Tributes to Grandma

My grandma celebrated her 90th birthday back in April.  Here is a tribute I wrote for her:

Grandma, it is amazing to know that I am writing a birthday greeting to my 90 year-old grandmother.  I guess, perhaps because I'm growing older myself, I don't associate you with your age.  Have you even slowed down?  You are still the woman I think of when I think of class and simple beauty and getting up each day to get done what needs to get done.  I suppose I also think of my mom when I think about those things, but it's easy to figure where she learned those qualities.  Every once in a while, people tell me that I am a calm mother, and that compliment gives me hope that I might grow up someday to be more like you.  I am grateful for the many ways you have been a part of my life--from my growing up years when you would visit or welcome us into your home, to my years as a mother through which I've come to appreciate even more your patience and grace.  My children know "Grandma Tibbitts' house" as I do: a very special place where there is always warmth and calm, good food, elegance and love. Thank you for the beautiful life you have lived so far and for giving us so much to look up to.  I love you, Grandma.  Happy Birthday!
Love,
Jodie

I also love this tribute, written by my Grandma's brother Herb Davis.  My cousins Erin and Andrea read this at the funeral:

To my dear sister Betty, in honor of her 90th birthday:

Here are some memories I have of you and our growing up years in Idaho.

My story may sound like a history of our family, but you can't say things about Betty without including the rest of the family.  As the youngest sibling, some of my memories may not agree with what Betty and Marge remember, but these are my best recollections.
Betty is the youngest of the three Davis girls and four years older than me, the youngest and only boy in the family.  When Margery and Donna went to school, Betty became my babysitter.

During our growing up years in St. Anthony our father and Joe Andrasen formed a partnership called the Andrasen-Davis Potato Company.  They rented some farming ground ten miles west of St. Anthony in Egin.  We said good-bye to our friends and moved to the farm in Egin.  The house was small.  The first night we spent there our mother woke up screaming saying there were bed bugs!  Needless to say, we didn't spend another night in that house but moved into a tent house which was the bedroom for all six of us.  Our neighbors were the Bradshaw's who had girls the ages of my sisters and me.  We spent a good deal of time playing with them.  There was a canal close by which our family would go to and have our weekly bath on Saturday night.

Dad and mother made arrangements for us kids to ride to church with a neighbor, Lew Richards, to a one-room church one mile south of our farm.  Our classes were held outside.  Maxine's grandfather, Joseph A. Johanson, was the bishop and her mother, Helen Norris, was the teacher.

Dad's business partner, Joe Andrasen's daughters were school teachers in St. Anthony.  Since they lived in Egin and drove into town every day for school they agreed to take my sisters to school with them.  At the end of harvest that year we moved back to St. Anthony.  Now we could make new friends!

Dad took two newspapers so he could keep track of the potato market.  I stopped each day on my way home from school at Watson's Drug to pick up the Salt Lake Tribune and The Post Register was delivered to our house.  The paper boy was a young man who had recently moved to St. Anthony from Idaho Falls.  His name was Cleve Tibbitts.  Donna was quite taken by him and would wait on the porch for the paper every day so she could flirt with him.  Eventually she got over her infatuation and moved on.

Our social life in St. Anthony was spent with our friends, going to matinees on Saturday afternoon and school and church activities.  There were three movie theaters in St. Anthony at the time: the Rex, Rialto and Roxy.  Movies were 10 cents and mother gave us an extra nickel for candy.

Betty had three special friends and they were all very close with each other.  Betty Jean Griggs, Barbara Smith and Phyllis Clive.  Phyllis's father was a music teacher and taught piano and violin.  Betty took piano lessons from him and became a great pianist.  Donna and Marge also took lessons from Professor Clive but didn't stick with it like Betty did.  However, the three sisters did play a piano trio in church once.

When Betty was a sophomore in high school she and her three friends were chosen to be baton twirlers.  They performed at football games and parades.  About this time, Betty became interested in a French horn player in the school band.  Interestingly, he was the same young man who had delivered newspapers to our door a few years earlier, Cleve Tibbitts.  They dated for a couple of years until Cleve was drafted into the Army.  Durning his absence, Betty did have some other suitors, but nothing serious came of them.  She did go to Souther California to work and lived with our mother's sister, Anne.  After being there for a while she decided it wasn't for her and returned to St. Anthony.  When Cleve was released from the Army, he returned to St. Anthony as well and they renewed their relationship.  They decided they wanted to be together and became engaged.  They got married on her birthday in the Salt Lake Temple in 1945.  They were accompanied to Salt Lake by both of their mothers.

Cleve enrolled in the University of Utah with the intention of going to medical school.  Their first child, a daughter, Camille, was born during this time.  After graduation, they returned to St. Anthony and waited to hear about medical school.  He began working with his father and brother and made the decision to forego medical school and go into business with them.

Cleve and his brother, Byron, purchased building lots on the east side of St. Anthony along the Henry's Fork of the Snake River with a wonderful view of the Teton Peaks.  Cleve and Betty lived with her mother while they built their new home.  When they moved into it, Betty's mother gave her the baby grand piano that had been in the Davis home.  The piano had been purchased with Betty in mind, since she was the one who excelled in playing it.  Their second daughter, LouAnn, was born just prior to them moving into their new house.  A third daughter, Marsha, was born and then a fourth, Joan.  Finally, a son, Evan, joined the family.  Myra Joyce's birth completed the family.

As her younger brother, I probably didn't appreciate her (or any of my sisters) growing up.  I often felt like I had four mothers trying to tell me what to do, when to do it and how to do it.  I will say that Betty was one to keep more to herself, especially as she became a teenager.  She enjoyed being with her friends and sometimes even made mother a little jealous because of it.  As we grew older, I became closer to her and truly appreciate the love and support my family received from Cleve and Betty over the years.  The Davis kids grew up with the Tibbitts's, since they were all about the same ages.  We spent fun times together at their cabin in Island Park, trips to Salt Lake at conference time to visit with Donna and Marge and fun together on holidays.  Cleve's business provided employment for our kids, their home provided room and board for Larry one summer when he worked for the Forest Service, their home has always been opened to us when we needed a place to stay, we've enjoyed many wonderfully home-cooked meals prepared by Betty.  She is a good cook, just like our mother.

I am blessed to have such a wonderful sister in my life and glad that three of us are still alive to celebrate this wonderful occasion.  Thank you for your love and support to me and my family.

May God bless you and keep you.  Love always, your baby brother Herbie and Maxine.