John Uehlin, Sr.
26 Jan 1861-17 Dec 1930

My paternal 2nd great grandfather, John Uehlin Sr., was born in Oxford, Ohio on 26 Jan 1861 to emigrants Johann Uehlin and Karolina Khan, both originally from Neufreistett, Baden, an area that is now a part of modern day Germany. John married Minnie Ludwig and they had two children before she died. He then married Katharina Jackel, a recent arrival, also from Baden. They had three children, the youngest of whom was my great grandfather, John Arthur Jennings Uehlin, who was born on 5 Nov 1897 in Valparaiso, Indiana. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Flint, Michigan.

John Sr. worked in his father’s bakery and, shortly after the birth of John Jr., family legend maintains that he traveled up to the Yukon territory to participate in the Klondike Gold Rush. He didn’t go looking for gold but rather to sell sourdough bread to the cheechakos who had come from all over to stake their claims; for a time, he did quite well and was able to sell bread for up to a dollar a loaf! There are apparently still some gold nuggets in the family that came from his time in Alaska.

When John returned to Flint, he went into the restaurant business with his brothers, establishing one of the first oyster houses in the greater Flint area (oysters were a new delicacy in the area at the time.) From here, his son, John Jr. soon started his first business: a mobile popcorn stand outside the storefront. It was said that the smell of popcorn would bring curious onlookers into the restaurant and, in this way, the son helped his father’s business grow.

John Sr. died in Flint on 17 Dec 1930 and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Whigville, Michigan.

John Arthur Jennings Uehlin
5 Nov 1897-5 Mar 1963

My paternal great grandfather, was born on 5 Nov 1897 in Valparaiso, Indiana to parents John Uehlin Sr. and Katharina Jackel. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Flint, Michigan. John was the youngest of a blended family of five, which included two older siblings from his father’s first marriage.

When he was in his early teens, John Jr. started his first business: a mobile popcorn stand outside his father’s restaurant. It was said that the smell of popcorn would help bring curious onlookers into his father’s restaurant.

When John Jr. was quite young he was saddled with the nickname “Boots.” It was a nickname that stuck for most of his adult life. In the eleventh grade, he dropped out of high school, to go to work in an automobile factory in Detroit. Not long after that, he enrolled in the United States Army and fought in Europe during The Great War.

Afterward, he returned home and started a shoe repair business, where he would work as the sole proprietor for the next thirty-five years; during this time period, he kept a fairly regimented schedule: rising at dawn, enjoying the paper and a leisurely breakfast, before going downstairs to open his shop at seven-thirty am. And he would close shop at six and come home every night at six-fifteen on the dot; he was so regular, in fact, that, later on, his wife and daughter learned they could set their watches to his comings and goings.

On Christmas Day, 1920, he married Emma Mary Cecelia Cook (or Koch), a resident of Bay City, Michigan. The two would remain married for nearly forty-three years, up until the time of his death in 1963.

On 14 Oct 1922, their first and only son, John Orrill Uehlin was born but he died on 11 Nov 1922, less than a month after he had entered the world. On 17 Apr 1925, Bethany Ann Uehlin, my grandmother, was born, in Flint, Michigan. This would be their only child.

John Jr. and his family were twice-a-year Presbyterians: meaning, they attending church services on Easter and Christmas. John Jr. apparently couldn’t countenance the hypocrisy that he saw in abundance in organized religion so he chose to spend his Sundays instead enjoying the outdoors, leisurely smoking his pipe, and taking his family out to dinners in the restaurant district.

In the early 1950s, John Jr. (“Jack” or “Boots,” as he was better known) retired and moved with his wife to a trailer park in Largo, Florida; he had never much cared for the harsh Michigan winters and had threatened for many years to retire here. Once established, he wasted no time adopting local customs like madras and sun shirts. However, he would still rise at dawn every day in order to make sure he had lots of time to loaf. For a man who barely knew the meaning of the word “vacation,” there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that he had earned it.

On 5 Mar 1963, John Jr. passed away in a hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, after having suffered a massive stroke. He was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Whigville, Michigan, after local services which brought out hundreds of former friends, relatives and customers. He was eulogized as an honest and hardworking man.

Bethany Chaffin

17 Apr 1925-22 Nov 1991

My paternal grandmother, Bethany Chaffin, was born Bethany Ann Uehlin on 17 Apr 1925 in Flint, Michigan. She was the only surviving child of John Arthur Jennings Uehlin and Emma Mary Cecelia Cook (Koch.)

Even as a child, Bethany loved to read and write; she says she can’t remember a time when she didn’t have her nose buried in a book.

Both of her grandparents owned summer cottages near Otsego, Michigan and she spent many summers there during her formative years. She enjoyed hiking and swimming and falling asleep on the screened-in porch to the sounds of crickets and the waves lapping against the shore just 200 yards away.

Bethany was in the “cradle roll” of the Presbyterians but didn’t attend church much due to her parent’s objection to organized religion. She apparently always had religious yearnings, however; something she could hardly account for and which went largely unfulfilled until, in her teenage years, she joined the Presbyterian church choir and played piano for the children’s group.

When Bethany was just seventeen, she enrolled at Michigan State College. During her second year at school, she met the man who would eventually become her first husband: Lamar C. Eskelson, my paternal grandfather. At the time, Lamar was on a special “singing mission” for his church, the Mormons, and, as such, was assigned, in a non-proselytizing capacity, to do “community outreach” through vocal concerts in the greater Flint and Detroit areas. This was in 1942, during a time period when the Mormons were looking for unique ways of doing missionary work on account of the fact that many of their traditional territories had been closed due to World War II.

Once his mission was through, Lamar joined the US Armed Forces. He and Bethany continued to write to one another and evidently began to nurture warm feelings toward one another. Lamar eventually converted and baptized Bethany as a Mormon (a pre-condition of their marriage) and the two were then wed on July 8, 1945, in her parent’s backyard. It was not a marriage that her parents either supported or approved as they were concerned about Lamar’s ability to provide for their only daughter.

Lamar was then dispatched to Paris; it was at the end of the war. He drove an ambulance and played guitar and sang in a military band. During his free time, he studied opera with Madam Lizst, a descendant of Franz Liszt, the Hungarian-born composer, pianist and teacher. By this time, Bethany was already pregnant with the couple’s first child and had moved back to Flint to live with her parents for the duration of her pregnancy.

On May 10, 1946, Evan John Eskelson was born in Flint, Michigan. His grandfather tried to call him “Butch” but the nickname evidently didn’t stick because he was such a cute and smiling baby.

After Lamar was discharged from the service and back in the states, the young family relocated to nearby Chicago so Lamar could continue his musical studies at the Chicago School of Music. Here, they lived in an abandoned school house in Libertyville, Illinois while trying to make ends meet on the GI Bill. It is around this time, too, that they took a trip to Utah and were married and sealed in the Salt Lake Mormon temple. One subject of family lore involves a chance encounter the couple had on the Salt Lake temple grounds following their sealing, with then Mormon President, Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. Lamar was proud to introduce his wife to Smith and paid her a compliment saying he felt like she was already living her adopted religion better than he was. To which Smith evidently replied, without missing a beat: “Well, you better get busy, Brother!” before briskly walking away.

On July 26, 1948, Christian Dee Eskelson was born in Libertyville, Ill. The obstetrics bill was paid by one of Lamar’s voice students.

On May 24, 1950, Laurel Lavon Eskelson was born in Chicago.

In July, 1950, the family moved to Midvale, Utah, where they set up quarters in an old milk house with concrete floors.

On Nov 20, 1951, Bethany left her husband and took her children to Largo, Florida, to live with her parents. The young kids live with their retired grandparents while Bethany goes back to school full-time to get her teaching degree at the University of Tampa.

In 1954, Bethany received her BS degree and obtained her first job teaching English at Boca Ciega High School. The family buys a home in St. Petersburg, which they call their “happiness house.”

On July 15, 1959, Bethany married Richard Owen II, a stocky Welshman from New Jersey, one of her former students at the community college. As a condition of their marriage, Bethany converted him to Mormonism.

On Sept 21, 1960, the family is joined by youngest sister, Richelle Owen.

On July 15, 1961, the whole family is adopted by Richard Owen. They all have their last names changed to “Owen.”

The following year, Richard leaves the family for work in the Philippines, never to come back.

On July 15, 1963, Bethany marries Arlon Dorris Chaffin, whom she also converts to Mormonism. Her parents approve of the marriage (a first!)

In 1964, Evan, her oldest son, gets accepted on scholarship to attend Brigham Young University and moves to Provo, Utah. While back in Utah, he finally has a chance to get reacquainted with his estranged father, Lamar.

In 1965, Evan receives a mission call for Norway, a two-and-a-half year mission. While he is away, his “steady” is in a serious car crash, goes into a coma and stays on life-support for a year. He converts six people to Mormonism.

In 1967, the family are all adopted and sealed to Arlon Chaffin. Their last name is now “Chaffin.”

In early 1968, Evan returned from his mission. He is now living with his father and his father’s second wife in the “Burton Ward” in South Salt Lake. While living here, he meets Gladys Owina Tripp, my mother. On April 3, 1969, Evan and Gladys are married in the Salt Lake Mormon temple. March 5, 1970, I’m born.

June 10, 1970, Evan graduated from BYU with a BS in Secondary Education, majoring in Psychology, History and Geography. In September of that year, he begins teaching at the Utah Technical College.

In 1972, Arlon leaves the family and moves back to Florida.

On April 24, 1973, Bethany Chaffin marries Frank Julius Lemperle, a bishop, in the Salt Lake Temple.

In 1974, while Laurel is attending BYU, she comes down with mononucleosis and takes a semester off from school, convalescing at Bethany’s home. They collaborate on several songs during this time, including “Salt Lake City” (words by Bethany Chaffin, Music by Laurel Chaffin Roth). In December of that same year, Bethany self publishes “Infant Child”, a Christmas song she has written, under the Chelle Publishing Company moniker. I have a letter from his grandmother saying the song was written for me.

Sept 18, 1975
An article on Bethany Lemperle appears in the Sunset News called “Creative Writing” by Verda F. Welling.

1976
Frank builds a cabin for Bethany in Mantua.

July 1976
Bethany Chaffin creates and produces a full-length bicentennial choral pageant entitled “The Truth Shall Make You Free”, featuring a 100-voice choir and a cast and crew which totaled almost 300 in number for the Pioneer Stakehouse.

Sept 15, 1977
Bethany featured in the Sunset News in an article about writing.

1977

Bethany publishes her autobiography, These Things I Remember.

1978-1979
Bethany teaches eight classes in creative writing each term, writes four Teen Scenes for the Stake and edits three ghost-written books and a small book of her student’s poetry published under the “Chelle Publishing Co.” logo.

March 1979
Bethany writes, directs and produces a forty-minute film (“Home Again to Zion”) depicting the 75-year history of the Pioneer Stakehouse and edits a 60-page companion book (which later became a 104 page history), and contributes original songs (lyrics only) for the celebration, including “Song of Everlasting Joy” and “Morning Hymn”, which has been chosen to possibly be included in a new LDS hymn book.

March 1979
Bethany called to serve in the 32nd Relief Society presidency of her stake (call postponed due to other obligations or an illness?).

Dec 1979
Bethany conducts Handel’s “Messiah” at Westside Community School.

1980
Bethany writes her first romance novel, Early in Autumn. It sells to Manor Books but the contract is cancelled due to their financial difficulties. The novel remains unpublished.

Summer 1980
Bethany holds three writer retreats at her cabin in Mantua.

1980
Legacy of a Long and Gentle Season, Bethany Chaffin’s first book in print, is published by Nobel Publishing, Orem, Ut, 1980.

Christmas 1980
Bethany conducts Handel’s “Messiah” again with the Community Chorus, performing seven times, including once at the Cannon Stake and at various wards and nursing homes.

1981
You Too Can Make History, Bethany’s chapbook about writing your own personal history, is self-published by Chelle Publishing Co.

1982
Frank Lemperle diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

March 1982
One Against the Storm- a Nightmare of Terror in Utah by Stanley C. Mann, ghostwritten by Bethany Chaffin, is published by Bailey/Sullivan.

Nov 25, 1982
Bethany publishes a humorous first-person piece in the Desert News about cats entitled “I love cats… when they’re gone.”

Jan 30, 1983
Bethany publishes a first-person piece in the Sunday Desert News about living with a husband who has Alzheimer’s.

1983
Bethany Chaffin’s Whence Comes the Rain, a Mormon romance novel, is published by Horizon in hardback. There are two different dust jackets: one features a younger couple because Bethany thought the couple was too old on the first dust jacket.

Christmas 1983?
Bethany writes (with Brent Fotheringham) and performs “Prepare Ye The Way” a 22-minute Christmas cantata for sopranos, altos, tenors, and baritones (SATB).

1984
Bethany Chaffin’s Write at Home and Sell is self-published. This book was sold to students during her writing seminars at the Craft House and elsewhere.

Christmas 1984
“Hosannah” a Christmas cantata, is written and performed by Bethany Chaffin (arranged by Kathy Sullivan).

1984
Bethany Chaffin wins first place in the adult book category for Whence Comes the Rain at the annual Writers’ Roundup Club dinner.

Mar 14, 1985
The Box Elder Journal publishes an article entitled “Creative writing class slated spring quarter” about two creative writing classes Bethany Chaffin will be teaching beginning in March.

Mar 20, 1985
The Lakeside Review publishes an article entitled “Local Author to Teach Class” about Bethany Chaffin’s upcoming writing class in Clearfield.

May 2, 1985
The Ogden Standard-Examiner publishes an article entitled “Teacher has books, will travel” by Diane Kulkarni about Bethany Chaffin and her creative writing workshops.

1985
Bethany Chaffin’s Caring for Those You Love, a Guide to Compassionate Care for the Aged is published by Horizon.

1986
Bethany writes On Extended Wings: The Art of Writing Poetry with co-author Joyce Ellen Davis.

Spring 1986
Bethany publishes a personal essay in the Mormon journal Dialogue entitled “Living with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Wife’s Perspective” detailing her experiences with providing for Frank Lemperle’s care following the onset of his dementia.

In the late eighties, Bethany moves to Mantua, Utah, permanently. She becomes the Justice of the Peace and establishes the town’s first library.

1987
Randall Romance publishes Bethany Chaffin’s Jenny’s Window, a sequel to Legacy… about John and Veta’s daughter, Jenny, an eighteen year old who falls for a returned missionary named Thor Hanson.

Sept 13, 1986
Bethany Chaffin receives a third place honor from the League of Utah Writers for the unpublished article “A Special Kind of Victory.”

April 16-18, 1987
Bethany Chaffin leads “Its Lofty Spires Shall Rise” a choral pageant script she has written for the Box Elder Tabernacle dedication (music by Stan Zenk). Bethany also served as Pageant Chairman.

Sept 1987
Bethany Chaffin is named the Writer of the Year by the League of Utah Writers.

July 10, 1988

Bethany is profiled as the Mantua Writer in Residence by Jerry Johnston, a staff writer of the Deseret News.

Sept 10, 1988
Bethany Chaffin receives a 3rd place honorable mention from the League of Utah Writers for her published featurette “The Day That Lightning Struck.”

Bethany Chaffin receives a 3rd place honor for the unpublished full-length book Terror in the Tetons.

Sept 17, 1988
Emma Mary Cook Uehlin, Bethany’s mother, dies at the Pioneer Memorial Nursing home of cancer.

Sept 15, 1990
Bethany Chaffin receives a third place honor for the unpublished song “I Hate It” (from her upcoming musical adaptation A Gentle Season) from the League of Utah Writers.

Summer 1991

Bethany Chaffin is working on a musical adaptation of Legacy… entitled A Gentle Season. Her granddaughter, Ginger, is spending the summer with her in Mantua, helping her to write some of the songs.

Nov 22, 1991

Bethany dies unexpectedly from complications due to spinal meningitis, following a brief hospital admission. She is buried in the town cemetery in Mantua, Utah.

In addition to her own creative works, Bethany left a rich legacy of writers in her wake; many of the people who originally discovered their voices in one of her writing workshops have since become established writers themselves, including Sherry Ann Miller.

Lamar C. Eskelson
16 Apr 1920 – 8 Nov 1990

My paternal grandfather, Lamar C. Eskelson was born on 16 Apr 1920 in Francis, Utah, the oldest of three sons born to George Alma Eskelson and Wilma Lavon Christensen. On his mother’s side, he is a descendent of the famous Mormon Snows: Lorenzo, Eliza (a plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.), Willard, and Erastus are all relatives. Lamar lived on his grandfather Oscar’s dairy farm in Francis until he was about seven years old; once he started grade school, the family relocated to nearby Park City, Utah. While they were living there, his father worked in the Silver King Mine.

In the second half of third grade, the family moved to Salt Lake; it was this same year that Lamar won a penmanship contest. Lamar, in fact, wrote his entire life with a crisp text which slanted delicately to the right and which always had many admirers; the only problem was that, perhaps as a product of The Great Depression, Lamar hated to waste paper and so he would do everything he could to get his writing to fit on a single page (front and back). Even as the text got increasingly smaller and eventually wound its way back up the margins, it always remained legible.

Lamar couldn’t recall a time when he wasn’t interested in singing and playing the guitar; his father played the mandolin and would give him lessons when he was younger.

After he graduated high school, Lamar went on to study at the University of Utah. In 1942, Lamar was called on a special “singing mission” for his church, the Mormons, and, as such, was assigned, in a non-proselytizing capacity, to do “community outreach” through vocal concerts in the greater Flint and Detroit areas. It was during one of these recitals that he met his future wife, Bethany Uehlin.

Once his mission was through, Lamar joined the US Armed Forces. He and Bethany continued to write to one another and evidently began to nurture warm feelings toward one another. Lamar eventually converted and baptized Bethany as a Mormon (a pre-condition of their marriage) and the two were wed on July 8, 1945, in her parent’s backyard.

Lamar was then dispatched to Paris; it was at the end of the war. He drove an ambulance and played guitar and sang in a military band. During his free time, he studied opera with Madam Lizst, a descendant of Franz Liszt, the Hungarian-born composer, pianist and teacher. By this time, Bethany was already pregnant with the couple’s first child and had moved back to Flint to live with her parents for the duration of her pregnancy.

On May 10, 1946, Evan John Eskelson was born in Flint, Michigan. His grandfather tried to call him “Butch” but the nickname evidently didn’t stick because he was such a cute and smiling baby.

After Lamar was discharged from the service and back in the states, the young family relocated to nearby Chicago so Lamar could continue his musical studies at the Chicago School of Music. Here, they live in an abandoned school house in Libertyville, Illinois while trying to make ends meet on the GI Bill. It is around this time, too, that they take a trip to Utah and were married and sealed in the Salt Lake Mormon temple. One subject of family lore involves a chance encounter the couple had on the Salt Lake temple grounds following their sealing, with then Mormon President, Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. Lamar was proud to introduce his wife to Smith and paid her a compliment saying he felt like she was already living her adopted religion better than he was. To which Smith evidently replied, without missing a beat: “Well, you better get busy, Brother!” before briskly walking away.

On July 26, 1948, Christian Dee Eskelson is born in Libertyville, Ill. The obstetrics bill is paid by one of Lamar’s voice students.

On May 24, 1950, Laurel Lavon Eskelson was born in Chicago.

In July, 1950, the family moved to Midvale, Utah, where they set up quarters in an old milk house with concrete floors.

On Nov 20, 1951, Bethany left Lamar and took the children to Largo, Florida. The couple later divorced.

In the early 1950s, Lamar was featured on a radio show every Sunday afternoon from 2-2:30 PM on KUTA. The show was called “The Golden Voice of Lamar and the Piano Stylings of Irene.” Lamar was seeing a woman named Torrie at the time, who was also regularly featured on the show; the two of them sang duets and they both belonged to the Salt Lake Opera Company.

Around this same time, Lamar also started the Mozart School of Music in Salt Lake where he taught voice and guitar lessons. Later, he established The Academy of Guitar and Voice in South Salt Lake. He taught music there for more than thirty-five years in many different forms including voice, classical guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and keyboard.

Lamar toured throughout Europe as a leading man in several operas. He also performed regularly in Salt Lake in operas such as “Madame Butterfly” with the Utah Opera Theater and Verdi’s “La Traviata.”

Lamar later met and married his second wife, Velma Hansen. The two were married in a civil ceremony in Elko, Nevada on Sept 22, 1957.

Lamar then decided to go back to school as he’d always considered himself a life-time learner. As Velma tells it, he probably would have kept on going to school until he had his PhD if she hadn’t put her foot down. She remembers how studious and focused he was during this time period. She would pack him a lunch and he would go and study all day in the library, returning in the late evening with an unopened lunch bag. He was awarded his Master’s Degree at the University of Utah in Occupational Health and Safety and, for a time, worked as a vocational counselor for the State of Utah. But his first love was always music. He was a founding board member of the Utah Songwriter’s Association and a member of the Utah Classical Guitar Society and the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association.

Lamar had a great passion for Opera and Flamenco and Classical guitar playing and he also enjoyed writing and recording Country and Western songs. He would often sponsor world-class Flamenco and Classical guitarists as they came through Salt Lake and he would take them back to the studio where they could listen and play music well into the night. Around this time, Lamar was also a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

In 1964, he was reunited with his oldest son, Evan, when he moved to Provo to attend BYU.

Around this time, Lamar started making his own line of acoustic guitars. He would average one guitar a year. One of the first guitars he made, he gave to his daughter, Laurel, who still plays it to this day.

Toward the end of his life, Lamar toured several Scandinavian countries as a member of the American West Chorus and Symphony. In many ways, it was the crowning achievement of his life: a chance to return to the land of his forefathers and to share with his own people his wondrous love of music.

His son, Kim, now maintains what remains of his music studio, including an impressive array of Flamenco and Classical records and what remains of Lamar’s hand-made guitars.

With his love and dedication to music, Lamar was responsible for teaching a whole new generation of musicians, many of whom went on to have notable careers themselves, such as the classically-trained Stephanie Sante.

Evan John Chaffin

10 May 1946 –

Evan, my father, was born in Flint, Michigan to parents Lamar C. Eskelson and Bethany Ann Uehlin. His parents divorced when he was five years old and he grew up in Florida with his mother. They lived in Largo for a time before moving to St. Petersburg and Melbourne.

During his senior year of high school, he pitched ball for the Melbourne High baseball team and won a scholarship to BYU.

In 1964, during his first year at college, he received his Mormon mission call to the Oslo, Norway mission. It was a two-and-a-half year mission because he needed to learn how to speak Norwegian.

While he was away, his girlfriend, whom he thought he would eventually marry, was critically injured in a car accident. She was in a coma and then in a vegetative state and never did recover completely.

Evan started a baseball league in Norway and ended up converting six people to Mormonism during his time there. When he came home, he stayed at his father’s house in South Salt Lake while he commuted to school in Provo to finish his degree. While in Salt Lake, he met Gladys Owina Tripp, my mother.

The two were married on Apr 3, 1969. I was born the following year on Mar 5. Two more children followed: Jonathan Lloyd, born on 25 Mar 1971; and Tamara Dawn, born on 22 Jan 1973.

Around this time, Evan built a two-story home for his new family in Bennion, a suburb of Salt Lake. It was shortly after its completion that the couple separated and later divorced.

In April, 1974, he was called in front of a bishop’s council and censured; the vote to excommunicate was evenly split and he was advised to get back to his wife and that the council would reconvene in six months to look at the situation again. He didn’t show up to the following council since he felt there was no way to reconcile with his wife and, shortly after that, he received a notice in the mail that he had been excommunicated from the Mormon church.

Evan went back to college and received a Master’s degree in Industrial Relations from Utah State University in September of 1974.

In October of the same year, his divorce from Gladys was finalized.

On November 1, he married Jayne Stander, a colleague from the community college where he was then teaching.

The mid-seventies were a period where Evan and his new wife would visit with the children from his first marriage one weekend a month and one month each summer. During this time period, Evan also penned an autobiography entitled “Solid Stock Slightly Carnivorous.”

On July 8, 1979, Joshua Merrill Stander is born to Evan and Jayne Chaffin.

On Nov 25, 1981, Adrieana Beth Stander is born to Evan and Jayne Chaffin.

On Nov 8, 1982, Gabriele Marie Stander is born to Evan and Jayne Chaffin.

Around this time, Evan decided his kids should focus on their new family and vice versa; an adoption is granted and his first three children become adopted and sealed in the Mormon temple to Gilbert David Ward.

In May of 1983, Evan meets Jeri Madill again; she was a former student of his who was now working in the bookstore of the college where he teaches.

On Valentine’s Day 1984, Evan leaves Jayne and his three new children for Jeri. The two are eventually married on Aug 30, 1985 once his divorce from Jayne is finalized.

November 15, 1985, Evan and Jeri move to Las Vegas, Nevada.

On Nov 8, 1990, Evan’s father, Lamar C. Eskelson, dies in Salt Lake at the age of 70.

Spring 1991, Jeff reconnects with his father, after nearly ten years. The two catch up in Las Vegas.

In November 2003, Evan moves to Pahrump, Nevada.

On Jan 18, 2004, Jeri passes away after a long decline.

In July 2004, Evan moves back to Las Vegas.

On June 8, 2007, Evan married Clara Vallone.

GLADYS OWINA TRIPP WARD
23 Jul 1947 -

Gladys, my mother, was born in Salt Lake to parents Owen Powell Tripp and Cleo Milner Roberts.

Gladys graduated from Granite High School in 1965.

In 1968, she met and married Evan John Chaffin.

They had three children: Jeffrey Von, born on 5 Mar 1970; Jonathan Lloyd, born on 25 Mar 1971; and Tamara Dawn, born on 22 Jan 1973.

The couple divorced and Gladys married Gilbert David Ward on 23 Jan 1977 in Elko, Nevada. They had two children: Joseph Benjamin, born on 1 Jul 1978 and Heather Charmane, born on 29 Feb 1980.

CLEO MILNER ROBERTS TRIPP BRINKMAN DAY
3 Mar 1927 - 12 Nov 1998

Cleo, my maternal grandmother, was born in Provo, Utah, the daughter of Charles Milner Roberts and Gladys Annette Jakeman.

Cleo was raised by her sister Faye and brother Roy after her mother died when she was just two years old. During the tight times of the Depression, her Grandpa Sanders would take in the family. He owned a gas station in Snowville, Utah.

During World War II, Cleo moved to San Francisco and worked for the U.S. Post Office.

After the war, she moved back to Salt Lake and married Owen Tripp in 1946.

Her oldest daughter, my mother, Gladys Owina Tripp, was born on 23 July 1947. Sons Dan and Terry soon followed.

Eventually, Cleo and Owen divorced and she met and married Arman Brinkman in 1956. They had one son, Bruce. Cleo and Arman then became foster parents for over 20 years, helping to provide a solid home life for dozens of other people’s children.

After Arman died, Cleo married Boyd E. Day in 1993.

Cleo enjoyed writing poems and stories for children; her work was never published but remains treasured by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Cleo passed away at the age of 71 in Salt Lake City, following complications from a stroke.

GLADYS ANNETTE JAKEMAN ROBERTS
2 Jun 1886 - 25 Aug 1929

Gladys, my great grandmother on my mother’s mother’s side, was born in Manti, Utah, the daughter of James Thomas Jakeman and Ellen Lee Jakeman.

In the early 1900s, she was living in Arizona when she met and married Joseph Leroy “Roy” Sanders. While the couple lived in Arizona, they had two sons LeRoy, born 31 May 1907, and Wells, born 12 Feb 1909.

The couple was visiting Ellen in Provo when their daughter, Faye Felicia Sanders was born on 10 Jul 1911.

Leroy and Gladys then moved to Nacozari, Sonora, Mexico. It was here that Violet was born on 4 Feb 1913. The couple then relocated to Douglas, Arizona where Spencer was born on 17 Oct 1915.

Spencer had rickets and couldn’t use his legs when he was younger. Gladys moved her family to California so Spencer could see a specialist. When it was clear that Leroy would not move to California, the couple divorced. The older sons went back to Douglas, Arizona to live with their father.

Gladys tried to reconcile with her husband but couldn’t. She eventually moved back to Provo. It was here that she met and married Charles.

After their second child, Roberta, died, Gladys and the children moved to Salt Lake in June of 1928. In early 1929, Gladys suffered a stroke and was bedridden for six months. She never regained her health and passed away on 25 Aug 1929, at the age of 43.

Her youngest daughter, Cleo, my grandmother, was just two years old and would be raised by her older sister and brother, Faye and Roy.

CHARLES MILNER ROBERTS
12 Mar 1885 - 20 Dec 1980

Charles, my great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side, was the oldest son of Benjamin Morgan Roberts Jr. and Sarah Ann Milner. He was born in Provo, Utah.

Charles was a cattleman, promoter and miner.

Charles first married Ann Lucilla (Lou) Creer on 12 Oct 1911. Lou died on 5 Jan 1921 in Spanish Fork.

Charles then met and married Gladys Annette Jakeman, my great grandmother, in 1926. The following year, the couple had a daughter, grandmother Cleo Milner Roberts, who was born on 3 Mar 1927 in Provo, Utah.

The following year, the couple had another daughter, Roberta, who was born on 7 May 1928 but died 27 days later.

HELEN LENORA POWELL TRIPP
25 Oct 1898 - 1 Nov 1956

Helen, my great grandmother on my mother’s father’s side, was born in Midvale, Utah, the daughter of James Duffin Powell and Alice Lloyd Powell.

Helen’s mother, Alice, and grandparents, Daniel Lloyd and Mary Lewis, were Welsh immigrants who hail from Glamorganshire, South Wales. The family emigrated to the United States after converting to Mormonism in 1875 aboard the steamship Wyoming. Passage across the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York took only twelve days.

Alice was just ten years old when her family came to America.