Grant Thomas Rasband

Grant Thomas Rasband

(1909-2004)

Grant Thomas Rasband was born June 1, 1909, in Heber City, Wasatch, Utah to Margaret Catharine (Cathy) Hicken and George Thomas (Tom) Rasband. He weighed only a pound and a half and was so tiny that his grandmothers put him in a shoebox lined with cotton placed on the oven door for warmth. His face was so small that it could be covered with a pocket watch and his hand would fit into a teaspoon. He was fed with an eye dropper.

Grant, 1 year, with his mother, Catharine Hicken Rasband

Grant was the oldest of the Tom and Cathy’s eight children with four brothers and three sisters—Ray, Jack, Bill, Bert, Merle, Geneve, and Ileen. He was the oldest grandchild on the Hicken side and among the oldest on the Rasband. When Grant was in Second Grade his family lived in Antelope, Utah, in the Uintah Basin. During that school year he lived with his Hicken grandparents with his Aunt Nellie Hicken was just two years older. His Aunt Ethel Hicken was his school teacher that year. All of his extended family lived in Heber. For years he did the chores and took care of the outbuildings for his grandparents. Grant’s father was a sheepherder and was often away at the herd so as the oldest child, Grant had heavy home responsibilities.

Grant in his twenties

Grant graduated from Wasatch High School in 1929 just before the beginning of the Great Depression. He spent the next decade working at various jobs such as sheep herding and farming to help support his family as his father became increasingly debilitated with asthma. In 1941 he began working at the New Park Mine and was living at home when he met a school teacher, Mildred Whitlock, from Mayfield, Utah. They were married in the Manti Temple, June 15, 1942. Mildred was very surprised when Grant’s parents came along with the newlyweds on their honeymoon to Yellowstone National Park!

Mildred and Grant in Heber City in 1942

Because it was during World War II, they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Grant worked at the Remington Small Arms Plant where he helped manufacture ammunition. They then moved to Mayfield, Utah, to help run the farm of his father-in-law, Clyde Whitlock, to raise food for the war effort. While in Mayfield they were blessed with three children, George, Kathryn Ann, and Karen. In 1948 they earned only $250 in the entire year so Grant started working at Geneva Steel Plant in Utah County in April, 1949. The family moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah, in 1950 and they were blessed with their fourth child Lillian Edith in 1953. They moved to Lindon, Utah, in 1958 to a home with an acre of ground where Grant maintained a large garden, raspberries, an orchard and later pastured horses. They nurtured six Indian children through the Lamanite Foster Placement Program and Lewis Jones Singer became like a son. Grant worked at Geneva Steel for 25 years, never being late or missing a scheduled shift in the entire time. Working in the Rolling Mill was a hot, filthy job with weekly rotating shifts of days, afternoons, and graveyards, including weekends. He never complained because it provided money to care for his family, purchase homes, and to provide for fine educations and missions for his children.

Grant had a ready wit and never met a stranger. He commented that if there wasn’t a buzz (something fun happening), he would start it. He probably had dyslexia which made reading and writing difficult but he loved numbers and could do complex problems in his head. He had an amazing memory for land and formations. Decades after living in an area, he could still accurately describe and name the various physical features before actually seeing them. He was articulate and interacted meaningfully with everyone from toddlers and teenagers to farmers and college professors.

He loved people of all kinds. He knew the relationships and personal history of everyone in Heber City. Eventually the telephone became his way to reach out if a personal visit with friends and relatives were impossible. When Mildred was working at the school, as soon as he would return from graveyard shift, he would always call her. In later years if she were staying with one of the children helping was a new baby or after she developed ALS, he would call every morning and then again in the evening and they would talk, not just about family or neighbor concerns but have rousing discussions about politics and national affairs.

Grant had some major health issues throughout his life. He was born with a congenital hip defect which made him 4-F for military service but didn’t hinder his ability for hard work, high school sports, and an active life. Grant had an appendectomy on the family’s kitchen table in 1924. In 1985 as Grant was currying a horse, the horse moved and Grant fell knocking the ball of this hip through the socket and into his pelvis. He spent two months in traction but eventually regained his health and was able to walk without a cane. In 1999, he fell at home and broke his good hip. The doctors were able to replace his hip under local anesthesia even though he was in intensive care with pneumonia. He faced death many times but seemed to always come back like the Energizer Bunny.

Grant and Mildred about 1972

After their retirement, Grant and Mildred served on a proselyting mission to Hawaii for eighteen months . They then served as Ordinance Workers in the Provo Temple for sixteen years and Grant served another year and a half until after Mildred’s death from ALS.

He was very proud of his thirty-three grandchildren and many great-grandchildren and enjoyed spending time with them. Even at the end of his life would use his walker seat to carry around little ones and was delighted to cuddle a tiny baby. He marveled that he could be in the middle of seven generations—to know his great-grandparents and well as his great-grandchildren. He kept very careful track of all family activities and was the family news source to the very end. He died in his daughter Edie’s home on February 20, 2004, in Sandy, Utah

Grant, age 90

Grant’s birthday, June 1, was always a time for celebration and a big family party. Many were held at his home in Lindon but sometimes they were held at Chuck-a-Rama where he could be sure that all of his hungry grandsons could get all they could eat. These were not-to-be missed occasions because of the warmth and fun. The following is a poem written for one of those occasions.

MY GRANDPA, written by Russell Keetch for his ninetieth birthday celebration.

G is from a grandpa who is great and he loves to gab.
R is for his reverence for God, the temple, and the earth.
A is for his adorable personality.
N is for his noble character.
T is for the tender care he gave my grandma and he still gives to all his family.

T is for his tenacious work habits.
H is for his honest word.
O is for being older now, but wiser.
M is for his marriage to Mildred that lasted for more than fifty years.
A is for reaching the age of ninety.
S is for his sense of humor; he is such a tease.

R is for raising horses and hunting dogs.
A is for all the animals he has loved.
S is for the summer camping trips we went on.
B is for the babies he has taken care of.
A is for his awesome attitude about life.
N is for never giving up, especially in the hospital.
D is for his determination to set a good example for his grandchildren.

Call Back Week

This has been a busy week with “call backs.” Typically each month we have Church Service Missionaries (CSM’s) for one week of training, Full Time Missionaries (FTM’s) for two weeks training and the remaining week is for call back missionaries. These are missionaries who are currently serving but desire additional training or have questions about their genealogy. One day I worked with a sister who wanted to get some information from another missionary who is leaving next month. I downloaded and added about 1500 names to the missionary’s file. Another day I worked with a sister who is returning home after many years in the mission. She and her husband have given remarkable service in the Church History Library in Indexing and in scanning and cataloging patriarchal blessings but she has done little of her own family history. She is going home next month and our instructions are to make sure that missionaries have some personal “show and tell” to share so I spent the time finding information for her. She was thrilled to find a great uncle who just died a few months ago about whom she knew nothing. She also was at peace to learn that the lives of a “grandfather” and “stepfather” had turned out well. There will be a family reunion in Utah the week after their release before they return home to Missouri and she was excited to have documents and pictures to share.

This was our last call-back week for the next seven weeks. There is an extra large group of FTM’s coming in June so we will have one week of CSM’s then six straight weeks of FTM’s. We are grateful for the new missionaries because even with many missionaries extending, the missionary numbers are down significantly. Also during the call-back week we have inservice training, personal research time, and a temple and research day. We have Elijah Choir rehearsal three mornings a week at 6:24 AM regardless of what we do in our zone. We also had pizza and salad as a zone for lunch one day. This week we were privileged to attend a temple devotional at the Salt Lake Temple with Elder Whitney Clayton who demonstrated what he had learned by reading the Book of Mormon marking everything that deal with revelation and the Holy Ghost in the last couple of months. It was insightful. We spent Friday morning in the Jordan River Temple and met Sister Sasine, one of our zone missionaries, there.

John worked with a potential “rent-a-trainer” but spent many, many hours unraveling the new.FamilySearch (NFS) records for John Rogers (1800). Because anyone can add or combine records in real time, problems can occur if people are not very careful. Also new records have become available through the years which clarify that old ones. John Rogers had two wives and a child with each wife but the records had become jumbled so that they showed only one wife. John has been carefully separating the records and documenting the correct information. He has contacted many people to have them make changes because he cannot change their information. It continues to be a major challenge. Most people have responded quickly and positively because they want the record to be correct.

We attended the play “Hasty Heart” at the Hale Center Theater with Jeff Whitlock, my cousin Brent Whitlock’s son, playing the part of the Scotsman. This is the first time I’ve seen him play a dramatic role and he did a marvelous job. I love live theater because of the energy of the participants.

We had a brief break in the weather so we worked hard in the yard. We planted some flowers and vegetables. The spring flowers have been absolutely beautiful. Last week there were only two days without rain and the news commentators encouraged people to notice the “large yellow orb in the sky” which hadn’t been seen for weeks. The spring runoff from the mountains has barely begun and many campgrounds are still under 10 to 20 feet of snow. There has been some flooding and levees are being breached to control the flooding. There are mud and rockslides in the canyons. Even with all the rain, the pasture behind our house is regularly flooded with irrigation water but maybe that is just another way to get the water out of the mountains and safely down to Great Salt Lake. Usually by this time of the water year we have 13 inches of rain. This year we have had 22 and the rain continues. The high temperature today is only 55 degrees and it is May 29th!

Kira's 2nd Birthday Party

Kira will turn two this week so it was fun to celebrate her birthday on Saturday evening.

Keith set up blowup toys in the back yard for the seven Garner grandchildren there.

All of Kim's family were there which made it very fun. John and I enjoy being with the extended families.

Kim, Keith, and darling nearly two Kira.

Henrietta Wheeler--SLC Visit 2011

Henrietta Wheeler, 81 this week, my third cousin from from Rochester, Minnesota, came to Salt Lake City to stay at the Plaza Hotel for a week and to do family history as she done most years since she retired from teaching school and her husband died. Unfortunately it rained very hard every day but Saturday. She was able to see the gardeners remove the tulips and daffodils and other spring flowers and replace them with petunias, impatients, and the summer stock. It was an amazing process to see large gardens transformed in a matter of hours.

Friday we went to the quilt and art exhibit at the Church History Museum which was remarkable. She loves the art work of Dennis Smith and spotted these new sculptures across the hall. She coordinates a group that donated and/or raffled nearly 50 quilts for charity last year including full-sized, pieced, hand-quilted ones. She comes from a musical family so we attended a cello-piano recital at the Assembly Hall on Friday night. Her son-in-law plays with the Minnesota Symphony. We spent time together every day and were able to get a lot of work done. She documents very carefully and knows the records and I have technical expertise so we had a great time together. There were also sacred tender mercies.

We went through the records of her family to make sure the relationships were correct and make notes on unusual events. She noted that Fred Martin Wolff had an incorrect mother listed. His father has been married before and the mother died. This was very significant because Saturday morning we would have sealed Fred to the wrong mother so we were able to easily make the correction.

John and I did sealings on Saturday morning at the Jordan River Temple and it was tender that Henrietta would be in the area for this work. Her twin uncles that died soon after birth were sealed. Perhaps the most remarkable experience was with Wilhelm August Eduard Louis Hecker who we researched earlier this year. (See earlier post.) The spirit was very strong in the sealing room and let me know that this work was correctly done and that he accepted the ordinances with joy! These experiences continue to strengthen my testimony of family history.

LIllian Stead Rogers--100 Year Remembrance of her Birth

LILLIAN STEAD ROGERS

(1911-1993)

Lillian Stead was born in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England, on May 20, 1911, the first child of Simeon Stead and Mary Mitchell. Her parents were studying with the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Lillian was given a name and blessing in the LDS church before her parents were baptized. She was honored to be the first member of the Church in her family.

Harold and Lillian Stead in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England, in 1912.

At age fourteen, Lillian immigrated to the United States with her parents and younger brothers Albert and Harold via Canada. They settled in Southern California. Lillian was grateful that she had the opportunity to attend and graduate from high school. If they had stayed in England she would have gone to work in the mills after she finished Eighth Grade. She learned secretarial skills which served her well throughout her life.

Lillian in 1931 in Southern California.

Lillian met John Victor Rogers while they were serving as stake missionaries from the Garvanza Ward in the Highland Park District in Los Angeles, California. They were married by their bishop on March 27, 1939 but as soon as Vic got vacation time, they made the long trip to Utah by train to be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on October 12, 1937. Lillian was self-conscious to meet Vic’s family for the first time when she was so obviously pregnant but they were kind and welcoming to her.

Vic and Lillian had four children born to them in California while Vic worked on the railroad—David, Lillis, Kathie, and John. She also cared for Vic’s father for eight months until he died. They inherited the family home in rural Kanosh, Utah, and moved there in 1947 which was a real challenge to Lillian who had always lived in the city. Her biggest problem was the coal stove—something entirely foreign to her. It wasn’t until 1951 that they got a butane gas stove and water heater. Vic had to go back to California to work for another year leaving Lillian with four children, 1000 chickens, some pigs and a cow to milk. In 1953 Craig was born.

Lillian in 1972.

Lillian worked as a clerk-typist for the U.S. Forest Service in Kanosh for 15 years to support their five children on missions. She and her husband served two temple missions in Manti and a full-time proselyting mission in Sarah, Mississippi in the Arkansas Little Rock Mission. She compiled much family history and was diligent in doing genealogy and temple work for her family. She and Vic were involved in Name Extraction with the Fillmore Stake. Lillian learned how to do Data Entry on the computer in St. George and spent two days a week doing that in addition to temple work. She was an avid letter writer and frequently remembered people with cards and visits.

Lillian and John Victor Rogers on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Lillian served in various positions in the LDS Church, but her greatest love was music. She had a lovely alto voice and directed or sang in many groups. She also trained many young people to direct music. She particiated in choirs for the Manti Temple Rededication and various pageants.
One weekend Lillian and Vic were staying with John and Kathryn Ann and were planning to return home that morning. Kathryn Ann received the assignment to accompany Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus on the organ. When Lillian saw how Kathryn was struggling with the music, she and Vic stayed until late in the afternoon. He tended the children and she carefully beat time and helped Kathryn learn the music well.

Lillian Stead Rogers, 81, died May 15, 1993, at her apartment in St. George, Utah, from cancer of the liver and pancreas, twenty-nine days after the diagnosis. She had breast cancer several decades before. Vic was in a rehab center at the time recovering from a broken hip. Funeral services were held in the Kanosh Ward Chapel on Friday, May 21, 1993 and then she was buried in the Kanosh Cemetery, Kanosh, Millard, Utah.

Lillian was a loving, caring mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend. She has a strong testimony of the Gospel and spent her life in service to others. She will be remembered with fondness and affection for her devotion to family and to the church. She was a steadfast example of righteousness.

MIssionary Experiences

We have interesting full time missionaries these two weeks as usual. John has a young missionary whose brother is also serving in our mission so he had the benefit of the brother’s PAF5 file but the challenge of extensive research and documentation beyond what has been done previously. John has the family back into England and is getting lots of interesting information.

My student had Mormon pioneer heritage and it has been a marvelous experience to read first-hand accounts of the Martin and Willey Handcart Companies as well as the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition. I have heard these stories before but it is amazing to see it from the point of a direct descendent with actual documents. Another fascinating story was of John Hardison Redd from North Carolina then Tennessee who owned slaves. He joined the Church and freed his slaves but two of the black women and four of their children came to Utah with him and his family in 1850. The experiences of polygamous families are told in detail from living together in a simple log home to having identical but separate homes to moving the second wife to Mexico because of the persecution. We are so very grateful for our missionary experience and the blessings which have come from it.

Mother's Day Weekend and John's Birthday--2011

After a very rough week, physically and emotionally, they chose to serve others by tending a two-year-old and four-year-old for 48 hours. Melody didn't hear much of the Mother's Day talks and spend the rest of the block in the nursery. Brandon is the ward clerk and Melody is a Cub Scout den leader. Happy Birthday this week Brandon!

We loved these Easter pictures of Mordecai, Emily, little Ruby and Desi.

Mike loves his cute kids!

Anna and Daniel are growing up. Anna may be having surgery on her hips this month. Hopefully the adoption is within weeks.

Grant, Kristilyn, and James check out the flowers in our yard. They are just beautiful with all the rain we have had. We now have tulips of almost every kind and color. Tulips and daffodils bring memories of our time in Holland and at Temple Square.

What is a puddle for if not to throw stick in!

Getting a swing hug from Grandpa!

Keith and Kim hosted a beautiful Mother's Day brunch for their parents on Saturday then had the Rogers family over on Sunday evening.

Kira is at such a cute age. Her antics are charming!\

Kristilyn and Mark are looking forward to taking their boys to California in May for a reunion at his parents' home and a celebration of Grandma Eliason's 100th birthday.

Jason and Julie are going to New York at the end of May a little vacation. Jason has decided that he doesn't want to be a saleman so has returned to college to study mathematics which he loves and for which he has a gift.

Talisa reads very well. She is just finishing pre-school and will be starting kindergarten in the fall.

Kira pulled out her books and started reading when Talisa was reading to her daddy.

We had a delightful evening on Sunday at Keith and Kim's for dinner and talking. We were so pleased to hear from all of our children during the week a couple of times. We are so blessed!

Mildred Whitlock Rasband

Mildred Whitlock Rasband
(1913-1995)

Mildred Whitlock was born December 8, 1913, in Mayfield, Utah, the third of seven children and the first daughter to Charles Clyde and Herdis Christoffersen Whitlock. She was her mother’s “right hand” and is revered by her family. Education was important in the family. Imagine her horror when she brought her first real book home from first grade, stopped at a friend’s old privy, and accidentally knocked the precious book down the big black cavern, never to be retrieved again. She was valedictorian of her high school class at Manti High and earned her Normal Certificate (right to teach public school) at Snow College then graduated from Brigham Young University. She continued to take classes throughout her life to broaden her educational skills, her religious knowledge or other areas of interest. She held teaching certifications in every area of education and earned enough graduate credits for a doctoral degree. She was a master teacher.

Family was very important to her. She married Grant Thomas Rasband in the Manti Temple when she was 28 and they wanted a big family. George, Kathryn, and Karen came quickly and naturally but Edie was the result of a priesthood blessing from Elder Harold B. Lee. Even with teaching school and working with children all day, they added six foster Lamanite children to their family. They were thrilled with their thirty-three grandchildren and joyously welcomed great-grandchildren.

Mildred was a fun, happy, enthusiastic person. She had many talents. She was an excellent cook and made many artistic quilts. Food storage preparation was a regular part of living. She loved the beauty of nature and loved to be outside. Gardening, picking raspberries, hauling wood, or playing with children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren were her joys. Her home was the favorite “cousin place” and her posterity loved to be there. Vacations and camping were important activities. Travel, meeting people, and seeing new places were a delight. She was a prolific writer of talks, programs, poetry, family histories, and letters which often served as her journal. She loved life and was always active and busy with several projects with many others in the planning stages.

She was Primary president in Mayfield, MIA president in Pleasant Grove 4th Ward and Lindon Ward, and Resthaven Special Needs. She taught in all of the auxiliaries. Family history and temple service was always a priority. When she was younger she did handwork such as embroidery and crocheting but later she spent her time doing name extraction because she felt that was of eternal importance.

In June, 1972, she was in an automobile accident which severed her spinal cord. Because of the paralysis she was told that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Through the blessings of the Priesthood, extensive therapy, and much fasting and prayer she was able to return to her home after a month in the hospital. When it was time for school to begin in the fall, she was heavily braced and returned to teaching first grade. Many of these children had fasted and prayer for her throughout the summer and there was a very special feeling in that classroom.

After Grant retired from working at Geneva Steel, Mildred took early retirement and they served a proselyting mission in Hawaii. When they returned home they began their service as ordinance workers at the Provo Temple. After serving sixteen years, Mildred had to be released because of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her mind remained sharp and alert to the end, however the nerves and muscles failed and she gradually lost her ability to move, write, or speak. She died in her daughter Edie’s home in Sandy, Utah, on 14 November 1995. This is her last general message to her family:

“During the last few months I have had many hours to contemplate, to meditate, and to realize what is the most important thing in the world. The most significant thing we must each do is to prepare to return to Heavenly Father. You are my life and my love. Please, my precious ones, continue your faithful, diligent work. Where necessary, repent. You are all working so hard and it isn’t easy. The dearest thing to me is that we can be a family forever. I wish that you could feel this as I do! There will be no great gift that we can give one another than to assemble ourselves together in the Celestial Kingdom….

“I want each of you to know that I know that God lives and knows each of us individually. He hears and answers prayers. I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with my whole soul. I know this is the only true church…. I know there is power, consolations, and peace within the pages of the Book of Mormon. I love and appreciate each one of you, my precious family. I constantly pray, ‘God be with us ‘til we meet again.’ Love, Grandma Rasband (Mildred Whitlock Rasband)”

John's Spirtual Thought -- May 2011

Elder Cook Oct 2008 General Conference address

Many of the trials and hardships we encounter in life are severe and appear to have lasting consequences. Each of us will experience some of these during the vicissitudes of life. Many are experiencing situations of a most serious nature at this very moment.

We resonate with the Prophet Joseph’s petition after he had been falsely accused and imprisoned in Liberty Jail for months: “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?”

The Lord’s answer is reassuring:
“My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
“And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high.”

One of the essential doctrines illuminated by the Restoration is that there must be opposition in all things for righteousness to be brought to pass. This life is not always easy, nor was it meant to be; it is a time of testing and proving. As we read in Abraham, “And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.”

Elder Harold B. Lee taught, “Sometimes the things that are best for us and the things that bring eternal rewards seem at the moment to be the most bitter, and the things forbidden are ofttimes the things which seem to be the more desirable.”

The scriptures make it clear that each generation has its own version of best and worst of times. We are all subject to the conflict between good and evil and the contrast between light and dark, hope and despair. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell explained, “The sharp, side-by-side contrast of the sweet and the bitter is essential until the very end of this brief, mortal experience.” We know from our doctrine that good will overcome evil, and those who repent and are sanctified shall be given eternal life.

The challenges we face today are in their own way comparable to challenges of the past. The recent economic crisis has caused significant concern throughout the world. Employment and financial problems are not unusual. Many people have physical and mental health challenges. Others deal with marital problems or wayward children. Some have lost loved ones. Addictions and inappropriate or harmful propensities cause heartache. Whatever the source of the trials, they cause significant pain and suffering for individuals and those who love them.

We know from the scriptures that some trials are for our good and are suited for our own personal development.17 We also know that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. It is also true that every cloud we see doesn’t result in rain. Regardless of the challenges, trials, and hardships we endure, the reassuring doctrine of the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ includes Alma’s teaching that the Savior would take upon Him our infirmities and “succor his people according to their infirmities.”

Regardless of our trials, with the abundance we have today, we would be ungrateful if we did not appreciate our blessings. Despite the obvious nature of the hardships the pioneers were experiencing, President Brigham Young talked about the significance of gratitude. He stated, “I do not know of any, excepting the unpardonable sin, that is greater than the sin of ingratitude.”

Our foremost gratitude should be for the Savior and His Atonement. Think of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane during the Atonement process, suffering agony so great that He bled from every pore. His cry to His Father included the word Abba. This might be interpreted as the cry of a son who is in distress to his father: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” I testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers all of the trials and hardships that any of us will encounter in this life.

I, with you, am eternally grateful to Jesus Christ, the rescuer of mankind. I bear witness that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

I would like to conclude by bearing my own witness of our Saviors love by singing I Know That My Redeemer Lives accompanied by Sister Rogers. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.