FRANCOM, Wilbur Dee: History: Francom Family Genealogy

Home Search Search Print Print Login - User: anonymous Login Add Bookmark

» Show All «Prev «1 ... 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next»

FRANCOM, Wilbur Dee: History

Written by Elaine Francom Peterson in 1967 (ed. 1994); courtesy of Donna Cornia. Retyped 2009 by J.F. with minor editorial corrections (no changes to words).

BIOGRAPHY OF WILBUR DEE FRANCOM

Dee was born April 3, 1913, in Elwood, Utah, Box Elder County, a son of Joseph William and Mary Ann Cole Francom. He was the seventh of ten children. When he was 6 months old, he was stricken with Infantile Paralyses. All of his brothers and sisters took turns taking him to the canal and taught him to swim in order to learn muscle dexterity. Before he was 2 years old he could swim better than any of his brothers and sisters. He soon recovered and walked with a slight limp but lived a normal life. He attended grade school in the old Elwood School house, which was later torn down in 1965. Sometimes he and his brothers and sisters would ride to school on horses sitting 2 or 3 deep. Dee graduated from Bear River High School in Box Elder County in 1931.

He made friends quickly and had many. He was a very witty person with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He loved laughter and a good joke (especially when the joke was on the other fellow.) Lyle, Dee’s nephew, came to stay with Dee and Nola and fun and tricks were the game of the day. It was a constant contest to see who could get the best of who. But it was hard to out-wit Dee when it came to pulling tricks. One of his favorite sayings was, “Watch out now! Or I’ll dance on your eyebrows.”

On May 24, 1933, Dee married Nola Kidman from Collinston, Utah, in the Logan L.D.S. Temple. He received his endowments on that same day. Dee and Nola lived in the West part of the Francom home in Elwood, Utah. His father and mother lived in the rest of the house. He bought 40 acres of land from his Father and moved a house onto it. It was located about ¼ mile south of his Father’s place. On July 9, 1934, a beautiful little baby girl was born in Collinston, Utah. She was given the name Glenna Dee. She won her Daddy’s heart right from the start and, like daddies do, he gave in to her wishes all the time. Once he took her into a store and immediately she fell in love with a red wagon. So, Dee bought it for her in spite of having very little money. One time when Glenna was 2 years old she couldn’t be found – She was missing! Dee and Nola searched frantically for her. Dee even walked up and down the ditch thinking she could have fallen in. Finally, they found her no less for wear, sleeping in an old car out in the yard.

Dee was a great one for teasing and once when he and Nola were outside in the yard romping around, Dee picked up an egg where it had been laid by one of the hens and threw it at Nola. Luckily, it missed her and landed in a pile of hay. So she quickly picked it up and threw it back at him. He was already laughing and running to get away from her and didn’t see it coming, so she called to him to look out. When he heard her cry, he turned to see what was the matter and the egg hit him right on the side of the face! That was one time Nola got the best of him because the egg happened to be rotten!

Two years later, on August 10, 1936, another little girl was born to Dee and Nola in Tremonton, Utah. He still didn’t have the son every man wants but now he had two sweet daughters. He gave her a Father’s blessing and the name Elaine. Elaine was the smallest of all the children. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth and was quite sick. She couldn’t keep her milk down and didn’t gain weight and was very tiny.

Dee received a mission call for the L.D.S. Church in April 1937 and fulfilled that mission in the East Central States. He was originally called to serve in the Russian area but his father knew that the church had a policy of sending married missionaries to missions in the United States and so he and Dee went to the authorities in Salt Lake and the mission was changed to the East Central States. He returned home in December 1939. Glenna was 4 and Elaine was 2 years old. While Dee was gone, the Lord blessed his family in many ways. Nola stayed home and took care of the house, the children and the farm. She was given help by Dee’s brothers and his father while he was away. All went well and blessings seemed to pour in. The cow had twin calves, the pig had a large litter – 17 pigs, and many other things happened while Dee was in the service of the Lord to indicate that his family was being watched over by the Lord. Once Nola was out milking the cow. She had left Glenna playing on the floor and Elaine in her high chair. Something told Nola to go into the house. That something was wrong. When she went into the house she found Elaine had scooted down in the high chair and was caught hanging by her head in the chair. She was very blue but Nola had gone into the house in time.

Soon after his return home, Dee sold his farm in Elwood and moved his family to the Francom Farm near Snowville, Utah. His father had always called the Francom Farm “Peaceful Valley” and called the farm over the next hill “Jangle Valley” because of numerous quarrels and disagreements there. One year later, that wonderful little son was born on January 13, 1940, in Tremonton, Utah. He was given the name Shirl LaMon. He was named after a mission companion Dee had.

As that little boy grew he idealized his Daddy so much that he could always be found walking (with that special little limp Dee had), talking and acting like Dee. It really tickled Dee to see that. When Shirl was about 3 years old Dee took him to the store. He parked the car in front of the dentist’s office and left Shirl in the car while he went into the store next door for a minute. When he came out, he couldn’t get into the car. Shirl had locked all the doors and rolled up all the windows! And, of course, Dee had left the keys in the ignition. Dee coaxed, he made promises and even threatened to cut off Shirl’s ears if he didn’t open the door. But all Shirl did was put his ear to the window and say, “Go ahead and try it, Daddy.” Finally, with an audience of spectators around him, Dee found that Shirl was afraid he would be taken in to the dentist’s office, which was right in front of the parked car. After convincing him that he would not be taken to the dentist and promising him candy, gum, and ice cream, he finally opened the door to let his embarrassed father in the car.

In 1942 Dee and Nola bought a home in Tremonton, Utah which was about 30 miles from their farm in Snowville. It was purchased so the girls could go to school during the winter and family lived on the farm during the summer. It was a dry-farm and wheat and alfalfa was grown there.

Three and a half years after Shirl was born, Dee and Nola were blessed with another son. He was born in Tremonton, Utah, on September 30, 1943 and was given a father’s blessing and the name Ronald K. He had real curly hair and was such a cute baby. It just about broke his mother’s heart to finally have all those curls cut off. Now Dee had 2 sons and was tickled pink.

Dee was well liked by everyone and he always had a twinkle in his eye, a smile and a good joke. He became friends with some people who did not encourage him to do things with his good wife and family and soon the influence they had on him became a negative factor. He began making bad decisions and the more he was influenced by these people, the more he drew away from his old friends and family. Things didn’t work out for Dee and Nola and so they were divorced on October 24, 1944 in Brigham City, Utah. Nola kept the 4 children and Dee continued on with the “friends” around him.

Dee remarried May 21, 1945 in Ogden, Utah, to Doris Doman. They moved to the Francom Farm and lived there until 1946 when they moved to Burley, Idaho. He had sold his interest in the farm to his brother, Virgil, and bought a business in Burley. It was called Dee’s Cigar Store and he also owned half interest in a jewelry store there. Nola later married in 1947 and moved to Arizona with the children. They seldom saw Dee after that.

He raised horses and ha d a race horse. He had a favorite horse called “Red” and rode in the sheriff’s posse in Tremonton while he lived there. They used to have a horse-pulling contest where they would block the wheels and make the horse pull as hard as he could. Dee also loved to hunt and fish and enjoyed the out of doors a great deal. In fact, a great part of his earnings were made from working out of doors.

Later, he moved to Montana and became a heavy equipment operator with a construction company. He moved to many cities because of his work but stayed in Montana most of the remainder of his life. He divorced and remarried Doris several times but finally the marriage ended permanently.

In June of 1952 his son, Shirl, came to live with him in Montana dur to an uncontrollable situation in Arizona with a deceitful and cruel step father. Nola was getting a divorce from Eddie Jones and she was desperate to keep Shirl away from Eddie. It was a terrible situation and reluctantly, Nola had Dee come and get Shirl in hopes she could keep him a part of the family. For, if Eddie could have gotten him away from Nola, she probably would never see him again. Shirl stayed with his father until he went into the Navy in 1957. While Shirl was in the Navy, Dee got arthritis. The pain got continually worse until the time of his death.

On June 19, 1959, he married Mary Virginia Gentry in Cutbank, Montana, where they made their home for a while. Later, on September 19, 1960, a child named Larry Dee was born to them in Great Falls, Montana. Larry’s coming was quite a surprise to his parents but a very happy surprise. Dee was now 47 years of age. As Dee’s arthritis was steadily becoming worse and his work could only be done during good weather, Dee was home to enjoy seeing Larry grow up and loved him very much. At the time of his death Larry was only 6 years old.

Dee lived in the Great Falls, Montana area for 10 years, then moved to Wyoming for 2 years and returned to Great Falls. He moved his family to Valier, Montana on November 15, 1966. He had only lived there 2 months when he became very ill. He wouldn’t let Virginia take him to the hospital for several days but he was finally taken to the Conrad Hospital in Conrad, Montana on Wednesday, January 11, 1967, where he died after just a few hours. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage. His funeral was in Great Falls, Montana at the Croxford and Sons Funeral Home on January 16, 1967. Place of interment was in the Highland Cemetery in Great Falls, Montana. All of his children were at the funeral. Also Virginia, his former wife, Nola and some of his brothers.

At the time of his death he had 5 children and 11 grandchildren. Some of the choices he made, many could not accept but to judge without full knowledge is unjust. Those who knew him loved him. His life was the life he chose and who knows what experiences and circumstances formed the basis of this choosing. God controls our lives, guides and blesses us, but gives us our agency. We may live our lives in accordance with His plan for us or we may foolishly make wrong choices.

Elder Orson F. Whitney wrote: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God…and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven….”

Some have suffered because of the choices Dee made in his life and some have rejoiced in being near him. Perhaps his children have become stronger and more sensitive to the things of life because of him. May he find joy and piece in the hereafter.

This was written by Dee’s daughter, Elaine Francom Peterson, in 1967, with the help of those who knew him, loved him, and remember him. It was edited in 1994 by Elaine.

File name
File Size
ID	664
Linked to	Wilbur Dee FRANCOM

» Show All «Prev «1 ... 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next»