, but what they did have was pretty.  In order to have nice things the girls had to work for them.  Alice and Margaret had piano lessons and they became accomplished pianists.  Their growing up years were during the depression and when money is tight like it was then the first thing to go were music lessons.  But they had music in their home all the time.  Bernice was the singer and Margaret and Alice played the piano.  

Alice went to work and helped Wendell and Keith while they were on their missions.  They were all good workers and Wendell and Keith always pushed the girls to do better.  They all worked in the beet fields, thinning, hoeing and topping beets.  One year Bernice was given a small parcel of land to grow beets of her own.  Her grandfather, J.W.D. Hurren told her he had never seen beets thinned so well as hers.  She earned $25.00 and went to the Boys' League Dance in a royal blue taffeta dress she bought with her beet money.  She went with the football captain, Butch Gutke.  Butch was mannerly but a little scared.  He only took her to the bridge and Bernice had to walk over the bridge and up to the porch and front door by herself.  Grandfather Hurren was a little upset at that but thought it was funny when Bernice told him Butch was afraid of him.  She went to the prom with Victor Cartwright in a peach taffeta dress Grandma Hurren had made for her.  Most of mother's dresses were either made by Grandma Hurren or grandmother had them made for her.

When mother was high school age she went to North Cache High School in Richmond.  The music director of that school did not believe in easy operettas for the students to do.  He tackled operas like Aiida.  According to Margaret's husband, Alton Haslam, Bernice was a soloist in one of those operas.

North Cache High School was a "cracker box" school and had a "top notch" gym according to Alton.  There was a balcony with a railing to keep people from falling onto the gym floor and quite often during the lunch hour they would hold dances.  This was the beginning of the big band era and many dances were held.  Bernice went to all the dances and she was a very good dancer. Alton used to watch the dancers from the balcony and he would always see mother dancing.  I think if you were to ask her what part of her growing up she liked the best I am sure she would say dancing.  She loved to go to the dances dressed as prettily as possible.  All the girls in the Hurren family had good taste in clothing and they shared their clothes so each article could be used to the utmost.

Bernice had a few really good friends.  She was very pretty so the boys liked her, but she was quite shy so she had only a very few really good girl friends.  One of those friends was Glade.  In the 1936 high school yearbook, Polaris, Glade wrote the following:

"I haven't known you very long, not more than 12 years anyway, but considering the short time I have known you I think I have learned to like you.  But it happens to be more than like.  I can't find the words in the whole dictionary to express my feelings toward you.  I have met up with a lot of interesting people, but never have I met anyone I took to like you.  I hate to think of the years to come that will separate us, but regardless of the distance that lie between us I shall never forget you and your striking personality and I am hoping with all my heart that you will always have a warm spot in yours for me.  Now for a review of some of our little events.  Do you remember going to South Cache and how those guys fell for what we said hook, line and sinker.  Do you remember the night I introduced you to what now seems to be your boy friend.  How did I know it would turn out like this.  I shall never forget the good times I have had down to your place and how grand you have all been to me.  With your looks, old dear and dancing and personality, you ought to climb to the highest step on the ladder.  Wishing the sweetest girl in the world all the happiness and success possible.  Always a friend, Glade."

By what is written here and the year of the Polaris, 1936, I think Bernice was introduced to her future husband, William Dean Evans, by her friend, Glade.  I hope that is true.  They met at a dance they both attended.  From what I gathered from Dad's (Dean's) friends, the neighborhood gang of guys liked to go up to Smithfield on the weekends and scope out the girls and vice versa.  The girls liked to come to South Cache and scope out the guys.

Now it is time to write about my father, William Dean Evans, his life prior to marriage. My father, William Dean Evans, was born 13 August 1917 in Logan, Cache, Utah, to William Evans Jr and Mabel Wealthy Wilcox Evans.  They lived on 5th West and 171 North.  At first there was a house between dean's home and great grandfather Evans' home.  It was an adobe-built home.  That is where Will and Mabel lived for a few years before their home at 171 North was built.  I will refer to my father as Dean from now on for clarity.  The adobe house is gone now.  Harold and family lived in it for a while until their house was built.  Then I think the adobe house was torn down.  Harold lived at 532 W 200 N and his daughter, Janice, still lives there.

  Lucille, Stratford and Dean

The picture above is of Lucille, Stratford and Dean Evans when they were quite young.  Dean had two more sisters, Priel and Bertie Mae who were older than Dean.

The picture below is of Dean in his earlier years.  He had friends he played with a lot.  Nate Dopp lived right across the street and Dean played with him from earliest childhood.  One of his close friends was Ray Partington who lived on the other side of great grandfather's home.  Here is a picture of the boys playing football when about 7-8 years of age.  

RAY PARTINGTON, FRIEND, FRIEND AND DEAN EVANS

Ray Partington remembers that Dean used to come out to Ray's family farm about half way between Cache Junction and Valley View and stay for a few days quite often during the summer.  Ray's family owned Black Rock or what they called Eagle Butte.  The boys hiked around and played the games of young children.  They liked to ride horses.  It must have been like playing in the wide-open spaces, a real joy for children.  Ray's family lived at the farm in the summer and in Logan in the winter.  Dean really liked to go out to play with Ray and to help when he got a little older.  Dean would stay for a week or so at a time.  Ray said he was just like a brother.  They used to trap rock chucks and kill them because those little varmints were so destructive to the area with their incessant digging of holes and eating on the alfalfa fields.  The boys got a dime for every rock chuck they could catch and kill. Ray said the Indians would come and trap the rock chucks also and they would dry the skins and also eat the flesh for food.  The Indians would never bother anyone and they would stay on the other side of any fences that had been built.  Another method of getting rid of varmints was to soak carrots in poison and but the carrots in the holes dug by the rock chucks.  This way they ate the poisoned carrots and died.  That is what Ray's father did to get rid of those varmints.

Dean had a horse that he loved to ride and he got a nice saddle for Christmas one year.  He was about 10-12 years old.  Dean and his buddies used to walk to school.  Quite often during the winter when the snow was heavy on the ground Priel would drive the car down the highway and around the blocks pulling a few kids behind on skies.  Dad and Ray and Nate loved to do that.  There weren't very many cars so that was a possible thing to do.  Also, in the winter Temple Hill right beside the temple was blocked off and kids would bring their sleds and go down the hill when the roads were snowy and icy.  Dad got a Flexible Flyer sled for Christmas one year and he took it to the hill and let everyone go flying down the hill on it.  Dean was always making sure his friends had a good time.

Dean used to drive Harold's cows out to pasture when in his youth.  He had the job of taking Harold's cows to pasture and he liked to do it.  I am assuming it was a job and he got paid for it.  I think he would have done it either way because he loved being out in the open so much.  His mother, Mabel, was very strict about her home and would not allow the neighborhood children to play in her house.  I think Dean spent a lot of his time during good weather outside with his buddies.  I know he was very social and cared a great deal for his friends and liked to be with them. 

Dean played a musical instrument in his youth.  Ray thinks it was a clarinet.  But when they were in grade school they all started playing the harmonica and Dean continued to play it.  He could play that instrument very well in his later years and played it all the rest of his life. 

Dad had a Whippet car when he went to college.  That type of car is now obsolete. Most of us have never heard of that kind of car.  He would give rides to school and that was when he started going with mother, Bernice Hurren.

Bernice and Dean loved to dance and they were both very good dancers.  The crowd used to go to the Dansante dance hall, the Palladore and then they would chase around to the mutual dances also. They met a lot of new people and enjoyed a rather inexpensive evening of dancing when they went to these places.  It was still during the Great Depression and money was scarce. For 50 cents you could have a fun evening of dancing.  Dean and Bernice fell in love and decided to get married.  The following is a picture of them after going to the Logan Temple to be married.

MARRIAGE DAY 27 October 1937

They were married on 27 October 1937 in the Logan Temple.  Bernice was just 17 and Dean was 20.  Bernice hadn't graduated from high school yet and she never did get her GED. As now 50% of marriages end in divorce, we would consider that dangerously young to get married but they made it work.  They eventually had four children, William Bruce, Sharon, Brent Hurren and Robert Scott.  Bruce was born a year later and Dean was working as a mechanic for Blair Motors.  He eventually took over a gas station by himself and worked there for a few years.  We think it was located on 1st North and 1st West.  It was later torn down, of course.  A picture of the gas station follows.

                     DEAN AND HIS GAS STATION

Dean's name is above the door of the gas station he had.  It is thought it was located on either 1st West and 1st North or 1st West and 1st South.  Anyway it was a full service gas station and he worked as a mechanic also.  Dean was known for his mechanic abilities.  

A year later William Bruce was born in the Budge Memorial Hospital.  He was born on 12 November 1938.  The following is a picture of Bruce and mother, Bernice.  Just one year, one month and one day later I was born on 13 December 1939.  I am Sharon Evans. I was also born in Budge Memorial Hospital. My picture follows also.

                           WILLIAM BRUCE AND BERNICE EVANS

SHARON AND BERNICE EVANS

Five years later Brent was born in Budge Memorial Hospital.  He was born on 14 November 1944.  In the meantime my parents bought a new home in Salt Lake City and Dad began working at Remington Arms. Dad was a good mechanic and so he went to work helping the war efforts.   Brent's birth took place during the World War II years.  Dean was not drafted because he had three children.  There were many trips to see the sights of Salt Lake City. I figure we must have lived in Salt Lake when Brent was born.  Mother must have had her regular doctor in Logan for his delivery and they went back to Logan for that event.  The below picture was taken in Salt Lake and I think Brent was about 6 months old.  This picture is of Sharon, Dean, Brent and Bruce and it was at Easter time.  I think we were at the park hiding Easter eggs.

SHARON, DEAN, BRENT AND BRUCE---Easter 1945

Bruce and I had lots of friends who lived on the street where we did in Salt Lake City.  It didn't matter what the weather was like,  we wanted to play with them anytime.   We have a picture of us with our friends and it looks like there were three girls and three boys.  I don't remember much about those friends but I know that since Bruce was more social than I, we pretty much did as he wanted us to do.  He seemed to be in charge of our fun most of the time, even to the point of excluding the girls on occasion.  Bruce and I were always very close but I think that was largely because he was the older child and was a lot more active than I was and had a huge imagination.  I think when he told me to jump, I pretty much jumped. 

We must have lived in Salt Lake for about two years.  The pictures I have show Bruce and I growing up.  I must have started out at about age three and we moved to Smithfield at about age five.  We moved to Smithfield to live with my Grandma and Grandpa Hurren.  My father, Dean, was drafted into the army then and left for Texas for basic training.  That was near the end of the war and they were drafting men with any size families by then.   Mother, Bruce, Brent and I lived with my grandparents in Smithfield.  I remember only a few things about that experience.  Bruce told me about an experience with a headless chicken.  Grandpa Hurren cut off the chicken's head and then Bruce picked up the body and chased me with it.  I, of course, ran screaming to mother and she punished Bruce by making him stay home from a big event that he had been looking forward to going to.  I think it had something to do with Victory Day. 

 It wasn't long after that period of time that Dean came home.  He had been discharged from the Army because of a duodenal ulcer.  I am sure my mother was happy about that even though Dad had to get over the ulcer.  I remember he drank a lot of milk.  Dean got a job at Hill Air Force Base as a mechanic again and we moved to Layton, Utah.  We lived in barrack-like houses.  We lived in A Court.  Bruce started Kindergarten there and Brent and I stayed home.  We must have stayed there for two years because I completed Kindergarten too while we lived there.

My grandparents, Hurren, through visits and talking with relatives, decided to buy a farm near Meridian, Idaho.  It was located on Amity Avenue 2 miles west of the Kuna-Meridian road. My grandfather knew of a farm just a mile away from his farm that was up for sale and encouraged my parents to take a look at it.  When dad and mother saw the farm they decided to buy it and so the wheels were set in motion, so-to-speak.  They bought 80 acres of land on the northwest corner of Amity and Ten Mile.  They paid $16,000.  The down payment came in the form of my father's car.  I think it was a reasonably new car and for our transportation the owner of the farm threw in an old white pickup for us to drive.  

When Dean and Bernice went back to Layton to move their belongings they took the old white pickup and Grandpa Hurren's hay wagon.  They had Brent with them and Bruce and I stayed with our grandparents near Meridian.  Dean and Bernice were able to get all their things on the pickup and hay wagon.  Dean really packed everything tight and had everything tied down well.  He was worried though about the trip.  He knew there were several rather steep hills they would have to go over before they arrived at their destination near Meridian.  The first really bothersome stretch of road came outside of Tremonton going towards Snowville.   There was a very steep grade called Rattlesnake Pass that was a real challenge.  Dean stopped the pickup to assess the road and a kind man stopped and said to him, "you look like you are worried the pickup won't make it up the hill.   I think you are right.  Let me give you a pull with my pickup too."  Dean and Bernice were very grateful and the man tied on and pulled them up that hill plus several other hills.  They were able to go the rest of the way.  It took them 17 hours to travel from Layton to Meridian and they were very tired when they arrived.  This man's help was an answer to prayer.  They never knew his name or even had much of a chance to thank him, but he had to know how appreciative they were for his help.

Father acquired two work horses to do the farm work and he probably borrowed grandfather's equipment for a while to help.  The names of the horses were Mary and Betty.  I remember one time Brent walked under the belly of one of the horses and hugged her back leg.  My father was very frightened by that but calmly removed Brent from near that horse's back legs.  He probably said a few choice words to Brent.  When the occasion arose he was good at choosing words that none of the rest of us were supposed to use.

I don't remember much about the move except it wasn't very long after we had settled in that school started.  The school was located one and a quarter miles east on Amity Road from our farm.  The name of the school was Amity School.  It was a two-room school house with 4 grades in each room.  There were no more than 4-6 children in each grade.  I went to that grade school until I was in the 7th grade.  After that I went to Meridian to Junior high which consisted of two barracks behind the high school.  Bruce started school at Amity School only one year ahead of me, but when he was in the third grade he started doing fourth grade school work with the other fourth graders as well as his third grade school work.  At the end of the school year the teacher suggested to my parents that he probably would do well going on to the fifth grade and so he did.  He did do well and continued on graduating two years ahead of me.  Bruce went through the 8th grade there and went on to high school.

 Brent was 5 years younger than I so when I was in the 7th grade he had to be in the second grade.  At that time they consolidated the country schools (as there were several of them in the valley) and they sent the children to a new school that had been constructed. 

Dean, Sharon and Robert (the dog is Mini)

During those years my parents began to build up their dairy herd.  I remember hauling long hay on a hay wagon.  The following picture is of dad sitting on his Farm-All tractor and Brent and I up on top of the hay on the wagon.  The dog laying down on the grass is Mini, a border collie we had for many years.  In the picture you can see the high tension wire poles carrying a lot of electricity.  The wires went right over our front lawn.  We were always apprehensive about those wires but never did anything happen to cause us concern about them.  

The next picture is of Nancy the mother of my dad’s dairy herd.  He was so proud of that cow.  She always gave much milk and gave birth to cows that also gave a lot of milk.  Because of the size of her bag of milk she had to stand on a platform dad built for her hind legs so she could be milked with a milker.  She got used to standing on that platform and if it were not present when she came in to be milked she would dance around with her hind legs until the platform was put there for her to stand on.  Dad named one of Nancy’s milk cows Dutch and he was equally proud of her too.  She produced several really good milk cows and gave a lot of milk herself too.

Somewhere along in all this farm business my brother, Robert Scott, was born.  He was born October 21, 1949.  

Nancy the cow

Our farm house was very small with only one bedroom for all of us.  There was no indoor plumbing and we had to use an outhouse to relieve ourselves.  We had an oil stove in the small living room.  The first thing dad did was measure and pull an old bunkhouse up to the side of the house.  The bunkhouse was quite a few feet away from the house and so it was quite a project but dad got that bunkhouse up to the side of the house and the end of it fit almost perfectly to the side of the house and he attached it.  That gave us another bedroom and extended the living room a lot more too.  This was done in 1949.  The next remodel of the farm home was in 1954 when a new kitchen and back porch were built and a new front porch.  

In 1952 a new church was dedicated in Meridian and two wards were formed from the one ward we originally had.  We had been meeting in a small brick building across the street from the original high school in Meridian.  It was decided that we had outgrown that building and needed a new church.  A lot of the work and money that went into the church was furnished by the members and Dean did a lot of work on the church.  I am sure Bernice did her share too but I am unaware of her part in the church project.  I remember she furnished a lot of food and it seemed she was always donating delicious food for one thing or another.

The dedication of the church was held on June 20, 1952 and dedicated by Ezra Taft Benson.  For the dedication the ward had a choir assembled to sing.  My parents were in that choir and have been in subsequent and previous choirs for many years.  They both loved to sing in the choir, especially my father.  

Visiting Kansas and William Bruce Evans--1969