SHELBY
E. SWAIN (MOON)
by
his sister
Aurilla
Swain Roundy - 1997
Born: 13 June 1909
Roosevelt, Duchesne, Utah
Married: Marian Miller
11 Jul 1929
Vernal, Utah
Children: 1.
Iris Rae Swain
10 Oct 1930
Vernal, Uintah, Utah
2. Enoch Herman Swain (Nick)
1 Mar
1932
Vernal,
Uintah, Utah
3. Barbara Elaine Swain
15 Sept 1933
Vernal, Uintah, Utah
4. Betty Swain
26 June 1935
Vernal, Uintah, Utah
5. Diane Swain
22 Mar 1937
Vernal, Uintah, Utah
6. Susan Shelby Swain
3 Oct 1948
Vernal, Uintah, Utah
Married: Edna Jones
Lehi, Utah
Children: 1.
Eileen Swain
Lehi, Utah
2. Florence Ann Swain
Lehi, Utah
3. Marilyn Swain
Lehi, Utah
Died: 3 Apr 1959
Lehi, Utah, Utah
Shelby’s
pregnancy and birth were the easiest out of all Florence’s children. He was born at home just like everyone else
during that era. He was delivered by a
midwife. Teen isn’t sure but she thinks
that he may have been delivered by their maternal grandmother Aurella
Hatch. She was a trained midwife. She delivered Teen and Duff. Hap was delivered by two doctors. They were good friends of Enoch and
Florence’s so Hap was named after them (Marion Wesley).
Enoch and Florence’s family consisted of Frank,
Gilbert, Lowell (died), Garn, Shelby, Carl, Teen, Marion and Mack
(stillbirth). Florence had also had a
miscarriage between Marion and Mack.
Shelby was a very easy child from the womb and
growing up.. The rest of the kids were
very rambunctious. Out of all his
siblings, he was the most mildest in his temperament. He never was complaining. He was not in the least bit inclined for self
sympathy for things that he didn’t have growing up. Moon would probably describe his childhood as
being “just all right”. He was very gentle especially with the younger
siblings. Of course, with the older
siblings, he didn’t dare be any thing else but gentle.
Shelby was over joyed at the birth of Marion
(Hap). He was the most devoted brother
who ever had a baby brother. He used to
carry Hap on his shoulders where ever he went.
There was a large ditch that ran in front of the house and Shelby’s life
centered on keeping Hap out of that ditch.
He was very protective.
The parents both agreed that Enoch would name the
boys and Florence would name the girls.
Enoch and his brothers were named after the people in the Book of Mormon
so he was very careful about not doing the same thing. The children were given names but ended up
calling each other nick names as they pleased.
Karl was called “Duff or George D.”, Aurilla was called “Peg, Teen or
Rill”, Frank was called “Hush Magandy” which was eventually shortened to
“Hush,” Gilbert was call “Gib or Joe Pete,” Garn was called “Mag Pie Simkins”
which was shortened to “Mag,” Marion was called “Happy” but shortened to
“Hap.” Mac was named after an uncle Mac
Swain who was a silent movie actor in Hollywood. He appeared in numerous movies such as ‘The
Gold Rush” with Charlie Chaplin.
Teen called her brother “Moon” even though Shelby
is a lovely name. His middle name is
Etien or Eteen (pronounced “E-tin”). The
family had friends by the last name of Patry.
When Shelby was born, Mr. Patry said “why can’t his middle name be
Etien? It is french for Stephen. Bill Patry, (one of the children) explained
years later how to pronounce it.
The children had gone to see the movie “Peg of my
Heart.” The boys said that she looked
and talked like the girl in the movie.
As a result, they started calling her “Peg of my Heart.” I would chase them and say, “that is not my name.”
The name Peg has stuck with her.
Shelby was of course in that group that she was chasing. That was only one of many reasons that she
would chase her brother through out the years!
When Shelby was very small, he went to a circus
with his mother. He couldn’t say
elephant no matter how hard he tried. So
he called the elephant “Speakin.”
Teen’s first memory of Shelby is on the ranch out
in Roosevelt on the homestead. Teen,
Shelby and Duff were together a lot. In
old family pictures, it seems that the three of us were never apart from each
other.
Moon had
very beautiful features and good looking.
His eyes were a soft blue gray.
He also had very long eye lashes. The type that girls would be jealous
of. Duff was really curly headed, Shelby had the
most beautiful brown wavy hair that Teen had ever seen in her life. Her hair was darker and straight as a stick. She looked more like Geranimo’s daughter.
The next memories that are more distinct are in
Vernal. They used to play on the ditch
bank of the garden making farms. They
would take sticks and string to make fences.
Moon always carved things out of wood.
No one ever realized how talented he was at that. It was more or less taken for granted. As the children got older, he would make his
sister toy doll furniture. They were
miniature and beautifully built. Once
again, it was taken for granted. It was
just something that he did. His talent
was over looked.
Teen, Duff and Moon would stop at the library on
the way home from school. He would read
the funny papers and laugh until tears would run down his face. He would then go home and draw since he was a
great cartoonist.
There were all kinds of books. We had a real strong oven. It was safe to put
your feet on the oven door. Florence
would make honey candy or something good to munch on as Enoch would read. Teen remembers most is Zane Grey’s book
“Riders of the Purple Sage.” He would
also tell the kids to read because they may never be rich enough to travel
around the world. If you read, you will
travel. You will learn about the world.
Even if its not too good of a book you will learn to spell.” He drummed into the children the value of
reading. He was very strong on it. Moon liked to read in general.
Their maternal grandmother “Rilla” had a caring
and healing affect on her grandchildren because she was a healing person. Moon would love to scare the living daylights
out of her. She liked it. She had a broad eastern accent and would say
“you dirty little scoundrel.” as she laughed. The kids would love to tease her
and she would tease back. She was a
pretty good sport about it. Duff, Moon
and Garn played the most jokes on her. Moon loved to play pranks on anyone that
he could. He also loved to joke. One of
the values or themes that she has passed on was the idea of “take what you have
and use it.” “Don’t give up.”
Enoch
loved and respected his mother very much.
The children had to be careful not to joke too much around her. If it got out of hand, he would have taken it
very seriously.
Shelby had
to do chores while growing up whether it was pulling weeds, carrying water for
the washes or whatever he was told to do.
There was always music in the home. Enoch played music, sang and read
books.. He could not sing though. Florence couldn’t sing a tune and as a result
she never sang to the children. Singing
was done by Enoch. Teen feels that the
boys could have learned to sing if they had someone sing to them when they were
little. However, Teen was the only one
who really sang. Moon loved to hear
other people sing. He could dance some. Frank, Garn and Gilbert danced more than
Moon. Florence taught the older boys to
do the waltz in the kitchen.
Home remedies that were used at that time were
such things as mustard plastered. In
those days, that was the only way to treat a chest congestion or pneumonia. The
wonder drugs were not around then. It
was during WWII that penicillin was first introduced to the family. They would put mustard plaster on your chest
and then steam you with menthol crystals, then rub Vicks Vapor rub on you, keep
you quiet and give you whatever fluids you could handle.
As a child, Moon was pretty healthy. One time he did get typhoid fever. No one knows how he got it. Again, there was no wonder drugs to treat
it. Either you had good nursing or you
would die. He was so very sick that the
family thought he was going to die. It
was very scary. All of his body waste
had to go into a slop jar, Florence would then put chlorinated lime and all
kinds of stuff on it. The dishes, bed
clothing or anything he touched or came near him were boiled. Anything that went in and out of his room, no
one touched but Florence. No one was able to go into his room. He was sick for what it seemed quite awhile
to the younger children.
One time, Duff, Moon, Teen and Gilbert had their
tonsils out at the doctors office.
Florence was there with them.
They had a little machine that would pump blood out of their
throats. It would go putter, putter,
putter, putter. Moon asked if they could
give that machine more butter. He
thought it was saying butter instead of putter.
He wasn’t happy with that machine and people knew it. They were put to sleep with ether. That was the only way to have someone sleep
during surgery at that time. It wasn’t a
always pleasant situation. When it came
time for Duff to have his tonsils out, he said that he wasn’t going to
embarrass his mother like Moon did. But
Duff did exactly the same thing. They
weren’t supposed to eat or drink anything after midnight before the
surgery. Moon came through the surgery
pretty good. Gilbert carried Teen
downstairs to the car so they could go home.
One winter Moon, Duff and Teen had red
measles. They were all very sick and
very delirious. Florence fixed up the
dining room as a sick room so she could take care of us all. All three of them had horrible
delusions. There were stripes on the
wallpaper that they all counted to pass the time away. The red measles had to run their course. There were no inoculations at that time. It wasn’t any fun at all. Very miserable. Duff and Teen moaned and complained. Moon
didn’t even though he was miserable. He
was a calm and placid individual. Teen
feels that he was the calmest out of all the family.
His heroes were Jim Bridger and those guys. He liked baseball and played on the town
team. He liked to swim and ice
skate. He also liked to listen to the radio
and television shows. He loved
movies. He especially liked the
comedy. Moon, Duff, Teen and their
mother went to a movie starring the comedian Harold Lloyd. This comedian would get into the most hair
raising situations. Florence would
scream and cover up her eyes. Moon liked
westerns. One time, they went to a movie
when Teen was young. In the movie, they
were going to hang a man. Teen started
to bawl and ran for home like a jack rabbit.
Not too long after that, there was a trial going on in town. Enoch (the sheriff) was there. His brother Frank was on the jury. When Enoch came home for lunch, Florence
asked what happened at the trial that day.
He said, “a hung jury.” Teen
bawled. She didn’t want her uncle Frank
to be hung.
It was scary and hard at times for the children
when Enoch was Sheriff. Because his
father was the Sheriff , Shelby knew that he had better behave. He never got into any trouble. Florence had some half brothers who drank
quite a bit. They would get drunk and rowdy. Enoch had to go arrest them and put them in
jail over night. He would come home and
tell his wife. She would get angry
because he arrested one of her brothers.
He had to tell her because she would find out anyway. She was more mad at her brothers but took it
out on her husband. Teen didn’t
understand why her mother got so mad and asked her father one time why she got
so mad when he had to arrest uncle Jock... All you do is hold him on your knee
like you do me when I am tired and you rest me.”
The dominant religion in Vernal, Utah was the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (L.D.S.). The kids didn’t know that there was any other
religion until they grew up and moved away.
Practically everyone in Vernal was LDS.
However, Shelby, Teen and the other children attended a private school
that was run by the Presbyterian church .
Teen attended up unto the third grade.
That school closed and they then attended the public school called
“Central School.” Teen doesn’t know why
they attended that church school. Shelby
wasn’t baptized into the L.D.S. church.
He believed in God and in prayer.
He wouldn’t be obvious about his relationship with God through
prayer. It was a very private, personal
thing. He would pray in his own personal
way. Garn wasn’t baptized either.
Christmas was the one time of year that Enoch went
crazy. If he had been a millionaire, who
knows what he would have bought his children.
When he was growing up, Christmas was very sparse. If he got an orange or something that someone
made, that was great. They just didn’t
celebrate Christmas in his home as a child.
After Thanksgiving around the first of December,
he would come in and have a big seamless sack over his shoulder almost like
Santa Claus. That would be full of mixed
nuts. He would give each child a
handful. They would leave it alone until
Christmas. A few days later, he would
come in with a wooden bucket about 4 or 5 gallon bucket. It would have layers of candy in it. Beautiful candy. There would be all types of fantastic shapes
such as a horse on a pedestal rearing up etc.
There would be cremes, peanut brittle and so much more. The kids got a taste of it and they left it
alone until Christmas. They never raided
it. Christmas morning, the children
would have their socks hung up with goodies in it.. They had a Christmas tree but no candles on
it because of the fire danger. Enoch was
real concerned about that. Christmas was
the time of year that he really celebrated. He or Florence didn’t pay much
attention to birthdays.
On Thanksgiving, there was always a turkey cooked
with other good stuff. Thanksgiving was
thought of more as a food time than a spiritual time.
Easter was the time that Florence took
charge. She could die fantastic Easter eggs. In those days, one couldn’t go to the store
and buy Easter egg dye. She
improvised. She was a marvel in mixing
colors with things around the house. She
would take yellow onion skins,
She would make a lunch and then they would go on a
Easter picnic to find the Easter bunny.
They would go down to the creek bottom where there would be a clear
grassy place. The children would run and
play and hunt for the Easter bunny. As
they got older, they would go on Easter hikes.
They would hike up toward the divide in Vernal. It was quite a long walk. They never made it to the top but they made
toward it. Usually, Duff, Teen, Moon and
maybe a neighborhood kid or too would come.
Florence usually didn’t go because her feet would have hurt too much her
due to her problems. She had bunions,
corns, and fallen arches. She didn’t
have good walking shoes as they have now.
Florence was always very strict with the kids about taking care of their
feet. She felt that if their shoes were
too small, do not put them on you feet and pinch them.
The family was big enough that they were a party
in themselves. Usually families stayed
home during those days. It was a family
day. This was for Christmas and
Thanksgiving.
The 4th of July was another big day in the
family’s life. Enoch would get up before daylight and go up to the divide on
the hill. He would set off three blasts
of dynamite just as the sun was coming up.
That would signal the 4th of July celebration to begin. He took this upon himself. He enjoyed it. There would be parades, horse races and other
activities at the fair grounds. He would
go and order from Caulders creamery a 5 gallon container of ice cream. No one on earth made ice cream as good as
Caulder’s. No one ever made cinnamon rolls
as good as Fern Evans. It was a nice
holiday for the family. Shelby along
with the other children in the family, all got a shining silver dollar to
spend. The boys were allowed to run
freer than Teen who stuck around her parents.
Moon enjoyed the holiday. Family
vacations consisted of when the boys got older was the opening of fishing
season in the spring and the hunting season in the fall. The best spot they like to fish on opening
day was at Jones’ hole. They would drive
as far as they could and then hike the rest of the in. They would camp. That was a real celebration for the men in
the family. Florence and Teen stayed
home and got ready to start eating fish.
They didn’t really take vacations per se because
they had a big garden to take care of and Enoch was running the brickyard. There wasn’t time to take an official
vacation while trying to make a living.
During the school years, Teen being younger would
carry notes home to him from the girls.
Teen was a very popular young girl but it was because of her
brother. Teen remembers asking her Aunt
Olly (Olive) why they married all Swain men.
There were 3 sisters and a brother who married 3 brothers and a sister. She said it was because they were the best
looking. Besides there was no one else
but the Brooks family. The Swain family
were all very tall and very good looking men.
So they are all double cousins.
Growing up, Shelby and his siblings along with the cousins would laugh
and say that they were more closely related than they were to their parents.
They
would all go out to dances and parties as a group. It was a very safe situation. Being a girl felt safe because if it wasn’t a
six foot brother, it would be a six foot cousin. Six foot being the smallest of the lot. Enoch would say “For heavens sake, children
remember that sometimes cousins marry but you are the same as brothers and
sisters so don’t get any notions because you are so closely related.
We had a wonderful growing up because the families
would get together. The families were
very talented musicians and there was playing singing and laughter going on.
Shelby
didn’t like the wildcats at all. He
never did show interest in them one time when they had two as family pets. He
wasn’t mean to them but he just left them alone
Moon didn’t graduate from high school. Teen doesn’t remember how far he got or why
he quit school.
He was well liked and very popular around the
neighborhood and town. Especially the
girls... He liked quite a few
girls. He never talked too much about
it. He didn’t date a lot. They chased him more than he chased
them. It got down to two girls. One was Mary Dudley and Marian Miller.
Moon’s first crush was on Mary Dudley. Teen doesn’t know what happened to that
romance. The expectant behavior on a
date would be to go to a movie, maybe hold hands, walk her home and maybe or
maybe not kiss her good night. He never
went steady with anyone.
There of course was the wild bunch (Butch Cassidy
& them) that was around in the
mountains of Vernal. Shelby loved the
wild west atmosphere. He was a very fine
shot. He and Duff went and saw a show
about Jim Bridger or some character like that in history. In the show, he would put a cup of whiskey on
his head and his friend would shoot it. He
would reach up and put his fingers in the hole.
Then they would switch positions and the same thing would happen. Duff and Shelby would get small tin cans and
shoot them off of each others head imitating what they saw in the show. One time, Shelby was aiming his 22 and was
just about to shoot when Duff said “wait a minute. Stop! You are aiming right between my eyes.” Shelby said, “No, I’m not.” Then he went and shot the can off of his
brothers head. Then they switched
positions. Garn found out about this and told his parents. Needless to say, it ended right then because
they weren’t Jim Bridger. Moon loved the outdoors.
He was always carving things out of wood. Teen isn’t sure what he did with all his
carvings. Teen has wondered through the
years why her mother didn’t recognize that talent and save the toy furniture
that he had made Teen. She should have saved them and put them in a safe place
for him, Teen or his children or descendants.
As a teenager, he liked to hunt and fish. He liked to go to movies. His hair was always cut neat and trim. He combed it right straight back. Teen loved his hair and wondered why she
couldn’t have some like it..
As a teen, Moon had a close relationship with his
parents. He teased his mother quite a
bit. In those days, it was considered an
insult to have Indian blood in you. If
Teen isn’t mistaken, she thinks that Jeremiah Hatch and maybe his first wife
had some Indian blood in them. That
first family looked more like Indians than Indians. Hap and Teen scrimped and saved up money to
buy a beautiful plate for their mother.
They saw it in a drug store window, bought it and took it to her. One morning, she was having toast and eggs on
this plate. Moon went through the
kitchen and out the back door. Florence
said something to him and Moon turned around and said “ok squaw.” Mom scooped up the plate. Boy could she
throw like a bullet. He got hit right in
the back of the head with the plate. It
broke all to pieces. It didn’t hurt him
but it sure wacked him a good one on the back of the head. He kept on
running. Duff said “Look at that. That’s
the plate we bought her.” Moon kept out
of sight until she cooled down.
As a teen, Shelby worked for whoever needed
something done. He was a worker. You name it and he would do it. In those days, it was the family’s
responsibility to dig the graves of their loved ones who had died. People weren’t paid to do it. Shelby would be the first one to pick up a
shovel, go to the family and say “Here I am.
I am willing to help dig.” He
helped where ever he could and where ever he was needed in his own quiet way.
Teen doesn’t recall any comments in the family
about Shelby being difficult during his teen age years. He was pretty easy going. Florence and Enoch were very strict. The kids walked the line. Garn and Gilbert rebelled the most as
teenagers. Shelby started to smoke as a
young teen and did it all of his life.
It was pretty daring though if one drank beer. Hard liquor was a very rebellious act. Drugs were nonexistent then.
As he got older, he started to drink with Garn and
Frank. He started just to be social and
accepted by them. He hero worshiped his
older brothers Gilbert, Frank and Garn.
Mother was busy making a quilt that she was making
for the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
She very much wanted to do this.
It was depicting cover wagons, the temple and the history of the Mormon
trek across the plains. She could get
everything done on the quilt except for the Savior’s face. Shelby came by from his job as he did every
night to make sure that she was all right.
He had on his coveralls and had a carpenters pencil. Florence was just fuming. Shelby said “you mean you can’t draw the
savior’s face?” She said “that’s what I
am telling you.” He took out his pencil
and drew the Savior’s face. He then said
“There you are. Now you have it.” Hap’s wife said that he had more talent in
his little finger than she had in her whole body when she saw this
picture. She got him a set of watercolors
and a big pad of paper. He did many
watercolors of Jesus. Various members of
the family have them. He also did one of
a log cabin with a tree by it. It is a
typical western painting. He did a lot
of water color.
When Teen’s baby was about 12-14 months old, they
were staying at her mothers in Vernal.
A young couple from Jensen, Utah named the Kelly’s went swimming and
drowned in the Green River. People were
dragging the river. Florence made a lot
of sandwiches and hot coffee to feed the search group. Teen and Moon volunteered to take the food
down to the search site. They went down
there and drove across the bridge and up the riverbank where the men were camped. They had just barely got out of the car when
everything suddenly broke loose in the camp.
Someone yelled to another man “don’t move a muscle.’‘ Then whack went
the shovel. Teen walked over and asked
what the matter was. The guy almost
stepped on a rattlesnake. She walked
over and picked it up. Although it was
dead, it was still coiling around and around.
Every man in that camp suddenly took off as they yelled “drop it, drop
it.” Teen called them a bunch of
sissy’s and said that it was “just a water snake with a crippled tail.” Teen turned around to Moon and he agreed that
it really was a rattlesnake. He was
laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. The other guys were saying “make her drop
it.” Moon said the snake was dead and
then asked his sister if she wanted him to cut the rattles out of it. He did and they took them home to show them
to Duff. The rattlesnake tail was in her
pocket. He didn’t believe her. She took them out and Duff jumped back about
3 feet and asked where she got those.
Moon explained what happened. He
was still quite amused and getting quite a kick out of the episode. The older brothers said that they had to take
her out and show her the difference between a water snake and a rattlesnake.
Handling the dead rattlesnake didn’t bother him but the men in the camp
wouldn’t approach at all. He threw it
far away from camp so the men would come back and eat their lunch.
Moon didn’t communicate a lot when it came to his
feelings especially death. As the kids
reached maturity, if Moon was feeling sad or upset, he would turn to Teen more
than anyone for a supportive shoulder.
He would talk to her about what ever bothered him. He never cried though because during that
time era, men didn’t cry. It wasn’t
acceptable.
As a teenager, Moon was quiet. He wasn’t a hell raiser. He did have a temper. He expressed his anger very quietly and
efficiently. In Vernal, men were hired
off the streets to work at the Dinosaur Quarry.
They were called “dino boys.”
One time, Moon was walking up town.
Three of those rowdy men were sitting on the steps of the pool
hall. They said some insulting things to
him as he went by. He never said a word
but turned around and half massacred them.
As they lay flat on the sidewalk, he still didn’t say a word and turned
and went on his way. He was a tiger of a
man. He was very muscular and strong.
After Teen’s husband was killed, she went to the
cemetery with her mother. The sexton
came up to her and asked when she was going to put a grave marker on the
grave. Teen replied that “the grave
needed to settle first. When my brothers
tell me too, then I will put a marker on it”.
He said, “I sell grave markers.
On the graves that I put the marker on , I take good care of them.” Teen reached around her mother and put her
hand on her mothers mouth. Teen said,
“would you please repeat that, I am not sure that I understand what you are
saying.” He then repeated that he would
take good care of the grass and surrounding area if he put the headstone on. If not, the grass would go brown and
die. She said, “I will let you know
later”. She had already paid for
perpetual care of the grave. Florence
was so angry that she could have torn up the earth around him. Teen wouldn’t let her say anything. She had to almost forcibly put Florence in
the car. I said, “Now listen, this is
something that one of my brothers need to handle. Moon is the tallest brother so I will go talk
to him about it.” After talking to
Moon, he said, “I think we can handle it all right. Don’t let it worry you
anymore. Lon’s grave will be taken care of.”
He got in his car and went up to Copperton, Utah to the older brother
Frank and told him what happened. The
older brother was supposedly a calm man who was wise and level headed. “Tell you what to do. Go down to the city
council meeting and report it. Before
you go kill him, get him fired.” Moon
did go to the city council meeting and then he and Teen went out to visit the
grave. They weren’t there very long when
the guy came bustling up and asked if she had decided on the grave marker
yet. Moon said, “introduce me to this
man.” Moon reached over the grave and
took hold of this man’s hand and started to shake it. Moon gripped the man’s hand and shook it so
hard. Moon said, “I understand that you
take care of the graves in this cemetery.”
“Yes sir, I do.” Moon then said,
“I want to tell you something sir. If
she or I ever comes out here and finds a piece of brown grass, I am going to
polish every headstone in this cemetery with you. Do you understand this?” The man truly shaken said “yes sir, there
will be no brown grass at all.” “ You leave her alone.” After that, when Teen went there, the man
stayed far away.
Mick (Marian Miller) was the aggressor in the
relationship with Shelby when it started.
Mainly, because he like Mary Dudley.
Mick didn’t like Mary at all.
Competition. Mick and Shelby were
both raised in Vernal and knew each other.
The two families knew each other.
Teen had gone to school with Iris Miller. Marian’s sister who died young.
While dating, it was a very calm
relationship. They went to movies and
things like that. When Moon and Marian
announced that they were going to be married. Both families were o.k. with the
decision. Teen thinks that Enoch, Florence, Herman Miller and Grandma Kolb
attended the marriage ceremony that was conducted by Mick’s bishop.
He was never drafted or in the military because he
had too many children. He was very
patriotic towards his country. He was
willing to go fight in WWII if he was allowed too.
Teen was a licensed pilot when Shelby asked her to
fly him out to Vernal so he could talk to Mick.
He felt that his children needed him to be at home. He didn’t like what was happening. “I am going to see if there is someway we can
make this marriage work.” Mick’s demands
were “will you clean up? Will you
straighten up?” He told her that he had
done all that he could. He then asked
her what she was going to do on her part to make it work. During this conversation, Teen went and
visited with the kids. At the last, he
said that he had done all that she had asked him to do. He asked her if she did
any of the things that she promised him.
“What about that?” She shot back
a very negative answer. He asked if that
was her final decision and then said he would not be back. He and Teen flew back home. He felt bad and was totally devastated. The marriage had many problems, conflicts,
disappointments and shame. Both partners
in this marriage played a part in the divorce.
Shelby’s family always liked Mick even though they knew what was going
on.
He was quite happy in his marriage to Edna. The marriage ceremony was attended by Teen
and her husband Lon. It was conducted by
Edna’s bishop. Moon liked how Edna took
care of the children that he had with her.
He had 3 little girls by that marriage. Marilyn inherited Moon’s talent
a lot in painting and art.
Edna and Moon didn’t date very long. When he married Edna, her family objected
because he was not L.D.S. They got to
where they liked him because he took such good care of her. She had been married before. Teen’s husband was a friend to Edna’s first
husband. When Edna’s husband dropped
dead over the steering wheel of the car, Teen’s husband took care of her car
for quite awhile. Teen took Edna under
her wing. Moon met Edna at Teen’s
place. They dated a time or two and it
wasn’t long before they decided to marry.
He wanted to make that marriage work.
One time after he had his children, Shelby had
been drinking. Sammy Hatch was the
patrolman who stopped him. He said
“Moon, you have been drinking too much beer to be driving.” Moon then went and joined Alcoholics
Anonymous. He suspected that he was an
alcoholic. He asked the Teen’s 3 boys
(Gilbert, Allan and Gordon) if they would come and sing at an A.A.
meeting. They did. They sang “Good old Mountain Dew.” The A.A. group almost sang those kids to
death. They wanted them to keep
singing. Shelby invited Teen to go with
him to a meeting just to see what happens at them. Garn went with him also. He had lots of friends and support there. Shelby went to A.A. for awhile and then he
dropped out.
Teen suspects that Moon knew that he had lung
cancer a couple of years before he died.
He went to a doctor that wasn’t nice at all because he wasn’t L.D.S.. He was nice to Edna though because of her
religion. Moon didn’t like being treated
like that so he never went back. Teen
had seen him cough up clots. Moon said
that it was “just tobacco.” Then he
said, “No, I really do have a problem.”
He died from a self inflicted gunshot wound when
he was close to his fiftieth birthday.
Teen feels that he did it because of stress and health problems. He was a very hard worker. He would walk home and just hand his paycheck
to Edna. He did the same thing also to
Marian when they were married. He never
checked up to see how it was being spent when he was married to both of his
wives. There was so much waste that
Moon’s family would just throw up their hands.
This was the most money that Edna had ever
seen. He had to come home from the job
because he got so sick. He told Edna
that he didn’t know how much longer he would be able to work. She told him that whether he was sick or not
that the family needed the money.
Not long after that, he went downtown in Lehi,
Utah where he was living at the time.
The grocer asked him if he knew that his wife had been running up a
grocery bill. Moon said “no I didn’t.
How much is it Jim?” Jim said that it
was pretty big. It was over $1100. She comes in every night and charges very
expensive and extravagant things. The
stress of finances, the fact that he wouldn’t be able to work much longer and
other things that hurt so much added to the suicide.
The last night that he lived, he went to see Teen
who lived in Salt Lake. His mother
happened to be there also. Teen knew
that he was deeply troubled. She said
that in the morning, she was going to take their mother home and that they
would spend the weekend together. He
said, “yes, we will spend the weekend together.”
He was dressed up very nice in his suit. He asked Teen, “do you think I look nice
Sis?’‘ She and Florence told him how wonderful and handsome he looked. He left and shot himself that night. Teen felt that he was saying good by them
when he came by. When he said yes we will spend the weekend together, he knew
that Teen would be there to take care of his wife and children.
Edna called Teen about 1:00 a.m. and said that
Moon was out in the driveway. She said
that something was really wrong and Teen had better come. Teen woke up Florence and her oldest son and
said that they were going to go to Lehi.
They drove down as fast as they could.
By the time, they got there, his body had been taken away. At that time, Teen would have given 10 years of
her life, not to have Florence hear that he had shot himself. The family was devastated. They all felt that they could and should have
done something to have helped him. If
they knew what he was planning, they would have gone to Edna and asked her to
stop adding stress to his life. If Edna
had known he was depressed and suicidal, she never said anything.
Shelby loved his children very much. At Iris Rae’s wedding reception, the furnace
went out. He took off his suit coat and
went down to the basement to overhaul that furnace. He didn’t want her wedding reception to be
ruined. He would have given his life for
them. He was more maternal than all the
boys that were in the family. There is
a very strong maternal streak in them.
With his last three little girls , he couldn’t turn around without them
being there. He had a good relationship
with Nick when he was younger. When Nick
was little, he used to run and grab Moon’s arm and swing on it like a well
rope. Shelby would come in from work so
dog tired that he could hardly walk. One
day, Moon said, “Nicky boy, don’t swing on daddy’s arm, I am tired.” Nick backed up and said “I wish I had pulled
your arm clear off.”
As an adult, he plastered, was a carpenter,
plumber. He was very skillful. He was a good plumber. He supported his family through the construction
field in Vernal. He would do any kind of
work that anyone offered to him.
Moon had many good qualities that deserves to be
emulated while his weak traits not be exaggerated. Most importantly, he is a member of the
family and deserves to be treated with respect just as everyone else. There is good and bad in everyone.
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