My Grandparents all together

Here are photos of my grandparents together. The photo of my Allen grandparents was apparently taken at my Aunt Rolene's high school graduation. I am a little uncertain about this, because the back of the photo has the date as 1969. However, Grandma died in February of 1969, so this seems unlikely. I will have to check with Rolene on this.




The photo of my Oviatt grandparents includes Aunt Sally as a young girl.


I think Sally was 14 or 15 when Grandpa Oviatt died, but again will have to check those details with her.

My Grandparents

My grandparents on my father's side were Dee Oviatt (after whom I was named) and Lillian Irene Eriksson. Grandpa Oviatt was born on June 21, 1892 and died at age 61 on May 23, 1954 just two months before I was born. He died of a heart attack. Grandma Oviatt was born on February 16, 1895 and died at age 93 on June 20, 1988 just before Lindsey was born. She died of causes incident to age.

My grandparents on my mother's side were Lewis Lamont Allen and Alice Lucile Stokes. Grandpa Allen was born on May25, 1906 and died at age 68 on June 5, 1974 while undergoing exploratory surgery to treat black lung from his many years mining coal. I was serving as a missionary at this time and learned of his death in a letter from my Mom. I was very distraught, having looked forward very much to talking to my grandfather when I returned home to tell him how much his example meant to me and helped in my decision to serve a mission. Unfortunately, I never got that chance. Grandma Allen was born on January 24, 1907 and died at age 62 on February 25, 1969. She died as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease).

The Russians are coming!

I moved from West Jordan to Midvale in the summer of 1962. This meant starting fourth grade in a new school, Midvale Elementary. I was terrified at moving and leaving behind all my friends, and thought that life as I knew it had come to an end. I was so shy and afraid that when a classmate asked me my name the first day of school I would not answer. It was a very challenging year because of a teacher's strike as the year began. In the first few days of school I had eleven different teachers. But once the strike was over, an exciting opportunity became available.

Howard Johnson, a sixth grade teacher, assembled a class of fourth grade students an hour before school each day to teach Russian language, singing and dance. For three years we met together to study. Eventually we began putting on performances around the Salt Lake valley and even attended language forums at BYU.

These photos show Mr. Johnson and his students in our home-made (thanks, Mom!) costumes we wore when performing. The photos are of very poor quality. But they are the only ones I have of this experience and provide at least a sense of what we looked like then.

Mr. Johnson and me in his sixth-grade classroom

Russian dancing (I am left of center)

Singing Russian folk songs