Facebook, Missions, and Dogged Librarians make Connections

Detective Solves ID of Interviewer and Interviewee

Sometimes a Blanding Connection is no further that a click away!

Heather Raisor as USU librarian in Blanding has been working with the SJCounty Historical commission and the University to digitize oral interviews which were conducted over the past 30 years.  A large amount of those were done by juniors in my English classes between 1986-1999, so if Heather runs into a tape without ID on it, she calls.  This particular story began September of 2017, when a particular tape showed up talking about horse racing, but neither of us could figure out who it might be.

Heather explained, "I made a small mp3 file and sent it to Janet and several other people to listen to and see if they recognized the voices. No one could.  

Next I drove out to see if I could find Aseneth Guymon to see if she could identify it [her son Tony is a jockey], but no one was home. Shortly afterwards, I happened to be at the Dr, Black's chiropractic office. For some reason I was telling them about it and there was a lady there, (don’t remember her name) but she recognized the interviewee's voice as Johnny Dufur's."

Half the mystery was solved, but Heather still didn’t know who the student doing the interview was. Sterling Black  thought it sounded like Dana Woodard, a friend from high school.  So she went on Facebook to try to find her. Found a Dana Woodard Adams and the following pictures are our text."  Heather sent her a mp3 file, and after listening to it this conversation evolved:

    

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Thanks to Facebook, the mystery was solved, the digital file identified and indexing completed.
Now fast forward six months............



         Reprise of the Search:   On March 15, 2018 Heather, Sterling, and Janet all happened to be all at the Chiropractor's office at the same time, and Sterling amazingly had found  an "artifact" -- the old 5 " floppy disc with both his research paper and Dana's on it!  So if we could open it up, we'd even have the transcript of that interview!!  Thanks Heather for being such a diligent detective.

                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               New Stake President Loves Football and Family

Marilyn Lyman:

I need to add one more story to the Blanding Connection list because of its interest and importance to so many people. We are in Quartzsite AZ and just came from Stake Conference where Mitchell Kalauli Jr was sustained as the new Stake President in the Lake Havasu Stake. His wife is Nickie Patterson.  She is my brother, Kenneth's granddaughter. Her parents are Tierre and Kathy Patterson. Stephen Mosley's son Paul has been and will continue to be on the High Council down here.   He is also an Arizona State Representative.

Missionaries with Blanding Connections Serve in the South

Janet Wilcox: 

Our grandson Michael Wilcox has been serving in the Florida Tallahassee Mission for over a year. His parents are Chris and Pam Wilcox who live in Provo.  

Just this past fall, 2017, two Blanding young women were called to that same mission: Morgan Black (Sterling and Carrie Black's daughter)

 and Ashley Shumway (Caroline Shumway's daughter).  We'll soon be saying y'all, like they do!

Close Encounters Colorado Style

While waiting for my husband while he was getting an x-ray of his knee in Dr. Wyman's office this past week, I read Empire Electric's magazine, Colorado Country Life, the Oct. 2017 issue.  Their focus was on "Close Encounter's with the Rich and Famous.  Here's the link.  However, it's not one bit more interesting that the great stories that have come in regarding San Juan County Connections. Please continue to send additional stories via e-mail

More Than One Picture in a Frame

Written by Marci Lyman Bowen   
 (Submitted by her sister, Cory Lyman Hugentobler:)  

 --- One day I (Marci) decided to go through some closets and get rid of some things that I hadn’t used for a while. I had a pile of stuff including picture frames, material, and odds and ends to take to the Goodwill. One particular picture frame had a picture of Christ in it. I debated whether to give it away, but knew I would not use it and thought someone else would really like that picture. So I kept it in my Goodwill pile. I made the trip to drop of my pile and went on with my life as normal.

 In a few weeks I got a call from Mom saying that she got a call from someone here in Vancouver whose daughter had bought a picture of Christ from the Goodwill. She took it home and took the picture out of the frame and found a family picture and another picture of a girl in a dance uniform behind the picture of Christ. The daughter ended up showing the pictures to her parents and immediately her dad said, “That is Francis Lyman in that picture!" 

Turns out he was Stanley Hawkins from Blanding and knew Dad well, so he got a hold of mom to let her know. She gave him my number and he called me up to explain the situation.   Read the Rest of Story

You Never Know Who You'll Be Meeting

Thread #3

Bill Boyle
On a Sabbath Day in Jerusalem, a visitor from Nigeria stood up at church and introduced himself as Eddie Bauer. I approached him after the meeting and told him that my parents had served a mission in Nigeria. When I said that their names were Dawn and Eddie Boyle, he looked shocked and said, "Eddie Boyle? Eddie Boyle? My name used to be Eddie Boyle!" My folks were serving there when he joined the church. People in Nigeria often take western last names because their given names are unpronounceable to westerners. He had been Eddie Boyle for a few years before becoming Eddie Bauer. Certainly a surreal experience halfway around the world!

Sandra Dutson Our son, Devin Dutson, who graduated from SJHS served a mission
in Rapid City, South Dakota. One Sunday, he and his companion attended church in one

of the wards. When they came in the chapel, there sat Leanne and Danny
Shumway!

George and I spent 15 years living in Blanding and enjoyed every minute of it.
Griff was with us 1 year and Devin, 6 years. It was a wonderful experience for
us and when we retired and decided to move up closer to our kids, we were
mighty sad. But life has a way of making things ok. We moved to Lehi and
became part of a great neighborhood. We soon found people there who made
us feel like we were back in Blanding! Linda Laws Sullenburger, Tara Laws
Kauffman and Heidi Adair Dole from Monticello!

Colleen R. Burningham My sister’s husband says
of Monticello, "For being such a small town, you people sure do get around! "

When Lee and I were at the Logan temple last week he was visiting with the
temple worker afterwards. They knew each other from when Lee was a temple
worker up there. Lee introduces me. We do the pleasant standard greets of "it's
nice to meet you." They visit a bit more. The man asked Lee where he was
living now. He answered Monticello. The man then said, "One of my dearest
childhood friends lives on Monticello, do you know Dean Robinson?"

It took everything I had not to burst into tears. I smiled and said, "That's my
sweet Dad. I'm his daughter Colleen." He proceeded to tell me stories of my
dad's childhood. Such a tender mercy that day.   My son Cortlan Lyman says,
"The World revolves around San Juan County! It's so true!

Jed E. Lyman In 1969 I was serving an LDS mission in
northern California. My companion was from Chicago. He and I got along great, but
he thought he was pretty hot stuff since he was from Chicago and I was from some little
podunk place called "BLAND"ing.
As we would visit people they would invariably ask where we were

from. Elder Spencer would puff out his chest and say "CHICAGO."

They would say something like, "How nice. Elder Lyman where are you from?"
I would reply that I was from a small southern Utah town called Blanding. Their
face would light up and they would say something like, "Do you know so-and -so?
Or they would say that their uncle, grandfather, sister or former missionary
companion was from Blanding. This happened enough times that my companion
finally said, "What is it with Blanding, everybody knows Blanding or someone
from there?" And he quit teasing me about being from BLANDing!

Jed E. Lyman In 1989 we were traveling in Europe after
picking up Candice's parents at the conclusion of their mission in England. One
day we were walking in downtown Bern, Switzerland when we came upon two
LDS missionaries. We talked to them for awhile and the others in our group
headed on down the road but the one elder kept talking to Candice Lyman,
Marilyn Lyman Roberts (16 years old and not a Roberts yet) and I and would
not let us continue with the rest of our group.

We kept trying to move on but he just seemed to cling to us. Finally as we were

trying to get away, he said, "Are you from Blanding? And is your name Lyman?"
I was surprised and answered that he was correct on both counts and asked how
he knew. As it turned out, before his mission, he had been a roommate of my
nephew at BYU and had come to Blanding with my nephew at Thanksgiving and
had eaten Thanksgiving dinner at our house. I did not remember him. Candice
thought he looked familiar and Marilyn knew exactly where who he was.
Apparently he made a bigger impression on a 16 year old girl than he did on her
dad. These kinds of stories are so common, I have come to believe that Blanding
is the center of the universe!

 Dorine Eberhard

When we arrived in Kensington, MD to serve our mission in the Washington, DC
Temple, among the first fellow missionaries we met was Don Perry. My sister
had told me to watch for Don and Kay because they were good friends from their
ward in Taylorsville. I started to tell him he knew my sister. He said, "No, you
know my sister."

We were both a little confused until he explained that, because
he knew we were from Blanding, he had come to meet us as his sister is Elaine
Johnson who had just moved from Blanding. We both knew each other's sister!

 Steven Wozniak 

A connection happened again tonight at the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet 2/8/2018. A guy in my ward asked where I got my Bolo tie. Told him someone in my hometown made it for me. He said he had one like it...said he got it from a Jack. Turns out Mandy N Tyler Jack was his Young Men's President in the State of Washington. Tyler gave him a Bolo tie his dad Rayburn Jack made. Such a small world!  (Oct. 2018 update: Just recently I posted about the musical Heritage Fireside held Sept. 30, and mentioned that Sister Walker had been one of the performers.  Steve immediately posted on the thread that she had tended his children, when they were living in Pocatello, Idaho.) 

More stories from Thread# 3

Cross Country Connections

  Jodi Slade Wheatley -- South Carolina 
Grant Gibbons and his family are friends with me and my family
out here in Aiken, SC. I never met him before coming here, but
we both came from Blanding. 

Rosalie Payne -- Centerville:   

Jodi Slade just reminded me of a couple more. Grant Gibbons was in stake YM. presidency with my financial adviser.  
--The teacher across the hall from me at the middle school was a brother-in-law of Eric Spotted Elk. Their wives are sisters.
--Teaching in Price I had several students who were children of my former students. That meant that they instantly became my "grandchildren." I am sure I will forget some but here goes.
--2 daughters of Eric Mantz
--Daughter of Stewart and Stacy Black. He was also in my high council
--Son of Grant Hickman and grandson of Jessica Lee and Ken Hickman. His name is Kenneth Hickman so that was an easy one to catch
--Son and daughter of Kerry Van Dyke
-- Two sons and daughter of Alissa Morley
--Son of Eldon Nez
--Daughter of Rochelle Romero Badback (son was in school as well)
--Also Judy Mainord who used to teach at SJH is an assistant supt in Carbon District

 Lynn-Yvonne Wright -- Logan

 I drive Aggie Shuttle on campus at USU. One day I was talking to a person on the bus and during our discussion learned that her Grandmother was Merle Black, one of my classmates from San Juan High.

 Aminnie Laws -- Wyoming I went to a Wright family gathering to see the pioneer sights in Wyoming in 2003 (or 04) One of the couple missionaries asked where we were from, when we responded Blanding, UT, the Elder asked if we knew Ray Brown. He served a portion of his mission as a companion in the Chicago area. He was surprised when I told him that was my grandpa. It was so neat to hear some of his memories of their time together.

More Cross Country Connection Stories 

Moons Warned About Blanding

By Cassy Moon
People told us when we moved to Blanding that we wouldn't go anywhere without running into someone from Blanding. We thought people were crazy...until we started running into people from Blanding. We were in Kirtland, Ohio . . .  Read More of the Moon's experiences

The Helsinki Connection: Claudia Orr

Jeff went on a mission to Finland and only had one baptism, The guy's wife was very apposed to him being baptized, so Jeff didn't think he would remain active. Over 25 years later Jeff's nephew, Baylen went on a mission to Finland also. He was a zone leader and had business of some sort in Helsinki. He was only there for one Sunday and was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. Afterward this guy goes up to him and asked if he by chance knew a Jeff Orr. He said he had baptized him. Jeff was really happy to hear that the guy and his wife are active in the church. He probably would never have known about it if Bay had not had that assignment in Helsinki that day.           Read More Orr Connections

Missionary Encounters: Far and Wide

 Phil Lyman: When I was on my mission in South Africa I had just been transferred from Krugersdorp to Johannesburg. It was a huge city and I had been in fairly small towns up til then. I was thinking this would probably not be my best transfer but I would do my best. Our first visit was to a member's home. Literally the first person I met, (when I said,  "My name is Elder Lyman") said,  "Are you the one who likes Jody Shumway?" Jody and I had dated our senior year but no one in the mission knew anything abut that.  

Joe B. Lyman -- Ryan's mission in Madrid: 

First day in Madrid as a missionary Ryan and his trainer were approached by an LDS couple. When he told them he was from Blanding,  the man, who was from Bozeman, said his good friend married a girl from Blanding. The friend's name was Steven. At which point Ryan informed them their friend married his sister Chantelle.

 Jacob Smith -- Nevada
 While serving as a missionary up in Sparks, NV a young couple had my companion and I over for dinner. When I told them I grew up in Blanding, they couldn't contain themselves, looked at each other then back at me and just busted into song: ♫♩♫
"Blue Mountain you're azure deep
Blue Mountain your sides so steep
Blue Mountain with a horse head on your side
My love you've won to keep"

Of course, when I joined in, my companion looked borderline scared. It was hilarious. After singing the chorus together, the husband said, "So have you ever heard of Albert R. Lyman?" I laughed. When I told them I was his great grandson I thought they were going to prostrate themselves on the floor and start worshiping me. (Thankfully, they didn't--my companion would have run out the door without me).
I wish I could remember their names, it was great. They said they had family in Monticello and had annual family reunions up on "The Blue" every summer and they always have one night where they sing Stan Bronson songs and share stories of "The Old Settler".

Follow this link for More  Missionary Stories

Making Connections Around the World

YUMA, Az: -- Beverly Vowell Black Yesterday, Feb. 4, Dale and I attended an 11 a.m. church in Yuma, Arizona. It turned out to be the singles ward. As we were entering the building I said, "I wonder who we will meet today that knows someone from Blanding!" We introduced ourselves telling others where we were from. During Sunday School the Bishop came in and sat behind us. He leaned up and whispered, "By chance do you know a Kedric Redd?" I smiled and replied, "Absolutely!" He said Kedric was a companion to him in the MTC years ago....his name is Bishop Colvin. Hope it's OK. Kedric if I gave him your current information. It's a small, wonderful world! 

Chateauroux, France: -- Virginia Jensen Blake  I went to a church meeting in Paris when I was teaching in Chateauroux, France, and met Elder Clifford Mikesell, who had been on his mission for three weeks. I was getting ready to come home.

Africa, Chicago: Maureen Arthur Olsen

We had a neighbor, Bruce Crankshaw, who is also a stake president and former bishop of ours.  He now lives in Lehi head of some big pharmiceutical company. He is from South Africa. Another neighbor, Linda Sahagun,  (a Knudsen from California) both knew Phil Lyman and Shane Shumway in Africa. My neighbors were in the  Afrikaans speaking mission! Linda teaches school here. The daughter of Linda served in Bangkok Thailand and served with a sister from Australia who was a daughter of one if my converts on my mission. So fun these connections! Okay one more! Another convert friend of mine from Brisbane from my mission, served this past couple of years in inner city Chicago. Of all the people who helped her and her companions the most was Francell and Gene Bkickenstaffs daughter, Mary! They sent me pictures with investigators in Mary's home with a table decorated for a king to feed them lunch! She was a great and probably still is, a great asset to the missionaries!Another Blickenstaff story:

Mexico: Karen Nieves Griffin

My husband (from American Fork) was a missionary in Mexico. We were riding around town one day and I told him this is where Blickenstaffs live. He told me he was the missionary that gave Gene a blessing when he was in the hospital in Mexico so sick. I then told him Blanding is a phenomenon. You will always meet someone who knows someone from here.
Scottsdale, AZ:  Steve Lacy 

Back in Easter 1964 we were visiting my mom Thelma’s sister’s family in Scottsdale Arizona their neighbor across the street was a half brother of Ed and Doug Galbraith from Grayson. While we were there we went Legend City Arizona’s biggest amusement park. Right after we went through the gate Burdette and Erva Shumway family from Grayson showed up.   

Salt Lake, Orem:  Jan PodrisIn about 2000, my husband took me to my first Jazz game at the Delta center. He was cheering rather loudly for the Sacramento Kings as he’s from Sacramento. About half way through the first quarter I hear a voice say “Did someone from Blanding move to Sacramento?” I turned around and Mike Halliday and all of his sons were sitting behind us.      

When I was living in Orem Utah working for the Department if Workforce Services, I ran in to Blanding people all the time looking for work. One particularly fun memory I was at a training and we were doing some activity where we had to exchange papers with other people in the room. The guy I gave my paper too turned out to be Tommy Lyman. We exchanged stories about when my Dad was his Bishop and his Dad was my bishop. We had both been working in the same building in Provo.

 Lisa Smith Rarick -- Guatemala

We lived outside of Blanding for 18 years and always found a Blanding connection. However it was after we moved back that we had the farthest away connection. In 2008 we went to Guatemala to pick up our youngest son from his mission. While we were at the airport getting ready to fly home, an older American couple noticed our missionary son and began asking him about his mission and where he was from. Of course he said a small town in Utah and they probably wouldn't know where it was located. As soon as he said Blanding the woman asked if we knew the Gutke family. Lurlene Gutke had been the woman's missionary companion way back in the day! The other connection we made with them is that when we lived in Kansas we discovered they had been in the same Stake as us. Blanding makes the world a much smaller place and we learn how connected we all are.

Wyoming: Ivy Kropf We had only been living in Wyoming for about 2 years and were attending a stake meeting. I was standing up in the back holding my fussy baby when a lady walks over to me and says “Are you Jan?” 😳 Oh my word! No one in Green River, Wyoming knows I have a sister named Jan, much less to mistake me for her! It was Debbie Acton, who was visiting her son Eric, who had just moved there. My kids were excited to meet my kindergarten teacher.
 

                                              More Stories from Maureen Arthur Olsen:  

My son Jonathan was serving his mission in Perth Australia 93-95. Being from Australia I was ecstatic. I had served also in Australia when there were only two missions, and I served in what was the Australian Mission which ran the southern most part of NSW to the tip of the northeast coast. My son knew one of the Mission President counselors as he' visited us in Utah and I knew him well. I met him and his family on my mission in Brisbane in one of my areas and he'd moved to west coast. So that was expected. The other counselor also from the east coast said,  "Blanding, did you know a Maureen Arthur but I don' recall her married name." He went on to say, "This gal contributed to our conversion." Jonathan said, "Yes, I know her. It's my mum! As we all say, you can travel to the ends of the earth and you always meet someone who knew someone from Blanding! 

One day Jonathan was out knocking doors with his comp and lo and behold who opened the door but Glen Skinner from Blanding. He and his lovely wife, Betty who was a Palmer, Clessa Black's sister.  They are Jed and Mark Lyman's uncle and aunt. They happened to be serving in the same mission doing family history research. Small world!   It always amazes Stephen and myself how many times we've experienced Blanding connections coast to coast. I tell people now I live in Enoch.Where is Enoch they ask? It's on 1-15 I tell them, right next door to Cedar City! Oh, they say. I then add, "but we consider Blanding".......and that's as far as we get because 97% of the time people say, "Oh, my goodness do you know so and so. We had this cute lady missionary in the mission we live in and one Sunday I hear a member of our ward greet Steve at our door. I was quarantined with a massive abscess lodged in my throat and contagious so I could not go in living room. But I heard several voices and lots of laughter and I kept thinking,"I know that guy's laugh but could not put a name to it." Turned out to be Chris Flavell and he'd married our lady missionary!😊  r.    Like Dr. Seuss, "Oh the stories I could tell." ha ha. Wonderful.And....then......Maureen tells another story!:   This is for Winna Kalauli and gang.  In 1999 my daughter, Natalie and I were in Hawaii. We kind of got lost as we walked around,  apparently it showed.  A city bus pulls up, and the bus driver, a nice Hawaiian man with a big smile says, "Are you girls lost"? Ha ha!  He had the most cheeky awesome grin. We said, "Sort of." He found out what we were looking for and said, "Get in!" He told the passengers: "You are all taking a detour so I can take these lost girls to the Palace!" He then asked where we were from and we say, "Blanding Utah."  He says, " Blanding. Utah! Do you know Mitch Kalauli? He's my best friend! We grew up together and I've been to Blanding and Mussi ........etc."  He then offered to pick us up Sunday with his family to attend church. Only in Hawaii!  If you know the Kalauli family. it put a big smile on their faces to hear this story too. Mitch senior was still in Blanding at that time and he cried when we told our connection,  as he loved this man and our chance encounter. Blanding the town everyone knows about because of the incredible people!         
Bountiful, Utah:  Rosalie Payne:  

A Blanding connection just happened today Feb. 5. I am  having knee surgery in Bountiful. Before my surgery, the nurse was taking my vitals and doing the other things. She asked where I lived. I said I had moved from Price to Centerville about 7 months ago. She said she grew up in Ferron. Then I told her I had lived in Blanding before that. She said her daughter's friend married a boy from Blanding. She knew the boy was named Tim and he did social work. I am thinking it is probably Tim Chamberlain.   [Comment by Maureen Olsen: His wife is Natalie if you see her again. I was Natalie's VT in Blanding before I moved.] 

And at Physical Therapy Feb. 6 Rosalie writes:  

1. Physical Therapist was a mission companion to Brian Hatcher.

2. There were 6 patients doing PT. Three had connections. First one was a man who said he used to work with a Shumway but he couldn't remember first name.

3. Said one of her best friends is Meredith Harris Kartchner.

4. One lived in Blanding when she was 3 and 4 years old. Then their family moved to a dry farm about 12 miles south of Monticello. 5. My bishop came to visit this afternoon. (2/11) His great aunt was Myrtle Harris (I think Myrtle is correct) He had been to Blanding one time, for a family reunion in 1977