PART ONE IS A SUMMARY OF B.VAUGHN MARSHALL'S LIFE.
PART TWO IS HIS HISTORY
Where he grew up and went to school, how he meet his beautiful wife, places he moved and lived, challenges and blessings
B. Vaughn Marshall
My Mom (Yvonne Kay Marshall) has done a fantastic job writing dad’s personal history for the family, and for those who are interested. It's simply called “About Vaughn”, which came to over eighty pages.
Dad, Billie Vaughn Marshall, was born premature on March 17 1930 at Castlegate, Utah, but that didn’t stop him from being a strong individual. He was a wonderful father/dad with a gentle firmness, and purpose behind his direction. He had a great sense of humor, and was fun and playful. I’m not sure who wore who out sometimes, yet he was quiet when it came to talking about himself. He was a great example to follow especially on how to help others.
SUMMARY OF B.VAUGHN MARSHALL
These are some highlights from his personal history.
Achievements in early years:
The Trumpet
He learned to play ‘triple tongue’ and played in the School Band throughout his school years. He continued to play until it needed to be fixed, but he never quite had enough money to put toward that.
Jr. High School
Championship Speedball Team
Six Man Touch Football
Championship Soft Ball Team
Championship Jr. Touch Football
First Place in B class 73 yd. 440 yrd. Relay
First Place in 110 yd. commando Relay
First Place in 40 yd. dash.
ALSO
Library Diplomas – for certain number of books read (Dad always loved to read)
High School
Block letter for Football
Block letter for Marching Band
Silver Seal of Citizenship and Service
Entered Navy in 1948
With an honorable discharge
San Jose State University
Graduated with Honors receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree in June 1956
What he did from here on included many things, mainly becoming what a good husband and father would do. Which involve many selfless acts of giving of his time, and putting aside a lot of his wants.
He excelled in his work research, which took him to different states but mainly to T-3 Ice island North of Alaska many times. His work was often done with little notice, not having achieved that all important Masters Degree from Stanford University, as he had started out to do years before. Nonetheless, he did his work as if he had accomplished this. It was not usually public, but very much appreciated and needed. As you can see in a letter from the chains of command his hard work was noticed at times. In the following Dad had actually done the improvements in the probes and recording etc. From Dad’s history “About Vaughn”
“ Dear Art: Ken Hunchins has returned from the Arctic and has been telling us about your successful heat-flow program during the summer. We would be most interested in seeing the preliminary results when they are available. Ken also reported that you had made some improvements in the probes used, and in the recording technique. Any information you have along this line will, of course, be of great value to us. We are sending along some of our most recent results, as yet unpublished. The scatter of the data gets more puzzling as more numbers come in.Please pass on our regards to B. Vaughn Marshall; in fact, he is probably in a better position to answer most of this letter.Sincerely yours, Marcus G. Langseth”
Some of Dad’s favorite hobbies were:
Gardening - Enjoyed being out in the yard. Loved to grow all sorts of plants and trees, took the care to nurture each one and was very patient as they grew.
Reading – Enjoyed all kinds of books. We refer to his collection as Dad’s library.
Writing - He loved to write. He'd been working on a novel for his enjoyment, but had written quite a few poems, some humorous, serious and then interesting. As you may see - - Dad's Poems
Collecting Rocks - Each one of course was different and unique with a story of its own to tell. He would love to look them over carefully and inspect them and appreciated each one.
PART TWO - B. VAUGHN MARSHALL
This history was put together by his lovely wife, Yvonne Kay Marshall. She's made some special comments, most of which I felt were a good thing to leave in, and share with others. There are many more pages to add, but this is what I've got done for now.
Well here goes! I’ve felt for some time now that I should write about Vaughn’s life. After he died on
At birth Vaughn was given the name ‘Billie Vaughn Marshall’. I recall that during our married life he would often express his wish that he’d been given a different spelling for his name. These are his words on the matter. They are taken from the Personal History he started but did not complete.
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“PERSONAL HISTORY OF BILLIE VAUGHN MARSHALL”
“It’s about time, 0r more accurately, passed time for me to seriously write my personal history. I may enjoy it. The Church says we all should write our own stories, that is, our autobiographies. My children may find some interest in the events I share. I won’t reveal all of my errors and mistakes: not just because of the length it would add, but after all, they never provided me with the same privilege. Finally, since I have this urge to say something as prologue, it is not about eternity, but about time-----my time. I will start with events, places, documents, thoughts, hopes, and whatever comes to mind and then detail these in other parts of this narrative as I’m impressed to. A word processor is a wonderful gadget.”
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“My name is Billie Vaughn Marshall. Yes, I know, Billie should have been spelled with a ‘y’, but you see I was not in a consulting position at the time of the naming. I suppose that was a year for ‘Billy’ for boys and perhaps ‘Billie’ for girls and, oh well, at least I was not named ‘Sue’. My father’s name was William (William Elias Marshall) and he went by the name ‘Bill’. Obviously there could not be ‘Big Bill’ and ‘Little Bill’ so my parents called me by my middle name. To them I was Vaughn. Much to my chagrin I was still referred to years later by uncles and aunts as ‘Billie-Vaughn’. I have adjusted to it all by signing my name as B. Vaughn Marshall. I was born on 17 March 1930 at Castlegate, Carbon County, Utah.
I have two siblings. My elder sister, Elaine, who is married and known now as Elaine Murray and the mother of six children and grandmother of numerous [grandchildren] (the number is known to her). Her husband is Thomas Reed Murray. My older brother is named Leone Ervin. Leone was killed as he was hit by a car when he was about six years old just before he was to start school. My mother, Irene, has related to us in her personal history his short story and how special he surely is. I am looking forward to seeing him again (not necessarily soon), and really getting to know him since I was only four years old when he died.”
Vaughn’s personal history ends here. It would be wonderful to be able to read more of what he intended to write. I do pray that I will be inspired to write what he wants to be recorded concerning his life. Needless to say he and Leone are probably sharing experiences together in the Spirit World now.
Since I have been talking about some of Vaughn’s feelings about his name I thought I’d include another tidbit before going on. I found a copy of a letter, which he had written to Group Health Cooperative, concerning his application for Medicare. I have decided to include the whole letter because it gives an interesting insight into his sense of humor. The letter is dated
“My name is Billie Vaughn Marshall, hence the name on my group health card as B V Marshall, (not B Marshall), which should be the same as your records, you know, as in initial B, initial V, and then my last name of Marshall.
My birth certificate lists my name as Billie Vaughn Marshall. I don’t care much for the ‘Billie’ because it is not spelled in the masculine form – my mother assures me she was not secretly hoping for a girl – but when I use it I do so as the initial ‘B’ or I sometimes feel brave and spell it with a ‘Y’. I used to know a man named ‘Shirley’ and he never used that name either. He preferred to be called Bill after his other name, ‘William’. Or there’s the song about “A Man Named ‘Sue’" sung by …. Well, …. Some one with a regular name. You get the picture, right?
Now to carry on with what I remember about Vaughn’s life. He would mention something every so often or maybe answer a question I would ask, but he wasn’t in the habit of talking much about his life. In fact, most of our children remember trait also. Vaughn’s mother recorded a few things about his early childhood in her personal history which I’ll include. I’ll also write the stories about his childhood that his mother and sister told me.
This is probably a good place to make a statement about my memory. I apologize in advance for the different way I may remember the stories I’ve heard. Perhaps some of the things I will write about will be very different from the way they happened or are remembered by others. Wherever possible I will include other versions that are shared with me.
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BIRTH
Vaughn was born prematurely on the 17th of March 1930 at Castlegate, Utah. His mother, Irene Jones Marshall, describes him as being blue and very small. He wasn’t expected to live. He was born at home with the town doctor in attendance. His mother said that she wrapped him up warmly and kept him right next to her night and day. She gave him warmth and nourishment and felt that, that was the only reason he lived. He was the third child born to Irene Jones and William Marshall. The oldest child was a girl named Elaine; the second was a boy named Leone. His father, Bill, worked in the coal mines in that area, the same mines where Bill’s own father, John W. Marshall was killed. Mine work wasn’t safe but it was the only work to be had. These were depression times and a man was lucky to have a job of any kind.
Vaughn’s mother (Irene Jones Marshall) writes in her journal that the year he was born was an especially bad depression year. The work in the mines slowed down and after the company took the rent out of Bill’s paycheck there was barely enough left to feed the family. When he was about 2 years old his parents shared a sobering experience that illustrates how difficult the times were. Bill talked about a dream he had for three nights in a row. His deceased father had come to him and said, “Son I need you.” After discussing it for a while Irene felt strongly that Bill’s mother and the children at home might be in need. It was Sunday but they persuaded the grocer to open the store. They stocked up on food and took it to the mining town where Bill’s mother (Martha Ellen Cox) was living. The family didn’t have any food in the house or means to buy food at that time. Vaughn’s grandmother (Martha Ellen Cox) was so grateful.
(Mom's Special Note)
As I relate this story I think it is so important to recognize the family that Vaughn was born into. There are so many good people in his ancestry and they are all a part of who he is. Heavenly Father made sure that he was born to good people. As I tell his story it will be clear that his parents overcame many difficult things in their lives in order to raise their children in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Following is a very short history of Vaughn’s ancestry starting with his mother’s family (Jones) and then continuing on to his father’s family (Marshall's).
The Family
Vaughn's Mother - Irene Jones Marshall, her parents were Elisha Allen Jones, born in 1876 in Woodland, Utah and Janett Shiner, born 1877 in Salt Lake City. Elisha was the oldest of nine children. His parents settled eventually in the small mining town of Castledale, Utah. He was a brick maker and farmer. His brothers and sisters were all musical and the family entertained the area populace by playing for dances and various other things. A photograph of him as a young man bears a resemblance to Vaughn. Elisha’s father, Elisha Allen Jones Sr., (1852) was a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He came west from Lincolnville, Main as a young man with his brother Silas, who continued on to California. While in Summit County Utah, he met and married Eliza Catherine Thayn, and joined the church shortly after. Catherine Thayn’s parents emigrated from Iowa to Salt Lake, after becoming early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints also. The Thayn family came originally from the Glasgow area of Scotland in the 1830’s to settle in Iowa. Janett Shiner, Irene’s mother, was a daughter of converts also. Irene’s grandfather, George William Shiner, was a soldier in the Iowa Infantry in the Union Army. He was a farmer for a number of years and planned to go west. At the suggestion of his wife’s uncle he investigated the “Mormons”. He and his wife, Janett Lefler, then moved their family to Utah where he bought an interest in a sawmill in Creek Canyon. The original immigrant ancestor was a George Shiner born about 1745 in Germany. He settled in the Virginia area and fought in the Revolutionary War. The Lefler family were prominent citizens in the Iowa area and helped to establish it.
Vaughn's Father Bill (William) Elias Marshall, his parents were John W Marshall, born in 1881 in Orderville, Utah and Martha Ellen Cox, born in 1883 in Huntington, Utah. Shortly after Bill’s grandparents, William Marshall III and Martha P. Allen were married, they were invited to participate in living The United Order. While living in Orderville William became skilled in many trades. Their second son, John W. and his nine brothers and sisters, lived in very difficult circumstances while helping their parents establish a home in the primitive town of Huntington, Utah. Due to his father’s and uncle Andrew Allen’s efforts, irrigation water was directed into the little town so that it could develop and grow. Bill’s great-grandparents, William Marshall II and Francis Bridger, were converts and emigrated from England to Australia and then to San Bernardino. From there the family went on to Parowan and began to establish the Marshall family in Utah. Martha Ellen Cox, Bill’s mother, was the oldest of nine children. Her mother, Ellen Viola Sherman, had a ‘heart condition’ and was in poor health most of the time. Martha Ellen quit school early so that she could help take care of the younger children. Martha’s father, (Bill’s grandfather), was Elias Henderson Cox born 1856 in Union Fort, Utah. Elias Henderson Cox’s mother, Martha Richards, died when he was just four years old. His own father, Elias Cox, was on the road a lot helping the arriving pioneers to get settled in Utah so Elias’ upbringing fell to his grandparents, Jehu Cox and Sarah Pyle. Jehu Cox and Sarah Pyle were the original pioneers and converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Both of their families had been early immigrants to America. Their ancestry is traced to the earliest New England colonies, the Mayflower and to Miles Standish. Bill’s grandmother, Ellen Viola Sherman, was a daughter of Alby Lyman Sherman and granddaughter of Lyman Royal Sherman. Lyman Royal was the same Sherman who had been designated to be called as an apostle in the early church but died suddenly at age 35 in Far West before this could take place. His wife, Delcena Didamia Johnson, a Mormon pioneer, later brought her family to Salt Lake. Her son, Alby Lyman Sherman, (Bill’s great-grandfather) married Mary Elvira Swan as the families were on their way west. They were married on the North Platte River. The Swan family were converts coming from Scotland. The Johnsons were early settlers in America and fought in the Revolutionary War. They were among the early converts in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The above is of necessity a very brief glance at Vaughn’s ancestry. As I looked up information to write about them I was impressed with the feeling that all these people were good people trying hard to live good lives. They all dealt with many hardships but they endured. In the process they left a wonderful posterity who can be very thankful that their ancestors were willing to undergo the things they did in order to leave their posterity with so many opportunities.
Leone
The next thing I recall hearing about Vaughn’s life, concerns his older brother Leone. He was six and a half years old when he died. I heard this story many times from Vaughn’s mother. It was probably one of the most painful things that she had to endure. Vaughn and Leone were playing outside while his mother was visiting a friend. Vaughn said that he has no memory of any this time at all. He was only four years old. Irene has told me that Leone was always careful about running out in the street so she was not uncomfortable about his playing ‘out front’. I think there was a firecracker involved somehow and he ran out in the street. It was a hill and the woman coming over the hill in a car didn’t see him quickly enough to prevent hitting him. He was killed instantly. Irene often said that she was blessed at that time to be able to tell the woman that she did not hold her responsible for Leone’s death. She said the woman was very distraught about the accident. Irene also has related that she was comforted in knowing that it was Leone’s time to return to his Heavenly Father. There is a more detailed account in her history. irene-jones-hist.php
About this time period while still living in Utah, Elaine(Vaughn’s sister) writes; “ During the years we were growing up, but still children in Utah, I remember well how mother instructed me to hold on to Vaughn’s hand as we went down the hill and into town to church. I do not recall either Mom or Dad accompanying us to church but she did see that we attended. We were, ‘polished’ and tidied and sent on our way. He was such a cute, pleasant little brother.” This would have been during his fourth and fifth years.
Irene often told another story about Vaughn when he was very young. I don’t remember his age but I think it happened while they were still living in Utah. He was playing with another little boy and Irene said she noticed it was very quiet, and she wondered what they were doing. She didn’t see them outside where she expected to and started looking all around. She was prompted to look under the house and sure enough, there they were. They had been very busy building a fire and were just about to light it. She felt that the Lord had blessed them so that she discovered the boys before anyone was hurt.
Irene and Bill were not very active in the church during these early-married years. When Bill was in his teens he had begun smoking. It was a very difficult habit to overcome and was a challenge to him for a number of years. He always had a reputation as a hard worker, and if there was work to be found he would find it. Throughout all his years he did work very hard to provide for his family. While he was working in the mines he saw many accidents. He told us about one mine accident that he could never forget. He was one of the volunteers who helped to bring the wounded and dead out of the collapsed mine. The experience was traumatic and a constant reminder that it could happen to him anytime. He’d had a few close calls with falling coal and one time he was injured and out of work for three weeks. He and Irene decided to leave the coal mines and go to California where he hoped to work in the oil fields. Bill had two aunts in California where they could stay while he found work.
Jump to TopThe Move
This was a major move for the family. The country was just climbing out of the depression and jobs were still hard to find. They were taking a real chance but they felt strongly that staying in a small coal-mining town could not offer the future what they wanted for themselves or for their children. Vaughn was six years old when his family packed their car with everything that could possibly fit in it, plus their little dog Pat. So in November 1936 they arrived just outside Fellows, California and stayed with Bill’s aunt Mable Chappel, a sister to Bill’s mother (Martha Ellen Cox). The family stayed with her for a week and then decided to rent a small house (three room shack), in Fellows, CA. They borrowed some old furniture from Bill’s aunt and ‘ made do’. Elaine (Vaughn’s sister) writes that, “All of the houses in that area were close to each other. In one of the neighboring houses there was a man who played a violin when he got drunk. He did not play well so it was not pleasant to listen to.” The school was close enough so that Vaughn and Elaine were able to walk there. It was a very small school. Elaine was in the fifth grade and Vaughn was in the first grade. Vaughn had started first grade in Utah but his schooling primarily began at Midway school in the Kern County school district in Fellows, California. Vaughn’s report cards in these very early grades indicate that he was an outstanding student. He excelled in reading, math and music especially.
Before long the family was able to move to a little better house. This house had four rooms and a bathroom that the other house didn’t have. Elaine writes, “This house was in an area called ‘Rag Row’. A neighboring tract was called ‘Silk Row’. As you might expect, the houses in the latter were a little nicer than in the former. However, our house in ‘Rag Row’ was nice and we were happy there”. She mentions that she and Vaughn were probably sharing a bedroom at this time because she remembers as they were going to sleep they would dream and talk about owning bicycles. They dreamed about the freedom of movement they would have and where they would go. Within the year they both each had a bicycle. They were “in heaven”. Bill was working for an oil company at this time and they were able to buy this house for $400. However the land had to be leased because the oil company retained ownership of it.
About 1938 the family needed to move again when there was a “big layoff” by the oil company. They moved a few miles away to an area called “Derby Acres”. Something of great importance happened while they were living in this area. Bill was in a very serious car accident. Irene has often related how this experience seemed to be very meaningful to Bill. He was trapped and alone, expecting the car to catch fire any moment. He felt ‘helped’ as he was able to crawl out and find his way home. Irene said that his activity in church greatly increased after the accident. Bill began to really enjoy his callings and activity in the Taft Branch. This all made it possible for Vaughn’s parents to be sealed to in the Temple, to each other and to their children. The family traveled to Salt Lake City and on June 14,1940 they were all sealed as an eternal family in the Salt Lake Temple.
That fall Bill got a job with an oil company again. They had a chance to live in a house on a small lease rent-free in exchange for doing work on the lease. There were only two houses on this lease and it was very far away from all their good friends in Fellows, California. Vaughn and Elaine had to take the bus to school now. Elaine says that they were both so glad to have their bikes especially now. They were able to ride them to see their friends. All the other house leases were far away and it was very hot riding their bikes in that barren desert. Vaughn was 10 years old and in the 5th grade by now. His report cards show the he continued to be an excellent student.
Cornet/Trumpet
I’m not sure exactly when he started playing the trumpet. I thought I remember him telling me that he played it a little in his music classes in school. His mother mentions that he was taking private lessons by 1940. She called the instrument he was playing a cornet. I remember Vaughn telling me that he started learning to play on one type of horn and then changed to the horn that I now have in his case sitting in the closet. When we were first married he used to play it. He showed me how he would’ triple tongue’ and he was really good at it. He got such a beautiful sound out of that horn. Sometimes it was frustrating because the trumpet needed work on it and would stick in the middle of a song. He was in college and I was working and it seemed we never had quite enough money to fix it. So as those things go, time went on and it never did get fixed. Vaughn always referred to his horn as a trumpet but he explained to me that it wasn’t a’ true trumpet’. Among Vaughn’s papers I found a report that had been given to his parents. It was a report on the results of a musical aptitude test given to him in the sixth grade. Many areas of musical ability were tested such as pitch, time, rhythm, etc and numbers assigned to them. His final score was 400. The highest score possible on this paper was 507 and the average school score was 219. The school went up to the eighth grade and the highest eighth grade average was 240. In the field where a musical instrument was recommended there was a check mark for every instrument except the string bass. I think music was always an important part of his life. By the fifth grade he was playing in the school band and continued to do so throughout his school years. He told me that sometimes in high school he had hard choices to make between performing in the band at half time or playing football, because he was on the football team too.
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Taft,California
In 1942 the family bought a house in Taft, Calif. They all seemed to enjoy living there, where they were much closer to schools, friends and church. It was during the time while they were living in Taft, Calif.,that the family invited the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to come to their home quite often for dinner and visiting. This was a blessing to the whole family but especially to Vaughn. He enjoyed the missionary Elders so much and looked up to them. At that age he was deeply impressed that he wanted to be like them and do what they were doing. He told me that his parents had always encouraged him to plan on a mission but being around the missionaries as a boy left a positive impression that stayed with him. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood and given the office of Deacon ion this year of 1942.
Elaine(Vaughn’s sister) describes how nice it was to live in a real town. She said, then they could walk to the swimming pool almost every day. (it was a very hot walk) She describes a scary experience that they had there. Vaughn couldn’t swim and was a little frightened of the water. She encouraged him to come into the deeper water but he panicked and grabbed hold of her, pushing her down. She said that she had to stay under water with Vaughn hanging on until she was able to get to an area where she could touch bottom. She said she came up gasping for air and Vaughn was shaking. After that she let him progress at his own speed.
While they were living in Taft, Calif. Vaughn’s dad bought a cow. Vaughn told me that his dad had intended to sell it for beef when it was large enough. Vaughn‘s job was to help care for it. His mother writes that the cow quickly became his pet. He became very attached to ‘Blackie’ and spent a lot of time sitting on the fence talking to her. He told me that she was a loving cow and they liked each other a lot. He said the whole family liked her so instead of selling her for beef they bred her and used her for a milk cow. She gave the best milk there was, and his mom made really good butter from it too.
Vaughn enjoyed sports a great deal; sports of every kind and he was good at them. I think football was his favorite. While attending school in Taft, Calif., the fall of 1942, he played on the Championship Seventh Grade Speedball Team, Seventh Grade Basketball Team and Seventh Grade Six Man Touch Football. The spring of 1943 he played on the Championship Seventh Grade Soft Ball Team and the Championship Junior Touch Football Team. That same spring, in track, he took First Place in the B Class 73 yd. 440 Relay, First Place in the 110 yd Commando Relay and First Place in The 40 yd. Dash. He was not very tall and sometimes felt that was a disadvantage, but it didn’t keep him from working hard at sports or doing well.
Vaughn always enjoyed reading. Among the special things he saved from school were some ‘Library Diplomas’. These were awarded to students for reading a certain number of books a year. He received one for every year he was living in the Kern County School District. Throughout all the years we were together he always enjoyed reading. One of his favorite things to buy was a book. He participated in his school Glee Club and played the part of ‘ Mr. Bones’ in a presentation about Stephen Foster. That same year, (1942), he was chosen to play in a’ trumpet trio’ in the graduation program for the graduating class.
In August of 1943 he enjoyed being able to go to camp. A Taft, Calif., newspaper article that he had saved mentions the names of a few boys that received a special neckerchief at the end of camp for “Good Camper 1943”. Vaughn’s name was among them. There was a Professor El Tab, a magician, who put on a special show for the boys while he was there. Vaughn must have been impressed by it because one of the things he had kept in a special box was a paper describing many of the ‘Professor’s’ tricks. The Professor had mailed it to Vaughn after he had returned home.
Often the family had been able to go back to visit their relatives in Utah in the summer. Vaughn enjoyed talking about some of his favorite aunts and uncles there. He said that he always liked visiting his aunt Reva and uncle June (Marshall). While Vaughn was on his mission he was saddened to hear that his uncle June was killed while working in his wood business. His aunt Lea was another favorite. On his mother’s side, he always enjoyed being with his aunt Fern and Aunt Nola’s families. Another favorite was his uncle John Marshall. Johnnie was his youngest uncle, just about the same age as his own sister, Elaine. Johnnie had been in WW II and gave Vaughn a Japanese flag that he’d brought back. Johnnie said that he did that because Vaughn was one of his most favorite nephews. Vaughn kept the flag in that special box of his where he kept many of his special things.
Palo Alto, California
By the fall of 1943 the family had moved to Palo Alto,
Vaughn played his horn (coronet) all through junior high and high school. He was in the orchestra and in the marching band in junior high and high school. In high school he earned both his music block letter and his football block letter, which of course he wore on his red and white school sweater. Vaughn expressed his disappointment though that the coach didn’t give him much of an opportunity to play in the games because of his height. He said that he was put in long enough to earn his block letter but that was all. I found the Kennel Club registration papers for the beautiful Scotch Collie that Vaughn and Elaine had. Vaughn has a picture of himself and “Laddie”. He told me that he really loved that dog and enjoyed playing with him so much. It was so sad when he was hit by a car and injured so badly that he had to be put to sleep. Vaughn spoke of the heartbreak he felt at the time. He has a picture of his favorite black cat, ’Inky’, sitting on his shoulder too. She used to always follow him around everywhere.
He had three very good friends throughout high school -- Jim Marshall, his cousin, Rex Brush and Jack Kelly. They were all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and in the same ward. Of the three, Jack was probably his best friend. However, Jack’s family were not very supportive of his activity in the church, the atmosphere in his home was’nt good – there was drinking and so forth. It was difficult for Jack and he looked to Vaughn for the stability he wanted. Vaughn remained his good friend for many years until we all lost track of each other as our families grew.
Elaine, remembers her brother as quite a “ romantic”. She remembers his taking a box of candy and flowers to give to his date. She thought it may have been his first date. I think one of the things that impressed me when we first met was that he never seemed to take me for granted. He always treated me kindly and I felt so comfortable with him. While Vaughn was in high school he earned enough money to take flying lessons. He spent quite a few hours in the air but couldn’t afford to continue on to get his license. He had hoped that he would be able to later but never did find the time again.
He graduated from high school in June 1948 and was awarded the Silver Seal of Citizenship and Service. He had planned to go on a mission (for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and was trying to figure out how he could do that. Because at that time every healthy young man had “do time” in the service for two years. Just before he graduated he learned that there was a program that would allow him to be on active duty in the Navy for a year and then serve on inactive duty for four years. He decided to take advantage of the program so that he could go on his mission sooner and finish college before he was “of ancient days”. He applied and was accepted. He didn’t have to leave until September of that year so that enabled him to attend one quarter at Stanford University before he left.
He entered the Navy in September of 1948 and went directly to San Diego for his training in boot camp. He said this was not a fun experience but he was prepared to grit his teeth and tolerate it. He talked a little bit about his week- end leaves in San Diego and going across the border into Mexico. He said he managed to stay away from the prostitutes and the drinking. One bad memory that he told me about was when the guy who slept on the bunk above him came in very drunk and in the middle of the night started vomiting down on Vaughn. He said he was so disgusted.
He was assigned to an aircraft carrier, the Badoeing Strait. He said he really enjoyed being on the carrier. He was assigned to help tie down the planes when they came in. By January 1949 the ship was docked in San Francisco,
We Meet
Vaughn and I met at a church Christmas dance. I was in nurse’s training in San Francisco and had that weekend off duty. The Young Men, Women and Young Adults were decorating the church Christmas tree and had an informal dance after. I was introduced to him by one of the older girls. I remember distinctly my first impression of him as we danced. I don’t believe I ever met anyone with such beautiful dark blue eyes. The rest of him was pretty good looking too. He wasn’t very tall so I told myself that I really didn’t want to like him too much but I was hooked. I never dated anyone else after that and as far as I ever knew, Vaughn didn’t either. It was Christmas time 1949/1950. His impressions of me must have been good because he asked me to go to the New Years Eve dance to be held the following week. I had that weekend off duty also and was glad to be asked. We managed to see each other almost every weekend after that. If I had to be on duty a particular weekend he would come up to San Francisco and we would go out when my shift was over. If I had the weekend off then I’d go home to Menlo Park and we would see one another then. Very often he would drive me back to San Francisco. He often told me that on his way back home (it took about an hour) he would have a terrible time staying awake. He’d open the car window, sing loudly, and pinch himself etc. all the way. My curfew time was
Our Dating
Some of our grandchildren have asked me what sort of things we did on our dates so I thought I’d share something about that also. When I was at home on the weekends I would often go watch him work. Vaughn worked for his dad in the “tree business”. Besides working for the City of Palo Alto, his dad had started a business on the side. He called it his tree business. He would contract with people to clear certain sections of their land by cutting down and clearing away the trees. This was hard work but Bill apparently had good experience doing this in his younger years in
Early in our dating Vaughn told me about his plans to go on a mission for the LDS Church. By the time we had been dating for six months we were talking about marriage. We both knew that was the direction we wanted to go. For a very brief period we talked about his not going and just getting married instead. I think that lasted about a week. He was committed to a mission and I was committed to support him. We had met just as 1950 started and he left on his mission in Jan of 1951. During that year he had been attending Stanford University. He had planned to get a year of schooling before he left. By attending summer quarter he managed to get his full year in. I noticed on his transcript from Stanford he was in the ‘ advanced standing’ category. As the time drew near to submit his ‘papers’ he became very concerned. The government had begun to severely limit the number of young men that could be called on missions. The Korean War was over but there was a great deal of unrest throughout that area of Asia. The government wanted these young men to be available. I remember that Vaughn and I and his family prayed that he would be able to go. He had to get an “exemption” from the government before he could submit his mission papers. He was very blessed and received an exemption. One of his good friends in his Ward was not able to go on a mission for that reason.
Vaughn and I gave each other special pictures that we’d had taken of ourselves for Christmas presents that year. They are the one’s framed and sitting in the bedroom. Vaughn used the same picture to put on his handouts for his “Farewell”. He’s very good looking in it of course. He had grown a nice looking mustache and, guess what? The first missionary sacrifice was now required. He was told that he had to remove the mustache. He didn’t like giving it up but he did as he was asked. It was a nice Farewell and Vaughn gave a very good talk.
Everything happened so fast ---the whole time frame went like this:
Nov 22,1950 He was interviewed by Spencer W. Kimball
Jan 8,1951 He received his formal mission call to the Central States Mission
Jan 19, 1951 He had his Farewell
Jan 21 He left on the train from San Francisco
Jan 22,1951 Arrived in the mission home in Salt Lake City
Feb 2, 1951 Arrived by train at Independence, Mo.
Where he received his further assignments in the mission home there.
President Kimball and Vaughn
When President Kimball interviewed Vaughn it was a special experience. He was an Apostle at the time. Often, in those days, an Apostle interviewed a missionary before they left on their missions. President Kimball was the Apostle in charge of the Central States Mission where Vaughn would be assigned. Vaughn always enjoyed telling the story of one of President Kimball’s visits to the mission field. He was in a car with some of the missionaries all going to a conference meeting. Vaughn was among those in the car. They were talking about the word of wisdom and one of the elders expressed his feeling that partaking of chocolate was against the word of wisdom. At that point President Kimble passed around a chocolate bar and invited others to share it with him. He said that he didn’t recall that chocolate was mentioned in the word of wisdom. (Vaughn always loved chocolate) He appreciated President Kimble’s sense of humor and his ability to put everyone at ease. He also appreciated the lesson being taught – that sometimes the Word of Wisdom is not quoted properly. Vaughn said he remembered him as a very kind and loving person.
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Married
Before Vaughn returned home from his mission, my father had made arrangements for him to apply for work at Southern Pacific Railroad, which was where my father worked. He had contacted Vaughn earlier to see if he wanted him to do that. Jobs were not that easy to find and everyone knew that it was important to Vaughn to work as much as possible before going back to school, which he planned to do in the fall. Vaughn said yes to my father, to go ahead and make arrangements for the application. It turned out that he would be hired within two weeks of returning home. That was good, but once he started working he would not have any time off until it was time to quit and start school. That left us with a difficult decision to make about when to get married. We either had to be married very soon or wait until September just before school started. From February until September seemed like a very long time especially after waiting two years. So we decided to be married within ten days of his return. We announced our plans to our parents and, after getting over the surprise they were all very wonderful helping us to pull the whole thing together. The Lord was with us all the way.
One of the very best decisions we ever made was to be married in the Temple right from the start. My Parents drove up and we drove with Vaughn’s parents to Salt Lake. We drove straight through and we were all tired. There was still ice on some of the mountain roads and we felt the Lord’s protection when the car slid out of control at one point. We spun round a couple of times missing all other traffic and coming to a stop when the back end of the car hit the high side of a cliff. None of us were hurt and the car was not damaged. When we were married on the evening of February ninth we were both so tired that we had a hard time following what was going on. We decided to return the following day when our minds were more clear. My parents had loaned us their new car to drive back home in and they took the train back home. We went back to the Temple the following day and while we were there someone ran into the backside of’ my parent’s parked car. We were just sick about it. We didn’t want my parents’ insurance company to have to pay for it, so we used our honeymoon money to repair the car. Then, without much money left, we took about five days coming home and called that our honeymoon. As I imagine it from Vaughn’s viewpoint, this must have been a trying time. He always told me that, of course, he was thrilled to be married, but there was a big adjustment to be made. He was still living on mission time. Up at 6 a.m. and ready to start the day soon after. He had this wife who thought 6 a.m. was the middle of the night. Then finding an apartment in San Francisco quickly (that’s where we were both working) was a challenge. Starting a new job is never easy. It was especially hard when he’d only been married a week, living in a new apartment in a strange city and then his wife seems to have caught this flu that won’t go away. That’s right! We were expecting our first baby and before I even had time to suspect I was pregnant, I was so--- sick! And that’s another story---------
Baby
I think Vaughn would want me to share this so I will. Before he came home from his mission we wondered about delaying our family at least a year, so that it would be easier for Vaughn to go to school. His mission president and other leaders strongly advised him not to do that. He prayed about it and talked to me about it. We both wanted to do the right thing so we decided that if I became pregnant it would work out fine. We didn’t know it would happen so fast or that I would be so ill. It was very difficult at the time but when we looked back on those times, we always said that we would make the same decision again. We were blessed in so many ways for making that decision. The first great blessing was our son. He has been nothing but a joy to us all his life. He was always a very patient and loving little boy and grew into a fine man that Vaughn was so proud of. One of the important lessons we learned was unselfishness. We had to put many of our “wants” on the back burner and that helped us grow in the right direction. That set the tone for our marriage.
Tithing
Vaughn was the one that taught me the importance of paying a real tithing. I had a desire to pay tithing but I might have let it slip once in a while. He always made sure that we paid a full tithe and we were blessed throughout our marriage because of that. The following is an example of receiving financial blessings. Because I was so sick I was not able to work for the first few months of the pregnancy. We needed that income to save toward school in the fall. We were blessed to hear of a small cottage that we could rent for very little in exchange for taking care of the young children that belonged to the owners. So we moved from the city to the Los Altos area. I was able to go back to work for the last months of my pregnancy and found work at the Palo Alto Hospital. Because I did that, I became acquainted with a doctor that was willing to deliver our baby free. We didn’t have any health insurance at the time. We were also allowed to pay our hospital bill over the period of a year because I was employed there. Vaughn quit his job at the railroad and started classes at San Jose State in the fall. I became very sick with a kidney infection and had to go on leave about one and a half months before our son was born. In a few weeks we ran out of money. Our parents helped us out until I returned to work two weeks after the birth of our son. We considered their help a loan and were able to pay them back within a few months. We continued to be blessed financially all the time Vaughn was in school. I may have been inclined to sleep in on a Sunday or two but Vaughn just took it for granted that going to church on Sunday was what we did, period. So that’s what we did. Because he led us in that direction I found that even when he was gone for long periods of time doing field work, that that habit was well formed in the family and we were always at church whenever we should be.
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Birth
The birth of our first child was a favorite story of ours so I’ll include it in Vaughn’s history. The good doctor who delivered David had told us that the only time he was not available to deliver the baby was on “big game day”. For many years there was a strong football rivalry between Stanford University and University of California. Sometimes the games were held in Berkley and sometimes in Palo Alto. That year they were to be held in Palo Alto. Tickets for the game were not easy to get and my doctor had tickets. Stanford was a small campus and the traffic coming into the campus was crazy. The hospital was on the campus. In order to get to the hospital we had to cross the main highway that lead to the campus. All the side streets were blocked off to route traffic away from that part of the highway. Well of course that was the day I went into labor. Vaughn was working with his dad that day cutting trees. I wanted to have him take me to the hospital so I waited for him to finish work. By that time the contractions were pretty strong and as soon as he walked in we needed to leave. He didn’t get a chance to clean up or anything. The game had just ended and the traffic was trying to get out of the campus and onto the highway while we were trying to get onto the campus and couldn’t. Vaughn tried telling a few police officers our problem but they didn’t believe him. We both felt a little desperate and he tried one last time. The officer came over to the car and saw me. He was really quite nice. He worked with another officer and they stopped all the traffic on the highway so that we could cross it. It was a challenge notifying the doctor and for him to get through the traffic. But he did! And David was born! And all was well.
School
Vaughn’s mother volunteered to take care of our little son, so that I could work the day shift instead of the night shift as we had planned. She acted in a vary kind and generous way. She had to quit work in order to do that and I’m sure it was a sacrifice for them. Vaughn continued to work for his dad on Saturdays. During the week he went to school and studied and studied. He went straight through all year including summer quarters so that he could finish as quickly as possible. He ended up taking a few extra classes because he had changed his major from engineering to geology. He was give a promise by Elder Marion G. Romney (later to become President Marion G. Romney, President of The Quorum of The Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) of the when he was set apart as a missionary that he would not lose out on his education. He was able to graduate with honors from San Jose State University receiving his Bachelor of Science Degree in June 1956. He majored in Geology and minored in Physics. During those school years we lived first in a small upstairs apartment in East Palo Alto. That’s where we were living when our son was born. Poor little guy had such bad colic that he cried and cried. I would hold and walk him all the time but it was difficult for Vaughn to concentrate on his studies. It was a very small two-room apartment. We then rented a home in East Palo Alto and shared it with our friends Jack and Callie Kelly. We were hoping to cut our expenses by doing that. It did cut the expenses a lot but we learned an important lesson. It is very difficult for two families to share a home no matter how much they like each other. It just lasted a few months. We were blessed again to rent a small cottage behind a house, that were some friends from our church. They didn’t charge us a very high rent. We stayed there until we moved to his folks’ home awhile before he graduated.
First House
Before Vaughn graduated from San Jose State he had decided to continue school at Stanford University and get his masters degree. We wanted to continue our family too. He asked his folks if we could live with them for awhile so that we could save enough money to start Stanford in the fall. They generously said yes. I was going to continue working until our next baby arrived and Vaughn would continue working at the U.S. Geological Survey while going to school. Before graduation he had been offered a job at the Survey. At the time he wasn’t sure that he would make that his permanent job but it offered good security and was right by the university so he took it. All was going as planned --- and then I became very ill. That’s right! I was pregnant! We were both taken by surprise because, for some reason we really didn’t think I would be so ill again. I was invited by the hospital to take a leave of absence. By that time we had been with his folks for a few months and had saved a fair amount of money but not enough to get through the first year at Stanford. This was a disappointment for Vaughn but he made the best of it by planning to go to Stanford part time instead. After praying about the matter we felt that if we invested the money we had saved in a home it would be to our advantage. We were $600 dollars short of a down payment. With help from his sister - Elaine & Tom -her husband, his folks and my folks we made it. We moved into our first home in Aug 1956 and were able to pay them all back within a few months. The house turned out to be a very good investment. It was a small older home but prices in the whole bay area steadily increased so that we were gradually able to upgrade into larger homes as our family grew. That little house gave us the start.
Stake Mission
For The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saiants
When I remember our life in that first house, there are some important events that occurred that I think Vaughn would want me to put in his history. Vaughn started back to school part time the fall of 1956 as he had planned. He took a few classes every quarter for a year. It was a challenge to do that because there were always demands on his time from his family and church callings. Field work for the survey was also taking a lot of his time. But he was managing. Then along came one of those very difficult decisions. He was called on a Stake Mission by his ward mission leader. He was expected to do missionary work five nights a week and Sundays. The decision was difficult because he had hoped to continue his classes. He had been accepted by Stanford Graduate School and was expected to complete a certain number of units in a certain time. He knew he could not do that and complete an honorable mission at the same time. He explained that to the mission leader and asked if he could fulfill that calling at a later time. The leader could not understand why Vaughn could not do both things. He told Vaughn that other men were able to figure it out. But Vaughn knew two things. If he accepted the call he would not do it “part way”. He would put in the time required. Many of the stake missionaries had difficulty doing that. He also knew he was a person who had to study hard when he was in school. He always worked hard for the grades he got. There would be no time for study while on a mission. He prayed about it and asked the leader to inquire for him to see if his circumstances would make a difference in the call. He told me that he never found out if the mission leader did inquired about it, he was just told that the call was still extended. So he was faced with a decision between his loyalty to the gospel and his desire to finish school. He choose the gospel. He never turned his back on the gospel ever in his life. That didn’t make it easy though. He felt that interrupting the momentum of going to school at that time would make it difficult to start school again at a later time. And it was! He completed his mission in 1960. He was able to attend Stanford again in 1963. He took classes on and off until 1967. He was in the field so frequently by that time it was really difficult to continue. However he had completed all the units he needed and was working on his thesis. The thesis got bogged down because in the time between the approval of his thesis subject, and the completion of the thesis, a new department head was in place at Stanford and Vaughn needed to start the approval process all over again.
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Concussion
In the fall of 1956, we had one of those special priesthood experiences. Vaughn was running an errand in our old car and had taken our son along with him. In those days there were no seat belts. Our son was in the back and had opened the car door somehow and quickly fallen out. Vaughn wasn’t far from home driving on one of our neighborhood streets. He stopped the car right in the street and jumped out to get our son. They were blessed that there were no other cars around at the time. Our son had hit his head pretty hard though. Vaughn told me that he immediately gave him a blessing. He brought him home for me to check out. He seemed to have some signs of concussion so we took him to the Palo Alto Hospital emergency room. One of the pediatricians I worked with was on duty. He had x-rays taken and was watched in the ER for awhile. The doctor wanted to admit him but the hospital was overflowing with patients at the time. There were no beds, not even a cot, so he sent him home with us because I was used to working with kids in the hospital. There was a time during the night that we almost took him back in, but then all his vital signs started getting better. At 6 a m in the morning we started to finally relax and we’re going to try to get some sleep when there was a knock at the door. It was the doctor. He said that he’d been at the hospital early and took another look at the x-ray. He saw a crack going from the top of the skull to the base of the skull. He said it hadn’t looked as bad the evening before while the x-ray was still wet. Anyway he was quite worried and came by to see our son. It really surprised us. The doctor was surprised too because he expected to find our son in a lot of trouble. But he was doing fine with no signs of a concussion. The doctor said something about a” miracle” and left. That was when we realized what a really great priesthood blessing our son had received at Vaughn’s hands through the power of the priesthood.
Vaughn had bought a used motor scooter that he rode to work on. It was something like a miniature motorcycle, small and very lightweight. It was wonderful on gas consumption – used hardly any, so it saved us on our gasoline bills. While he was riding on it one day he was hit by a car. These were the days before helmets and other protective devices. He and the scooter were thrown across the street. His head just missed the curb. He told me that the blow was pretty severe. He expected to be cut and bruised pretty badly. The scooter was destroyed. When he was able to get up he couldn’t find any major cuts or anything. He did have one small cut on his hip that was sutured up, but nothing else. He spent a few days feeling sore and stiff.
Our second child and playing
Our second baby was a girl born in 1957. Of course she was the prettiest baby girl in the world. Our son had turned three years old the November before. I have fun memories of watching Vaughn play with him. Before he was a year old I remember how Vaughn loved to toss him in the air and catch him. It used to scare me but somehow he never dropped him and our son would laugh and laugh. He loved to have his dad play this game with him all the time. By the time he was three they were into the” wrestling and rolling around the floor game”. By the time Laura was a year old, and all three of them were into the “ wrestling and rolling game”. They would all be laughing so hard. Vaughn enjoyed this kind of activity with each of the children especially when they were young.
U.S. Geological Survey
In March of 1957 Vaughn left on his first field trip for the U.S. Geological Survey. He was gone for two and a half months doing magnetic surveys (ground) in the Minneapolis and Duluth areas. On July 15th he left again for just a couple of days to do some gravity surveys in Lee Vining, California. Then in August he was gone for a couple of weeks doing gravity surveys again in Nevada and Idaho. In September he spent a couple of days in Sequoia Park doing field work. He used one of the available government vehicles for the last three trips mentioned. Sometimes I would stop off at the survey and visit with him at work. I remember his showing me some of the vehicles he had to use on his field trips. I developed a warm respect for his driving abilities after seeing them. I was able to go with him on one of these trips and saw first hand how talented he was handling these monsters. They were more like tanks than trucks. They must have had 15 gears forward. Of course they were built for very rugged terrain and they looked like that’s where they’d been – a lot! They were also built to accommodate heavy drilling and coring equipment. But they were not built for comfort, either for sitting in or for driving. I found Vaughn to be a very knowledgeable driver --- something I hadn’t known. It turned out to be a very busy year for field work.
Work
Now to continue with his work narrative. 1958 was another busy year for Vaughn doing field work. He left to work in the Point Barrow, Alaska area on March 25th and was away till August 1st. He stayed over in Fairbanks for a week getting familiar with government installations and did some field work in the Brooks Range then went on to Point Barrow. The government operated a camp (Ogotoruk Creek Camp) there where a number of studies were being done. The study that Vaughn worked on was Arctic Ice and Permafrost in Alaska, it’s depth and distribution, the effects of heated buildings, lakes etc. on the permafrost and so forth. This was his first trip up north. Much of the time went slowly but he was very interested in the work and the area. He was able to visit the Eskimo village of Inupiat, which was close to Barrow. It was interesting to watch the Eskimo celebrations and dances and he was able to get some good pictures of them. He took some very outstanding pictures during the years he did work up north. He was a very talented photographer. Most of his pictures still exist in the form of slides. I hope to include some in his history. (I hope to upload them this year 2012) Vaughn left again the first week of August for work in southern Washoe Co., Nevada and then on up to northern Eureka Co., Nevada till August 22nd.
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Places and Times
One of the interesting things I found among Vaughn’s papers was a copy of a Personal Security Questionnaire that he filled out soon after he started working for the U.S. Geological Survey. It was kind of interesting because it put in a nutshell all his work experience and some of the places where he had lived up to that time. I thought that this would be a good place in his history to share that information.
Date Name of Employer Type of Work Address Reason for Leaving
1945-47 Marshall Tree Service cutting & splitting 733 San Carlos Ct Just part time
1949-50 wood, Palo Alto, work with father
Aug 55-Nov 55 trimming trees California when in school
Sep 47-Sep 48 Co-Op Grocery beginning clerk California Ave part time work
Sep 1954 Palo Alto joined navy
1948-49 U.S. Navy Airman Apprentice San Diego, Calif. Enlistment completed
1951-53 Church of Jesus Christ of missionary Salt Lake City, Utah 2 year mission
Latter Day Saints This actually was not
Employment since I
Received no money
Feb 53–Sep 53 Southern Pacific Co .Jr. Blue printer 65 Market Street returned to school San Francisco, Calif.
Sep 53 to Various part time jobs
Summer 56 while going to school,
such as;
Bi-Wise Grocery Beginning clerk Middlefield Rd. Palo Alto return to school
Willow Rd. Market Beginning clerk Willow Rd., Menlo Park same
Marshall Tree Service Palo Alto business dissolved
Feb 56 to U.S. Geological Survey Physical & Science 4 Homewood Place
Dept. of Interior Aid & Geophysicist Menlo Park, Calif.
The above was submitted in July of 1959.
I have decided that this is probably a good place to include the following information, which comes from his Personnel records at the U.S. Geological Survey and kind of continues from where the other record left off.
1956-1963 U.S. Geological Survey Physical Science Aid; Geophysicist; Branch of Theoretical Geophysics.
a) Member of Arctic Ice and Permafrost Project; Involved in the collection of thermal data and determination of pertinent physical properties of soils and rock to calculate heat flow and permafrost depth and distribution at the Barrow and Ogoturuk Creek (Cape Thompson) areas of Alaska; Additional specific questions investigated included effects on permafrost of heated buildings, lakes, lagoons, and ocean shoreline movements.
b) Other fieldwork measuring gravity and magnetic fields in Nevada, Washington, and Minnesota on short-term assignments.
c)
1963-1976 U S Geological Survey Geophysicist Geothermal Studies Project Heat Flow & Thermal Studies
a) Oceanic heat-flow investigations from Ice Island T-3 in the Artic Ocean. Three-hundred fifty-six heat flow values were obtained. The first nineteen values collected the first year, were published in 1966. These were located in an area covering the Canada Basin – Alpha Rise boundary and provided constraints for different models of this boundary. The remaining data have not yet been published.
b) Oceanic heat-flow measurements from Ice Island Arlis II in the Denmark Strait. Eleven holes showed the heat-flow distribution along ~280 km traverse. Detailed temperature measurements in the water column, especially near the bottom, provided additional data to suggest the occurrence of a “bolus” of cold water during the time of traverse.
c) GLOMAR CHALLENGER Cruise, Leg 25. Three heat-flow values between Africa and Madagascar . added to Growing bank of data for Indian Ocean heat flow. Thermal conductivities measured on the . core were from some of the deepest sub-bottom depths then tested.
d) Offshore drilling project in Beaufort Sea at Prudhoe Bay. Thermal regime studies to find permafrost boundaries and possible inferences on present shoreline movements.
1976-1978 U.S. Geological Survey Geophysicist, Pacific Artic Branch of Marine Geology. Member of Advanced Geopotential Modeling Group. Bering Sea oceanographic studies including heat-flow measurements in the
Aleutian Basin.
1978-1983 U.S. Geological Survey Geophysicist, Geothermal Studies Project. Continental heat-flow studies, primarily of the western United States and Alaska. Assignment concentrates on computer applications for data reduction, modeling and interpretation.
1984-1987 U.S. Geological Survey Geophysicist, Geothermal Studies Project. Continued same as above
Retired June 1987
Weed, California
This is probably a good place to tell the major’ car break down’ story. Toward the end of July of 1961 Vaughn was borrowed from the permafrost project to help do some field studies in eastern Washington again. This sounded interesting to him because the fellow working with Vaughn planned to take his family along and invited Vaughn to do the same. They decided to use the extra per diem to rent a small trailer for each family. This seemed like a good idea because they would be moving around quite a bit and it would save time setting up camp every time we’d move. It turned out to be an interesting summer on the whole and we had many good camping memories. I mentioned that we always had to deal with second hand cars and this was a little concern to Vaughn as he planned the trip. He tried to be very careful not to add too much weight to the trailer so that it wouldn’t be too hard on the car to pull it. All went fairly well on the way to Washington State from California. I think there were a few repairs but the car kept going all that summer. The other couple was taking a different route home so we didn’t leave together. We got as far as a place called Weed, California. It was a small town. As we drove down the main street on our way through, the car just stopped. No warning, it just stopped! With some help Vaughn got it moved to the side of the street. This was not easy with the trailer still attached. After deciding that it was something he could not fix Vaughn went looking for a garage that would fix it. There were a number of places in the town where cars were repaired but there was only one place that would do the repairs for us. They helped us move the trailer to a nearby trailer park and towed the car to their shop. We were running out of cash and needed to get on the road as soon as we could. It was a weekend and there weren’t any banks open to get cash. This was pre ATM time. This was also pre credit card time (if you can imagine a time like that). We weren’t worried at first though because, for a change, we had enough money in the bank to pay for a major repair. One phone call would establish our ability to pay. But, the bank was closed! We ended up staying in Weed for the weekend. Early Monday morning the call was made and the repairs done, enough to get us going again. Then the trip home began. I remember that I felt comforted that Vaughn would get us home. One of the things he decided was that we would not turn the engine off at all. Part of the problem with the car seemed to be electrical and he didn’t want to take a chance that it wouldn’t start again. By the time we got home it was barely running. The very next morning we drove it down to the Rambler car lot to see if they would take it in for a down payment on a new car. Vaughn couldn’t get it out of first gear all the way there. We were surprised that the dealer accepted it as our down payment. Cars weren’t as expensive in those days but the monthly payments were more than we had so Vaughn agreed that I should work “on call” at the hospital for a few months to pay it off. That was our very first new car. What a novelty.
Menlo Park, California
Vaughn continued to take classes at Stanford whenever he could working toward his Masters. He also continued to fulfill his Priesthood assignments, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints.
On August 1st 1965 our fourth baby was born. I had gone to a very good doctor who watched me very closely and we were blessed to have another sweet baby girl. We thought she looked just like an angel. Vaughn returned to T-3 in October of that year and arrived back home the day before Thanksgiving. He’d had a very full year.
In 1966 Bob Yates, one of the chiefs in the Rocky Mountain Project, asked if he could borrow Vaughn for the summer. He thought Vaughn’s heat-flow knowledge would be of great value to him. So Vaughn was “hired” to go to Washington State with Bob for the summer. The family was included because there were some campgrounds near the areas where he and Bob would be working and we could camp out as a family for the summer. Bob’s wife had planned to go with her husband also. Vaughn went on ahead in June. He was able to find a good campground and campsite for us and set up camp. He camped out by himself while I got the kids and myself ready to join him. He was there about a month alone. I think it must have been a little lonesome for him. In his letters he talked about all the hiking he was doing every day. He kept very busy till we got there. It was my first real experience camping out of a tent, and it rained and rained the first few days and nights after we arrived. We had borrowed a larger tent for the family from Vaughn’s dad but it wasn’t waterproof and everything, including us, was getting all wet. I just fell apart. Vaughn kept it all together for all of us and with his calmness and camping know how; he helped me learn to be a camper. We laughed together recalling the stories of our son blazing trails through the tall grass with the baby stroller, and our newest daughter inside squealing with delight; and how we all built a playpen for her out of the wood left in camp while she took it apart as fast as we put it together. We all stayed till September 7th and had a very memorable family summer. Vaughn solved the rain problem by going into town and buying the largest piece of plastic (for covering hay stacks) that I’d ever seen. We covered the tents and kept dry. The mud problem remained a challenge.
During these years something began happening at work that started out as a worry to Vaughn, but as time passed, it turned into a major frustration for him. He was accumulating a lot of data from his work at T-3 and it needed to be compiled into a “paper” that could be published. In government work, if you are not publishing, you’re a non- entity. Vaughn could do a certain amount of the writing and prepare the graphs, tables and etc., but Art, with his doctoral background, was responsible for the theory background. Heat-flow had been Art’s baby for a long time and would remain so. As time went on Vaughn talked to me about his feelings. He said that Art was involved in so many studies and projects that he didn’t have enough time for them all. Often the one that was connected to the “squeakiest wheel” would get attended to first. Vaughn was never a “squeaky wheel”. He always felt that, that behavior was impolite. He told me that Art would come to work and go immediately into his office, close the door, bury himself in his work and remain there all day. He said that it was so difficult to have a conference with him. This often left Vaughn looking for something ‘ to do’ at work.
Early on he found that” something”. He had been doing charts and graphs on a large plotter ‘by hand’ and then printed them out and reduced them for publication. He decided that there was a better way. At that time, (early 60’s) there was a computer in one of the rooms near his office. As I recall, he said no one was using it – no one really knew how. He determined to learn how to put it to use on his material. I don’t know very much about computers and I’m not sure the type of computer he originally worked with but ‘Tektronix’ was a name I often heard him refer to. It seemed that he was always leaning a new computer language. Two of them I recall, were Basic and Fortran. Our son, tells me that Fortran was probably the software he used to develop the programs he needed in order to produce his graphs, etc. He developed programs that not only plotted the data but also curved it. His computer knowledge suddenly made him a valuable person with the project. A number of the people there would ask him to help them work up their material on the computer.
Once when I visited him at work he took me to another building and showed me a room where the whole wall was a computer and it’s component parts. He explained that it was part of a computer system connected to a mainframe in Washington DC. He had taken a class in VAX / MAS. Our son told me that that had to do with that particular computer. It cost the project a lot of money to use. He said that he had to have a special password to get in and that the time he was allowed on it was limited. He felt good about working with the computer and that helped. However, the problem of getting the Arctic material published didn’t go away. He and Art were finally able to get some preliminary studies published in the 60’s.
My Father - John B. Kay
Vaughn always seemed to be the kind of person who was able to handle emergencies calmly. It was a natural thing for my mother to turn to him when she was notified that my father was taken very ill at work. This was in Feb of 1968. Actually he had died suddenly of a heart attack while climbing the steps in his office building. It took about an hour to drive to Southern Pacific in San Francisco so the people who notified her didn’t want to give her that news over the phone. Vaughn drove her on up and stayed with her during that painful time. I followed as soon as I was able to find someone to care for the children. My mother was so devastated with the news. She told me later how much help Vaughn was while she worked through the painful decisions that had to be made so quickly. We invited her to live with us at that time but she wasn’t quite ready to give up her independence.
Jump to Top
Cupertino, California
Before my father’s death we had been looking around for a larger home but after his death we began looking in earnest. Our lovely home in Sunnyvale had gotten too small. Mother didn’t want to move from her home at that time but she indicated that it might not be too long before she might want to take us up on our offer. For that reason she became vitally interested in the area and the home we would choose. We decided on a large home in the San Jose area. Mother didn’t feel good at all about that. She felt that the neighborhood would go down in value. We were concerned about that too, but it was all we could afford for a home that size. She offered to help us with the down payment so that we could buy a similar home in a much better neighborhood. She felt that it was an investment in her future as well as ours. Vaughn kept an open mind to her offer. As it all turned out it was the best decision that could have been made. The San Jose area did decrease in value while the area in Cupertino, where we bought our home, greatly increased in value over the years. In fact, that increase made it possible for us to buy a comfortable home in Washington where we moved and enabled Vaughn to retire early from the survey.
We bought our home in Cupertino in late 1968, and we lived in that home for nineteen years where we shared many growing experiences. The lot we chose was a very large one for a city lot, with about two-thirds of it making up the back yard. It was a wonderful place for someone who loved to grow things, and Vaughn loved to grow things. He enjoyed planting all kinds of things, but especially enjoyed planting things that he could harvest. He enjoyed growing fruit trees the most. He had a special feeling about trees; I often accused him of talking to them. This is one of the short poems he wrote about them:
I look out to see the plants against the sky
Reflected brilliantly as the wind blows by
No worries over the philosophies of men
Nor what is right, nor what they ‘ken’
A tree grows without regard to reason
Their one concern, ‘What is the season?’
He learned how to grow trees, spray them, prune them, thin the fruit and generally keep them healthy. It gave him so much satisfaction to watch the fruit mature and ripen. When the time was right he gathered the family together and we all picked the fruit. He really enjoyed seeing all the bottles of fruit we put up. Canning fruit was not ever my favorite thing to do but I learned how to do it because I knew how much joy it gave him. I found myself growing and learning and doing something the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints encouraged us to do because of Vaughn.
We had been in our new home a few months when I became pregnant with the twins. We were both excited to know that we were expecting twins but I was so ill during that pregnancy that I don’t remember much of it. Vaughn pretty much held things together during that time. He assigned a lot of the work to the older children. When it came time to deliver the babies Vaughn was able to be with me through the whole labor and delivery. With all the other babies he had been directed to a waiting room when I was taken into the delivery room. The hospitals ‘in those days’ were still primitive in their approach to the father’s participation in the birth process. Vaughn said that he didn’t really know if he wanted to see a birth, but he felt that he had “ missed out” on the special feelings of closeness that come while watching the birth of his children. So we were both happy to share the experience this last time. Guess what? We had two more beautiful girls .
Vaughn was only in the field for one week that year. That same year his dad retired and he and Elaine put together a retirement party in our nice big back yard. He had borrowed tables from our Church and everything was set up really nice. Many people attended --- it turned out to be a big success.
Letter
I received a very special letter from Vaughn in 1970. He was on the ice island and it was our seventeenth wedding anniversary. I decided to go ahead and include a portion of it because it contained a sentiment that he had expressed to me a number of times throughout our married years. I wondered if I should share it because it was special. I finally decided to go ahead and include it because it shows how grateful he was to his Heavenly Father for answering one of his special prayers. I quote:
“ I want to thank you for the last seventeen years. They have been and are very dear to me. I know I’ve told you this before but I want to say it again. When I was a teenager and full of the expectations and frustrations of youth, I used to wonder what kind of a girl I would eventually marry. Of course I wanted her to be pretty and attractive – to me especially, but the thing I really used to pray for was that she would love me. You have shown me your love in so many ways and have brought so much happiness in my life, that I know my prayers were answered.”
I kept that letter in my wallet for so long that it almost fell apart – it meant so much to me. He had said that to me a number of times and despite the fact that I was quite a bit less than a perfect wife, I am so grateful that he felt his prayer had been answered. He repeated that same thing to me throughout the years. The last time I remember his repeating it was about a month before he died.
Different Tests
Sometimes the field of work and study (geology) that Vaughn had chosen would invoke a negative response from some people in our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). I was not as aware of the critical remarks he would hear, probably because I never felt there was a conflict between what the Gospel taught and what was really scientifically true. I just thought that the Lord would make it all clear someday. But Vaughn dealt with the reality of crustal formations that occurred over long periods of time (evolution) on a daily basis. He always believed that the scriptures held the truth, but he felt that there was still much to be reveled in the Lord’s due time. In the meantime he explained to our children the difference between “evolution” and “Darwin’s Theory” of evolution (which he did not accept). He didn’t say too much about the subject at church because some members really got excited about it. But he was very disturbed one time when our teenage children told him that their seminary teacher at church, taught them that the world was created in 6000 years. They said the teacher told them this was what the Prophets of the Church taught and there was no room to think anything else. The seminary teacher at that time was also the Stake President so that lent extra strength to what he said. Vaughn told me that he went to the President to talk to him about the subject. He told me that as he began to explain his position, the President became very angry and refused to continue the conversation. Later, during a Priesthood Meeting, the President, who was in our ward, brought the subject up and questioned Vaughn’s testimony and knowledge of the scriptures in front of all that were at the meeting. The situation embarrassed and hurt Vaughn a great deal. I relate this story for a special reason. These kinds of things happen to all of us. They are painful and hard to get over. I was disturbed at the way the President reacted in this situation, but he was a good person and was trying to do what he felt was right. It took me a while to come to that viewpoint however. I think it took a lot of spiritual strength for Vaughn to get beyond the feelings he had also. But he continued to support that brother as the Stake President
I’ll relate another experience here only because the lesson learned was important and may help one of our family members someday. This particular trial happened to both of us. One of our teen aged daughters was going through a difficult time. We didn’t understand why but she had become very depressed. She would do things to hurt herself and we were very afraid that she was suicidal. It happened that our new home teacher was a child psychologist. Vaughn and I were very private people and had difficulty sharing any family problems with anyone. The Bishop had been encouraging members to utilize their home teachers more when they needed help. We had been seeking help from the Lord but still did not understand what to do. So we went to our home teacher for help. What could we do? How should we do it? We felt a little desperate. He saw our daughter once and gave us a booklet about tough love, and said that was all he could do. Wasn’t there some advice? Anything? But there wasn’t. We never did understand why he couldn’t, or wouldn’t help . He never inquired how things were going or asked about our daughter. We felt hurt and uncared for. Years later we decided that perhaps he was having his own problems and wasn’t able to help. Anyway, we were left feeling there was nowhere to turn--- no one to turn to except the Lord. We prayed together and we prayed alone. We prayed a lot. Gradually, I think Heavenly Father answered each of us in our own way. The answers came slowly and to each of us the way we would understand best. The lesson we learned was that sometimes, the only place we can turn is to the Lord. There is no one and nothing else that will help—only the Lord. We have to put all our faith in Him. We learned that some answers don’t come overnight. We learned a big lesson about faith and I think that’s what Vaughn wants his children and grandchildren to know.
Accident
1973—Another eventful year. For a few years we had been camping for a week or so for our summer vacations. Very often Vaughn’s folks would camp out with us and gramps always brought ‘the boat’. All of the Murray’s (who is Vaughn’s sister Elaine, husband Tom Murray and their six children) enjoyed water skiing and often they would join us on vacation too. So it was natural for our family members to try skiing also. Vaughn became very good at it. I might add here that Vaughn was a good athlete. He had good coordination and really enjoyed most sports. (By the way, gramps was not a slouch either—at 65 he had learned to water ski). Anyway, Vaughn had been skiing on one ski going in and out of the wake pretty fast and suddenly he went down. He said it happened so quickly that he didn’t remember how or what happened. Apparently the rope must have encircled the small finger on his right hand and tore it off completely. He said he didn’t realize what had happened until he surfaced and looked at his hand. Gramps brought him right back to shore and we took him to the nearest emergency room. It was in a very small town and the only doctor on call did his best. It really should have been trimmed better---there was so little skin and no fatty material. The skin was just stretched over the exposed bone in hopes that it would heal. That type of repair can be very painful and it was. Losing a finger may not seem a terrible lose but it was quite traumatic for Vaughn. Probably because it was so uncomfortable for so long, and it seemed to affect all the muscles in his right hand. It took a long time for the whole hand to heal. Because it was his right hand it was very difficult to do all the things he always did with his right hand.
Mission – Primary – Divorces – Parents –Prudhoe - Birthday
Something very special happened that year also. Our son, was called on his mission to the Virginia, North Carolina area. It meant a great deal to Vaughn to see his son leaving for his mission. He knew that it was something our son wanted to do, not because he thought he should for us, but to please his Heavenly Father.
About 1974 I was asked to help as Primary President. Vaughn supported me fully in my calling even though I let it take a lot of time away from my family responsibilities. He could see my weakness and was very patient while I struggled with it. This calling came just at the time when Vaughn especially needed my support and help. He had been gradually slipping into a severe depression. Neither one of us knew how severe it was becoming. (I’ll return to that in a minute.) “Life” just kept happening. He was feeling more frustration at work and his trips to T-3, with the isolation, were harder to take. His mother had, had heart bypass surgery in 1973. That was when bypass surgery was still new and recovery took much longer. She began to lean heavily on Vaughn because his dad seemed to be having memory problems. (We found out later that he had Alzheimers’) This caused friction between his parents and he would find himself in the middle helping them to work things out. It was quite a stress to him.
Some shocking things happened to some of our closest acquaintances in our Ward (with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), a few of the most active couples, those having leadership callings, were getting divorces. It was deeply disturbing to both of us. It just seemed to happen overnight, no warning. It made us stop and take a long serious look at our marriage. We were concerned that we had been taking each other for granted and wouldn't realize it till too late. We both prayed hard that it wouldn't happen to us and our prayers were answered.
In 1975 Vaughn and Elaine (his sister) joined forces with their families to give their parents a wonderful 50th wedding anniversary. It was held in the Palo Alto, CA LDS Church building. It turned out very nice. Vaughn had taken some of their older pictures and had them blown up poster size and put them around the hall. He wrote up and presented a special program all about their lives. He made their stories so fun and interesting. That was my first exposure to his writing talent.
In January of that year - 1975 - he was given an interesting assignment at work. He had been one of those invited to attend a meeting with the working group on Offshore Permafrost Studies. The purpose at that time was to “examine the problems posed by permafrost to the development of petroleum resources on the Artic Continental Shelf.” The end of the invitation stated that “Marshall has been Lachenbruch’s colleague for the past several years and is responsible for the field aspects and logistics of permafrost research.” So he found himself on board ship again, doing offshore geothermal measurements in deep-sea drill holes at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, all during the months of April and May of 1976. He was able to help write up reports on their findings.
1976 was the year our son returned from his mission and married his sweetheart. He had met her through the mail. She wrote him as a missionary project and they fell in love writing letters back and forth. What a thrill for Vaughn to be one of the witnesses at their sealing in the Oakland Temple.
That year the family all got together for Vaughn’s 46th birthday. Each person wrote a short note about him. The notes are fun and add another interesting view into his personality. The notes follow:
From Nana (his mom)
Vaughn’s idea for getting the ducks in a shed out of danger of a killing, hungry, prowling animal was not to wear the family out trying to guide them up into the door, but by using his imagination he snapped his fingers and skillfully spread his own wings and legs, duck like, which not only made them feel more comfortable but recognized authority.
From Gramps (his dad)
Once upon a time there was a young man who had just graduated from high school and was vacationing in Utah. While fishing he lost hid graduation present, a watch that his parents had given him. We were about half-mile down stream so we walked up the stream and found the watch. Lived happily ever after.
From Yvonne (his wife)
I think he is a very patient person --especially when I was learning how to budget money. He has wonderful leadership ability, is a loving father and the very best husband in the world. He’ll eat anything – he had to learn to do that many years ago when I was trying to learn to cook. He doesn’t even complain when there aren’t any cookies. He just goes around looking in cupboards and cookie jars and looking wishful.
From his son-23 yrs. old
1. He bought me a bike instead of a diving mask.
2. He took me fishing in Gramps’ old boat when we were camping. We didn’t get anything. The black guys in the camp next to us got a lot of catfish.
From our son's wife- 23 yrs. old
He always finds something to say to make me feel good when I’m down or upset – he’s very encouraging and loving.
From his oldest daughter-19 yrs. old
When I think of dad I think of the powerful Captain Kirk.
From his second daughter –17 yrs. old
Once upon a time there was a handsome young man whose name was Vaughn. And by some coincidence he met a lovely young lady whose name was Yvonne. Now these two decided, after careful thought and prayer, that they would get married because they loved each other.
Years went by and before they knew it, they were surrounded by kids, who off and on drove them up the wall. But there was one particular kid, we won’t mention any names, who was just too much. You never knew what this kid would do next. Sometimes ________ was pretty bright, and other times ________ was pretty dumb. At times this kid did crazy things and then again ______ did something right. But right now this kid is trying to tell her dad how much she appreciates him and the work he does. She wants to express her gratitude for teaching her how to laugh and how to love. This person doesn’t know what she would do without her wise father’s patience.
From his third daughter –11 yrs. old
He keeps everybody laughing and he helps you with your problems.
From his fourth daughter-7 yrs. old
I like it when daddy reads stories to me on Sunday. I like what he got me for Christmas.
From his fifth daughter –7 yrs. old
Daddy is funny at the dinner table. Sometimes he teases me.
Jump to TopI Go Back To Work
For some time Vaughn had been trying to make his salary stretch to cover all the expenses of our home and family until it just wouldn't do it any longer. He hadn’t said too much to me about the constant struggle so when he told me, that all he could figure out was to have me work two days a week, I was surprised. I could see that his request was painful to him, like, somehow he had failed. I think it was even more difficult for him when he saw how disappointed I was. I hadn’t done any nursing for 17 years by then and the idea really frightened me. I wondered about whether I should work too because the Prophets had encouraged mothers to stay at home. I bring this up because I was shown at that time that I needed to help my husband by doing as he asked. I knew the depression was getting worse. So I tried but wasn’t able to get a job. No one wanted to hire me. I prayed and finally completely turned it over to the Lord and learned a lesson. He made a miracle! He put it into my mind where to go and I was hired. The nurse who interviewed me said she didn’t know why, but she was impressed that she should hire me despite my lack of recent experience. I worked the evening shift so that either Vaughn or I would be at home with the kids all the time. I put the girls in charge of dinners. They really did a pretty good job cooking. During those years I think Vaughn developed a special rapore with the girls; I heard stories about dinnertime “fun and games” with mom away. Our fourth daughter described it well. She writes: “When we were still young my mother had to return to work. She worked late shifts which left the dinner making and kitchen cleaning up to us. It was a chore – but those Friday nights at the diner table with dad got pretty silly many times! We’d giggle, laugh and joke around until dad would finally say, “OK, that’s enough! We need to behave at the dinner table!!” You see, the funny thing about this memory is that I believe that he was the one that started it!”
Depression
Now to return to the depression Vaughn was battling. The symptoms were getting worse. He was so fatigued; unable to sleep and unable to concentrate. He had developed a very negative self-image. He dreaded social situations and church callings .He decided it was time to see a doctor. His doctor sent him to a psychiatrist who prescribed a number of different antidepressants. None of them helped; in fact they seemed to make his symptoms worse. Years later we found out why and I’ll explain that later in his history. It frightened us both so he stopped taking all the medication. It helped a little to stop them but the depression was still plaguing him. He prayed a lot about it but he confided to me that when he prayed he didn’t feel like anyone was listening. This added to the depression. He had asked me not to talk about the problem to family or friends and so I did not. It was difficult to do because some people, both at work and at church, mistook his desire for isolation as just having a bad attitude. He kept trying to overcome the depression by concentrating on thinking in a positive way and doing positive things. One of the things he decided to do was to write a novel. He began with poetry and then started on his novel. It was a wonderful help for him to be able to look forward each day to making his mystery story as interesting as possible. He was able to keep his mind lifted from the depression for long periods of time as he planned and wrote his novel.
Mother’s Move
Toward the end of 1977 my mother (Mary Ingham Kay) decided it was time to make the move to our home. She hired a contractor (Mr. Smith) a friend in our church, to add some living area onto our house for her Mr. Smith came up with some very good plans and it increased the size and comfort of the house a lot. Mother sold her home in Menlo Park,CA and used quite a bit of that money to finance the addition on our home. It involved a lot of time and work. We knew that it would, but more time and work was required from us than we had expected. About half way into the job, Mr. Smith fell off of the roof of his house while working on it. He had been trying to remodel his house at the same time he was working on ours. He had been doing a lot of the work himself, probably to keep expenses down, and had been working long and hard on both houses and I think was quite tired. He fractured his right arm and elbow very badly and was not able to use it for months. We felt very bad for him but the situation added a great deal more stress to Vaughn’s already heavy load. The job was already way behind schedule and mother was with us, but very cramped in one of the girl’s rooms. Mr. Smith would come over and try to continue the building with one arm but of course it was slow going and there were many things he simply could not do without help. He tried not to ask Vaughn to help but it was obvious that if the job was to be completed he needed Vaughn’s help. It appeared that he had run out the funds that mother had paid him and couldn’t afford to hire help. For a number of weeks then, Vaughn would come home from work, and with Bro. Smith’s directions, helped finish the construction on the house. Mother moved into her new living quarters in July 1978. She seemed to really enjoy being there.
Mother and Vaughn had something special in common. They both loved to plant things. Vaughn used to love to go to the nursery and just browse for hours. It was one of the things he enjoyed most. He always liked having company because it was fun to share ideas. I was usually the one to go with him and probably got bored far too quickly. But when mother came to live with us she would often find a reason to go to the nursery and invite Vaughn to go with her. She loved “treating “ him to all kinds of plants. It was fun watching the enjoyment they both got out their excursions to the nursery.
Life Keeps Happening
By this time our son and daughter-in-law had first baby, a baby boy. After much hard work, our oldest daughter graduated with her degree in Special Education from Brigham Young University in Utah. And our second daughter (third child) had been there also and came home again to work for a while. As I mentioned earlier, life just kept happening. Then it seemed like it began to happen even faster. Our second daughter went back to Utah again, and while she was there got back together with her boyfriend and decided to be married. They wanted a Christmas wedding so she came home a few weeks early to help with the preparations. We had the wedding and reception in our home. It was packed with both families. They had decided to live in Sun Valley, Idaho. Vaughn and I found it very hard to think of her so far away; it was hard not knowing how long it would be before we saw her again.
Summary of 1981
That was Christmas of 1980. In April of 1981 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. In July of 1981 mother was diagnosed with cancer. In September of 1981 our second daughter had her first baby. In October of 1981 our oldest daughter (who graduated from BYU) was married, and mother died. In the spring of 1982 one of our daughters was struggling with a severe depression. In the summer of 1983 the doctor found a large tumor growing in her leg. In December of 1983 Vaughn’s dad died and his mother came to live with us. Towards the end of 1984 we became foster parents to our daughters friend. Many major things had happened in just a few years. I’ll touch a little on each of these things as they touched Vaughn’s life.
Multiple Sclerosis
The M.S. I was diagnosed with appeared rather suddenly and progressed rapidly. Within a few days I was in the hospital and unable to walk. My symptoms were varied and quite debilitating and I was very frightened. Before I went into the emergency room and was diagnosed, I had asked Vaughn for a blessing. At that time neither of us knew what my illness was. The blessing was very profound. It was the reason that I was able to maintain good health to this point in my life. Vaughn gave me a blessing, using the power of the Priesthood, that I would completely recover from the illness I had. He said that it would take time, but that I would recover completely. I was down for three months, sometimes hardly able to respond, but I KNEW I was going to be well. For a while it was very difficult to sleep and almost nightly I would ask Vaughn for a blessing. It was the only thing that made me feel calm. I will be forever grateful that he honored his priesthood and was willing to share its blessings with me. I know this was a hard time for him. He had to be mother and father to the kids and doctor to me and continue to fight his depression.
Cancer
Just as I was recovering, mother was diagnosed with cancer. She had surgery and radiation therapy. For about a month after the radiation it looked pretty good and then it spread so rapidly. By August we all knew her time was limited. I took another leave of absence from work to help care for her. It would have been very hard to do if Vaughn had not been willing to help also. He told me that he found himself doing things for her that he never thought he could ever do for anyone. She often told me how thoughtful he was and how grateful she was to him. He had a much more tender nature than I. Towards the end of September our second daughter’s baby girl was born, and she asked if I could be there. The doctor was able to place mother in the hospital for the week I was there. I was not very cheerful while I was at our daughter, and that was sad for her. She had a sweet baby girl but I kept wondering how mother was.
Just about the time we learned about mother, our oldest daughter became engaged. They planned to be married just before Christmas but then moved the date up to October hoping mother would make it. She almost did. ----
Vaughn wrote:
Mary Kay has passed away
It was not sweet,
There was no thrill
Nor was it ever pleasurable.
With soft warm feet
Regardless how she did entreat.
And she is dead, she could not stay
Her lovely skin became all yellowed
She aged ten years
each day she stayed
And though we prayed
and wiped our tears
prompted not by any fears
but only sympathy for death unhallowed.
Some say that on that day
They’ll kick and scream
And fiercely fight
So all within their sight
Shall change their theme
And hold in admirable esteem,
that fools.
The Reaper is not held at bay
The Reaper never comes to play
Today he left with Mary Kay
Mary Kay has passed away
She did not hesitate to leave
The choice, she made,
Then why the pain!
She passed away about a week and a half before our first daughters wedding.
Home Teacher
Once again Vaughn experienced the joy of being a witness as he watched his oldest daughter marry her husband in the Oakland Temple. It was a lovely sealing and a beautiful reception. Just a word here about why it was such a beautiful reception. There was a sister in our ward that had an outstanding reputation as a decorator and earned her money doing that. Vaughn had been her home teacher for quite a while and she thought so much of him. This was the reason. Her husband was not a member but Vaughn made an effort to always extend his friendship to them both. She appreciated that Vaughn just always accepted him for who he was and did not try to push religion on him as others had done. She said her husband felt comfortable with Vaughn and liked having him come to the house for that reason. Vaughn was always a really good and faithful home teacher. He just never missed seeing his families and he always had something to share with them. This seemed like a good place to mention that patient, caring quality, which he had. It was simply the way Vaughn was. Anyway, this sister knew mother was dying and that we hadn’t even had a chance to think about a reception. She told Vaughn not to think about it. She was going to take care of it all and she did. To this day I have no idea what it may have cost her but the cultural hall was absolutely gorgeous. There were plants and flowers everywhere. There was a real waterfall built in the center of the hall. The whole thing was like a beautiful garden. It was more than we could have ever done on our own.
Jump to TopTUMOR
About July of 1983 I took our fourth daughter to see the doctor because her knee kept hurting so much. X-Rays showed a massive tumor growing inside the large bone of her upper left leg. She had an emergency arteriogram which showed a very large blood supply feeding the tumor. It was not a good sign. She was put on crutches right away and surgery was scheduled. The doctor had made arrangements with a surgeon who specialized in amputations to be available and we were told of his concern that the tumor was malignant. Vaughn gave her a special priesthood blessing.
The doctor found that the tumor was benign and he managed to remove it all. That in itself was a miracle because the tumor had eaten away at the bone so much that it was now eggshell thin. The doctor told us that the type of tumor he found was not only benign but was a type that would be the least likely to recur. (Exactly as Vaughn said in the blessing.) Apparently, many benign tumors have a tendency to recur. There was a great danger that the least pressure would cause what was left of the bone to fracture and then the bone could not be repaired. So our daughter spent more months on crutches while she waited for the second surgery. The bone had to heal before the doctor could operate to fill the hollow area of the bone with a special plastic. Then she spent a few more months on crutches. Vaughn and I always felt that Heavenly Father gave us and Diane a miracle.
DAD
During this time Vaughn’s dad(William Elias Marshall) wasn’t feeling well at all. Understanding what the problem was became complicated because it had become very obvious that he had Alzheimer’s. He was confused a lot and didn’t want to see a doctor. Bill’s confusion also caused problems between he and Vaughn’s mom. It was often necessary for Vaughn to help them overcome their hurt feelings with each other. We all encouraged Bill to see a doctor and he finally did. The doctor placed him in the hospital “for tests” without a positive diagnosis but he let us know that he probably had cancer and didn’t have long to live. That was a kind thing of the doctor to do because the insurance would not have covered the expense otherwise. It was a difficult time for Vaughn again, saying good by to his father and accepting full responsibility for his mom now. Bill passed away in December of 1983.
MOM'S MOVE AND DECISIONS
Vaughn’s mother moved into our home a couple of weeks before his dad passed away. Now began a time that Vaughn had to make many important decisions. Just when he thought he might have time to finish his novel, he needed to spend a great deal of time planning and making some decisions that would affect both our future and his mother’s future. My mother had left us a little money when she passed away and Vaughn recognized that it was important to invest it safely someplace where it would increase in value. It looked as though he might be able to retire a little early. He hoped to’ make it’ for four more years, the time the twins would graduate from high school. He began to study the market in earnest and also pray so that he could make wise decisions. I felt that he was being guided by our Heavenly as he made these decisions. It seemed to us that the Lord had certainly blessed us financially. By the time his dad passed away, Vaughn was beginning to feel more comfortable about the investing decisions he’d made. He suggested to his mother that it might be better if she were to sell her rental property and home and invest the money. The investment would earn her a better yearly income than the property and it would relieve him of the physical work of keeping the property in good repair. She agreed that, that was a good idea. Vaughn spent many hours trying to get the property ready to sell. It was very tiring and stressful for him. He did many repairs and the rest of the family helped with painting and cleaning. There was a great deal that needed to be done to the yards. Vaughn spent a lot of time planning the landscaping. We all helped with one thing or another but Vaughn did the major part of the work. He put in some new cement walkways and then put in new plants and groundcover. The yards really looked lovely when he finished. The property sold very quickly then when he placed it on the market.
OUR DAUGHTER'S FRIEND
That brings us to the end of 1984 and well into 1985. Our two youngest daughters had a friend who had recently moved into our ward. She was living with her father and as a new convert needed a lot of support. We found out that there was drug dealing going on in the apartment with her dad and his girlfriend. She spent a lot of time with the girls and we really hated to see her go back to that environment each day. The girls asked if she could stay with us. Vaughn and I discussed the situation and felt we could offer our home if we could be covered legally. We asked her father if he had any objections to our becoming her foster parents. He was very glad to have us take over so that’s what we did. She stayed with us until she turned 18 and then wanted to be on her own. During the time she lived with us Vaughn introduced the routine of reading scriptures every night at the dinner table. She was hardly able to read when we started this, but by the time she left she was doing pretty well. She said that, that was the way she learned to read.
ONE OF OUR DAUGHTERS
During 1985 one of our daughters was having some difficulties in her marriage and asked if Vaughn could come to Salt Lake, where they were living, and bring she and child to our home for a while. He flew there and helped her pack and drove her back in her car. In the meantime her husband packed all their furniture and arranged for a friend to transport it to our house. Her husband was terribly upset and depressed about her leaving. Later he came to our house too and they worked things out. During all that time Vaughn was a loving father and such a great support to our daughter. When they decided to go, he helped them pack again (furniture and all) and get safely there.
FURNITURE
Just a word or too about furniture. As I’ve looked at some of my own notes, it has brought to my mind how physically draining this period must have been for Vaughn. First, doing so much work on his mother’s property, and then all the furniture moving that he did. I’m referring to all the furniture involved each time someone stayed with us. It kind of went like this. When mother came to live with us her furniture had to be put in storage because her area wasn’t finished. So Vaughn, with some of the family helping, did that. Then he moved her furniture from there to her new room when it was finished. There was a lot that didn’t have a place to go for a while, so it went in the garage. When our son left for Washington State to start working for Boeing, Vaughn moved his wife and their boys into our house and their furniture into the garage. When our oldest daughter and her husband graduated from college, Vaughn moved her and their two little ones into our house and their furniture into the garage while Bob went to Washington State to find a job and a place to live. Just before that he had moved all of his mother’s furniture into our house and garage when she came to live with us. As people would come and go some furniture would remain behind in our garage. In fact our garage became the permanent residence of a great deal of furniture. Then the furniture moving for our daughte mentioned above. For a while we even had to store furniture on the back patio because the garage was so full. It seemed like Vaughn was always moving furniture somewhere. Then came the big move when we moved to Washington State. The furniture was moved by van but had to be stored in the rental house we had and the garage there and a storage facility that we rented. When we bought our home in Washington, Vaughn moved it again to the new home from our rental house and the storage shed. He helped our fourth daughter and her husband move into our home and then into their apartment when they returned to Washington from New York. Our oldest daughter and her husband moved during that time also into a different apartment (upstairs) and later to Salt Lake. That time Vaughn finally injured his shoulder helping with furniture.
LAST YEARS AT THE SURVEY
While all these things were going on Vaughn was still doing some fieldwork for the Survey. He wasn’t going up north anymore but he was going out mainly for short trips to Nevada, California and Oregon. I found something he had written which expressed the way he felt during those last years working at the Survey. I found it in a binder where he kept all his poetry and writings that he thought were important. It is sad to read, but I include it as an example of his strength.
“I’ve come to replace you.
He said it with many actions, though not really with words.
Younger than I by more than twenty years.
Single without kids. He had just himself and his own career to occupy his time and energy.
(I noted that especially as I inwardly resented his presence.)
He’d been put in a position parallel to mine in several ways,
and situations that I thought I could walk into, he did instead.
He was better (more recently) schooled than I.
My responsibilities had changed over the last few years and I needed to keep learning and adapting.
It was challenging, but a family man and with six children, my time was divided.
Those demands were great and important too.
It was apparent also that I could be replaced with new, fresh, unattached young men, quicker (faster) than I could absorb new information and skills.
When we worked together he just took charge with an air that suggested he was always in control of things and knew everything that was important.
His self-confidence overflowed.
Our supervisors seemed to help set up my subservient role;
” It would help me get familiar with new procedures,” they said.
I couldn’t argue with them even if I was of that nature because the logic leading to their directives was good.
Also it was true; I was not as valuable to them as he.
It was easy to be hurt, thinking of the many years of service I’d given –
The many times I’d frozen my butt and back and hands and whatever, gathering field data for them (mostly).
As I said though, we’re going a different direction now.
What was done yesterday, was for yesterday.
What counts today is being done now.
Well, that makes sense, and I know I must produce more too.
It’s just that, well, other things are different as well.
I seem to be more tired; it’s harder to concentrate anywhere; and as the children have gotten older some of their problems are more complicated.
Balancing the budget is a juggling act each month; tax increases and inflation more than equal any raise in pay I get.
I tell myself that even so my budget is in better shape than the federal government?
Of course my wife has had to go to work to help with college costs and other debts.
He doesn’t have these distractions. He just paid cash for a new car.
I suppose it sounds as if I don’t like him.
There are things about him I like, and I try to not be resentful.
He never had to go into the military, nor did he give any of his time for service to others.
All of his time has been devoted to himself. The product is efficient, partly likeable and self-centered.
I used to see various tack and harnesses for the horses in my grandfather’s barn.
They were beginning to be out of date when I saw them years ago.
They were very useful in their day – they were not discarded over night either. But they’re not used today.
I feel very much like that horse harness.
Do you know the feeling?
If you were never a horse harness then you don’t really know --------
Like I said, I’m being replaced.”
In my opinion it took a great deal of strength to overcome his sad feelings and always be “ there” for his family. He was always the Patriarch; the strength we needed. He was there for me and for all his children through many difficult times. He was a special father figure and example to his son-in-laws also.
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GOOD-BYE CUPERTINO
We come to late 1986 and early 1987 now. Vaughn was preparing to retire in June 1987. He had done his homework and with all the information he had collected it seemed that the best place for us to retire was in Washington State .We had made trips up there for a few years on our vacations. Our son and his wife were living there and would show us all around the area. Our oldest daughter and her husband had moved there in 1986 so we looked forward to having some family there. It looked as though our money would go much farther there than in California also.
Getting the house ready to sell and choosing the right realtor was a big deal. I know that Vaughn was lead by the Spirit as so many big and little decisions were made. He always made sure that I was with him in all these decisions. It seemed that he had thought of so many things that I had not. I don’t remember his ever making a decision that I was opposed to. It took some work to get the house in the condition that the realtor suggested, but when we finally put it on the market it sold in the first weekend. We were certainly blessed. Then the packing began in earnest. Needless to say, lots of things were given away and thrown away but there was so much to pack. Vaughn hired a moving company to get our things to Washington and we needed to pack everything in boxes. If it didn’t run on wheels, it was packed in a box. Everyone was busy packing. They all had their assignments.
Our fourth daughter and her boyfriend (then) had become serious about marriage by that time. Her boyfriend(then) spent a lot of time at our house which Vaughn and I encouraged. We felt it was better for them to stick around since they saw so much of each other. He was ok with that. I think one of the reasons he was, was because Vaughn tried to make him feel comfortable about being in our home. He often invited her boyfriend to read scriptures with us too. They decided to be married in October, which meant that they would miss each other for a while because our daughter was moving to Washington with us in June.
Our third daughter was planning to go on a mission (for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) We were all excited when she received her mission call to Ecuador. She was so excited about the call. She had the extra challenge to pack for her mission and then pack the rest for us to take to Washington and store for her.
The last few weeks before we moved were so busy and stressful. In about a week and a half our two youngest daughters graduated from high school, and had their graduation party. Our fourth daughter gave her vocal recital. Our Third daughter had her missionary open house, and gave her farewell talk. Vaughn made a trip to Washington to look for a rental home for us. And we packed and packed! The last few days we hardly slept at all because we were so busy trying to get all the boxes packed before the van arrived. I remember worrying about Vaughn because he needed to sleep so that he could drive and he wasn’t getting enough sleep. Our son and his wife flew down to help and to drive a car that our her dad had given them back up north. Our son and third daughter took turns driving one of our cars up north. In two days we arrived in Marysville, Washington and had the vans unload as much as possible in the rental home and the rest in a storage shed we rented. Vaughn’s mother had stayed with Elaine(Vaughn’s sister) during our preparations and trip. She arrived in Marysville a couple of days after we got there. Then we sent our daughter off to the mission home in Provo, Utah.
SETTLING IN
Vaughn and I were both very tired. Vaughn had, had the heaviest part of the moving burden. The rental house we were living in had wall-to-wall furniture, people and animals. It was hard to find a private place anywhere. We both felt pressured to find a home to buy as fast as we could. It took longer than we thought it would, but when we found the right home we knew that we had been blest again. It was such a perfect place to live. We found it just before our fourth daughter’s wedding but couldn’t move in until November. Once again Vaughn was a witness as his fourth daughter was married to her husband, in the Seattle Temple in October of 1997. Many people, family and friends from California, came up for the wedding. Vaughn began to feel like he was living at the airport. Our daughter and her new husband moved to New York where his dad had a job for him. Then came the job of settling into our new home. Our fifth daughter was so lonesome. Her last sister had left and all her friends were in California. We felt so sad for her. She became active in our new ward and got a job at the Stillaguamish Health Club and took classes at college. She was trying hard to adjust. One of her friends from our old ward was having problems with her family and needed a place to live. She hadn’t finished high school and wanted to finish up here and stay with our daughter. We said yes and that helped her a little. She tried hard to make it work but as soon as she had saved enough money to buy a car she decided to go back to California and work. By that time her friend, had graduated and gone back to be with her mom. In the meantime Vaughn was working so hard on our new home and yard. The previous owner had taken out many trees and left the property looking pretty barren. Vaughn landscaped a whole new yard. He planted lots of shrubs, trees, berries and flowers. It was a lot of work but resulted in a beautiful place. Then he built shelves all across the back of the garage and in the well house. It was so good to have some shelves to store things.
WORKING IN THE TEMPLE
AND OUR DAUGHTER GOING ON A MISSION
We were very excited to be asked to do volunteer work in the Temple in 1988 or as we say in the church, we were "called" to help, to serve. We worked one evening a week. We did that until late in1990. It had become very difficult to leave Vaughn’s mother. Because of her age, it disturbed her a lot when we were gone. We had someone stay with her but she became very uncomfortable with our absence anyway. By March of that year (1989) she took a turn staying with Elaine for a while. Just after she left our fourth daughter and her new husband arrived from New York (the job hadn’t worked out), and stayed with us while they found jobs and a place to rent. That same March of 1989, our third daughter was released from her mission and we made plans to go to Ecuador to bring her back. Vaughn had carefully planned the cost of the trip and thought it might be our only opportunity to take a trip out of the country together. As it turned out, it was. This occurred before our fifth daughter left for California, so she was invited to come with us.
It was a really interesting experience; some of it good, some of it stressful. The end result was the appreciation we felt for what our daughter did and was willing to do for the people in Ecuador. Also the good feelings we had for these kind people who had so little in worldly goods but were willing to give much. Last of all, we became much more aware of how many blessings we have in this country. Vaughn was most impressed with our daughters command of the Spanish language and her ability to deal with the taxi drivers (and others). The taxi drivers left an “impression” with him also; they’re driving was just a little crazy. He enjoyed seeing the ancient ruins very much. The trip to the ruins was a challenge all the way there and all the way back in a taxi. We had a flat tire first and later got stuck in the mud. The driver had to finally turn around and find another route. That made us late and we came back in the dark on very bad roads. Vaughn enjoyed meeting our daughter’s companions and the people she taught. He remembered her especially standing in a circle visiting with her companions on a street corner in Quito – this tall blond girl surrounded by shorter dark haired young men and women all laughing and conversing in Spanish. He especially enjoyed the Amazon boat and jungle trip we went on there. He said it was so interesting. The excursions we made from the boat into different areas of the jungle each day were so different from what he’d seen before. He was always interested in many different types of plants and animals, even those lines of big ants that were carrying leaves to build with were interesting to him. And I think he really enjoyed our day at the Otovalan Indian Market. That particular tribe of Indians were so interesting. Later, our daughter introduced us to a missionary sister who was an Otovalan Indian. She was a lovely girl.
THE GIRLS LEAVE
Shortly after we returned home our third daughter flew to Utah to attend college and our youngest daughter left for California. The car our youngest daughter had bought was in very bad condition. Vaughn had tried to talk her out of buying it but her heart was set on that particular car. He didn’t feel safe having her drive it all the way to California alone so he suggested we follow her and make sure she arrived safely. While our third daughter was in Utah she met her husband to be. That following summer she went to stay with our youngest daughter in California to find work and earn some money before returning to school. Her future husband became very lonesome for her and went to see her and proposed. They planned their marriage for school break time in December. That turned out to be an eventful time because a young man, (who was to become our youngest daughters husband), came up for the wedding and proposed to her at that time. I remember Vaughn being impressed that this young man asked him for his youngest daughter’s hand first. So again, Vaughn was witness in the Seattle Temple as our third daughter and her husband were sealed in December of 1990. Then in May of 1991 he was witness in the Oakland Temple as our youngest daughter and her new husband were married.
ROCKS AND PAIN
The years we had been living in Washington were good in many ways. Vaughn enjoyed not having to go into work every day. He enjoyed working in the yard very much, even though the work was physically hard. Sometimes he would pull himself away from all the work around the property and we would go “exploring”. Vaughn enjoyed just driving up and around the old timber trails (dirt roads), to see where they would go. He enjoyed looking for outcroppings where he could find some interesting rocks to collect. Even though he was a geologist he hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to explore for rocks up to that time. The area of Washington where we lived seemed to lend itself to that adventure. In the following years he managed to accumulate a really nice collection of rocks and gemstones. He invested in some equipment and learned to cut and polish stones. He also took a silversmith class. He did some beautiful work. He set many of the stones he made and gave them away as gifts. He introduced me to the world of “rock and gemstone” shows and we enjoyed going to as many shows in our area as we could. When we traveled to see our children Vaughn would always make it a point to go to the rock shops near them or find an area to explore where he could look for another interesting rock. He would often treat his grandchildren to a special rock. When we traveled by car Vaughn would point out all the interesting geological features of the area we were traveling through. He had numerous topographical maps – in fact he had maps of all descriptions. In those early years he also enjoyed our visits with our son, his wife and their boys. They would go shooting or make trips to Anacortes or Deception Pass or someplace like that. In the later years he was often too tired to enjoy those trips.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints in Arlington, WA
“ARLINGTON WARD”
The new ward we moved into was not very large and there were many inactive families. There were also many needy members. Vaughn was often asked to help in one way or another to help. Much of the help involved cutting and splitting wood or helping to repair a roof or part of a house or working in someone’s yard. I worried about his working so hard. I think it was late 1989 that we had a scary experience involving his health.
PAIN
We were returning from a visit at our sons place when Vaughn started having severe pain between his shoulder blades. It became so severe that he pulled the car over and asked me to drive. My driving always made him nervous so I knew he must really be in trouble. He got in the back of the car and said the pain was so severe that he couldn't move and it hurt to breath. I was going to take him to the emergency room—I was really frightened. Before I could get to a freeway exit the pain began to get better and he told me to just keep driving home. The episode scared us both and it didn't take much persuasion to get him to go see the doctor and have his heart checked. The doctor did blood work, an EKG and sent him to have a stress test done. All the results appeared to be normal so the doctor told him that it was probably an anxiety attack. He was given lots of advice about handling stress etc. He didn’t really mind the diagnosis but felt a little embarrassed that we thought he might have had a heart problem. I was a little confused but didn’t want to think that he might have a heart condition so we both accepted the anxiety explanation. He continued to have the pains in his back every so often but none were as severe as that first one in the car. He continued to try to find ways to handle stress better believing that he was still having anxiety attacks.
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A BLESSING - AND A.D.D.
Then in late 1991 our second daughter came to visit with us for a while. She had been in the hospital and had been treated for a severe depression. When she was released she just wanted to come here to relax for a while. We felt badly that she had to have that experience, but the information she shared with us was a wonderful blessing. The psychiatrist she talked with told her that he thought she had Attention Deficit Disorder. She said that the doctor mentioned that often other members of the family might also have ADD. We had no idea what it was but thought we ought to find out whatever we could. We found a book about it and started reading. Vaughn said it was like reading about himself. It was such a blessing because at last there was an explanation for his lack of concentration, depression and fatigue and many other things. He thought it might even be responsible for the anxiety attacks. At last it had a name and it had a treatment----there was hope where there had been none. Adult ADD was not well recognized at that time. We were insured with Group Health and luckily they were doing studies on Adult ADD. Vaughn was assigned a psychologist who counseled with him for a few weeks and then recommended that he be medicated. The medication helped him enormously. He told me that at last he could focus on something and the depression and fatigue were lifted. He also understood now why the medication given to him years ago caused such problems. It was the wrong kind of medication for ADD, and in fact, only aggravated the depression. Vaughn kept feeling that it was such a blessing to have a diagnosis and to be helped with the correct medication.
As time went on he found that there was a great deal more to ADD than he thought at first. In a nutshell, Vaughn learned that the medication did not cure the whole problem. It definitely helped a lot and made it possible for him to “carry on”. He learned that there were some feelings that ADD people develop over the years that are very hard to overcome. These attitudes usually develop as a result of “growing up” with ADD. In Vaughn’s case he was highly intelligent and always got good grades but in spite of that, he had developed a very low self-esteem and often had strong feelings of depression. According to the ADD literature this often happens because the brain misinterprets or is confused by what is taking place, or being said, and the result is that the individual feels “ stupid” --- on the “outside of things”. This often carries over to relationships with people and can encourage the negative feelings a person has about himself or herself. For most of his life he had been able to mask those feelings but the older he got, the more difficult it became. This whole process is not anyone’s fault. It’s simply one of the things that happen when there’s a biological problem in the way the brain functions. I know these things happened to Vaughn because he talked to me about them. I also know that he would want me to share this part of his personal history if in any way it might help one of his children or grandchildren. One of the particularly annoying things that he had to deal with was something called” ruminating”. (We didn’t know that it had a name at the time.) He talked to me many times about it and tried so hard to break or stop the cycle. It has only been recently that I have read more on the subject and found that this is one of the major problems that ADD people are plagued with.
Quotes
I’m going to quote from the material I read for a special reason which I’ll explain in a moment. (This is taken from “Driven To Distraction”)
“ One patient’s description: ‘ The minute I have my mind cleared of one problem, I go out and look for another. They are usually really stupid things like an unpaid bill or something someone has said to me two days before. But I brood over them until they ruin my whole mood.’ “
This tendency to organize around worry is common to many people from time to time but in the ADD person it is often very persistent and almost compulsive. Generally the individual doesn’t know why they’re doing it. One explanation for this ruminative, often extremely painful style of thinking, has to do with what we call the startle response in ADD. It is a sequence of events that goes as follows:
1. Something “startles” the brain. It may be a transition, like waking up, or going from one appointment to the next, or it may be the completion of a task, or it may be, and usually is, trivial, but the “startle” requires some reorganization on the part of the brain.
2. A minipanic ensues. The mind doesn’t know where to look or what to do. It has been focused on one thing and is now being asked to change sets. This is very disorganizing. So the mind reaches out for something red-hot, something to focus on. Since worry is so “hot” and therefore so organizing, the mind finds something to worry about.
3. Anxious rumination replaces panic. While anxious rumination is painful, it is at least organized. A person can play something over and over in their mind like, ”Will I get my taxes paid on time?” or “Why did I do that yesterday?” or “What did that look she gave me really mean?” The panic induced by the startle is replaced by the focused ache of anxious rumination.
The whole point of the sequence is to avoid chaos. No one likes chaos, but most people can endure milliseconds, or even seconds, of it as they go from one task to another, one state to another, one stimulus to another. The ADD mind often cannot. Instead, it fixates on worry and gets organized—or stuck---around it.”
(The article went on to suggest ways to break the cycle or sidetrack it altogether.)
Now it may sound like I’m trying to write a paper on ADD but I’m really not. I’ve included the previous information because when I read it, it was like a ‘light bulb’ suddenly turned on in my brain. You know the feeling; I understood something about Vaughn in a way that I had not before. Vaughn wrote a vivid description of this ruminating cycle in his novel. It was written before either of us knew anything about ADD. He took one of his characters, Doc Jennings, and made him go through the whole process. Vaughn knew how to write about the experience because he had gone through it so many times. He understood it well. When I first read his novel I didn’t pick up on what he had written. I thought it was just part of telling who Doc Jennings was. But I understand better now what Vaughn was really relating. He was sharing his own painful experience. So, for those in the family that are interested, I’m going to include what he wrote. For those who are not interested, just skip this part and go on with his history. (But you’ll miss a good piece of writing.) The scene opens on a group of men visiting and playing cards in the mess hall. Doc Jennings is seated by himself.
“Doc Jennings’ mind was somewhere else.
Jennings’ eyes were riveted to page one hundred sixteen of the book he intended to use as a reference in his next lecture series. He had not turned the page during the last ten minutes. At least seven or eight times he had tried to absorb the first paragraph.
He tightly closed and then opened his eyes, and shook his head in an effort to redirect his thoughts where he wanted. Concentrating again on the first paragraph, he forcefully read and emphasized each word to hammer home their meaning. The second sentence - - - then the third. He envisioned a similar scene with Mills relaxed against a wall, reading Doc’s journal, chuckling and smiling to himself, and extracting each word as if it were meant for him. In a general sense, Doc knew the picture was accurate; it was of no consequence if the details were not - - - -
Mills sat down and wrote a letter to Jennings’ wife outlining Doc’s failures as a husband. He wrote about how he did not care for her as much as his own career and had no love for their children - - - -
Next he wrote to the university to expose the Doc’s incompetency and explain that Jennings was no longer able to do marine biology studies because he had lost the power to think! HE was outdated! He added other items which were not true but believable - - - and he revealed an affair Jennings had years ago with a woman in Fairbanks - - - - an affair Mills could not possibly know of - - -
‘THERE ARE SECRETS YOU ARE HIDING. PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW.’
It is nonsense, thought Jennings. Mills did not do these vile things; he only read my mail and then made some false and foolish charges! (This had happened earlier in the novel.) HE couldn’t have read my journal. Why do I expand on him this way? Sure, I hate the weird stuff he pulls, but the guy is probably more sick than dangerous.
Reasoning did not squelch the hatred.
The guy also may have the addresses of my children from letters.
The Mills of his mind talked to him. “Doc, you know I don’t have to send these letters. If we were to have some understanding and an adequate price. I’m a very sympathetic and reasonable man.”
Doc imagined this too, as he stared at the book. Crystal’s not the place he will attempt that, maybe later. He knew what was happening. HE knew that his difficulties predated Mills; that although Mills multiplied the confusion he had not precipitated the problem. Mills, however, was capable of everything Doc pictured him doing, and more.
He knew that also - - - -
The play continued to unfold with scenes he had created and witnessed countless times before. He mixed a barrel of fantasy with a cup of fact without fooling himself in the least. The same as Mills? No, I’m hurting only myself, reasoned Jennings; I’m not spreading lies. But I’m feeding on hate - - - and I don’t know why.
I know this, when the curtain is raised the flood begins, and I can’t resist the flow. I have to endure it until it runs its course and my emotions are exhausted - - - then I can relax and have some peace.”
As I mentioned, Vaughn found that there was more to ADD. One of the other things he discovered was that it seldom occurred alone. In his case he was diagnosed as having a sleep disorder also. It was harder treating that; a lot of the treatment involved learning to handle stress differently than he had, especially in the evenings. As time went on it was more difficult for him to enjoy himself in large social situations. It was exhausting for him because his brain would register all the activities going on around him without filtering out any of the unnecessary information. Some people misunderstood this as a desire to not be a ‘part of things’. It took me a long time to understand how ADD affected him. But Vaughn felt it was a good thing that he knew what the problem was. He shared his diagnosis with all his children and I think it was a great help to most of them also.
Group Leader in the Church
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
In 1992 he was “called” asked to be High Priest Group Leader. This was a position that he enjoyed a lot. There was always a lot of work involved of course. It seemed that there was always a service project he was working on or someone that needed some help. Sometimes it would get a little burdensome but he was always ready for the next assignment. It meant a great deal to him when a brother would come to him in need of uplifting or counseling. I know he felt very close to his Father in Heaven as he received inspiration in helping those brothers.
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Heart
It was about this time that Vaughn had another bad episode with the pain between his shoulder blades. He had continued to have the back pain every so often but never as severely as the first time. He kept treating these pains as anxiety attacks. I worried about it though and I think he did also even though he did not like to discuss it. However, he decided he would talk seriously to his new doctor about his heart again. His new doctor ran all kinds of blood work and did an EKG and gave him a pretty good physical. He did not order any stress tests this time though, because he said he could not find a reason to think there was a heart problem. Again, Vaughn felt embarrassed and frustrated that what he thought was a heart problem, was not. From that time on I had the feeling that our time together here was a special blessing to us. I felt that Heavenly Father was extending to Vaughn a little extra time to be here. I remember often thanking God in my prayers for that extra time. I never spoke to Vaughn about my feeling but I had a sense that he felt that way too.
Vaughn’s Mom
In 1995 a difficult decision had to be made about Vaughn’s mother. I haven’t written too much about all the things that were happening with her as yet so I’ll try to fill in a little here. Shortly after we moved into our new home in Washington she began to have some major health problems. The move away from California had been hard for her and as her arthritis became more painful she became increasingly more unhappy. She depended heavily on attention from Vaughn. Vaughn loved his mother and was always very sweet to her, which she needed a lot. Her needs however far exceeded the time he had available. He tried to introduce various activities to her but, probably due to her age, she didn’t want to do any of them. She was often quite negative. I don’t say this to be critical, but only to explain why that was so difficult for Vaughn. As I mentioned earlier, the medication he was taking helped the depression he had, but he found that he also had to work hard along with the medication to keep the depression at bay. He found from experience, that the time he spent in company with negative people and situations was very draining on him, so he tried to limit that exposure as much as he was able to. He often felt guilty about not spending more time with his mother. However he made time to take walks with her or to read to her and sometimes to play a game with her. Her mental health began to deteriorate more rapidly after she almost died and had to have major surgery for a bleeding ulcer. As time went on it became increasingly harder for her to understand what was going on around her. Still, Vaughn tried to spent time visiting with her or taking her for a ride or something. By 1994 she had to have someone with her most of the time. We hired nurses aids for a few hours each day and that helped. But the time finally came that she lost track of reality. She would often be angry with Vaughn. Sometimes she thought he was her husband, (Vaughn’s dad). She would say some very hurtful things to him. She became very paranoid and often hallucinated. It was difficult to know what to do because sometimes she would be very lucid also. Vaughn finally made the decision to have her cared for in a nursing home. It was a hard decision because he knew that she had always dreaded that.
Health
Vaughn’s health was worrying me more and more now. He often had me check his pulse which would be very irregular. It was a worry to me because he knew when his pulse was not good. His heart would feel “not right”. Once in a while I would suggest he see the doctor about it again. He hesitated because he thought the doctor would say it was just anxiety again. He began to lose weight and was often exhausted. It was a type of exhaustion that was very different from the fatigue he had felt with the ADD.
Computer
For a number of years Vaughn had encouraged me to learn something about the computer. I never really wanted to until I got serious about doing genealogy again. I realized that in order to share information I needed to put it on the computer so at last I needed to learn about it. I was dumber than dumb about computers when he started to teach me. I think I drove him crazy with all my questions. And I kept trying to learn at the same time he needed to use the one and only computer we had. He decided that I needed my own computer and that was a very good decision. Due to his patience I got past my fear of the computer. Wisely though, I got a very good, easy, simple, book on Windows 95 and began to learn how to use the computer. I still had questions from time to time and Vaughn patiently helped me out. I need to use the computer quite a bit now. If Vaughn hadn’t encouraged me to learn about it I would not be blessed to be able to use it now and go forward with my genealogy.
Reunion
One of the things Vaughn had wanted to do for a long time was to attend one of the Marshall reunions in Utah. It seemed like every year something kept us from doing that. Finally in July of 1997 we made it. Vaughn had called ahead and talked to his uncle, John Marshall. Johnny was so glad to hear that we were coming at last. Vaughn enjoyed this trip very much. We drove and tried to not make it a rushed trip. We stayed at our youngest daughters place for a few days. We were able to go to the temple with them and spent some time at the Family History Center before we left. We drove to Huntington Canyon and after some searching found the Marshalls. It was interesting for Vaughn to see this whole area of Utah again. He hadn’t been back to visit his “roots” since he’d been in high school. We stayed with Johnnie in Price for a few days while Vaughn was able to visit with some of his mother’s family also. We spent a number of hours copying the Marshall genealogy on a copy machine one day. His aunt Lea had loaned us her information. We returned home in time to work at the temple for a special twenty-four hour marathon. We stayed on duty for the whole twenty-four hours. We both were very tired for days after that.
That July turned out to be a very busy time because the following week our third daughter came for a visit. Then our youngest daughter and her husband arrived. Then our son, his wife and their boys came up to be with everyone. Our fourth daughter and her husband joined in also. Vaughn enjoyed seeing everyone but he was very tired. It was so good that they were all able to come for a visit at that time though.
Too Hard
Vaughn continued to work, probably too hard, in the yard. When I mentioned the work being too hard it would annoy him, so most of the time I didn’t say too much. In a way the work outside was a help because he really enjoyed it. There was just too much of it. He was looking so pale and still losing weight and decided to go back to the doctor again. He mentioned the irregular pulse but didn’t dwell on the back pain he was still having. His blood work indicated that he had a low hematecrit (not enough red blood cells), so the doctor did some tests to see if he was bleeding anywhere or had leukemia. All the tests came back negative. He was advised to increase his iron intake, which he did, but it didn’t make a lot of difference. I remember feeling so frustrated that the doctor was not being more aggressive especially because Vaughn was not a “ pushy” person. He didn’t want to “tell the doctor how to do his work.”
In January of 1998 I began to feel that I should ask for a release as president of Relief Society. I felt more and more that it would be a relief to Vaughn to have me less involved in so many things. There were other considerations that made me feel that also. When I went in prayer to Heavenly Father and asked. I received a strong answer that it was time to be released. That finally occurred in March. In the meantime it was getting to be a very eventful year. Our grandson (our son’s son) had been getting ready for his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He received his call to San Salvador the last of February. Our oldest daughter and her husband came up the following week for his farewell talk
The Car
We had been making plans to drive to Utah in April when our youngest daughters baby was due but found that the Blazer (car) wouldn’t make the trip very well. It was time for a new car. Vaughn and I did a lot of research this time before we went out looking. As a result, Vaughn found just what he wanted for the right price the first hour we were out. It turned out to be the same day we were planning to go to Maple Valley. Our son wanted his dad(Vaughn) to be there when he (Our Son) ordained his son to the office of Elder in the priesthood. (And of course Vaughn wanted to be there too) The salesman managed to get it all cleared for us so that we drove it there just in time.
About this time Vaughn ordered a new computer. It had all sorts of good stuff in it and he was really looking forward to using it. He spent a lot of time that year though trying to get it to work properly. It was one of the greatest frustrations for him all that year. The company he ordered it from never did respond to any of his calls, e-mails or letters so he ended up having to figure out the problems himself and try to repair them. He would get one thing working and something else would quit. He had to replace the power unit and CD Rom. There were other things that needed fixing too – don’t remember how many. After I inherited it I found out that the hard drive had been bad all along too. Anyway, it was a major frustration for him.
Trips
We left for Utah April 7th 1998, and stayed with our second daughter that first night. We had a good visit with them and arrived at our youngest daughters place the next day. That was the day grandson was to report to the mission home and we were all able to go with him. We listened to the talks and sang with the missionaries and then it was time to say good-by. It was hard for us all but Vaughn was especially touched. When he hugged our grandson he held tight and couldn’t keep the tears back. That was the only time I saw him so emotional with one of his grandchildren. I remember wondering at the time if Vaughn knew it might be a final good-by, but then I pushed the thought away. It turned out to be a last good-by though. Our grandson says he knows that grandpa has been with him many times since then.
Vaughn spent some time the next few days in the Family History Center and then on Easter Sunday our youngest daughter’s third child, was born. While we stayed at her place to help, Vaughn was able to spend some more time at the History Center. He had a strange experience one late afternoon before he returned to our daughters place. He had gone across the street to a restaurant to get a bite to eat. He said while he was there a young black woman came up to him and asked if he could give her a ride home. She said that she had been watching him and thought he would help her out. He said it startled him and he wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t know her and was a little concerned that she might have a friend in the background that would cause him a problem. He wasn’t sure what her intentions really were. Normally he said he would be more cautious but he seemed to feel that he should help her. So off they went. When they got to the correct address, she asked him if he would wait while she got some of her things and then, would he take her to the place she really needed to be? Again, he was concerned that he might be putting himself in some danger but was prompted to help her. He drove her to her final destination and dropped her off there. He said she seemed very grateful and said good-by. When he related this story to me he wondered why it had happened. He said it was strange but it seemed something he was supposed to do. He wondered if he would ever find out why. He never did. I’m not sure why I feel I should relate this story except that for Vaughn it was a spiritual experience and I just feel like I’m supposed to include it in his history.
We stayed at our youngest daughters place for the baby’s blessing because she wanted her dad to be a part of it. Then we left a few days later and spent some time with our second daughter’s family. Vaughn enjoyed some rock hunting while we were there and enjoyed having his granddaughter (their daughter) come along with us.
We arrived back home in time to get ready for a special day of honor that the nursing home gave for Vaughn’s mother. Elaine Marshall Murray and Tom Murray came up for it. And some of the grandkids and their children, it was a nice gathering.
Iowa
Our third daughter had a baby, girl on the 28th of May and we left for Iowa the middle of June to be with her for a while. That was an interesting trip for Vaughn. Our daughter tried to take us to as many places as she could because we hadn’t seen that area before. Vaughn enjoyed rock hunting again. He also had a very interesting time at the Muscatine library where he found information on one of the lines he had been trying to research. It wasn’t until later that I realized how important the information was that he had found. Our daughter and her husband had arranged to have the baby blessed while we were there so that Vaughn could be a part of that too. This was a trip that Vaughn enjoyed very much in spite of the heat. When we left he felt comfortable that our daughter was happy and safe.
Home
At home I continued to be concerned about Vaughn. For some time I had noticed that he had difficulty breathing when going up the stairs. He was having more problems trying to sleep and was often very irritable. It was plain that he was getting more tired. Sometimes he was so tired he just couldn’t eat and that was happening too often. He made an appointment to see the doctor again but that wouldn’t happen until November. In late September he had a very difficult night. He began sweating profusely. I was asleep and he didn’t tell me about it till the next morning. I encouraged him to see the doctor soon and not wait till November. He kind of said he’d think about it. In my prayers I began thanking My Father in Heaven for each day He gave us together.
We began working at our Family History Center on Friday afternoons. Vaughn was very interested in helping out with genealogy and he was so good with computers. The last couple of months we worked in the temple together, he would let me take turns driving so that he would be less tired at the temple. I was grateful that he let me do that but I knew that he had to be really tired in order to be able to let me do that.
Vaughn began working hard on the Church finances. He had always kept them up to date but he seemed to be putting in a lot of extra time to get them “in order”. He told me that he didn’t want to be rushed when the bishop needed them for tithing settlement in December. I remember that just before Thanksgiving he was so pleased that he had gotten everything in order and he could relax a bit about them. When the new financial clerk was asked to work after Vaughn was gone, he made the comment to me that he hadn’t had to do much of anything before tithing settlement because Vaughn had done it all. He said it was as if Vaughn was getting ready to turn the job over to someone else. He asked me if I didn’t think that Vaughn knew that He wouldn’t be here?
That Thanksgiving was a busy time again at our home. Elaine Marshall Murray (Vaughn’s sister) and Tom Murray had come up to visit their son and wife and their children. And they all came over for Thanksgiving and brought a friend. Our son, his wife, their son, and our fourth daughter, her husband and their girls were here also. It was a busy noisy time. Vaughn and I took Elaine and Tom to the History Center on Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving. All the family continued to stay pretty much at our house visiting. I remember it as being a noisy, busy time. Sometime later (I don’t remember how long) I wrote a description of my memory of the evening of November 28th--- the evening that Vaughn died. It’s in my computer and on a floppy disk for anyone who wants to read it. I don’t want to include it here. I’ll just mention that Vaughn had another very severe attack of pain in his back and died of a massive heart attack. Although the paramedics were able to get his heart beating with medication, his spirit had left and he was gone. They took him to the hospital where the doctor confirmed that he was gone and told us that when the medication wore off his heart would stop again. The attack involved the whole anterior portion of his heart.
I know that the Lord did not take him before his time. I also know, that he is busy doing the Lord’s work. I know that he has been allowed to continue to help different members of his family also. They have all shared stories with me. He remained faithful to the end of his time here and I know he remains faithful yet to all that the Lord calls him to do.
EPILOGUE
Some thoughts from his family:
My father was not just a good man, he was a great man. He was not just a good father, he was a great father. I could never feel ungrateful to my Heavenly Father because I know just how blessed I was to have him as my father. I hope that I can live my life half as well as he lived his.
My father --- a wonderful energetic person--- lots of fun and teasing. My father was a big part of my life. An example to me. He taught me by example to stick through the thick and thin. An example of love, kindness and yes on occasion patience, for me! He was so much and is so much. I will keep his special spirit within my heart. I love my father.
My dad – One of the most wonderful men in the world! Dad is a thinker, a peacemaker, the man that keeps things in order. He is understanding and caring of other’s needs. I wouldn’t wish for another man to be my father. I could go forever about all his good traits.
Dear Dad, This letter is long past due. I’ve wanted to tell you for quite some time now how much I love you. I have warm and happy memories of my childhood because of you. I have a father that would laugh and play. We enjoyed a few good walks in the mountains together. You have so much energy and love for the outdoors. I loved the different gardens you’ve had. There is a list of things you’ve done that I admire but mostly I have to thank you for never ever making me feel bad about the mistakes I’ve made. You’re gone now and I’m going to miss you a lot. I’m so proud and grateful that you were my father. Thank you for your patience.
I was always Vaughn’s favorite daughter-in-law. The fact that I was his only daughter-in-law gave me the honor by default. When I was pregnant with Vaughn’s first grandchild, he always introduced my stomach as his first grandson. Being the dutiful daughter-in-law I am, I not only blessed him with an heir to the Marshall name but a spare. I could talk with Vaughn, usually easier than with my own father. He and his wisdom helped me through many difficult times. He was one of the most Christlike men I have ever met. Miss you Vaughn!
Growing up we had wonderful vacations with uncle Vaughn. He was always fun to be with; kind and loving. He was and is one of my heroes. We used to love to hear his tales of living on the ice and enjoyed the spectacular pictures he would share with us.
Thinking of uncle Vaughn brings a feeling of happiness. From memories of camping and water-skiing to backyard Easter egg hunts. I have great memories of sitting around the kitchen table peeling his wonderful peaches, laughing and eating as many peaches as we peeled. Mostly I remember his kindness, listening ear and patience. I will never forget what a great example he set being a loving to his mother.
In Memory
The light of kindness glowed in his eye,
Laughter and love graced his smile,
His warmth brings a vision of days gone by,
With cheerful hugs for a child,
Rich feelings of a joyful home,
His presence was always a happy place,
And when on my mind his memory roams,
Comfort shines from his face,
Adventure was his soul’s delight,
Nature was always his friend,
Overflowing with zest for life,
With love his arms still extend.
If the worth of a person is measured by how he is remembered when he is gone then Vaughn is surely one of the richest of men.
All information contained on the genealogy pages which were written by myself and my family may be copied for personal use. Any other use is strictly prohibited. Those pages where contents were written by others and used with their permission on this web site remain the property of the author. Permission to use those pages must be received by the author.
Web Site: Marshall-Kay Family, Created October 23, 2006
Page Title: bv.marshsalls.histPage Created:March 25, 2012
Revised: April 19, 2012