PERSONAL HISTORY

I was born in Lebanon, commonly called Cactus Flat, near Safford, Arizona. My parents, Nellie Hamblin and Doyle Lee; my grandfather John A. Lee, son of John D. Lee. My grandfather on my mother's side was Joseph Hamblin, a son of William Haynes Hamblin. All my ancestry were early prominent LDS pioneers to Utah and then to Arizona.

Some of my earliest memories was walking to primary on an old trail through mesquite trees and heavy brush like greasewood and chapparal and always being cautioned to look out for rattlesnakes partly due to a neighbor's child dying by snake bite which created a lot of fear among most people. An interesting story my father told me: He and his brother Claude were irrigating some new land walking barefoot. They were killing rats and snakes as they were tending the water. Standing looking for these creatures his big toe stuck out through the mud. He thinking it was a snake chopped it with a shovel nearly cutting from his foot.

I was the oldest of nine children. Three girls: Melba Noreen, twin girls Viola and Velma, a brother Jessie LeRoy, and then three girls: Lila and Evelyn and Gladys and then Virgil Dewayne.

Our family moved several times in order to meet the demands of a growing family. One move was to Bysbee, Arizona where Jessie was born. My sisters and I wanted to know where our baby brother came from. Mother told us the doctor brought him to us in his suitcase. This mining town was on a hillside and while playing on a retaining wall I fell and broke my jaw and had to eat my food through a straw. Coming back home to Cactus Flat. Then my father got a job in Miami near Globe, Arizona. In talking about going to Miami, one of my sisters asked, "Mama, can I go to your ami too?" She got a lot of kidding. We took our first exciting trip on a train, then back to Cactus Flat.

My folks heard about all the work going on in L.A. so my two uncles went out to see. They got work and sent for us. We had a model T Ford pickup. So we loaded our family of six children, father and mother and Uncle Willard Lee's family of four making three adults and seven children with our clothing, bedding, eating utensils, water and food we started for L.A. one thousand miles away. After stopping every night to sleep on the ground. Overhaul(ed) the motor once when the bearings began to knock dangerously. Driving over plank roads where the sand was too deep to drive through we arrived at our destination going through Coyote Pass and finding our way to Home Gardens near South Gate where they had a place rented next to a family of Chinese with their strange looks and language which we tried to imitate. All of this was very new and exciting to us.

My father soon bought a place in Cudahay next to San Antonio school house. Most of the people were Italians, sometimes called Dagos. We lived there for the next six years. We were close to the Los Angeles River not far from the _________. Every summer there was a mad dog or two. Between crazy people and mad dogs we were kept in suspense or fear. In the spring of '25, My Uncle Lafe took me with him to Arizona where they were in the process of moving to upper Gila, New Mexico from Safford, Arizona. I helped him drive a small herd of cows horseback about one hundred miles. I worked there all summer with him. My uncle took three of us cousins to the line of old Mexico to bring back a wagon and four horses that they had left there. We seen some of the most beautiful wild horses and range land there is. It is something to see stallions herd their mares away from you and watch stallions fighting on the open range.

Going back to L.A. and my father's family. We picked grapes in V_____, California. Then in '27 moved back to Arizona.

Was there at the dedication of the Arizona Temple. Then on to Cactus Flat for three years on my grandfather's farm. A lot of interesting things happened there I could tell about. While living in Arizona on my grandfather's place in 1927 or '28, two unusual experiences I remember happened. One evening before dark I heard the chickens making a lot of noise. I ran out to see a big skunk was in the hen house. It ran under an old tub we had turned upside down for a nest. It's tail was sticking outside and I had heard if they were picked up by their tail they couldn't stink on you. So grabbing it up by the tail holding it there and not knowing what to do with it I had my older sister Melba bring the shotgun out. She was too scared to shoot it so I gave her the skunk and I shot it while she held it. We never got any direct spray on us, but things were stinky for quite awhile around there . .... We set a big red hen on some duck eggs. After they hatched they were swimming in the edge of a pond of water and the hen was following them on the bank. We came between them and the hen. She jumped and flew out in the pond and settled down and swam with her ducks calmy to the other side of the pond. The first and only time I've ever seen or heard of a chicken deliberately or voluntarily going into deep water.

My father, in search of work, went to Tempe. Worked on that _______, then on to Vegas. This was during the depression and we were having a hard time. Hoping to find work, I hitch-hiked to Barstow, California then caught a ride in the doorway between passenger cars of a train. I came on to Las Vegas on my birthday. The train stopped to fill the tender tank with water and spilled it over and got me all wet. So when I seen the lights of Vegas was I ever glad to get off that train. To make a long story short I soon had a job on the Boulder Dam. To get a job, one of the requirements was to be 21, but I lied a little and was for awhile the youngest cement finisher on the Dam.

I went to work for Lloyd Jennings on building a chapel in Boulder City and met Mac Turnbeaugh. We were both riding motorcycles and he invited me to come here to St. George on a weekend. Mac and Kathleen are cousins and she was there and we were attracted to each other and it blossomed into love and marriage. After we were married we lived in Boulder City. She worked at a music store, I on the Dam. My work at this time was cement finishing on the intake towers hanging in a bo-sun's chair from the moveable forms and finishing rock pockets and bolt holes. After they would pour the forms with concrete we would put a bucket of cement on one side of my chair and tools and water in another bucket on the other side and pull myself up or let myself down to finish off the rough places. This was very interesting work to be swinging around in the air several hundred feet from the base of the towers. They would take us to our work in a basket on a high-line and let us down to our destination and this would require a lot of swinging around and banging against the wall or dock. Some people would refuse to work because of the fear or danger this involved. At one time I've seen them take out eight dead men. Wire equipment they were installing fell on them. Also a water boy fell and died on the way to the hospital, but. there is no truth to the story I heard that there is still people buried in the dam.

There is another part of my life I should mention that started and ended about this period of time, after I had met my wife. My grandmother Rogers, Hamblin, Norton who I thought a. lot of was living in Cottonwood, Arizona. She was getting old so I went to visit her. While there I worked clearing rocks for a lime quarry. While working at this, picking rocks up by hand, throwing them into a dump truck, I would wear out gloves so fast and only making $7 a day I couldn't afford them. So I finally got calluses on the end of my fingers and saved the cost of gloves. A man named Johnson came by to visit the owner, saw me working without a shirt on and asked me if I would train with his son who he was going to make a heavy weight champion boxer of the world. So I said yes and he set up a training camp. As we progressed, he would enter us in local smokers as they called them. He finally gave up on his boy. I went home after my grand mother died unexpectedly. (They were playing some records and she got up and danced with me and enjoyed herself, but passed away next day very peacefully). Soon after this I went back to St.George and convinced Kathleen that she should become my wife. I had been traveling around so much that I hadn't been ordained an Elder or had my membership records with me. So rather than wait we had Arthur K. Hafen, her bishop, marry us on 18th of May. She said it wasn't nearly as frightening as her graduation the night before.

While working on the Dam and living in Boulder City, I wanted to make some extra money. They were trying to find someone who would fight Dick Swartze, the pride of Los Vegas. They were desperate to get someone so they made the match even though he outweighed me 20 pounds. I was working graveyard shift and not getting enough time to get in good shape. He won the fight. After some good training, I had a rematch and won that one. To make this short, altogether I had 32 professional fights and won most of them. I promised my wife I'd stop when she got pregnant. Boxing has it's good and bad. It helps you overcome fear; to get hurt without crying. Bad: One might get his brains scrambled, slap happy, punch drunk.

Now, the wonderful part of my life with my darling wife and family. After being married three years, going through the temple, treatments by doctor, much praying, we had our first child. Doyle McKay born on February 2, 1937 in Los Angeles, without the help of any anesthetic or drugs. I witnessed the birth and was a proud, happy father. We were living in Monterey Park with Joy and Ruby Musick at the time. I joined the ABC local in Pasadena and they sent me and a few other men to complete and finish the plastering on the Sun Valley Lodge in Ketchum, Idaho. The extra money on that job helped us a lot. On the way home George Albert Smith rode home on the same train and car with us. One of the men was drinking too much so they were going to put him off. Apostle George A. tried to help so they would let him stay with friends to take care of him and this made a good impression on them.

Soon after returning home we bought. a home in North Long Beach near Compton and lived there a couple of years. Joan was born while living there. I was scoutmaster one year and President of MIA one year. Grandpa was sick and I took my father and went to see him in Cactus Flat. My grandfather re______ and I had to return. In the meantime my uncle Ed Richardson and I went hunting rattlesnakes. We found a den of six snakes. I injured one so we skinned it and fried and ate the meat. Took the other five with me to LA. While going by Coolidge dam, I seen and caught a good sized Gila Monster which I took on to my home in North Long Beach. I took and displayed them to a. regional scout meeting in Long Beach turning them all loose on the floor in a room with eight or ten scouts who were all impressed and showed no fear. Some neighbors at home seen them at distance and called the police. They told my wife I would have to get rid of them and they thought they were non poisonous snakes. Anyway a Mrs. Grace who kept and showed reptiles of all kinds to the public with a permit to do so and also used them in the movies, was glad to have them. I later read in the Argosy where she was bitten and died while showing some new Cobra she had just received from India.

Our Ward was assigned to part of the program at an MIA Stake or Regional dance. So with a lovely girl leading me and Doyle (my two year old son) standing on my hand representing Happy New Year danced to the front of the stage holding him high above myhead by his feet, I let him fall forward. The spectators thought he would hit the floor, but he came back up to standing position and danced around some more. We received a lot of compliments and the director of the band said it was the best New Year's skit he had ever seen and he had played for and seen a lot of them.

Raising a family of twelve children, working mostly as a plasterer, required a lot of moving to go where the work was. When our family was small it wasn't so hard, but as the family grew it became more and more difficult. So I'd go to Vegas mostly, or wherever the work was and come home week ends. This put a lot of responsibility on my wife and I was always proud of the way she did pay the bills and keep us out of debt.

We went to Portland, Oregon for about six years working in building swimming pools, traveling all over the state of Oregon and part of the state of Washington. Helped build several chapels. Was ordained a Seventy and had a lot of wonderful experiences in fellowshipping, working with boy scouts, MIA and Gleaners, hunting and fishing, going on trips like Vancouver Island scuba diving, and many other places. One trip to Costa Rica to raise a sunken ship. My son Doyle went to Costa Rica on some police business. While there he met a skindiver who had found an underwater cave with iron bars across the opening of it. This was pirate Morgan territory so they just "knew" his money cash was hidden there. So he phoned to Harry who was a Las Vegas Scuba dealer and instructor with salvage equipment. So he goes down with his stuff, but the cave was empty. While there a fishing boat had struck a rocky reef near point Aromes and the owner wanted it salvaged. While raising it and trying to bring it in, the chains broke and let it sink three times so they gave up and left it there in about 100 feet of water. Doyle thought. we could salvage it so he phoned by brother Virgil. So we got our stuff together like air bags, pumps, scuba gear all in a big van and Virgil, his wife and daughter, my wife and I went to Costa Rica by way of Mexico City and Acapulco. The owner of the sunken ship thought he could find it with a big hook drug behind a boat. No, luck so we had to wait several days while another fishing boat came in with sonar on it. We did't mind for he took us fishing and stayed overnight on his private island. When the ship came in we found the sunken boat and went down about 100 feet to the boat and found it was eaten badly with termites so impossible to raise it. We took a short trip south of Costa Rica to an active volcano and also where we could see both oceans from one place. We came on home stopping and swimming in the Pacific Ocean in the evening; next morning swimming in the Atlantic. Saw a lot of interesting country on our trip home.

We always wanted to retire here in St. George where we could work and go to the temple and be among such wonderful people. And I want you to know that I know, and the Lord knows that I know the Church is true. Amen.

Kathleen and I were called to work in the St. George Temple. And we enjoy it very much. We work Tuesday afternoons, then I go to the early Wednesday morning Priesthood session, then I take two or three names through during the day, then I act as witness for baptism for the dead in the evening then work again Thursday morning.

Saturday, October 20, 1979. Admitted to the hospital for hip operation; right hip. To replace socket at noon between 12:00 and 1:00. Took a few tests on heart and lungs. Sunday took some lung tests. Getting ready for operation Monday morning. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. All who know Dr. Copler thinks he is the best. I just received or met Jerry and Beverly's Branch President from Florida, had a good short visit and was glad to hear him praise Jerry and Beverly. Monday. I don't remember very much of what happened. They took me down to the operating room and gave me some dope. Most of Tuesday I was: asleep and groggy. All day they gave me some pain killer. Kathleen stayed with me most of the day. Everyone tells me I am a good patient and flatters me with praise.