Eunice Naomi Gransbury Wayment

 

 

BIRTH FAMILY:

 

Eunice "Naomi" (pronounced Naoma) was born on 28 March 1904 at Albion, Cassia, Idaho to Charles Wesley Gransbury and Jennie Louise Parrot.  She was the only daughter in a family with five brothers:  Orval Howard born 20 Nov 1901; Walter Charles born 29 Dec 1902 and died two weeks later; next in line was Naomi born 28 Mar 1904; George Leslie born 5 Dec 1905; William Wesley born and died 20 Aug 1907; a stillborn baby in 1909 and Charles Marlon born 21 Feb 1912. 

 

During Naomi's childhood,  she grew up with a brother, Orval 2½ years older than her and George 1½ years younger; then the baby, Marlon, who was 8 years younger than his big sister.  

 

Naomi's father, Charles Wesley Gransbury was born 4 April 1879 in Sterling, Kansas.  He came to Idaho with his family when he was 18 years of age and lived in the Albion and Burley area the remainder of his life.  His father was John Wesley Gransbury and his mother was Lura Elmina Cole.  Lura always said she was 16th-part Indian.  Although his parents were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kansas, Charles remained aloof from religion and did not become a member of the Church until in his old age.  

 

Naomi's mother, Jennie Louise Parrott was born 19 Feb 1883, at Pleasant View, Utah.  She moved to Rock Creek, Idaho when she was nine years old and to Albion when she was 13.   Her parents were Edward Parrott and Christina Stevens.  Jennie and her parents were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jennie always loved the gospel and the Lord.

 

Naomi's birth was at home on a farm south of Albion.  

 

CHILDHOOD:

Her childhood was spent on various farms in Albion and the surrounding communities. Naomi says: "One of my first memories is of Sarah Bingham.  I knew her since I was four or five years old.  She was always called “Grandma Bingham” by everyone and a more wonderful person could never be found.

 

Naomi attended school in Albion beginning at the age of eight.  In the grade school there were two grades per room with one teacher.  The school was five or six miles from home.   She and her brother, Orval, walked to school most of the time.  She remembers wading snow till she was wet to the crotch a few times just to get to school.  Usually when it was wet or cold, however, the children would ride a horse to school.  Whenever she would ride the horse, a kid  who delighted in playing tricks on her would turn it lose after school, and the horse would head for home--keeping just far enough ahead of Naomi that she couldn't catch him.  She said she always liked school but was not a very good student.  

 

Naomi especially liked to read and write.  One Christmas she received the book Elsie Dinsmore and kept it until many years later when she gave it to her granddaughter, Cheryl Ann, when she stayed with her after Walker died.  Cheryl later gave the book to her Aunt Karen who put it in a nice frame. Naomi also read Anne of Green Gables.  When Naomi was about 16, the family moved to Burley where she finished the eighth grade.  One thing that she really liked about the school in Burley was that it had a library and she got to check out books.  When Naomi completed eighth grade, her Dad wouldn't let her continue.  He thought girls did not need an education.  

 

She took her lunches to school most of the time--jelly sandwiches and fruits.  The school served soups sometimes when it was cold.  Her Mother made lots of jellies and jams and dried fruits.  

 

Naomi said: "I had a beautiful china doll.  I liked to play with dolls.  That's where I got my love for babies.  Mother made my doll clothes until I was big enough to sew.  Then I'd make them out of anything that was old.  Anything to keep me sewing.

 

For fun, she played house, but play times were few and far between. She had many chores even as a little girl--things like pulling weeds along the wheat fields. Naomi says: "We didn't have fun like kids do now.  We kids and mother did the work, I can tell you.  We worked and worked.  You don't know what kind of a life I had when I was a child.  It wasn't very nice.  I loved my mother with all my heart, but I could very well have gotten along without my dad.  He was always slapping me.  That is why my arm has all these bumps and hurts so much.  He'd always grab my hands and hold them up and slap my butt and my shoulders and these sores are where he used to grab me and hit me.  He'd grab me and pinch and twist.  You don't know what life was like.  If there was any dirty rotten job on the place, I had the job.  He'd make me do it before he would let the boys.  I had to clean the barns after cows and horses and I had to follow the harrow and walk behind it.  My brother could have a board behind the harrow, but not me.  I had to walk.  He was mean to my mother, too.  She and I always got along good and that made Dad mad.  She never had much of an education.  She had a friend who taught her to sew.  She was only 17 when she married my Dad.  I was so determined I wouldn't marry anyone like my Dad."

 

At the age of eight years old, Naomi rode on a horse and buggy stage coach from Albion to Burley to the Unity District to stay with her Grandpa and Grandma Gransbury for the weekend.  They took her to a big canal where a large group was gathered for baptisms.  Dressed in a white dress and panties,  Naomi's Uncle, Charles Olson, baptized her in this canal on 19 July 1912.  Charles was the husband of her father's sister, Alice. 

 

Naomi said, "I always thought a lot of Uncle Charlie.  He was so good to us kids. He didn't like my dad a bit because of the way he treated mother and us kids."  The following day, Naomi went to church with her grandparents and was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The first of the week, they put her back on the stage, which had its horse barn right close to where her Grandpa and Grandma lived, and she went home to Albion.  When the coach got to her home, she jumped down and ran in to tell her mother all about her baptism.  It was an experience that has stayed fresh in her mind throughout all her years.

 

Her Dad didn't belong to the Church and wouldn't let her mother attend.  The children seldom were allowed to go either. The only way Naomi could go to Church was if her older brother would go and drive the team.

 

Naomi learned to tat when she was eleven years old.  A neighbor taught her how to tat and she enjoyed that art for many, many years and willingly taught anyone who had the patience to learn.  She spent hours making gifts for her grandchildren and great grandchildren.  When she was 12, she had her appendix removed.

 

Her mother was a seamstress who did sewing for other people and Naomi said, "Mother made me pretty dresses.  I took sewing classes in the 7th and 8th grades, but mother learned me the most I ever knew.”  She sewed whenever she'd get a chance or a piece of material.  “When I was a little girl, I only had two dresses--one to wear and one to wash.  I never had anything pretty until mother started sewing for other people and she got to keep the scraps.  She took material in exchange for her sewing because if they paid her money, Dad would take it away from her.  Then she started making me some pretty dresses.  Many of a time I didn't have two pair of panties.  I'd have to go to bed so she could wash one of them.  After I got older and started working out, I'd get a piece of material once in a while, mother would make me awfully pretty dresses.  Mother never had many clothes for herself.  I couldn't go to Church or go on a date without being pinched and slapped by my father.  When I started working out doing other peoples house work, Dad took my money away from me and would spend it on drink.  He wasn't about to let mother or me have anything."

 

When Naomi was a young girl, her long black hair hung clear to her waist and she often wore it in braids.  By the time she was 35, she started going gray.

 

Naomi appeared in the following LDS Church census records:

 

1920 Unity Ward, Burley Stake

 (film 025,776)

Lura Cole Gransbury

Jennie Parrot Gransbury

Orvil Howard Gransbury

Eunice Naomi Gransbury

Marlon C. Gransbury

 

1925 Paul Ward, Minidoka Stake

Orvil Howard Gransbury p. 852

Eunice Naomi Gransbury p. 853

Charles M. Gransbury p. 854

 

 For a time, her family lived in the community of  Paul, Idaho, in a little three room house just before you turn to go to the cemetery, Naomi says, "I had to sleep on a cot in the living room. It had a little building out from the house a little ways where my brothers slept. When Grandma Gransbury would come to stay with us after Grandpa was dead. She and I would sleep on the cot in the living room. I milked cows by hand.  I think that is what is wrong with my legs now.  I'd set and hold a big milk bucket between my legs.  I'd milk 4 or 5 cows.  If Dad wasn't home, I'd have to milk his.  After I'd milk the cows, I had to go in and turn the separator.  The separator had big tanks set up on a stand and it had a handle and you'd turn the handle to keep it going fast and you'd get it going fast and it would separate milk and cream.  Then pack out the extra milk out to the calves.  Then mother would churn and mold the butter and take it into town to trade for groceries. We had a big garden and a large patch of strawberries."

 

GRANDPARENTS:

 

Naomi gives the following descriptions of her grandparents: "My Grandpa Gransbury (John Wesley) was a wonderful man. When Marlon was born, He's 8 years younger than I am.  Grandpa give mother a blessing that she would never have any more children by Dad.  He just kept her pregnant all the time and she would lose them.  My Grandpa and Grandma Gransbury lived in Kansas when young.  Missionaries from Albion went out there and they both joined the Church.  They were so persecuted that they had to leave Kansas.  I used to go stay with Grandpa and Grandma quite a bit.  Grandpa died when I was 10.  He was good to everybody.  Grandma Gransbury didn't like my mother but Aunt Jennie and Aunt Alice (my dad’s sisters), were really good to us.  Grandma liked my brother, Orval, but she didn't like me.  She always said the first of her grandchildren who got married in the temple, would get ten dollars.  I got married first, but Orval was the one who got the $10.  She just didn't acknowledge me."

 

“I never knew Grandpa Parrott; however, I knew my Grandmother Parrott. She was little and tiny--Even tinier than Vickie (Billy Harmon's wife).  I went to her place a lot.  She was a wonderful woman. I can remember my mothers brothers and her step brothers.  Dad was so ornery to my mother that he wouldn't let mother go see her mother even when she was sick.  I went and stayed with her, though.  My Uncles was so good to me. They never married.  They stayed with their mother.  I remember going to see them when I was 16 or 17 and they had moved to Declo.  Grandma was getting along in years and doing poorly so they went to Nampa to a home there and then they died.  I've never seen any of them except Uncle Frank and Uncle John since I was sixteen or seventeen." 

 

TEENAGER:

 

When she was seventeen she started going to dances in the Emerson area which was just out of Burley a little ways not too far from the river--in a different place than it is now.  "For recreation, we'd get in a wagon and go someplace to visit people.  Houses weren't close so if you went to see anyone it was an excursion.  Dad would take us kids in the fall to Uncle Charlie Olson who raised pieces of potatoes and beets.  We'd pick up potatoes and top beets with a big long knife with a hook on it and chop the tops off.  Then he would take the money Uncle Charles paid us.  That is what kept him a going is to work us kids.  After I got older I cleaned house for people and worked in the fields.  We never had much time to do anything.  My brother, George, had Brights disease and he swelled up and looked like he would burst. George died  when he was twelve years old.   Mother lost two babies, one stillborn and the other lived just a little while."  

 

Naomi taught Sunday School in the Emerson ward and was a secretary of the Paul Ward when they moved there.  She and Orval had lots of friends and often invited them to their home which her mother always made open to their friends for homemade fun.  She was also involved in Mutual plays and parties.  She said that by no means did she marry the first guy to pay attention to her.  She had lots of friends and dates.  She was determined that her husband would be nothing like her father!

 

TRUE LOVE:

 

Naomi met Walker Wayment at an open air dance in Paul (down in the area where Eunice now lives only up close by the road).  There was a big dance floor without any roof.  They covered it with canvas in case of rain.  Dances were called "hops" and were a main source of recreation for the young people. When they met, Naomi lived in the Emerson area and Walker was from Jerome.  Naomi says of Walker: "He had the curliest hair you ever saw in your life.  It would curl so tight that when it would rain, it would give him a headache.  Just little tiny curls, very light colored.  He loved to dance and so did I.  We sure did have fun."  Naomi and Walker began dating on Thanksgiving night 1924 and were married 7 Oct 1925 in the Salt Lake Temple.”

 

Naomi's brother, Orval was married a month after she was-- also in the Salt Lake Temple.  He married Blanche Cole.  That summer before their weddings, Naomi and her mother picked raspberries on shares using her brother's car to get to and from the patch.  They got to keep half of the berries they picked.  After picking the berries, then they would can them and split them three ways--a third to Naomi, a third for Orval and a third for their mother.

 

"When we got married, Walker used his Dad's car.  His mother went with us to Salt Lake.  We was married 7 Oct. 1925 and His birthday was next day he was 22.  We stayed with Uncle Charlie Olson's youngest girl. He had two families.  Had four children and his wife died.  Amy and I were same age.  He had been married before Aunt Alice and his first wife died.  We stayed with some of Grandma Wayment's folks before we was married and stayed with Amy after we was married."  

 

Before her marriage, Naomi and her mother made enough quilts to make up a nice bed.  Naomi made her own wedding dress out of some white cotton voile material.  Later she cut it up and made baby clothes for her oldest daughter, Eunice.  Of her marriage, Naomi says: “We had a lot of hard years.  They were happy years.  We had our children and each other.  Mother thought Walker was the greatest guy.  They got along real good.  One time my dad came to our home and began carrying on and Walker made him leave and told him he could not come back and treat me that way. Walker was so good to me; so kind and considerate, something I'd never known.  He thought his kids and his grandkids was his life.  If he had lived  he would have so enjoyed his grandchildren and his great grandchildren. I have often felt his presence.  Last night I woke up with such a start, I just knew it was him.  I saw his face and couldn't go back to sleep for hours.  I had to get a book and read.  That is when I read my Ensign when I can't sleep at night."

 

Walker and Naomi made their first home on the Bacon Ranch in Jerome, Idaho.  Walker worked with his brother Sam and his father.  Often Sam, Naomi and Walker would take in the weekend "hops" and have a grand time.  Naomi soon became pregnant and on 3 Aug 1926, her first child, a daughter, was born.  She was named Eunice Marie after Naomi whose first given name was Eunice and after one of Walker's sisters, Marie–who had died young.  Naomi had tatted and crocheted on Eunice’s little outing flannel nightgowns and baby blankets.  She made everything the baby wore except for her little knit shirts.  Eunice was born at her Grandmother Jennie Gransbury's home in Paul, Idaho where Naomi had gone to have her mother's assistance.

 

As they had no refrigeration to keep milk from souring when Eunice was young, Naomi would go out to the family cow and get her a cup of warm milk whenever she wanted a drink.

 

The young couple soon purchased a small farm in Wendell, Idaho and while living there, their second son, Wesley Samuel was born on 11 Dec 1928.  When Wesley was young, Naomi broke her right arm as she was cranking their “Model T Ford” to start it so she and Walker’s mother could go to town.  Wesley learned to walk by pushing Eunice’s doll buggy.  Nellie Pearl was born  2 Mar 1931.  Nellie was so tiny that she could run right under the kitchen dining table without even ducking her head.  

 

The Saturday night ritual involved carrying water from the ditch, heating it on the wood stove, bringing in the old round zinc bathtub that hung on the outside of the house into the kitchen and taking our baths.  Whoever was cleanest got the first bath and the children often shared the same water.  The tub was then emptied and carried outside to hang back on the nail on the outside of the house.  They carried water in and then carried it back outside and used the dirty water to water flowers and trees.  It was never wasted.  

 

Mondays were wash day.  That meant carrying even more water in from the ditch and heating it in a big oval boiler and filling the reservoir on the stove which served as a hot water tank.  Naomi’s first “washing machine” was a gas Maytag with a wringer which she turned by hand.  It was a welcome relief from scrubbing clothes clean on a washboard.  Her white clothes were boiled in the boilers to keep them spotless white.  A woman’s pride had a lot to do with how snowy white she could keep her clothes.  Stains were unacceptable and any stained item was scrubbed on the scrub board by hand using lye soap.  After boiling the clothes, they were washed in the washer and run through the ringer and then run through two tubs of rinse water before being hung out on the line to dry.  Once the clothes were dry, they were brought in, sprinkled to dampen them and then rolled item by item–careful–to prevent any wrinkles and then placed in an oilcloth-lined bushel basket so they could be ironed on Tuesday.

 

Before she had electricity, ironing involved heating the heavy irons on the stove and ironing everything that was worn as well as dishtowels, pillow cases, table cloths, and sheets. The iron’s handle was removable and could be changed from iron to iron.  The family often times had two changes of clothing in addition to special Sunday clothes.  Naomi taught her girls to iron by letting them iron the handkerchiefs, dish towels, and pillow cases.

 

They moved west of Jerome for a year and then to Hagerman at the top of the Tupper Grade.  Times were pretty good and then all of a sudden, the bottom fell out of everything.  The depression of the 30's hit and it hit the Wayment family hard!  

 

During the “Great Depression,” Walker and his brother Sam would haul bean chaff to feed the dairy cattle, but even that ran out. They had to sell their cattle at a great loss, not even getting enough money to pay what was owed on them.

 

They then moved into Hagerman into a little one room house about 1934. To keep their house warm, they burned sage brush for fuel.  Many times the whole family would go out to the desert to gather the sage brush.  Walker would chop it off and throw it up into a trailer.  The kids would get in the trailer and “tromp” the sage brush down so they could get more in.  They used to say that “Sage brush kept you warm twice.  When you gathered it and again when you burned it.”

 

Walker went to work for the WPA (Work Projects Administration) for a dollar a day--and that kept a family of five for about a year.  They then moved again to the top of the Justice Grade in the Tuttle community.  After one crop year, they moved to Declo.  On 15 Oct 1936, William Orville was born. He was named after his father and Naomi’s brother. They called him Billy when he was growing up, but as he grew up, he decided he wanted to be called Orville.  As Naomi was giving birth to Orville, she lay on her bed and could see out the window a house on fire over by her parent’s home.  The men of the nearby Church and homes were up on the roofs keeping them wet so they wouldn’t catch fire from the flying embers.  Her agony and concern were so great and she sweat so much that she lost lots of her hair, and when it came back in, much of her natural curl was gone.  

 

In December, after moving to Declo, Naomi's brother, Orval died leaving a young family.  This was the only time that all of her family had lived in the same vicinity.

 

In 1937, Walker and Naomi moved their family to the Ralph Barton place southwest of Hagerman.  They had milk cows once again.  Walker built a box in the ditch that ran in front of the house where cold running water would keep anything needing refrigeration cool.  That is how they kept the milk and hand-churned butter fresh.

 

After living on the Burton place for about a year, they moved to Bliss, Idaho.  Their home was down in the Snake River canyon west of the Bliss power plant.  The children walked up a long lane to the highway to catch the school bus.  The older children spent a lot of time digging in the sand to look for Indian arrowheads.  One day Wesley disappeared and could not be found.  He had crawled up in the manger and fallen asleep.  His dad found him when he went to milk that evening.

 

Orville was about 1 ½ years old and to keep him in the house, away from the nearby ditch, Naomi would latch the screen door.  Orville learned that if he took the broom handle and run it up the door frame, he could get it unlatched and be on his merry way.  One time he disappeared and everyone frantically went searching for him.  He was finally found lying on the bridge looking into a ditch of swift-running water!

 

Larry Frank was born 15 Jun 1938.  Larry was the only one of Naomi’s children to be born in a hospital, which was probably a good thing, as she had complications with his delivery.  

 

They moved back to the Barton place for about a year before moving into the town of Hagerman.  At this time, they had an electric fence in their back yard.  One day Orville went out and put a frog on the electric fence to see what it would do.  He got a good shock and a fried frog!  Another time, the meter man from the power company came to read the meter and Orville was outside playing with the garden hose.  He held the meter man in his car–honking to get someone out of the house and while they kept Orville’s attention, Eunice slipped around the house and turned the water off.  He had quite a shocked look on his face when the water went off and his mother got hold of him!

 

Naomi was experiencing poor health at this time, yet, the needs of her family must be met.  She would set the “sponge” at night for bread, and the next morning, Eunice would add the flour and knead the bread before going to school.  This had to be done three or four times a week.  Naomi grew her own yeast in potato water and by “setting the sponge” (i.e. mixing the yeast water with a small amount of flour and sugar to make a gooey dough) at night, the yeast would have more time to “work” and “get light” and the bread would be much better.  Walker liked to have a bowl of bread and milk before going out to do his morning and evening chores.

 

Karen Louise was born 5 Feb 1941.   Karen was Naomi’s third daughter and sixth child–making a 14-year span between Karen and Eunice.  When Karen was three years old, Naomi had a hysterectomy.

 

They moved again to the Jay Farmer place southwest of Hagerman for one summer, and then to the John Sanborn ranch north of Hagerman.  John Sanborn was a State Senator.  Eunice was a big help to her mother in making these many moves and she remains, to this day, able to pack more stuff into a small area than anyone I have ever known!

 

For the next four years, Walker milked 40 cows and ran the farm.  While living here, Orville started school.  Eunice and Wesley had the job of getting him on the bus.  They would have to pull or drag him by the arms up the lane–bawling every morning.  Larry would stand at the screen door and bawl because he couldn’t go.  It was while living here, that Eunice graduated from high school in Hagerman as a valedictorian.  She married Billy W Harmon on 22 Sep 1844.  He was in the Army as it was during World War II, and for the next 1 ½ years was stationed in Italy.  Eunice moved into an apartment Gooding and worked.

 

Walker and Naomi later moved their family to Gooding on a farm northeast of town that belonged to the Koeppens and were only there a short time when they moved to the Thompson farm east of Gooding.  While living at the Thompson place, Walker’s health began to fail.   Nellie married Douglas Dean Brown on 15 Aug 1948 in Gooding.  Then on 3 Jul 1949, Wesley married Dorothy Morrison and joined the Marines.

 

Walker sold his farm equipment and cattle in 1949, and moved into town in Gooding.  They bought a cinderblock garage and fixed it up into a home.  Walker began selling household appliances and Naomi began dress-making in her home.  Later she accepted a position at Tingwall's Department Store in Gooding as an alteration lady.  Cheryl remembers going into Tingwalls and up the stairs to the little room where her grandmother did sewing.  She was enchanted by the mirrors that showed three sides of herself and would spend as much time as possible in front of those mirrors.  She remembers her grandmother pinning up hems on customer’s dresses and pants and measuring jackets for men.    

 

Orville joined the Marines during his Senior year of high school and Larry joined the Air Force after his high school graduation.  Karen graduated from Gooding High School in 1959.

In January 1959, Walker and Naomi moved to Tuscarora, Nevada for four months.  He delivered groceries to farm hands and their families and worked as a butcher.  It was a huge ranch out in the middle of nowhere!  Handling the heavy carcasses of the butchered cattle was causing more health problems, and the family believes he felt prompted to move Naomi near some of ther children.

 

Walker and Naomi visited Hazelton where Eunice and Bill lived.  Walker fell in love with the little community and said he sure would like to find a place in Hazelton and settle down.  Cheryl, who was listening to this conversation said, "Just this morning when I was across the street helping our neighbor, she said she wanted to sell her home and move in with her daughter as she was getting too old to take care of it alone any more." Walker and Naomi purchased that home just across the street from Eunice.  Walker worked for Tex Burdick, a local farmer during the summer; then in the fall for a tractor company in Twin Falls.  The work got so slow that he began to work as a carpenter's helper on the new LDS Church building that was being built in Hazelton on 10 Nov 1959.  One day he took Cheryl on a walk to see the rock work he was helping to lay and gave her a small piece of green rock and said that when she grew up and saw this Church completed and beautiful that she should always remember that her Grandfather helped build it.  He sometimes took Billy along to help him with his work and he has some nice memories of “building the Church” with his Grandpa.  Cheryl and her Grandfather had such a choice relationship through the years and he insisted that Grandma spoil her a bit whenever she was around.  She recalls being given bowls of ice cream or chocolate cake and milk by Grandpa over the objection of Grandma who claimed it would spoil her dinner.  Grandpa often told Cheryl how special she was to him and how he wanted her to always take care of her Grandma and help her Mother with the little boys.  He also told Cheryl that his greatest wish was to be able to live until his children were all grown and able to take care of themselves.  He felt very content knowing the Lord had granted his wish as Karen was about to be married to a nice young man and that Orville was going to marry the girl he felt would be a “perfect wife” for him.  Living so close was a choice blessing for both families.

 

During the late summer of 1959, Karen and her father went to Gooding together to buy a new car, but after test-driving it for a week, he decided not to buy it.  They made another trip to Gooding to return the car.

 

On the 11 Dec 1959, Walker had a heart attack.  He was 56 years old.  At 4 a.m. on 16 December 1959, Eunice rushed him to the hospital in Gooding Idaho, where he had to be put under oxygen.  Cheryl remembers how concerned the family was because Orville and Marilyn were scheduled to be married on 18 Dec and there was a quandary whether or not to go through with the wedding with Walker so sick. He kept insisting that no matter what happened, he wanted that wedding to go on as planned.  He thought so much of Marilyn.  Early on the 18 of December, Walker passed away.  That evening in a quiet ceremony for family only instead of the big wedding that had been originally planned, Orville and Marilyn were married in her mother's home.  We all felt that "Grandpa" was at the wedding, too!  The only way he could have been at that wedding, was if he came from the “other side” of the veil.

 

Walker was buried at the Hazelton cemetery on 21 Dec 1959.  Numerous family members have reported experiences of feeling his presence at various times in their lives.  Naomi said of him:  "His family was everything to him. He loved his kids and his grandchildren more than anything."  We all knew that!

 

Cheryl began spending the night with her Grandmother, Naomi, after the funeral and Karen's wedding the following June because Naomi did not like being alone.  She got a little Pekinese dog for company and two birds which she enjoyed.  Naomi took in sewing for people and also did babysitting in her home.  She kept Ben and Janice Rust for many years and helped Eunice with her two youngest boys when she started working.

 

Naomi served a stake mission.  Cheryl remembers helping her practice giving her missionary lessons and how they memorized the lessons together.  She had great fun coaching her Grandmother in learning the lessons especially when she did not have to look at the book herself.  She can still recite by heart many of those scriptures she helped her Grandmother memorize.

 

Naomi did what she could to help her parents in their advanced age.  The family put indoor plumbing into her parents’  little home in Burley along with a natural-gas furnace and an electric range.  That really delighted Jennie who had never known such luxuries.  

 

Naomi’s father was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 20 June 1962 at Burley.  He was 83 years old.  On 12 Feb 1964, Charles and Jennie Gransbury were endowed and sealed for eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple.  Jennie's greatest wish had come true.  Her babies were hers forever.  She passed away peacefully on 19 May 1965 in Burley and is buried in the Paul Cemetery.  

 

Charles met a woman in the nursing home and was married a second time to Mary Sant.  He died on 19 Jan 1971.  Naomi was a dutiful daughter making regular trips to the nursing home to see her father.  She said: "When they got old, it was me they turned to.  I was glad to do whatever I could for mother, but I never had any sympathy for him."  However, she never neglected him, either.

 

Some of the Church positions Naomi held during her life time were: Secretary of the Sunday School as a young woman, Secretary of the Primary, a Relief Society sewing teacher, visiting teacher, genealogical consultant, and stake missionary.

 

Ten years after Walker died, a neighbor, Sophie Williams died.  Ironically, the Williams had purchased the home that Eunice had originally lived in when Naomi and Walker first visited them in Hazelton and made the decision to move there.  Eunice had moved a few blocks away.  Sophie's husband, Lloyd Williams, had a daughter who lived in Whittier, California where Cheryl lived at the time and when he came to Whittier, he called Cheryl and came to dinner at her home several times.  He was lost and lonely.  One night Cheryl told him that he really ought to go home and marry her grandmother as she was lonely, too.  Well, he did just that!  On 1 Jan 1970, Naomi married Lloyd Williams and they lived in her home in Hazelton, which he fixed up a lot.

 

Lloyd and Naomi did some traveling, lots of gardening, and during their time together, Naomi enjoyed more ease and comfort than she had known before.  He was good to help her with the heavy housework, but she was always quick to tell us that he wasn't near as good as Walker had been!  When Lloyd’s heath made it impossible for them to continue to live in Hazelton now that all the children had moved away from there, they moved to Rupert into the Southwood Apartments just down the street from Nellie.

 

After almost ten years of marriage, Lloyd passed away in November 1979, from cancer,  in Rupert, Idaho.  Naomi moved into an apartment in Rupert called the “C-Street Manor” to be near her girls, Eunice and Nellie, who lived in Paul and Rupert at that time.  While living here, her family hosted her 80th birthday party.  Her health began failing and she was diagnosed with adult onset diabetes and she had cataracts in her eyes and deterioration of the retina.  She moved in with Eunice and then Nellie where Lawrence built an apartment for her from their garage. She lived in the apartment for about 3 years.  

 

She was spending the holidays with Karen in Idaho Falls when Eunice's husband Bill died on 16 December 1990.  Naomi fell and broke her back the previous day and even after her recovery was not able to live alone again.  

 

At her request, Naomi’s children arranged to have her admitted to the Nursing Home at the Minidoka Memorial Hospital where she spent the rest of her life.  After being in the nursing home for 5 months, she broke her pelvis and the ball in her hip and had to have a hip replacement.  She enjoyed having her children and grandchildren come to visit and proudly displayed their pictures on her bulletin board.   

 

It was a sad day when Naomi was no longer able to do her handiwork.  She had macular degeneration of the eyes and gradually became unable to see good enough to do close work or even to watch television.  Her children and grandchildren have many reminders in their homes of the days when she thrived on making things for them.  We love her crocheted clothes hangers, the doilies and other items she has made.

 

Naomi told Cheryl: “The more I can have my kids together, the happier I am.”  Naomi treasured her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was delighted in 1992 to receive a large-print edition of the Book of Mormon, which she was able to see and read on a daily basis.  She enjoyed attending Church all her life and continued to do so in the nursing home.  Her girls subscribed to the Reader’s Digest and GuidePost for her in large print and once she began reading, she read constantly.  The more she read, she was able to read some books without large print.  She loved reading Church books and novels.  

 

Her children hosted a 90th  birthday party for her at the Paul American Legion Hall where all her children and most of her grandchildren gathered to celebrate her wonderful life.  

 

Naomi passed away in Rupert, Idaho on May 8, 1997 of acute myocardial infarction and coronary artery disease and old age.  She was 93 years old.  She is buried in the Hazelton, Idaho cemetery next to her dearly beloved husband, William Walker Wayment.  She was survived by all six of her children.  The only deaths that proceeded hers among her posterity was two grandchildren–one as a 2-pound infant and one suicide.  Two great grandchildren were stillborn and one died at one month.  She was survived by 26 grandchildren, 81 great-grandchildren and 21 great-great grandchildren.  Not many people live to be 93 years old, have 139 posterity of which only five have died prior to your death!  

 

 

Nellie said about her mother:  We moved to the Koeppen farm in Gooding when I was a freshman.  We had a thunder and lightening storm and it came down and hit the light pole and came up the outside of the house and followed the wiring in and down the floor lamp.  Mom was sitting in a chair by the lamp.  She hollered and jumped up and passed out.  She had been struck by the lightening.  Every fuse in the house and barn was blown completely out of the fuse box.  Even those that had to be screwed in were blown out.  Then the lightening struck again when we were living at the Thompson place.  It hit the pump house and came down the power lines and into the house and to the electric stove.  It didn't burn the burners out, but there was plenty of blue sulfur smoke. I was standing close to the stove when it happened this time.  

 

I never felt we lacked for anything.  I remember in High School wearing flour sack clothes.  Some of them were my favorite clothes.  We did not have to have fancy clothes then.  The folks would buy enough flour in the same print so we would have enough to do something with.  Then Mother with her sewing ability, made dresses out of the flour sacks.  I feel we were probably better dressed than a lot of the kids.  Mother said that during the depression she made me flour sack underwear also. 

 

Larry tells of a different incident with lightning:  While we were living on the Sanborn place, we had some really severe thunderstorms.  One time we were out in the field getting a load of hay when a bad one came up.  Dad and Mom and at least three or four of us kids were on the wagon and we headed for the barn.  We had to go through an electric fence gate and the horses were having such a fit that Dad didn't dare get off the wagon to open the gate.  Mom got off to open the gate just as lightening struck the wire about a hundred yards up the fence.  I remember a ball of fire coming down the wire and knocking Mom down.  Dad dropped the reins and jumped down off the wagon to pick Mom up and the horses stood as still as could be while Dad put Mom on the wagon.  Mom was OK but a bit shook up.  We were all thoroughly scared by the incident.

 

Mom was struck by lightening again while we lived on the Koeppen place.  We were sitting in the living room and there was a storm going on outside.  Lightening struck the transformer on the corner of the house and came down the wires to the floor lamp next to Mom's chair.  It leaped across and knocked Mom out of her chair.  Scared us all pretty bad that time too.  No one liked to get too near to Mom when there was an electrical storm going on after that.  She seemed to attract lightening.

 

MEMORIES OF GRANDMA WAYMENT WILLIAMS

by Peggy Brown Moore

 

Grandma made the most delicious bread pudding and try as I might, I have never been able to make it taste as good as hers did.  She also made really good angel food cake (a long loaf instead of the tube kind) and sometimes she'd let us have a bowl of delicious raspberries.

 

When Grandpa and Grandma lived in the cinder block house in Gooding, she sat with me one day and taught me how to sew some doll dresses.  She took the time to let me do everything instead of sewing them for me so that I could learn how.  I think that's why I love to sew now.

 

Grandma made my wedding dress and I stayed with her one weekend.  I helped her cut it out and while we were cutting, she told me of her  'boyfriend, Lloyd'  across the street who's wife had passed away.  She was so cute that it just tickled me because I had never seen her show her emotions before.  That was a fun weekend for me. 

 

I remember Grandma as a hard worker and she was always sewing whether it was to earn a living or just for her own enjoyment.  I believe she truly loved being a seamstress.