EMA VEE RANSOM HATHAWAY

Taken from her Journal

I guess my life story should begin at the beginning. Of course, I can't remember much--only some of the things that I've been told during my later years.

It seems that I picked a bad time of the year to come-December 21-first day of winter. The ground was pretty well covered with snow already-even the fence posts. Dad had kept the horses harnessed and ready for use for about a week as they knew that they would have to go after the doctor, and sure enough-the doctor couldn't get off the highway with his car, so Dad had to meet him. Mom said she thought those few hours dragged and she was beginning to wonder if they would ever get there. But they did. My doctor was Doctor W. W. Beck, and the nurse was one of our neighbors, Mrs. Sadie Mower.

Being the seventh of a family, my two brothers and four sisters were pretty happy to have a newcomer, so I was appreciated, I guess. My brothers and sisters are as follows: Wendell (the oldest), Elma, Laurel, Willa, Donna, and James-then, of course-me-the seventh.

When I was about eleven months old I took a daring chance and tried my luck of being on my own. That was the first time I learned to walk. You'll see more times as the story continues.

When I had spent nearly two years getting used to this new life, we moved in to town (Blackfoot) and I had the privilege of attending nursery school, where Mama worked.

We were only in town about a year when Dad decided to try his luck on a farm again, so we moved back to the farm. It was located on the Truchot Road, about nine miles from Blackfoot and about one-half mile from the place where I was born. We had three rooms and no electricity, so we used kerosene and gasoline lamps and, of course, coal stoves. That was quite a cold winter, too, but I didn't think we had quite enough to put up with, so I got chicken pox along with everything else. To keep me warm, Mama made me a bed on chairs by the kitchen stove.

This was the year that my older brothers and sisters started bringing germs to me from school, and Donna, James and I each had our turn at measles in the spring.

That was only one of my turns at the bed, as mumps and scarlet fever both caught me during this same year. Thus passed three years of my life, but all the bad times didn't go with it. During my fourth year I had my try at pneumonia. Don't ever want to try it again as it made me pretty sick and we had to keep a hot fire both day and night. I don't know how many nights the folks sat up with me, but I can faintly remember them staying up some of the time.

After that I guess I let the folks have a rest as I'd had most of the childhood diseases and for the next year about all that bothered me was slight colds and sniffles, but, as the saying goes, "No rest for the wicked and the righteous don't need it", I put my folks back to worrying. On about the twentieth of May in my sixth year of life, I came down with rheumatic fever. James had it then, too, and we were both in bed for about two months. The infection went to both of our hearts, leaving me with a heart leak. James had what was called a heart block, so his heart slowed down when mine beat faster, and he was able to get up and play before I was. In the middle of August, though, the good news came to me, too, and I had the doctor's permission to learn to walk again.. I had my tonsils out at that same time and was pretty excited-I didn't know it was going to hurt-because I got to stay with Aunt Georgia the night before and the night after.

Even though I turned six years old the next winter, I was not allowed to go to school because my birthday came after October. Anyway, I guess I was still pretty weak and had to keep pretty quiet. I wasn't allowed to run nor climb stairs for a long time, but I was still little enough to be carried up the stairs. Finally the big day came in the fall of 1939, and I spent my first day in school. That day I learned to print 'yellow' and 'red' and 'blue'.

My teacher's name was Mrs. Grimes. I got along pretty good, though, and took turns trading places with about three other kids in the class as we were seated according to grades, and we happened to be the top four. So went my first year at school.

My second grade teacher was Mrs. Cobbley, but I can't remember of much happening during that year, except that we started learning arithmetic and penmanship instead of printing.

During my third year of school quite a bit happened. I had a teacher named Mrs. Smith, and she always seemed quite grouchy and used to put scotch tape over our mouths when we talked. I had my mouth covered once that I can remember.

School wasn't the only place that had excitement though. I had too many interests at home. On December the eighteenth a new addition came to our family. At first we all thought it was a girl and were happy as could be. Then we found out that it was a boy and I was pretty disappointed and thought the doctor had switched babies on us. When I got to know him, my mind changed and I didn't think boys were so bad after all. Anyway-not baby brothers, at least not mine.

That also was the year that one of my neighbor's little boys called me his girl fiend and brought apples to me every day. I always took the apples, but I never did care for him. Sure got teased about it by everyone on the bus besides at home.

As I was now getting to know the drudgery of school, another happy day ended my third year. I think I was about just as happy when the first day of the fourth grade came around. Mrs. Grimes caught up to us and saw me through another year of hard times and good times. In the fall of 1943 I was greeted at the fifth grade door by Mrs. Denting. She was real nice, but of course there are times when a person can't stand the teacher. I was pretty lucky and only went half the year, so I didn't get to know her as I did most of the teachers. I don't know if it was all luck, though, because I'd rather have had to put up with school drudgery than bed drudgery.

On January 7, 1944, we were all ready for school, but the bus couldn't make it around because of the snow. We'd only been to school four days after the Christmas holidays when that had to happen. I had a leg ache and could hardly move anyway, but I didn't say much until I was supposed to get up and help with the dishes, and that seemed like a pretty good excuse, but that was one time that a poor excuse wasn't better than none, because that excuse put me in bed with rheumatic fever again. This time I didn't get up with only two months, but had to be friends with the bed for nearly four months. I was pretty sick that time, and once the doctor told Mama that if I pulled through it would be next-thing to a miracle. Miracles do happen, though, and with the aid of sulpha drug and the will of the Lord, I was allowed a few more years of mortality. I couldn't go back to school-not even the last day-because I was too weak and hadn't learned to walk very good yet. Also I had to have about two mid-day naps every day, but if I was careful I could maybe go back to school next fall. I was just about as anxious as a five year old waiting for the first day of school.

It finally came and I expected to be put back in the fifth grade, but, because the doctors said I wasn't supposed to climb stairs I went to the sixth because it was downstairs. This is the year that I made the school patrol and got to tell others what not to do-not to run up and down the stairs, which reminds me of the time when I did. Even though I had my badge on and knew I could have it taken away, I started to run up stairs, but fell just as Mr. Olsen, the principal, came down. He just laughed and said, "See what happens", but I learned my lesson then. I was just ready to be made Lieutenant on the patrol when our family moved, so I just made 1^st Sergeant, which was next to highest, and I got my honorable discharge.

Springfield, Idaho, turned out to be our new home. I hated to leave Blackfoot and the friends of my first six years at Central School, but I learned that people were willing to be friends wherever one is. We lived on M. G. Lloyd's farm, and he lived just across the driveway. He had a daughter in the sixth grade, too, so I had someone to go to school with the first day in Springfield. With Miss Atwood teaching, I finished my last six weeks of my sixth grade. It was really pretty hard for me there as I was used to having one grade going on at a time, and with three grades in one room, that was impossible and I had to learn to concentrate on myself instead of what was going on in the other side of the room. That was a pretty trying year to me, but I managed to get through it.

Mrs. Chandler helped us through the seventh grade-happy times as well as sad. This is the first year I ever even thought of playing hooky, but we did. We had it planned on a class basis because if the whole class left we wouldn't have to make up the work. The boys turned chicken at the last minute and left us girls to play hooky by ourselves, so we had to make up work. We planned many things that year and really enjoyed ourselves with peanut showers on the teachers and other parties.

Mrs. Christensen saw us through the eighth grade. That was a big time for my age group in Springfield. Again I missed out on a few weeks of an exciting year with rheumatic fever. Not so much this time, though, as it happened about the same time as harvest vacation. This attack put me in the hospital taking penicillin shots-and they hurt-but once again I could learn to walk and was back to school, even though I couldn't do many of the things my friends did. Excitement still came to me.

that was the year that we had to take state tests to see if we could graduate, and there was sure a bunch of disappointed kids when all but two of us flunked at least one. Our faces brightened, though, when we were told we could have another chance. We made it that time and were proud graduates of the Springfield Grade School.

My folks moved to Aberdeen about seven weeks before school was out, so I lived with the M. G. Lloyd family to finish my eighth grade in Springfield. This made it possible for Arlene and I to study together, so we nearly always got about the same grades-even in the state tests, but we didn't cheat. A happy graduating night caught me leaving Springfield and starting out to make more new friends. This wasn't quite as bad as leaving Blackfoot seemed to be because I knew I would be with these kids through high school.

Though most of my summer vacations from school was spent on the farm, usually thinning or hoeing beets, this is the one summer that I can remember. Dad had planted about thirteen acres of beets and there was just Mama and I do thin them, as the other kids had left home. Wendell was there, only he had to irrigate. Elma and Laurel were both married and Willa and Donna were working in Pocatello.. James was working for the neighbors for the wages he could make. Well, Mama and I grinned and went through the beets-first thinning, then started right over them hoeing. We started the day after my eighth grade graduation, and stuck to it every day but Sunday, until we finished hoeing the last row on July 9^th. We didn't even try to hoe them the second time, as we thought we should have some rest.

With the end of summer came another exciting time-a try at high school. We were pretty proud little freshmen-the biggest class Aberdeen High School had ever had. Registration day was new to most of us as we didn't know what to take, but found out that our schedules were pretty well filled up with required subjects. The subjects I took were algebra under Mr. Rock, general science under Mr. Leston, "coach", home economics, Miss Toevs, study hall and band, Mrs. Dirks and Mr. Davis. Study hall was substitute in place of sports because of my heart trouble, and English under Mrs. Arms, principal of A. H. S. Here again we had good times along with hard work, and times that could have been left out, but it's mostly the good times that are the ones we remember.

On about December 28 of my freshman year I saw an ad on the bulletin board saying that Mrs. Lee Pratt needed some help with her three-month old baby, as she had a broken arm. I didn't know them from anyone else, but I applied and was hired. My first job away from home. I had worked a day now and again for my neighbors since I moved to Aberdeen, but this was still something new. It kept me away from home and I was earning some of my own money. I made $1.50 on school days and Sunday and $3.00 on Saturday, and it was for about a month. This is when and where I got over my bashfulness and learned to meet many people, as Doris was always having friends in and I had to meet them. Also I learned quite a few things that I hope stays with me in later life-things about taking care of babies and keeping house. It seemed good to get home again, though, and have some my time to myself.

Daddy didn't raise any beets this year so I was going to have a summer of leisure. About a week of that was enough, though, and I went thinning and hoeing beets for all the neighbors.

Then school started again and I was enrolled in world history under Mr. Davis, geometry under Mr. Abrams, English under Miss Geisbrecht, band under Mr. Davis, and study hall under Mrs. Dirks. This was a bad year for me. It started out good, though, as that was the fall that I started my first steady part time job. It was bookkeeping in Lee Pratt's service station. I really liked it.

EASTERN BOUND

My trip of a life time started on Monday, February 18, 1952, at midnight, when we left Pocatello with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania set as our goal. Leaving was Mama and Daddy, Elma and Curtis and I in Elma and Curtis's new Ford. We didn't get far, though, before we hit into a storm and slick roads, which lasted clear through to Rock Springs, Wyoming. After that they improved except for a few places that was under construction. Our first stop for the night was at Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, and the next at Leon, Iowa, and we reached our destination, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania at 7:30 Friday evening.

This was the end of the information in her journal.

LIFE SKETCH GIVEN BY HELEN RANSOM AT VEE'S FUNERAL, OCTOBER 31, 1987.

Vee Hathaway was born during the great depression. In her life history she says that she was born on the first day of winter, but her brothers and sisters remember her as their Christmas baby, because she brought great joy and love to their lives. At the time they were living with her Grandfather Hill, a few miles south of Blackfoot, Idaho. She was born on December 21, in 1932, a very welcome Christmas gift. She had four older sisters and two older brothers, and they thought that she was a real live Christmas doll, sent just especially for them. After a lot of discussion, a name was chosen for the beautiful baby, the name was Ema Vee Ransom. And eventually that name was shortened to "Vee". Another brother joined her family after that and he learned to love her very much, too. She writes in her diary that she was expecting a little baby sister at the time, and she accused the doctor of changing babies before they sent it home. She also wrote that she learned to love him very much.

Love seemed to mark Vee's life. Reading through her diary in her lifetime, it seemed to show. After they moved to Blackfoot, Idaho, she contracted scarlet fever and became very ill. She was about three years old at the time, and that was the beginning of some very bad health problems. About five years old she began with rheumatic fever. And she talked about how sick she was and how she spent a lot of time in bed. It really wasn't too bad because she had her brother Jim down with rheumatic fever, too, so at least she wasn't suffering alone. They shared well. She talks about being ill through her childhood, and her sisters have told me that it seemed to be a cross that she bore very well. The disease left her with a damaged heart, and she talked about how she couldn't run and play, and run upstairs with the other kids, so they made her hall monitor so she could stop all the other kids from running up, too. There are other times when she was badly affected by the same problem, and she had to spend many weeks in bed. Yet she soon learned to cope with her limitations, and she was able to live with them, a normal life.

Her formal schooling began in Blackfoot and continued in Springfield, and then in Aberdeen, where she graduated from high school. After she graduated she went to Pocatello and found a job doing secretarial work with the Teamsters' Union. Everyone in the Teamsters learned to appreciate her special talent, and her dedication to the duties which she was given. She shared an apartment with another girl from Aberdeen at first, and over the next few years there were several different room mates, where good friendships were formed. During this time she made a good friend by the name of Eva Packard, and she and Eva spent their summer vacations together. And realizing her limitations, she decided that traveling would be the best way for her to spend her time. So she and Eva would pool their money for each vacation, and they jumped in the car, and alternated whose car it was each summer, and they'd just drive and drive until they got half way through their money, and then they'd turn around and drive back. In about seven years they managed to cover much of the west and Midwest and up into Canada. They saw Glacier National Park, or I'm told they tried to, but when they drove through it rained all the time and they didn't see a thing. They went up into Victoria and saw the flower gardens. They went to the Temple in Canada. She saw a lot of the world, and Vee made friends wherever she went and shared the love that she had developed for people.

She also, during this time, dated several young men, and finally met a gentleman by the name of Ken Hathaway, and from then on Ken seemed to occupy most of her time. They were married in the Idaho Falls Temple on November 7, 1958 at first, because of her heart condition, the doctors told them that they would never be able to have a family, but Vee and Ken had great faith in the Lord and believed that He would provide, and they were blessed with five children: Mike, Bruce, Janet, Doug, and Paul. The last two were born after she had open heart surgery. She was one of the very first to ever have this very specific surgery.

Vee and Ken have lived in several different areas, including Wyoming and Utah, before permanently making their home in Pocatello, where they've lived most of their married life. In spite of her physical problems, Vee maintained a good outlook on life. She always enjoyed life to the very fullest possible degree. I remember the first time that I met Vee. I was so very much younger than the rest of the family, but she welcomed me with open arms, and made me feel part of the family right from the first day that I met her, even when she was very ill and disabled. She saw the very best in life. She enjoyed the beauty of the world, good literature, and music. She was always eager to point out a beautiful sunset, or a lovely forest, the sunlight on the hill, and she always poured out love from her heart whenever we came to visit. She was a very remarkable person, and accomplished many wonderful things. She was very special to those who came to know her, and those who came to know her learned to love her. I'm glad I'm counted as one of those. I'm glad that she came to consider me a sister, and that she was my friend.