Funeral held Monday, April 10, 2000 in Logan, Cache, Utah
Burial held Monday, April 10, 2000 at Tremonton, Box Elder, Utah
Lloyd’s Funeral--Norma Johnson, speaker
April 10, 2000
I feel it a real honor to be Lloyd’s sister and be asked to speak at his funeral today. I pray for the Lord’s blessings to be with me to say the right things. This talk was mainly taken from an interview done with Lloyd sitting on his front porch in August of 1994.
My Memories
As kids I remember Lloyd as a kind and loving brother. As twins, Lloyd and Floyd would walk home from school together. It seemed to me they got picked on a lot. Floyd remembers Lloyd and him going hunting and fishing up Logan Canyon, and Black Smith Fork Canyon. Floyd, and Lloyd, Clenton, and Eldon, and their next door neighbor, Aaron Weiss all went deer hunting to Grouse Creek and Park Valley.
I can remember the times when sugar, shoes, and levis were rationed. Both Floyd and Lloyd would have to go to the store to prove they needed levis the same size. Lloyd, Floyd, Elva, and myself had a lot of the same friends. Lloyd served in the army with many of these friends. Lloyd sent me a wooden jewelry box and handkerchief that I really cherished. I will continue to cherish my memories with him.
The Separator
Our Dad was a farmer, a hard worker, and taught us the same. Lloyd remembers “when we had a separator we cranked that made milk and cream. The waste or whey would be fed to the pigs and the cream was sold to a creamery where they made butter. Sometimes we made homemade cottage cheese. We had a butter churn with little paddles in it to make our own homemade butter, too. We put in a couple of drops of orange food coloring so it wouldn't be white.”
Harvesting Grain
“Dad started harvesting grain early about five o'clock in the morning. As long as he could see he'd be out working. He'd give the horses a rest at noon during the hot part of the day, then he'd go back out and work until sundown. Sometimes at noon the harnesses had to be repaired so the horses got the rest of the day off. He repaired his own harnesses, and they were always breaking. There were times when a couple of horses would get ornery like some women get. Sometimes they didn't even want the harness on and he'd have a heck of a time with them in the barn. They'd back up and start kicking and everything. With a couple of 'em he really had to watch his step, but they were good workers once he got them hooked up.”
A Fordson Tractor
“When Floyd and I were old enough to run the tractor Dad would leave it up to us to haul off the rock and plant the grain while he stayed in Tremonton to do electric work. As an electrician I went with him on a lot of the jobs and wired different homes.”
Two Big Families Together
More of Lloyd’s recollections and in his own words, “It was quite a handful to marry the Baker family. Fern Baker still had [six] children when he married her. We did okay though as far as being all together with fourteen mouths around the table--that was quite a few potatoes! We had a long bench on one side of the huge table. There wasn't a lot of fighting; we got along good. With two mixed families of fourteen of us you'd think we'd have quite a stir. With three sets of twins it was quite a handful to take hold of.”
“Fern was old-fashioned like my dad. She was a good to us. We all enjoyed her cooking. She believed in making things from scratch--homemade bread and things that would stretch. We accepted her really as more of a mother than our real mother, because we were so small and didn't remember our real mother. We accepted her quickly as a mom. I felt bad not having a mother and missing one. It bothered me growing up. There's something that you look for--I felt like something was missing.”
Childhood Memories
“My best memory of childhood is the fun we had with Ben Price, our neighbor who lived about half a mile from us. We swam in the canal, scouting, and growing up being a young boy. When I was young I was involved in the Boy Scouts. When we were in scouting he didn't say do this, do that, because he knew we were taught to prepare yourself, and stay with your teachings. I became an Eagle Scout. When I went in the service and when the estate was sold my bandalo went with it. It was probably one of those things that they threw out. I wish I had it today to show my grandkids that I did make Eagle Scout.”
Elva’s Memories
Elva & Ben, Erma & Lloyd were all best of friends and went camping, and hunting together. Along with having many a dinner and card playing get-togethers. On one camping trip Erma came up with one of her many pranks. Erma and Elva took petrified, shaved wood and mixed it with mayonnaise, pickles, seasoning to make a tasty tuna fish sandwich for Ben & Lloyd. As Erma had planned, Lloyd wanted something to eat when Ben and he returned from fishing. Ben knew Erma and Elva could be up to no good. He passed on the sandwich to Lloyd.
Elva worried he’d choke on it and said, “Lloyd, don’t swallow it. It’s wood!”
Erma told Elva to be quiet. Lloyd spit the wood out and said, “Erma, why in the hell would you do something like that?” This was typical for Erma and Lloyd.
Elva remembers Lloyd taking his and Elva’s children to the candy store all the time. Erma, would tell him, “No,” but he did it anyway. He didn’t ever want the children getting in trouble or to be punished and came to their rescue all the time.
Vesta is ten years older than Lloyd and helped in the raising of the four youngest children. Vesta recalls how concerned Lloyd always was for Marion and the family. Lloyd tells, “Wayne was [drafted] in the [army] when Vesta married him. Marion had to sleep in a cast. They had a plaster Paris cast made for her that her little arm stuck downwards and she had to sleep on her side.”
In The Service For Me
“My life was affected quite a bit when Dad died while I was in the service. I was about twenty-one years old when Dad died. I had left at eighteen and I came home on an ten-day emergency furlough because Dad was very sick with cancer. It was hard to accept. He was nothing but skin and bones. It was hard for me to shave him with that skin laying on bone. There were places I cut him because there was no flesh underneath. He died and was buried while I was home. I was shipped to Cap Gordon, Georgia. I went through signal school. I got a year's extension thrown on me and that sent me to Korea--that was Uncle Sam for you. I had three years total and was getting close to being discharged and then the extension came. I was discharged in Seattle, Washington upon returning from Korea.”
Vesta remembers that Lloyd was honored with the best-dressed soldier award. He was always a very neat, clean dresser.
Dad--A Real Wonderful Guy
Lloyd said, “My grandchildren need to know my dad was a real wonderful guy. He was true spoken. He told you the truth. He told you things you shouldn't do. He was always on the right track for you. That's what I like about him. He was strict. I didn't have bad feelings about his strictness other than when I got a strapping with that razor strap. We knew what we got it for. It hurt! He didn't slow back on--you knew what you got that strapping for. He was plain on what we had done wrong. He was strict about doing right and that's what I liked or will never forget about him.”
Memories of Lloyd
April 8, 2000
These are the memories that Erma and her family
have asked for me to share today.
Erma remembers: Lloyd was a handy person with wood. He made picnic tables, paper towel holders, candle holders and many other things. He made tin men out of used cans and airplanes out of aluminum cans. He had his closet full of all sorts of cans, tools and other things that “may be useful”. Much to Erma’s distress. We had a cow that we raised and it was more like a family pet than a cow. Lloyd would take grain into the cow and grab the horns and shake the cow around and back it back and forth by the horns. One day he was in a hurry and had no time to play. When Lloyd turned around the cow put his horns under his belt and gave Lloyd a thrill by shaking him around. That cow also had a time with the nice clean sheets hanging on the line.
Doug remembers he and Daddy built a pinewood derby car. It was black and had red flames down the side. Daddy and Doug went to the derby and won second place. Doug remembers that Daddy was an Eagle Scout and was proud of all his accomplishments.
Sherrie remembers the family watched the movie of Alfred Hitchcocks’ The Birds. It was a scary show about birds. Directly after the movie she went up to get a dress for school the next day out of her closet. There was a bird in that closet that flew down and scared the heck out of her. She was screaming loudly and started to run down the stairs. Daddy met her half-way up the stairs as she was running down them. He captured the bird and saved the day. She was getting ready for school one morning sitting in front of the mirror in her bedroom. There was an explosion and she started the same screaming and running down stairs yelling someone was trying to shoot her. Daddy checked out the room and found an aspirin bottle that Connie stuffed with dough. It had exploded and sent glass everywhere.
Debbie remembers that Daddy was babysitting Sherrie, her and Connie while mom went to get a Christmas tree. Connie had beautiful long ringlet curls. We all sat on the legs under the big round table that we had. Each of us took turns cutting off these beautiful curls to bounce them. Boy, was daddy in trouble when mom got home.
Connie remembers daddy fishing out at Benson Marina, he caught a big mess of fish and would bring them home. He cleaned them and filleted them and fried them up. We would have a big plate full of nice fish. Never seeing a bone. We would eat all of them before Mom got home from work.
Ronda remembers Dad checking her out of school while mom was at work to take her fishing. Mom never knew that he did this. Taking her to dance lessons and sitting there for 3 hours watching her.
Joyce, Erma’s sister, remembers camping with Lloyd and him making the best coffee around. You could smell it all throughout the campground. No one could make it as good as Lloyd.
All the kids remember Daddy talking about his life in the army. He would bring out his many ribbons he earned in the Korean war. He remembered when he received them and would tell us many stories of the war. He would save his candy bars to give the Korean children and hand them to them through the fence. He talked about his barracks and that the bed had to be made so that a penny would bounce on it.
He was always there to take us to school (when we missed the bus on purpose). Taxi the kids and their friends to the girl’s glee practice at 6:00 in the morning. Brought us fresh pork rinds home from work.
He helped Debbie change her first tire and taught her how to change the oil in her car. He tried (not successfully) to teach Sherrie to drive. It was an old station wagon with three gears on the column. Sherrie was so upset at her dad for the instruction he was trying to give her. She left the car in the middle of the intersection.
Whenever Dean ask Lloyd if he had a tool of some sort. He was very quick on his artificial leg. He would take off to get whatever the need, with Dean lagging behind.
Heather remembers coming down to babysit him while Grandma had a short break. He always wanted chicken nugget happy meals with BBQ sauce and a small coke from McDonalds.
Forrest remembers Grandpa making guns out of wood and rubber bands. And, when he made one. None of the others would go without one so, he would end up making many for all of the grandkids.
We all know that mom spent countless hours taking care of our Dad. We are so thankful for her and feel very blessed to have such a happy close family. There is no possible way we can tell you of all our happy memories, for we have many. We are grateful that he is the hands of God and with his buddy Travis.
Our Sympathies and Goodbyes
Lloyd dealt with his health problems and never complained even when one knew he was suffering. Erma we send our deepest appreciation to you for the years of loving care you gave to Lloyd. The children’s and grandchildren’s support couldn’t be measured. We as family and friends love each of you and offer our deepest sympathy and know how much you will miss him.
Erma, your children have said, “We all know that mom spent countless hours taking care of our Dad. We are so thankful for her and feel very blessed to have such a happy, close family. There is no possible way we can tell you of all our happy memories, for we have many. We are grateful that he is in the hands of God and with his grandson and buddy, Travis.”
May the Lord’s blessing be with each of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
