LEOLA DICKSON
 21  Aug  1906    to   22 Jun  1999

 Funeral Transcription

In Loving Memory of

Leola Dickson Jacobson

Date of Birth

Tuesday, August 21, 1906 – Lyman, Wyoming

Date of Death

Tuesday, June 22, 1999 – Chico, California

Service

Saturday, June 26, 1999 – 2:00 p.m.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Order of Service

Conducting……………………………………………………………Bishop Dale Madsen

Prelude Music…………………………………………………………………Jan Burnham

Hymn…………………….”O My Father”………………………………….Kim Hickman

Invocation…………………………………………………………………..David Jacobson

Life Story……………………………………………………………………..John Jacobson

Poem Reading…………………………………………………………………..Linda Haag

Remarks………………………………………………………………………Gary Jacobson

Open Sharing…………………………………………………………….Family & Friends

Hymn…………………….”How Great Thou Art”………………………...Kim Hickman

Spiritual Speaker…………………………………………………….Bishop Dale Madsen

Benediction………………………………………………………………….Bradley Sellers

Postlude Music………………………………………………………………..Jan Burnham

Bishop Dale Madsen:  Thank you, Jan, for that music.  Music sets a special tone for opportunities when we gather together such as this.  I extend a special welcome to each of you as family and friends of Leola Dickson Jacobson.  It is with sadness and with joy and happiness and a sense of loss that we gather together today.  But it is great to be together as family and it’s great to have the support and the love that we feel as family members and friends.  The family would like to express their gratitude to each of you for your help and your kindness and your thoughtfulness during this time.  Those small acts of kindness are ones that I think exemplify the life of Leola and they are much appreciated by the family.  We’ll begin our service today by having a special musical number sung by Kim Hickman, “O My Father” and then the invocation given by David Jacobson, Grandson.

Song

Prayer

Bishop Dale Madsen:  This afternoon we’ll first have the privilege of hearing from John Jacobson.  Following his remarks a poem reading by Linda Haag and then Gary Jacobson will speak to us and then the time will be open to each of you for sharing your thoughts or feelings that you have and if you wish to share any, you are welcome to come up here and share those feelings with those present.  Well then have a musical number by Kim Hickman “How Great Thou Art” and then I’ll offer some concluding remarks following which Bradley Sellers, grandson, will offer the benediction.   John…

John Jacobson:

It’s my honor and privilege to be the one to stand here and try to give a few of the things that have taken place in Mother’s life.  I knew it would be difficult but I had forgotten how the words of “O My Father” starts the emotions.  This was a favorite song of my Mother as long as I can remember.  It is only appropriate that it would be sung here today and was sung beautifully. Thank you Kim.  Mom was born in Lyman, Wyoming on 8/21/06 (???)  She was the 3^rd of 8 children.  Her 2 older sisters were Edith and Alice and they were close in age, because of this they were her closest companions as she grew in her childhood.  Mom’s dad was John Sheldon Dickson.  Her mother was Jennie Creager  They had moved from Morgan, Utah to Lyman and a 60 acre farm where they raised alfalfa hay grain and they had cattle as well.  Wyoming was a frontier state at this time and Lyman was little more than a frontier town.  Mom remembered quite a few of the things that happened while there.  And I would like to share a couple of those with you.  Over the years she would tell us stories, particularly the last few years as she was confined, we would ask questions and she would tell us stories.  She went through the first 7 years of school in Lyman , they lived quite a ways from town.  They went on a school bus to school.  The school bus was a covered wagon with a team of horses and an old man who drove it, probably as old as I am.  There were two benches, one on either side of the wagon.  The boys were supposed to sit on one side and the girls on the other.  But that didn’t always work because there wasn’t always the same number of boys and girls.  In the spring and fall it was dusty and after it rained it was always muddy.  And mom said it was almost impossible to keep her clothes clean.  In the winter when there was snow, an open sleigh was used.  And sometimes in Lyman, Wyoming it is very cold.  Each student had to bring their own hot rocks to try and keep warm.  They would heat the rocks in the oven and put it in a gunnysack to carry them to the sleigh and put them on the floor of the sleigh. And put their feet on them and wrap themselves in quilts completely around themselves and the rocks to try to keep warm.  It would about 1 ½ hours to get to school this way and both the rocks and mother were cold by the time they got there.  One time mom and her older sisters needed the wagon for hauling hay.  They were all pretty young but mom was the youngest and smallest.   She was put on the wagon to set the hay and to tromp in place so it wouldn’t fall off the load.  Edith and Alice pitched the hay on the wagon.  The horses just followed along while they moved along to each shock of hay to put it on.  When the wagon was loaded one of the older girls would drive the team into the haystack to unload it.  Well one time when the wagon was loaded, the two older girls decided they would let mom drive the team.  She was afraid to but her sister told her that she had to.  I think there some words exchanged between the 2 of them because my mom said that she yelled at her sisters that she hoped the wagon would tip over and dump this load and they would get in trouble.  They had to cross a ditch on the way to the barn and she was able to get the wagon through there but when they got to the haystack, the horses turned too sharply too quickly and the wagon did tip over and mom went tumbling into the hay as it fell from the wagon.  She never really told us that her sisters got in trouble because I think maybe she got in trouble too.

Mom was 13 when they moved to Vernal, Utah where her dad continued to farm and she finished grade school and went to the 9^th grade.  She remembered some of the move from Lyman to Vernal.  They moved in an open wagon, it was hot in July and they camped along the way and they had to have a dry camp.  Which was where they had no water to drink except the water that they carried with them and she remembered that it was very difficult.

It was not very common for a girl to go to High School at that time, particularly in this region, area of the country but mom wanted to go so she worked (???) by making (beehive?) foundations and working in a restaurant to pay her tuition.  Schools were better in Wyoming so she rode horseback to Lyman and stayed with friends while she went to the 10^th grade.  It was a particularly cold year and the school was closed part of the year but she had to pay all of her tuition even though school was closed and that continued to bug her even as she was here telling the stories.  We think that she went to at least some of the 11^th grade to school in Morgan, Utah and stayed with her grandmother Shipley (???).  My mother met my dad at a dance in Vernal.  They were married Oct 13, 1924 at 18 years of age.  Their first baby, Marie only lived a few hours and her second, Wells Jr., drowned shortly before his 4^th birthday.  One time I asked my dad if he ever thought of Jr. and he said that a day never went by that he and mother didn’t think of him.  Mom was survived by 6 children, Reva Sellers, myself, and my brothers Larry, Mack and Gary and a sister Annette Anderson, she has 23 grandchildren and 55 great grandchildren.

Another story mom told me took place in LaPoint,Ut when we lived in a log planked house on the Indian reservation.  The Indians were not very friendly and there had been a number of problems with them.  Mom was about 24 years old and had 3 little kids and I was only a baby.  She was baking bread.  She had a little double loaf bread pan that she baked in.  She was cooking, baking in an outside oven because it was so hot, she didn’t want to heat the house and so she was baking this bread in the outside oven and she could smell the bread baking and she could tell that it was about time to come out of the oven.  There was no real door on the house.  There was a canvas that hung there.  She pulled the canvas open and stepped out and there in front of her on their horses were 6 big  Indians and this scared her to death.  She didn’t know what to do but she stood her ground.  One of them said, “We want bread.”.  She didn’t figure she was in much of a position to argue so she took the bread from the oven and took one loaf and gave to the Indians and it was eaten within an instant, 6 big men, and when it was gone they said, ”We want more bread”.  So she gave them the other loaf and they ate that.  They said, “We want more bread”.  She had enough dough made up in the house for 6 loaves.  So she made up another 2 loaves and put them in the oven and when those were getting close to done, she was trying to figure, what was she going to do?  They would sit there and eat for as long as she made the bread.  So she went in the house.  She picked up the flour sack and she emptied it into the crock and when she came out to take the bread out of the oven and give it to the Indians, the other two loaves, she shook the dust out of the flour sack, went over to the well and pumped some water and washed it out and hung it on the line.  The Indians, believing she was out of flour felt that there was no reason to stay and left.  I thought that was pretty clever to save at least 2 loaves of bread for her family.  Mom and Dad lived in and around Utah and Colorado until the spring of 1937 when they moved to CA and settled on a 40 acre farm in the Plaza district, NE of Orland.  Those were hard years for mom because she had to work in the bakery and the farm.  And still take care of the house and cook for the family.  In 1957, the family moved to Sacramento where mother went to work for Fox’s Bakery.  I think she enjoyed working at Fox’s.  She liked meeting the customers and (???).   In 1968 Mom and Dad moved to San Jose where mom drove a shuttle bus for IBM for several years and then drove a Kodak film route….until she retired.  Mom loved to read and always had a novel or book she was working on.  I have no idea how many books she read.  Another hobby she had was crocheting.  She completely crocheted a wedding dress for her granddaughter Linda and a large tablecloth for Jan.  She also crocheted many beautiful afghans for all her grandkids and her great grandkids, for many of her friends, probably well over 100 afghans  tremendously beautiful, large and small doilies for everyone.  This was truly a great hobby because these now become heirlooms for all the family to remember her by.  I can remember visiting with her, and having her crocheting away.  That reminds me of another story.  We had taken mother to Salt Lake to visit with some family and when we were there, Linda came to pick us up at the airport.  As we started out from the airport, we noticed that one of Linda’s children wasn’t with us.  So everyone went running back to find Shane and I pushed mom out through the door and stopped right by the side of the door and turned and looked back inside to see if they were finding Shane.  As I turned back around, mother’s wheelchair had rolled back slightly and as it did, it turned down a little slope and was rolling across the street.  It was going pretty fast.  And I started chasing after it and here she is crocheting.  I had a hard time catching up to her.  When I kind of slowed her down, she turned and said, “John, I thought you were going a little fast, there.”  The life of Leola Dickson Jacobson has been as varied and as hard as the times she lived in.  Born during the horse and buggy days, she experienced the hardships of frontier life and witnessed the transportation speeds go from about 20 miles per day to the space travel and the air travel (???) from the big central telephone to the cellular satellite system she experienced at the end of her life, not to mention, the wonderful advancements of the (???).  The kids always loved to go to grandma’s house.  She paid special attention to them and made them feel important, by doing things with them.  They have told me that she was a wonderful grandmother.  I am blessed to have had her for my mother.  My children (???).  My children are blessed having had her for a grandmother for she is the one who has kept us close to the church and taught us always to do the right thing.  I cherish her memory.  I loved her (???) today (???) mother (???) and the great example she was to me.  I love her dearly and will miss her terribly.  I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

LINDA HAAG

 God saw you were getting tired

And a cure was not to be,

So He put His arms around you

And whispered, “Come with Me.”

With tearful eyes

He watched you suffer

And saw you fade away

Although He loved you dearly

He could not let you stay.

Your golden heart stopped beating

Hard working hands were put to rest

God broke our hearts to prove to us

He only takes the best.

GARY JACOBSON

I’m very honored to be able to share some memories of my mother while she was (???)

My mother always had a way of making you feel that you are special and in my case, I was the youngest son and I knew I was her favorite.  Sometimes I took advantage of that.  But eventually she taught me that I shouldn’t do that.  That I should be good because I should be good.  And it became, as I grew older, obvious that if I wasn't good, I would disappoint my mother, so I tried harder to do what she told me to.  And I thought that I was her favorite for years and years until I saw her around her grandchildren.  And I realized that she had some favorite grandchildren, too.  I wasn’t the only favorite she had.  Then I realized that she treated everyone the way she treated me.  But then I was grown up and had children of my own and was watching her treat them like they were favorites so I was able to handle it.  Just barely.  But then (???) love my mother.  She always did for others.  She worked hard all of her life.  I can remember starting to (???) for the company and just about halfway through the chores I kind of explained to her that I had a real important date, a real important something happening.  She was always willing to finish my jobs so I could get away and do what I thought.  She did that all her life.  She taught us the work ethic that has almost haunted us.  The need to do well at work and to do well with those around us.  I used to feel guilty if I didn’t work all day long.  I’m overcoming that a little now.  What amazed me as my mother grew older is the capacity that she had in her mind.  She could not only tell me when my children were born, their ages, how much they weighed, but she could tell you that about all of her grandchildren and their children.  She could remember things that I don’t think were ever written down but she remembered it.  She provided service to her family and to those around her.  As I remember her working hard and doing (???).  I found, later in life, that she would find somebody with a need.  In some cases a very important need.  She was not wealthy or well to do even.  But she had the capacity to even give when she couldn’t do it physically, through support and in some cases through money that made a difference in the lives of others and lives of their families.  I will miss my mother.  But I will never lose the memories of those wonderful times that we had as we grew up and she helped us to grow up in spite of the things we did.  She had a good sense of humor.  She knew what was important but yet she could have fun with all of us.  I remember one time she came to town to pick me up from an activity or something that was happening.  I don’t remember what was happening but, of course when you are in high school, your mother doesn’t drive you so you (???) and a couple of my friends were in the back seat and we were driving down Walker Street on our way out of town and I saw somebody approaching that I knew.  And I guess we were supposed to go someplace or see them there or something but I said, “Everybody duck so they don’t see us!”  We all ducked down so as we met the other car they wouldn’t see who was in the car.  And we went probably as far as I thought we could and my mother turned to me and looked up and she said, “How long do we have to stay ducked like this?”  She was there to have (???) us growing up.  One of the times that was very important in our life was on the 4^th of July.  We would get up and do our chores and we would have them all done by sunup.  We would pack up in a vehicle that we had and go up Butte Creek and spend the whole day just playing and having fun, having a picnic.  And I remember, I must have been 7 or 8 …………………..(???)

She taught me so much and so many good memories.  She did all the things a mother is supposed to do and she did more.  At one time, when I was younger, I had polio and at that time, there wasn’t much known about the cure or how to treat the illness.  And before I could learn to walk again, I had to have therapy.  And after all the chores were done, after a big day working the farm, after dinner was done and the table was cleared she put me up on the table.  I was about 12 years old at the time.  And she would stretch my legs so those muscles would regain their strength.  Every night at least for an hour, every night.  I guess you can understand why I thought I was the favorite.  What a pleasure and a joy it is to know that being a favorite I was able to share that position in her life with everybody she came in contact.  I’m very grateful for the opportunity of being here in this life, with this family that my mother molded and directed.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

SHARING MEMORIES:

                Jan Burnham:   I wanted to be first (???) share some memories here.  I feel very lucky that Grandma came to spend her last years in Chico.  She lived not far away when I was very young.  I can remember taking trips to Orland when I was a young child.  (???)  I didn’t get a chance to know grandma that much and to share experiences with her.  I still can’t drive through Orland without passing by the eucalyptus trees along side of the road and knowing that we are almost to grandma’s house.  That was a long drive when I was a little kid and I am just always amazed at the short little distance up to Oroville but it seemed like forever to get there but I still remember the eucalyptus trees.  Anyway, it was very wonderful to have grandma here in Chico and we would be able to take her out of the nursing home.  I learned so much about grandma’s life through the stories that she told and the memories of her as a little girl and also through raising her children were really special.  At times she would say things to me and some stories and I would have to go back and say, ”Mom, did this really happen?” because some of them I either couldn’t believe that grandma could remember those things or I couldn’t believe that she had had these wild adventures.  A couple things, I wanted to talk about grandma crocheting.  The last few years she had some strokes, some more serious than others.  Sometimes she was really laid up in bed, sometimes it was just a little comma in her life, but one of the things that I learned, especially when she had had one of her more severe strokes, I’d go out to see her and ask her what she was crocheting and what she was crocheting was the best barometer of her health that one could see.  If she wasn’t doing well, she would just crochet these little knots and she would imagine they were the most beautiful afghans she had ever crocheted.  As she got feeling better, her stitches got better but sometimes the colors were a little bit interesting.  You could tell that she was feeling pretty well but not as well as she might.  In a couple days the colors matched, the rows matched, the afghans were symmetrical and you would know she was having really good health.  Once in a while she would pull out her white thread and work on doilies again.  Then I knew she was as well as could be and I was very thankful for those days.  Anyway, I just wanted to (???) afghans, they mean a lot to me.  In the last few years, I would often stop by Foster’s freeze and get a milkshake to take her.  She didn’t care if it was 9 o’clock in the morning or 9 o’clock at night or 5:30, right before dinner time, if I was there with a milkshake she was going to have it and then if dinner came, somebody else could have it that night.  I like chocolate milkshakes and I think if it’s not chocolate, It’s not worth drinking.  But grandma only liked vanilla milkshakes.  I just think vanilla milkshakes are kind of a waste.  One day when I took her out for a milkshake and I had my chocolate, I said, ”Grandma, I don’t understand why you like vanilla milkshakes.  To me, chocolate’s the only way to go.”  Grandma said to me, “Well, when I was a young girl, I had so many dates and so many employees bring me boxes of chocolates that I got tired of chocolate and (???)”  Anyway, I really had a good time with grandma and really get to know her well and her family, her children and my cousins for the past years.  After she passed away we were writing the obituary, I said to my mother, “How are we going to know how many grandchildren and great grandchildren she had, she’s not here to name them one by one.”  I could always keep track of my cousins, but when my cousins started having children, it became a little hard keeping track of who had how many children, but all I would have to do is ask grandma and she knew exactly how many children each of them had, what their names were, what their birth order was, where they lived.  Grandma, I will miss you and I love you ………………….

                David Jacobson:  I was fortunate to have grandma live close to me when I was a young kid, just the opposite of Jan.  When I was a young boy, grandma lived down south of Sacramento and I think that when my folks had enough of me, they would send me down to grandma and grandpa’s and leave me for a long weekend or at least a week.  It was there that I got to be with my grandparent’s on what I thought was a farm.  It really consisted of maybe a cow and a horse and a goat and a few chickens, but I thought it was a farm.  It was exciting and a real neat place to be.  One of the treats that I enjoyed, being down there was that grandma worked in a bakery.  Without fail she would always come home with my favorite, cinnamon bread with raisins in it.  We would go for walks out in the field and sometimes we would walk through the canal, where she would walk with us, my sister Sherri and I down the road, through the cemetery and over a bridge over to the grocery store.  Which was just a real country store and there we would get treats, some candy and that was special to me.  I remember her in this place that they had just one big room and pretty old and scary for a little boy.  The sofa would make into a bed and that’s where I would be put down at night and it was rather scary and I remember grandma tucking me into bed and helping me go to sleep.  I feel very fortunate to have had grandparents that lived out in the country that (???) for me to go to and (???)  Then in my teenage years I was lucky again to have them live close by in a trailer park there in San Jose.  It seemed that being a teenager and stuff, grandma didn’t play as big and important role but as I look back and wish I would have paid more attention and taken advantage of having grandma and grandpa there.  But I do remember being sent over there to do chores and to help out and grandma cooking dinner for us and doting over me and making me feel good and listening to the stories they would tell about their early life.  I’m grateful that I was able to have her close by and to get to know her and grateful for my other cousins that were able to have her close by in her later years as she is a wonderful woman and I am grateful for (???)  I would like to express my love to all aunts and uncles

This is the point that it just became too difficult to understand and, in discouragement, I gave up.

 Notes About Leola Dickson's Early Years During a trip in 1986 to Vernal, Utah with her son Larry Jacobson and grandson Kevin Jacobson, Leola provided the following information: Leola Dickson was born in Lyman, Wyoming. Her parents were John Sheldon Shipley Dickson, (relatives called him "Cook") and Jennie Myrtle Creager. They were both from the Morgan, Utah area. Jennie Creager's parents lived in Morgan and John Dickson's parents lived in the town of Richville. John and Jennie Dickson had 4 sons and 4 daughters. One of Leola Dickson's brothers died at age 4. Each of the towns of southwestern Wyoming had a distinct character, depending on who had settled them. Lyman and some other nearby towns had been settled by Mormons. Rock Springs and others were settled by non-Mormons. The family lived between Black's Fork and Smith's Fork. The railroad did not go through Lyman but it did go through the nearby town of Carter. (12 miles) Most roads outside the towns were one lane dirt roads. It was hard when two horse-drawn wagons met on a hillside. It took 1 1/2 hours to school in Lyman on the bus. The bus was a horse-drawn sleigh in winter and a wagon during other times of the year. Leola remembered going to school with her sister, Alice. Sometimes wolves would follow the wagons. Leola said she had good teachers. Her first teacher was Miss Jarman, and her favorite teacher was Mrs. Young. Each teacher taught two grades. Each day before school someone would ring the school bell and the children would march in step into the school. During the winter, the children would play on the ice. There were no skates but there was a sled to coast on. Three or four of Leola's uncles served in World War I. One of her father's half brothers died in the war. Leola came to Utah in an open wagon. The family came on the following route: Lyman- Coalville (UT)- Kamas- Tabiona- Duchesne- LaPoint. (Most of the road from Kamas to Tabiona was still unpaved in 1986.) John Sheldon Shipley Dickson herded cows and grew various types of grain and alfalfa. The alfalfa was called Lucerne. Leola said her father was a good manager of resoruces. He never ran out of feed during the winter. During hard winters, he used much more hay and feed for the animals than a normal year. This was expensive but there was always enough grain for the milk cows and straw for the other animals if the hay ran out. The family stacked hay in a certain way. It was pulled onto the stack from the opposite side. This was much different from how Leola's family later stacked hay in California. The children, of course, had many farming chores. The family always went to town for holidays where there were very big celebrations. Leola remembered receiving special dresses for Christmas and the 4th of July. Leola also remembered going hunting and fishing with her father. The family lived 3 1/2 miles west of LaPoint, Utah. This was located 20 miles west of Vernal, Utah. It is not as far now because the roads are straighter, being cut through the hills instead of going around them. The John Sheldon Dickson family would camp overnight whenever they went to Vernal. They had a horse they liked very much named Rim Rock. Leola liked to ride a horse named Nat. Leola remembered some good foods that her mother made. These included a kind of potato dish like scalloped potatos, flap jacks, muffins, fried potatos and plum pudding. Leola went to 8th and 9th grade in the Uintah Basin. The schools were better in Wyoming than in the Uintah Basin, so Leola returned to Wyoming for 10th grade. In those days you had to pay tuition for high school. Leola saved money from extracting honey, making foundations for beehives and working at a restaurant in Vernal. She stayed with friends during her 10th grade year in Wyoming. After returing to Utah, Leola met David Wells Jacobson at a dance in Vernal.