Happy Birthday Grandma Butler! My great grandma, Thelma Twede Butler was born 29 September 1909, she lived to be 99 years old! Today would have been her 109th birthday, to celebrate, I’ve written a biography about her life.
Thelma Twede Butler was born 29 September 1909 in Payson, Utah.[1] She was the second daughter and the seventh of twelve children born to Herman August Twede and Mary Eliza Jensen.[2] One relative claimed that when Thelma was born, she was “the cutest baby she had ever seen in her life.”[3]
Shortly before Thelma was born, Herman and Mary Eliza moved their family from Mapleton to West Mountain to homestead. Herman built a big grainery with drapes dividing the building into four rooms on the property. It was in the grainery that Herman built where Thelma was born, joining a large and loving family.[4]
Herman and Eliza were good and gentle parents to their children. Thelma said neither of her parents ever hit any of the children, all her father had to do was look at the kids and they would behave. Growing up, “Thelma loved to hunt, fish, and spend time in the mountains with her family.”[5] She was also taught by her mother how to cook and sew. In her later years, Thelma said, “Seems like we had a happy time, even with all the kids, we were never denied love. We really were loved and cared for.” [6]
Thelma and her siblings
Early Childhood
When she was young, Thelma could always find little adventures to go on with at least one of her siblings. When Thelma was about four years old, her family built a house across the ditch from the grainery. Her father, Herman rented the grainery where they used to live to farm workers. As a little girl, Thelma would go with her older brother, Hughy to a cook shack where the workers received their meals. The cook would see the two little kids sitting out on the step and bring them freshly baked goodies, such as biscuits with a big slab of butter or a large piece of pie. Mary Eliza wasn’t very happy when she found out about her children going over to the cook shack and put a stop to it.[7]
Thelma’s family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her earliest memory of attending church was with her older sister, Doris, who was ten years her senior. Doris would pull Thelma by the hand for 5 miles through the fields to take a shortcut to Sunday School in Payson.[8]
School Days
As a six or seven year old, Thelma started attending the first grade at Peteetneet Elementary School in Payson, Utah. Her older brothers drove a covered wagon to school, with a canvas top and two benches on each side. The boys wouldn’t let Thelma ride with them until she was a little older, because they thought she was a “bawl baby.” So, her first grade teacher, Mrs. Hall, took her to school instead. [9]
As a young girl, Thelma loved school. She enjoyed playing with her friends on the whirly gig at the playground and eating her mother’s homemade cream and raisin sandwiches.[10] She also enjoyed playing hopsotch after school with her friends, and letting the older girls braid her hair. [11]
When Thelma was seven years old, her parents took her to school late one day. Her brothers were driving the wagon home, and didn’t know she had come to school. Thelma saw that they left without her and ran down the street, screaming and crying. The local doctor, Dr. Stewart, saw the little girl chasing after the wagon and gave her a ride to catch up with her brothers. When they finally caught up with them, Thelma said that Dr. Stewart “Gave them the devil.” Her brothers claimed they didn’t know she was there.[12]
The Trouble with Brothers
Growing up in a family full of brothers, Thelma received more than her fair share of teasing. She later said, “I don’t know how I ever grew up with all those boys teasing me like they did.”[13]One year for Christmas, she received a doll in a pink dress, and her brothers would throw the doll up in the rafters of the grainery to tease her.
One day, Thelma’s mother and father went to town to shop. Thelma decided to try her father’s boots on. She had fun trying on her father’s boots for a few moments, until she realized she couldn’t get them off. She tried to get her brothers to help her, but they wouldn’t. Instead, they told young Thelma that they were going to have to cut her legs off. Fortunately, her father came home and saved the day.
Thelma was a healthy child and rarely got ill. The only ailment she recalled as a child was when her and two of her brothers, Larry (Lawrence) and Hughy (Hugh) contracted the measeals. Her mother put them all in a bed together to recover under a big curtain in the living room. Thelma recalled laying there and braiding the tossles on the curtain to pass the time as she recovered.[14]
Baptism
Thelma was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was eight years old. She was baptized in West Mountain in the fourth ward church building. In her later years, all she remembered from her baptism day was that her and some of her friends were sitting on chairs in their little white dresses, while some boys sat behind them. The boys kept teasing the girls and whispering in their ears.
West Water
Shortly after Thelma was baptized, her family moved to West Water. They lived there for a year while Herman tended to his 500 acres of farm. There was no school there for the children to attend. The Twede’s valued education for their children, so Herman contacted the school board and had them send a teacher out to West Water. The Twede family fixed up a little house that was used as a shelter for the farm workers in the summer and turned it into a schoolhouse for their children in the winter. The teacher lived and taught in the makeshift schoolhouse. Thelma recalled that her and her siblings would go over to the school and the teacher would fix them breakfast and lunch, and teach them. The Twede children attended school with their cousins, the Allan’s, the children of William Benjamin Allan and Edith Viola Twede.[15]The teacher taught the Allan and Twede children until Christmastime, she then went home for the holidays and never showed up again.
Thelma remembers “Uncle Will picked up his family and took them back to Mapleton. We had to stay there until spring, so us kids just played with all the school stuff. We had the bell..., the books, and the chalk. We [just] played school everyday.” The Twede children’s play school lasted until March of the following year. Herman and Mary Eliza went looking for a new place for their family to live and had relatives watch their children.
Thelma was taken to her Aunt Delia Twede Harris’s home. Delia and her husband, Hyrum, had a daughter that was a couple months older than Thelma, her name was Julina Harris. Despite having a cousin her age to play with, Thelma hated spending time with Julina. Julina was mean and bullied her. Thelma said, “She was mean to me the whole time. I was about 9 years old I guess. And she used to throw walnuts in the chicken coop and make me crawl under the wire to go get them and the ol’ rooster would pick my hand, and she sat there and laughed…She made me do it and I wouldn’t dare not, because she was mean to me.” Thelma also had a hard time sharing a feather tick bed with Julina, Thelma said, “She’d make me get in bed first and if I mashed the feathers down, I had to climb back out and fluff it up again. It would take me hours to get in bed, because she wouldn’t let me mash [the] feathers down!”[16] Fortunately. Thelma didn’t have to stay with Cousin Julina for very long and she returned to her family.
Twede Family Holidays
Holidays were always an adventure for Thelma and her siblings while they were growing up. Every Fourth of July, they would go to Mapleton to visit their cousins and stay overnight. Some summers, they would go with the Allan family up Spanish Fork Canyon. There they would swim in the hot springs and bring supplies to make homemade ice cream and have a picnic.[17]
For Thanksgiving, Thelma’s relatives would always come to the Twede household for dinner. It was qutie the occasion for so many relatives to cram into the Twede’s small home. One year, so many people came over to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, they stretched the table too far and it caved in under the pressure. Another year at Thanksgiving, the family had a round stove in the room to keep everyone warm. The stove was smoldering and was not burning correctly, so Thelma’s older brother, Art (Arthur) got up from the table and poured some gasoline in the stove. It burst, covering everyone and all the food in black soot. Needless to say, Herman gave Art a good hollering that Thanksgiving.[18]
Altough Thelma’s family didn’t have much, they always had a Christmas tree every year for Christmas. The Twede boys would go up Payson Mountain and bring one down for the family to decorate. Two of the most memorable gifts Thelma recived at Christmas was a doll in a little pink dress that she received as a child, and a bottle of perfume she got as a teenager.[19]
Young Elvon and Thelma
When Thelma was about 11 years old, her family moved to Spring Lake. It was in Spring Lake, where Thelma would meet Elvon Butler.
Elvon Joseph Butler was born 4 October 1906 in Spring Lake, Utah. He was the second son and second of eleven children born to William Butler and Fanny Viola Huish.[20] Elvon worked on the farm with his family and was a kind and hard working young man. He attended school in Spring Lake through the eigth grade.[21]
Thelma and Elvon met when she was 15 years old and he was 18. The age difference was a serious concern to Thelma. She was afraid of him because he was an “older man”. One night Thelma and some friends were at the home of William and Fanny Butler (Elvon’s parents), making candy after a mutual activity. Thelma announced that she needed to get going home. Fanny Butler said, “Well, if you’ll wait, Elvon is going that way and he can take you with him.” Thelma hurried out of there as fast as could before Elvon could join her, she ran all the way home so he couldn’t catch her.
A few years later, Thelma finally let Elvon catch up and the two dated (or as they put it, “went stepping”) on and off for four years. [22] “One time [while they were dating]…Elvon kept Thelma out too late, Herman took Elvon aside and told him that if he ever did that again, he would feed him to the pigs.”[23]
Marriage
Elvon and Thelma ran away and eloped 18 January 1929.[24] They intended to drive to Salt Lake City to be married. However, when they saw the city and county building in Salt Lake, “it looked so big and scary” that they drove on.[25]They ended up driving to Farmington to the court house. They found a kind and helpful Justice of Peace “who happened to be a [Latter-day Saint] Bishop as well,” and he married them. Their marriage lasted for 70 years. After Elvon’s death, in her later years, a grandaughter asked Thelma, “Why did you finally decide to marry him?” She simply responded, “Because I loved him.”
When Thelma was pregnant with their second child, Elvon and Thelma went to the Manti temple to receive their endowments and be sealed together as an eternal family. They were sealed 9 June 1933.[26]
Thelma and Elvon had five children together. Ernadene, Jerrolyn, Barbara, Ilene and Steven Larry. Sadly, Steven Larry died as an infant and only lived for a week. [27]
Thelma, Elvon, and their daughters. Listed from left to right. Top: Ilene, Thelma, Elvon. Bottom: Jerrolyn, Barbara and Ernadene.
Family Life
After the stock market crash in 1929, Thelma and Elvon raised their young family during the Great Depression. They rented the cheapest apartment they could find in Payson.[28]“Money was hard to come by, but they always had eggs, milk, meat, and the vetetables and fruit they could grow.”[29]“Sometimes they had to live on $35 a year, and that included buying Christmas gifts.”[30]
Elvon did all he could to work hard to provide for his famliy. He owned a team of horses, which enabled him to find work often. One winter during the Depression, Elvon found work in the coal mines. The little family temporarily lived on a sheep camp up Spanish Fork Canyon during that time.[31]
“As the family grew older there was a need for more money than the farm could produce, so Elvon found other work to supplement the farm income.”[32]He worked for a company moving houses for about two years and later went to work at Geneva Steel Company. Elvon later worked as secretary of the Spring Lake water company.[33]
In spite of the hard times,“growing up in the Butler home included lots of love.”[34] All four of the Butler girls were taught by their mother how to sew, cook, and help on the farm. The rule was that housework had to be done on Saturdays before anyone could go out and play with their friends. [35]
One weekly tradition Thelma implemented in her home was making homemade bread every Tuesday. The girl’s friends would often ride the bus home with them on Tuesdays “to have Thelma’s homemade bread and jam.”[36]
Thelma loved her daughters and was always kind to them. The only exception was on haircutting day, when “the girls would take off running to the wood pile” and Thelma would come chasing after them. The girls had no choice but to accompany their mother back to the house for a dutch haircut, the type of hair cut that looked like Thelma put a bowl on top of their head and cut around the bowl. [37]
Later Life
All four of Thelma and Elvon’s daughters eventually grew up, got married, and had children of their own.[38] In 1964, Elvon and Thelma built and moved into a new house in Spring Lake. The home was large enough to have plenty of family paries and gatherings for their daughters and their growing families.[39]
Thelma and Elvon remained active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all their lives. Thelma served as Primary President and Relief Society President.[40] Elvon served as a ward clerk and Sunday School President.[41]Together, they served as ordiance workers in the Provo Temple.[42]
Thelma and Elvon were adventerous and loved to travel. They traveled to most of the states in the United States of America, including Alaska and Hawaii. They also went to Mexico and Canada.[43]
Thelma had a knack for being practical on the trips she went on with her family. On one occasion, she and Elvon went with their married daugther, Barbara, her husband, Leon, and two of their children to Flaming Gorge. The family was out on the lake, when a storm started.
"The waves were high and water was getting into the boat. Everyone was frantically grabbing everyhing they could to bail the water out of the boat as the rain came down in torrents. In their scramble, they looked over to where Thelma was and there she sat with a bucket upside down on her head so the rain wouldn’t get her hair wet."[44]
Another favorite vacaction spot for Thelma and Elvon was St. George, Utah. In 1991, they moved down to St. George to live all year round.[45]
Elvon and Thelma always supported their daughters and grandchildren in all their endevours. They always made the effort to attend everyone’s baby blessings, baptisms, and weddings.[46]
After 70 years of marriage, Elvon passed away 21 May 1999 at the age of 92 in St. George, Washington, Utah. He was buried in the Payson City Cemetery in Payson, Utah.[47] Thelma mourned her husband’s death and admired him for being a man with simple kindness and honesty.[48]
After Elvon’s death, Thelma enjoyed visits from her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She loved to play games with her family and laugh with them until the early hours of the morning. She was a fierce competitor and she played to win. If anyone else won, according to Thelma, they had cheated. Thelma loved laughing and spending time with her family.[49]
In her old age, Thelma kept herself healthy and active. She started each day with half a grapefruit or glass of fruit juice. For her exercise, she enjoyed going to the mall and shopping. For as long as any of her grandchildren had known her, Thelma always drank a Pepsi a day. She drank half of the can at 10:00am while she read a book, and the other half at 2:00pm.[50]
Thelma’s mind remained as alert and active as ever in her older years. She always remembered to send Christmas gifts to her children and grandchildren every year. When each of her grandchildren were married, she would make them a quilt. When the great grandchildren started to join the family, she made a baby blanket for them. Family was important to her and she always made an effort to make everyone in her family feel included and special.
Thelma was a widow for ten years after Elvon passed away, Thelma used to say that she was worried Elvon had a girlfriend in Heaven, because it took him so long to come and get her. In her last years, Thelma moved to Indiana, to live with her daughter, Ilene, and her husband, Arthur.
Thelma was finally reunited with Elvon when she passed away 15 February 2009 at the age of 99 in Noblesville, Hamilton, Indiana. She was buried next to Elvon in the Payson City Cemetery in Payson, Utah.[51]
Thelma lived a long and rich life, she was a joy and an inspiration to everyone around her.[52]
Footnotes
[1]“Utah, Birth Certificates, 1903-1914,” database with images,FamilySearch.org, entry for Thelma Twede, 29 September 1909, citing Payson, Utah, Utah, United States, certificate #928.
[2]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[3]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[4]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[5]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009; Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[6]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio; Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[7]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio; Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[8]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio; Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[9]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[10]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[11]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[12]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[13]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, 14 February 2004, audio.
[14]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004
[15]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004; William Benjamin Allan, ID: KWC2-PM4, “FamilySearch Family Tree,” database, FamilySearch, (http://familysearch.org: accessed 25 September 2018).
[16]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004
[17]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004.
[18]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004.
[19]Thelma Twede Butler, oral interview by Joseph and Jerolynn Menlove, Audio, 14 February 2004.
[20]Elvon Butler, ID: KWCB-MDK "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch,
(http://familysearch.org: accessed 27 September 2018); Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[21]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[22]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute to Elvon Butler”, May 1999.
[23]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[24]“Utah Marriages, 1887-1935,” database with images, FamilySearch.org,entry for Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede, 18 January 1929, citing Farmington, Davis, Utah, FHL microfilm 483,534.
[25]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[26]Elvon Butler, ID: KWCB-MDK "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch,
(http://familysearch.org: accessed 27 September 2018); Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[27]Elvon Butler, ID: KWCB-MDK "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch,
(http://familysearch.org: accessed 27 September 2018)
[28]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[29]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[30]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute to Elvon Butler”, May 1999.
[31]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[32]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[33]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[34]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[35]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[36]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[37]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[38]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[39]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[40]“Thelma Twede Butler Obituary,” Tributes.com,15 February 2009.
[41]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[42]“Thelma Twede Butler Obituary,” Tributes.com, 15 February 2009.
[43]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute to Elvon Butler”, May 1999; Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[44]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[45]Haws, “William and Fanny Butler: Ancestor and Descendants, History of Elvon Joseph Butler and Thelma Twede,” Compiled History, 2010.
[46]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[47]Elvon Butler, ID: KWCB-MDK "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch,
(http://familysearch.org: accessed 27 September 2018).
[48]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute to Elvon Butler”, May 1999.
[49]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[50]Darlene Christensen, “Tribute Given to Grandma Butler,” 24 February 2009.
[51]“Thelma Twede Butler Obituary,” Tributes.com, 15 February 2009.
[52]“Thelma Twede Butler Obituary,” Tributes.com, 15 February 2009.