Marie Christina Christensen

   Et andet navn for Marie var Thompson Christensen.

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he Life Summary of Marie Christina
When Marie Christina Christensen was born on 7 January 1892, in Århus, Århus, Denmark, her father, Anders Christensen, was 29 and her mother, Andrea Vilhelmine Jørgensen, was 21. She married Willard Philip Williams on 16 September 1912, in Evanston, Uinta, Wyoming, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 5 daughters. She lived in Utah, Utah, United States in 1935 and Provo Bench Election Precinct, Utah, Utah, United States in 1940. She died on 20 March 1970, in Orem, Utah, Utah, United States, at the age of 78, and was buried in Orem, Utah, Utah, United States.

Background and Early Childhood

Warren Willams was born April 1, 1921 the fourth child of Willard Philip Williams, son of William and Mary Ellen Ward Williams of England and Marie Alborg Denmark. Warren was preceded in birth by Elleanora, born June 14, 1913; Edith Johnette, named after her great grandfather John Borget and wife of President Wilson; Edith Bowling Galt Wilson, born August 18, 1916; and one year, one month, one week and one day later Max Wagner was born September 27, 1917.

The Williams family lived in a small white frame two bedroom home in Provo for several years. In 1918, World War I, the war between the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, United States, Italy, etc.) had come to an end. It was also the year Willard was offered an attractive job in North Salt Lake City as a livestock foreman. Maria was to cook the meals for the men employed on the ranch.

It was while the family lived in North Salt Lake City that a terrible flu epidemic killed many people. People died so fast that often there was not time for funerals. It was against the law to meet with groups of people because of the flu epidemic. The family was terribly stricken with the flu. The attending physician gave hope for the children but gave no hope for their parents and gave them up for dead. That night, grandmother Borget came to Marie in a dream and told her to mix warm lard and kerosene and drink it and she would get better. During this epidemic, Marie lost all of her pretty hair, but she was willing to try anything. Sure enough, they did get better; unfortunately, however, she had to wear a cap for many months while her hair grew back.

In 1920, the family moved again. This time they moved to Pocatello, Idaho where Willard managed another hog ranch for Frank Wagner. One of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century was the automobile. The automobile brought new meaning to the word transportation. While the horse and buggy and the bicycle are personal means of transportation, they could not travel far. The automobile extended the range and the comfort of travel. While the automobile is generally recognized to be a European invention, the United States, and in particular Henry Ford, was the leading builder of low-cost cars. In 1903, Ford manufactured a four-cylinder low-cost car that became known as the Model T. When the Williams family moved from Salt Lake City to Pocatello in 1920, they traveled in a four-door Maxwell automobile with plastic windows that often cracked in the cold weather. Many of the conveniences that we take for granted were unheard of in those days. A heated rock or brick was put on the floor to heat your feet during the winter months. The windshield wipers were hand powered. A hand crank was turned to start the engine. The family purchased the Maxwell, their first family car, in 1918. Previous to that, the family owned an Overland – a one seater that was strictly a sports car.

The old frame house that the Williams family called home was run down. The water was supplied by a pump in the yard, light from a kerosene lantern, and heat from a range stove. The pressing iron was heated over the stove; the curling irons for the hair were heated over the kerosene lantern. Weekly baths were taken in a round wash tub set near the kitchen stove to keep from chilling. An outdoor outhouse complete with a Sears catalog added to the comfort. It was into this environment that Warren was born on April 1, 1921. In his words:

I was born at home. I have been told that my two sisters and brother were playing outside on a pile of rocks when I was born.

Elleanora, Warren’s oldest sister describes the experience this way:

We always called him Bill. I don’t know why. I guess Dad and Mother started it. I remember so well the day he was born. It was early spring – April 1, 1921 in Pocatello, Idaho. The hired girl took us (Edith, Bud and I) on a picnic up on the rocks at the other end of our hog ranch. When we returned, we found Mother in bed with a darling baby with blonde hair, such a little bit of it, and blue eyes. He was something special to all of us. As a baby he had a skin ailment called eczema. It was bad. Mother used to put mittens on him so he couldn’t scratch, but still he managed to scrape the scabs off. Poor little boy, how miserable he must have been.

The wind blew practically all the time in Pocatello. In the winter, it blew the finely powdered snow through the tiniest cracks around the windows and doors. Many mornings the family would awaken to find the shape of the door outlined with snow on the floor. The window panes would be painted with beautiful delicate scenic patterns of encrusted frost done by Jack Frost during the night. The family moved into town while the home was remodeled and repaired.

One of the fondest memories the children had was when Willard received a big wagon load of boxed candy of every kind, which had become too old for the dealers to sell. Willard put it in an extra bedroom and shared it with the loved ones, especially the family. While living in the Gem State, the family made four moves in and around Pocatello. However, during the time the family lived in Idaho, Marie’s health was never good. As a result, the family moved back to Salt Lake City in 1922.

When the family moved back to Salt Lake City, they lived at 255 Coatsville Avenue. Warren describes his first experience:

My first recollection of anything was playing outside in front of the house. I had a three wheel kiddie car and there was a hole in the cement where a toad would occasionally pop up. I used to play a game with him where I would try and run him over before he went back into the hole.

Shortly thereafter, the family moved back to the west side of Provo where the family had a farm. Elleanora describes the experience of the farm:

Bill was about six or seven years old when Dad raised lots of peas for the cannery. We would haul them to the cannery by the wagon load. Bill would sit on top of the load and shell the peas and eat them all the way to the cannery and back again. He told me in later years that he credited all the peas he ate in helping overcome his eczema.

Warren describes the experience this way:

As a child, I was inflicted with eczema and mother told me she used to tie my hands at night so I wouldn’t dig all the flesh off my face. I don’t remember it because one year on the farm we had twenty acres of canning peas contracted with the local cannery. That summer during the harvest, I had a big straw hat and I would pick that full of peas and ride on the wagon to the cannery and eat peas all the way up and back. I did this for the length of the harvest and my eczema disappeared. I have never been bothered with it since.

Warren states other memories of an old grey horse that had:

I used to lead our old grey horse around and try and get him to stand in the ditch so that I could get on him. Every time I would try and get on him, he would move forward four or five feet and I would have to do it all over again. I remember leading him into the yard one day in order to have mother help me get on him. I was hollering for her and the horse stepped on my foot. I was barefoot. I remember letting out a few choice yells, and my mother came and got the horse off my foot and put me on him. Another time, with all of us on the horse—you usually had to beat the horse to get him to go down the road, but his time he took off on a dead run to get home. One time when my Dad came home, not knowing that we were not home, he closed the gate. The old horse came down the road and stopped in front of the gate and all four of us went right over his head.

Lois was born February 19, 1924.

Edith describes a childhood memory:

One of my very favorite memories of Bill was when he was six or seven years old. He was always throwing rocks. He called them “binics.” He was such a tease that he antagonized the older boys. If they started after him, he threw “binics” to keep them away. One day he took on a little more than he could handle, and the whole gang came after him. As luck would have it, we had a very large tree in our backyard. Bill, thinking this was a safe place to get away from the gang of boys, climbed as fast as he could up the tree. The gang of boys, not to be outsmarted, started to climb the tree after him. Bill, I am sure thinking very deliberately, used the most personal weapon he had. He squirted those boys right back down the tree again. They didn’t bother him anymore.

Norma was born December 8, 1925.

Norma states:
Because of my brother Bill, I was named Norma. According to Mother, Bill had a “crush” named Norma. He just insisted that the new baby have the same name.

The late 1920s and the early 1930s were marred by the Great Depression. These were lean years. The economy had reached a low ebb, and over a quarter of all workers were without a job or even the hope of finding one. With many people out of work due to the Depression, the LDS Church organized the Welfare Program in 1936. During a time when hundreds and thousands had to rely on their government for support, the Church took care of its own through a coordinated program of financial, nutritional and employment assistance. Warren describes this period of time:

These times were hard. My folks were plain old dirt farmers. We had a vegetable garden, sugar beets, and onions. My Dad rented twenty acres in addition to the fifteen that we had.

Elleanora writes:

Things must have been a little rough because I remember getting a little hungry and there was nothing to eat but fried green tomatoes. Mother stayed with us children while Dad looked for a means of making a living.

The family raised garden vegetables and sold them to the stores. The vegetables had to be pulled, washed, and tied in bundles early each morning. The whole family worked together. On cold wet mornings, the turnip tops seemed like thistle. Willard would load the family truck with produce and head south to Gunnison. Occasionally, the family truck would head north to the Salt Lake market. On occasion, one of the older children would be allowed to accompany their Father as he delivered produce to the stores.

Maurine, the seventh and last child, was born May 7, 1929.

Life was hard during the depression years. Warren describes a particularly challenging experience:

We walked everywhere we went except in the winter when the snow was too deep. Then Dad would use the old pick-up truck to take us to school. He was quite ill at the time and had to take care of the twenty acres of sugar beets he had planted. He used to wake us kids up at daylight so we could go out to the farm to thin beets until breakfast then go on to school. It was so cold that we would build a fire at the end of each row and after working that row, we would stop and warm our hands. This went on all spring until we had the beets thinned. All my Father could do was tie the line or drive the truck. I think it was rheumatism that my Dad had. My mother used to take one of the old tubs and fill that with hot water, just as hot as he could stand, and he would climb in the tub and she would put an old rug over him. I remember this rug being red in color. She would take the hot water from the stove and pour it on him. I remember the sweat used to pour off of him. The steam and heat would take the color out of the rug and when he got out of the tub, he would be died red like an Indian. My mother would put a sheet around him and he would lie on the kitchen table and she would rub his back and legs with alcohol. He would get up and holler, but it seemed to relieve him of his misery.

Even though times were rough, the family always did things together. Warren had some special memories about his parents and their special qualities:

My Dad had a sense of humor that was both good and bad. I remember when he was picking some peppers and we had an artesian well. He was washing off those peppers before they were packed in the box. They were green. I came up and asked if I could have one, and he gave me one. Of course, it was hot and I complained. He said it wasn’t ripe and he gave me a red one. I bit into it and learned to question whether he was pulling your leg or telling the truth.

I think my Dad’s humor and love for horses came from driving a stage coach. Being out in the open, they naturally pulled tricks on one another. One other experience was that of our barn. It was located about a hundred yards from the house. One night when my Dad came in from the field, I asked if I could ride the team. He separated the team and put me on one of the horses. Just about that time, the dog got excited to see me on the horse and the horse took off on a dead run for the barn. As we got closer to the barn, I could see that I wasn’t going to make it under the door. So I pulled the reins to one side and thank goodness he turned off into the plowed field. I dove off the horse and rolled but didn’t get hurt. The Good Lord was watching over us even as youngsters.

My mother was always kind and generous. She always cooked us very good meals. Our clothes weren’t the best, but they were always clean and patched. She always made cake and cookies. Early in her life she had been a cook at a bakery.

Although the following story is humorous, it does provide some insight into the difficult Depression years:

I think one of the funniest stories about my Dad was during the days on the farm. Those times were tough! Dad and his buddies would go down to Sanpete County peddling vegetables. Some of the time, they didn’t do too well. One of the trips my Dad had an old Dodge truck that he took out insurance on. There was a long lane at the entrance to our farm, and on the way back home (my mother could see them coming down the lane) he stopped the truck at the gate, and all the sudden smoke went up into the air. Mother saw all this commotion and called the fire department. They came and put the fire out before the truck burned up. My Dad was really disappointed that he couldn’t collect the insurance on the truck.

Warren remembers other humorous incidents about life on the farm.

One time, we were out on the farm hauling hay and my Dad was trading horses. That wasn’t unusual. He was always trading horses. He had just traded for this one horse and we had it out hauling hay. The horse was coming out of the field near the irrigation ditch when the front wheels of the wagon dropped in the ditch and the horse wouldn’t pull. My Dad tried everything to get that horse out of the ditch. He finally got mad and said “I’ll fix that damn thing,” so he built a little fire under the horse. Of course, the horse moved and pulled the wagon over the fire and burned the wagon up.

Mother and Dad had a real good sense of humor. I remember as a small boy about six or seven years old they took us on a picnic. I was just starting school and was learning how to play marbles. My Dad told me that if I would learn how to play, he would buy me some marbles. I didn’t have any marbles so I didn’t know how to play. On our picnic, we came across some sheep droppings, so he and I had a game of marbles. That is how I learned to play marbles.

I remember when I was a small boy and Dad was down on the farm with the Dodge truck. The old Dodge truck had a silent starter on it. It was hard to start especially in cold weather, but this was early in the spring time. It would not start. My Dad parked it in the toolshed. We had a large circular driveway with grass in the center. On one side of the driveway was the well, and next to that was a big ditch. My Dad tried to start the truck and it would not start, so he decided to crank it. Apparently, and accidently, he kicked it in reverse. He got out there and cranked it once and it started back across the driveway. He was running out after the truck and hollering. He threw the crank at it and the crank went through the windshield.

In the depths of the Great Depression, the fall of 1931, Willard was approached by a friend about renting a hotdog stand on the Orem bench. The stand had been run down in sort of a way that respectable people would not patronize the store. The family, together, cleaned up the place and put in a small stock of confections with a lunch stand. They catered to the Lincoln High School students. As business expanded, gas pumps, groceries and a soda fountain were utilized to increase business.

The entire stock of the store was purchased for $9.00. Receipts for one day were only 35 cents and another day 15 cents. Maria and the children made meat pies that sold for 10 cents and 5 cents. A gallon of gasoline sold for less than 25 cents. Competition was fierce. Many nearby competitors threatened to run “old Bill Williams” out of business. These threats were taken seriously because the 30s were anything but golden. In 1933, American businesses were failing at a rate of 7,000 per month. Through the blessings of the Lord, the Williams store was preserved. Times were tough! The years 1931-1933 were the depth of the Great Depression. However, Herbert Hoover was President of the United States and promised a brighter economic future. Due to the economic hardships, Christmas gifts were meager and small that year. Gifts were purchased at the 15 cent store.

A year later, Willard had an opportunity to rent a store across the highway. This was a better location than the other store. Willard decided to rent this store and called it the Lincoln Confectionery. The store catered to lunches for the school children and gradually worked into a small grocery business, in addition, gasoline and oil was sold.

About this time, the world and the nation were coming out of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, built confidence in the people by his famous fireside chats with the nation on the radio.

Soon, as business began to pick up, Willard was able to buy another store with gas pumps and a few acres of land and built a nice brick home behind the store.

As children grew older, they enjoyed outdoor activities together. Elleanora writes:

We, the children, spent much of our spare time down by the river as we grew older. We swam, built rafts, skipped rocks and had much fun. We also learned to work hard.

School was also a very important aspect of the children’s daily activities. Warren describes his memories of school:

Our schooling was typical with one teacher for most of our classes. We were taught reading, writing and arithmetic mostly. We attended school from eight in the morning till four in the afternoon. Of course, when we came home in the afternoon, we had our chores to do which included packing in water from the well, gardens to weed and fruit to take care of.

Elleanora writes:

He (Bill) attended Timpanogos Elementary School. He was a good student. He attended the Spencer Elementary School after the family moved to Orem and later graduated from Lincoln High School. He was a handsome young man full of fun, popular with both teachers and students.

Elleanora remembers another experience in Warren’s early youth.

He was always neat and clean. He hated to get dirty. He was usually ready for a dare. He worked with his father at the service station during high school years. One night, he was to help Dad with a night irrigating turn. He went to a dance and came home at midnight to help. Dad was already out back of our house with the stream of water. The water had backed up making a pond around the house. Bill was in a hurry and ran across the lot, forgetting we had dug a large hole twenty feet deep and twelve feet wide for a cesspool a few days before. So, as he ran, all at once he couldn’t touch bottom. He was over his head in water. Lucky for him, Dad was nearby and reached the shovel handle to him to grab onto and pull himself out. He was one very surprised and wet young man.


Family Activities

In the mid-1930s, the radio was introduced into the Williams home. The radio added a new dimension to family life. Willard enjoyed baseball, so when the World Series was broadcast in the late fall, the whole family used to gather around the radio. He also enjoyed boxing. The family never failed to listen to a Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey match on the radio. On Saturday mornings, there were children’s plays on the radio. On weeknights, there were programs like “Mert and Marge,” “Our Gal Sunday,” or “Amos and Andy.”

In addition to the radio, the Williams family spent many evenings sitting around the kitchen table with Mother reading to the family. Shiny red apples were placed on the top of the cook stove, and the children would watch them jiggle and dance, and then eat the apples while still hot.

Evenings Willard would often teach each of the children how to stack and stand matches and playing cards to build all sorts of houses, buildings and even cities.

Lois, Warren’s younger sister, describes an experience that she remembers best:

When I was at home, I remember most Bud and Bill, in the evenings, wrestling on the floor. I hated it because I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. Both of my brothers were very, very kind to me at all times, but I never did like to see them fight. I remember when we moved to Orem and the big old barn that was out in the back with its hayloft. We used to have such fun – those big long ropes that hung from the ceiling – oh, what fun we used to have playing Tarzan or swinging back and forth. It’s funny that we didn’t break our necks. It didn’t seem like anyone got hurt. I think Norma used to play with us. Maureen was too little to swing.

Norma recalls an experience:

I remember Bill as a big brother who, if we begged long enough, would wiggle both his ears at the same time just to amuse my little girl friends.

One time he had me riding bareback behind him on Dad’s horse and decided to see how fast we could go through an orchard. He ducked to miss a low hanging branch but failed to warn me… It seemed like ages before I could breathe again… but I was fine after a while.


Church Activity

Willard was born into polygamy, the eighth in a family of ten. Although Willard was born into the church, he was not active.

Maria was raised anti-Mormon. Grandma Borget, who raised Maria, turned against the church because of the acts of the missionaries, for whom Grandma had given up her bed many times and the treatment she had received at the hands of the so-called LDS people. Even though she was not raised with LDS beliefs, she did attend the local Congregational Church. At Christmas and Easter time, the scriptures were read and discussed regularly. Maria described one of the experiences this way:

Not being LDS I was abused some, being told I was going straight to hell. The person who frequently told me these things punctuated every word with an oath…. After a session of her abuse, I told her I preferred going to hell rather than to go where she was going.

As Elleanora and Edith got older, many of their friends were LDS and they started to attend MIA activities with their friends. Eventually they joined the Church. Finally, after many years, Maria’s heart began to soften with respect to the Church. While living in Provo, the Home Missionaries from the Pioneer Ward called at intervals to present the LDS beliefs to the family. A kindly old gentleman brought a Book of Mormon to read. By studying the Book of Mormon and reading the book “Added Upon,” Maria became genuinely interested in the Church. On March 9, 1930 Maria and the two boys, Max and Warren, were baptized. They were confirmed on March 16, 1930.

Sundays were always a special time for the family. Warren describes a typical Sunday family experience that he remembers best:

We went to church each Sunday. After church, it was always a ritual that we would have a block of ice and an old gunny sack. One of us boys would beat up this ice into small chunks. Between the four of us, we would churn ice cream. That was our Sunday delight so to speak. It was all togetherness because we all pitched in and took our turn.


Teenage Years

By the time Warren was a teenager, his two oldest sisters, Elleanora and Edith, were married. Elleanora describes another experience that she remembers:

Bill was not perfect and caused Dad and Mom several hours of worry. But that is a fault of all children. One time, he had taken a girlfriend up on Squaw Peak (located a top Provo Canyon) and the car stalled. They hitch-hiked down to the main road in the canyon where they caught a ride. He took the girlfriend home, and then he came to Bert and me for help. We didn’t have a license on our car, but we went to the rescue anyway. When he and Bert got up to the stalled car, it was locked, so back home they came to get the key from Bill’s coat pocket which he left at our place. Then back up the canyon to get his car. What a night.

Another story as told by Elleanora:

Another night, he was driving down Carterville Road in Orem and failed to negotiate a turn and tipped his car over on its side down the embankment. Next morning Dad, Bert, Bill and Merlin Prestwich got the car back on the road again.

Lois remembers another experience about her older brother that illustrates his desire to get out and explore the world:

I remember the hobo trips that Bill, George, James and others took….In the summertime, there was nothing to do (I don’t know why). They used to catch the train and ride the rails – oh, how worried Mom used to be about that. I never will forget this one particular day when they came back home and they came in the Café –honestly, Bill looked so skinny and tired. I remember that Mom had us make hamburgers and chili for him, and I thought that we would never get him filled up. But I was sure glad to see him back home again. Mom used to really worry about those trips. In later years when we went fishing with Bill, he would tell us about those hobo trips and being down in the hobo jungles with those little men, how frightened, cold, and hungry they would get.

Lois was particularly close to Warren because he was the older brother she looked up to. Warren and John Park were close friends in high school. They played football together at Lincoln High School. Warren was an end and John Park was a guard. Later, John Park was to become Dad’s brother-in-law as he married Lois. Lois describes an experience that she remembers:

Bill taught me how to drive a car. I don’t remember whose car it was, but it was a grey coup, and I remember the doors swung open from the front (it was so different). He used to take me to the old river bottoms on several occasions to teach me how to drive a car. I couldn’t have been very old at the time. Later on when he had the little black Model A, I used to steal that on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and go down and pick up Norma Burr. We would ride down to the Geneva Highway up to Fifth West over the viaduct and home again. I was really, really surprised when we were on the fishing trips and I was telling Bill that I used to take his car and he didn’t even know it. I was surprised that he didn’t notice that the gas was gone. He said he used to wonder why it didn’t go any farther than it did, but he never found out that I took his car.

The decade of the 30s was a time of personal growth and change for Warren. The same thing can be said for the world and nation during the decade of the 30s. The early 30s were marred by 25% joblessness and uncertain economic future. Still, hard times were good times. With the economic Depression came the swing and the big bands of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie and Glenn Miller who beat their way to international fame with the help of a new technology called radio. Prohibition fell. Believe it or not, there was humor, “We are the first nation to go to the poor house in an automobile” quipped Will Rogers.

Not even the Great Depression could dampen America’s passion for a personal driving machine. Between 1929 and 1933, railroad revenues dropped 61%, but then amount spent on automobiles continued to increase. After reaching a production low of 1,135,491 automobiles in 1932, automobile production increased in 1935 to over 3,000,000 cars.

America continued to grow in other ways too. Despite the Depression, the 1930s saw the arrival of the first drive-in movie theater (Camden, NJ, 1933), the first American limited-access toll road (the Pennsylvania Turnpike), the first drive-in bank (Sound Bend, IN, 1936), and explosion of drive-in restaurants and motels, and even the world’s first parking meter (Oklahoma City, 1935). The winding ribbon of highway promised exhilaration, adventure, and end to rural isolation, and even a new way of life known as suburbia.

The Great Depression slowed the growth of the LDS Church. Only 678 full-time missionaries were called in 1931 and there were 672,000 members of the Church that year. In 1931, 104 stakes existed, only eight outside the intermountain area and only four outside the United States – three in Canada and one in Mexico. There were 31 missions, 14 outside the United States. There were seven temples, three (Arizona, Hawaii, Alberta) outside of Utah. By the end of the 1930s, the membership totals were up to 803,000 and stakes had grown from 104 to 129.


1940s: Time of War and Peace

In 1940, Warren went to California to work at Walker Mine. His future brother-in-law, John Park, also went to work in Walker Mine. Warren and John eventually had the same job in the mine but on different shifts.

While in California, Warren had a brief experience driving a truck. Lois, Warren’s younger sister describes an experience that she remembers hearing about:

Sometime later, John (Park) was driving a truck. Jobs were hard to get at that time, but he got Bill on driving a truck. On the first day, the owner told Bill to drive while he climbed in the sleeper portion. He had not received instructions or training and had never driving a truck before. Bill darn near lost it because he didn’t know how to use the brakes or to judge the amount of weight to push him. That one trip was all Bill ever made. The owner took over driving and he drove all the way to Los Angeles and back because Bill refused to drive. Needless to say, Bill never ever drove a truck again. Bill was never afraid of work however. I don’t ever remember him being without work of some kind.

Upon returning to Utah, Warren went to work at the Bingham Canyon mine located in the Southwestern portion of Salt Lake County. He became very ill and was in the Bingham Hospital for several weeks. While in the hospital, the doctors removed all of Warren’s teeth thinking that was the cause of his sickness.

In the 1940s, Warren became very good friends with a John Adams. John Adams describes his years of friendship and association with Warren in the following paragraphs:

In the summer of 1941, Bill and I went to Calico, Colorado where they were building the Cattle Dam. We started working there as jack hammer men. We worked there for about a week when I happened to see a friend of mine who I worked with in the California mines by the name of Carvo Mitchell. He was the hiring boss for Uclip Trucks. He hired Bill and me to drive Uclip Trucks. These trucks were used to haul gravel and dirt to the dam. We did this for the summer. We lived in a trailer and ate at the café on the site. I can remember that neither one of us liked cowboy music when we went out there. However, that was all they had on their music boxes. Before we finished, both of us got used to cowboy music and actually became quite fond of it. We had a lot of fun going to many dances – we didn’t go to a lot of shows, but we enjoyed the dances. We met a lot of girls and went with a lot of girls. In fact, that is when Bill got married to his first wife in LaMar, Colorado.

Warren was married in LaMar, Colorado to Norma Carr. One son, Wayne Philip Williams was born April 20, 1943 in Provo, Utah. The marriage ended in divorce.

John Adams continues:

When Warren got married, that is when I came home. We were separated for a time. It was probably in 1943 that I started working for Samson Electric in Arizona. Later, I was transferred to California. During my vacation, I came back to Utah and Bill was at home. He decided to come with me back to California to see if he could get a job with the electric company. When we arrived in California, the superintendent told us that the job was running down and they were laying people off. I decided to quit the electric company and Bill and I both got a job in the Ford Motor Company assembly plant in San Francisco. The plant was assembling tanks, 4 by 4s, and jeeps for the war. We worked there for several months. About that time, we both decided we wanted to join the Merchant Marine. However, there were not any ships available so we went to work for Standard Oil of California and worked there for several months. While we were staying in San Francisco, we roomed together with a family that we had a really good relationship with. We were just like members of their family. We ate at their table with them and were treated as members of their family. We played tennis with the husband and wife. Bill had played, but I hadn’t. They had some young children and we really enjoyed the time we spent with this family.
The seeds of World War II had been sown among the flowers of pacifism at the end of World War I – the “war to end all wars.” While in the 20s and 30s, the US took this slogan seriously and largely dismantled its military apparatus, militaristic fanatics rose to power in Germany and Italy. In Japan, a militaristic clique was dictating an expansionist policy that had carved out the puppet nation of Manchukuo, in Manchuria, and was bent on conquering the rest of warlord-ruled China, despite the disapproval of the US and other nations of the world.

In Europe, the two dictators, Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini, had grabbed power promising to rescue their respective nations from depression, bankruptcy, labor strife, anarchy, communism, second-rate power status and whatever else ailed them. As they built up their military might, they began swaggering through a series of international adventures that added to their heroic status among their constituents.

The US officially turned its back, determined not to be drawn into another European war. Still, Americans listened to and read the news bulletins avidly, alarmed at the audacity of Adolph Hitler, the German chancellor, and at the ruthless efficiency of the Wehrmacht. They also were continuing to keep an eye on the opposite side of the world where the Japanese invasion to China that had been under way for some time. This long had been a source of friction between Japan and the US.

In the Far East, Japan tipped its hand by announcing its alliance with the Rome-Berlin Axis and by grabbing Indochina, a French colony. The US was feverishly bolstering its bases throughout the Pacific. This effort proved too little and too late when the Japanese surprise attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Congress acting swiftly after President Roosevelt had revealed that the Japanese had destroyed two American warships and 3,000 were dead or wounded by the surprise attack. On December 8, 1941 by a vote of 82 to 0 in the Senate and 388 to 1 in the House, the United States declared war on Japan.

John Adams continues to share his personal experience with Warren as the United States is at war with the Japanese, Italy, and Germany.

In the early part of 1943, we decided again to try to get into the Merchant Marine (and were accepted). Before we joined the Merchant Marine, and left Standard Oil of California, we talked to our supervisors and they tried to persuade us to stay and even offered us supervisory positions. We explained that we were leaving because the draft was close to us and we didn’t want to go into the infantry. Instead, we wanted to sign up for the Merchant Marine. They told us that when the war is over we could come back because there will be a job waiting there for us. We left feeling good about the work we had done for them.

We went down to the shipping company and were hired as ordinary seamen. We made a trip from San Francisco to Hawaii to unload equipment and returned to the mainland and went up the Sacramento River to Stockton to unload. We returned to San Francisco to pick up a new load. We also got a new ship and we departed in convey to Brisbane, Australia. It took about 30 days. We saw many ships that had been sunk by the Japanese ahead of us. We saw the whole sky light up ahead of us as the Japanese sank these ships. We heard more about the Japanese attack in Brisbane and felt fortunate that we were behind the attack area. We shipped on a zigzag course, all blacked out, which helped to conceal our position from the Japanese. We did have Navy escort ships along with the cargo ships to add some protection.

We unloaded and loaded up again at Brisbane and then traveled on to New Guinea. There were several ports there. We acted more or less as a floating warehouse for our forces for a long time. While there, Bob Hope and his entertainers came to the island for a performance. We got a jeep and went to the performance and really enjoyed it.

While we were at port and being unloaded, it was the deck hand’s job to chip the rust off the haul and repaint it. We did this for 8 hours a day. It wasn’t the most pleasant job in the world. While we were at sea, it was a lot more enjoyable. Bill and I did a lot of inside painting on the ship. Bill and I were the best painters that they had on the ship, and they let us work extra in order to make a few dollars as the ship moved from one port to another. While we were at sea, we each took an hour and twenty minute wheel-watch, which means we actually steered the ship on course. We did this as an able-bodied seaman not as an ordinary seaman. After six months of sailing, a sailor may take an examination in order to be an able-bodied seaman. Bill and I took this examination and passed it as soon as we accumulated six months duty. We also acted as boats men, whose duty it was to supervise the deck hands as need be.

We had the hour and twenty minute wheel-watch and hour and twenty minute stand-by-watch, and then an hour and twenty minute look-out-watch. This happened twice each day. We worked eight hours each day. At look-out-watch, we climbed the front mast to the crow’s nest and watched for ships on the horizon and reported any findings to the Captain.

We shipped together on several ships. Two of these ships lasted for 10 months each. We went to Sydney, Australia for about six weeks from there to Brisbane and from there to Perth.

Occasionally, Warren came home to Utah on leave to visit his parents and brother and sisters. He would always bring some souvenirs home to the family. Elleanora describes one experience that she remembers:

He would always bring remembrances home to the folks. On returning from one trip, he brought Edith and I a beautiful piece of natural colored real silk. I was afraid to cut into it for fear of ruining it, but I finally made a lovely blouse. He was generous to a fault.

The Merchant Marine business was a rough one and only because our Heavenly Father had work for him to do did he survive.

On one of his leaves from the Merchant Marine, he met Norma June Thompson from Orem, Utah. They were married. One son, Larry Russell Williams was born on September 20, 1945. The marriage later ended in divorce.

John Adams continues his and Warren’s experiences during World War II:

We did get in some of the action. We went into the Admirality Islands before the islands were secure. We went on shore and walked inland a significant distance and there were dead Japanese everywhere. It was a horrible sight and smell. It appeared that many had been dead several weeks. The smell was terrible. It makes you wonder why we fight wars.

Neither Bill nor I were active in the Church at this time. We didn’t have any worship services aboard ship. When we were in a port, neither one of us thought about going to church. There was only one time that I went to church and I went to a Catholic mass – Bill was on fire watch and couldn’t go. We really didn’t try very hard to find a church. We might even have found an LDS service. I regret not having a strong testimony to find the Church. I’m sure we could have found the Church in Perth.

In August of 1945, the United States introduced the atomic age by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9 respectively. Thereafter, the Japanese offered to surrender and put an end to fighting in the Pacific.

It was a cool September morning as General Douglas MacArthur stood on the deck of the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay and accepted the surrender of an 11 man delegation of Japanese diplomats and military man. The date was September 3, 1945. It was 8:09 a.m. when the 65-year-old MacArthur put his signature to the documents. The other representatives of the Allied powers took their turns in signing. When they all had finished, MacArthur went to the microphones and said, “Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.” Just then the sun came out, shining brightly. The war was officially over.

When the war ended, John Adams, Warren’s best friend during the ward, returned to Utah. After a short stay in Utah after the war, Warren decided to continue sailing with the Merchant Marine. John recalls his memories of this period of time:

…Bill signed on to another ship and went to the East coast and then over to Europe. He went to Italy and France. When he returned, he came and saw me and related how wicked the people were in Italy and especially France. They had very bad morals. He was concerned about these things even though we weren’t active in the Church. He then signed on to another ship and went to the west coast. During this time, his ship had a break or an accident and had to be rescued in a storm. About this time, Bill quit sailing and met Gertrude and decided to settle in Washington.

On April 4, 1947, Warren left on the steamship SS Marcus Daly scheduled to return on April 16, 1947. The ship returned as planned and discharged in Tacoma, Washington. On April 17, 1947 Warren and Gertrude Helen Steenbook were married in Seattle, Washington in a family ceremony.

Later that same year, the first child was born to the Williams family. A little girl named Sheila Maria Williams.

A second child was added to the Williams family on April 24, 1949. Another little girl named Gwendolyn Williams.

On August 6, 1949 Sheila Maria was taken home to her Heavenly Father prematurely. Warren’s parents Willard and Maria made the trip to Seattle to be with the family during this trying time.

As the decade of the 40s came to a close, the world was at peace and the economic prospects were promising. By 1946, production lines had turned from armament to autos. For better or worse, Americans were building their world around the auto. The cars themselves were pampered, bathed, adorned and even given their own room in the suburban home.

The social changes initiated by the automobile in the 20s and 30s accelerated following World War II. Suburbs cropped up almost anywhere there was a road to serve them. Where the suburbs went, other amenities of the mobile life soon followed. Between 1947 and 1950 for instance, 2,000 drive-in theaters were built. The 40s saw the birth of an institution that was at once the symbol and the centerpiece of suburban living –the shopping center.

Fashion styles changed after the war. Designer Christian Dior introduced the new ankle-length dress. “It shows everything you want to hide,” said one woman, “and hides everything you want to show.”

Whether in auto, electronics, aviation, or fashion the seeds of the future took root during the 40s. In February 1946, for instance, ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, went “online,” while on September 17 of that same year commercial television sets went on sale in the United States.

World War II slowed down the progress of the LDS Church. The number of missionaries in the field dwindled to the lowest level since 1918, but the gospel message was carried far and wide by Mormon servicemen. More people became personally acquainted with Latter-day Saints than ever before. After the war, full-time missionaries were back in greater numbers. More than 2, 360 are called in 1949, the most ever.

During the decade, church membership topped one million for the first time, up from 803,000 at the start of the 1940s. Stakes grew from 128 to 175. George Albert Smith became church president in 1945. Wartime restrictions on travel cut down on many church meetings and general conferences in the Salt Lake tabernacle for three years. When the war ended, the church began sending supplies to destitute members and others in Europe.

A major beautification program for church buildings and property, interrupted by war, was resumed on a larger scale. The Idaho Falls Temple was dedicated, the first since the Arizona Temple 18 years earlier in 1927. For the first time, more than a million people visited Temple Square in a single year. Microfilming of genealogical records commenced in Europe during the 1940s.

Overall, the decade of the 40s were a time of war and peace coupled with unprecedented growth which influenced all aspects of life.


1950s: A Time of Growth and Challenge
During the next few years, the Williams family lived in Seattle, Washington in a small three bedroom home located at 1717 41st Ave SW. With the growth of the automobile, there were opportunities available to service and maintain those autos. For several years Warren worked at Barnacuts Service Station located on the corner of 41st Ave and Admiral Way in West Seattle. It was long and demanding work with very little remuneration.

The Williams family continued to grow. On Friday April 1, 1955 a 7 pound 13 ounce baby boy was born to Warren and Gertrude. The baby was named David Warren. Warren celebrated his birthday with the birth of his son.

The family lived a quiet life in West Seattle. Many years later Gertrude described their life in a letter:

We were a family that stayed home a lot. Your Dad (Warren) did not make much money. We did not live a very exciting life. We always lived in the same house, went to the same schools, churches, etc.

On October 7, 1957 a third child, a baby boy named Douglas Neal was born.

As the decade of the 50s rapidly came to a close, Warren decided to go to work for Carter Oil as a manager of one of their service stations. On November 17, 1958 Warren and Gertrude took out a mortgage on their house for $2,950.12 at 6% to finance the operation of the service station located at 20650 Pacific Highway South in Seattle. Again, the work was hard and long with very little remuneration. To earn extra money, Warren did odd jobs. Warren and a gentleman by the name of Mr. Taylor started a business called B&C Exterior House Washing. The service was promoted as a help to clean the outside of your home before painting. In 1960, Warren earned $1,092.79 cleaning and washing homes for B&C House Exterior Washing.

Television swept across America, exploding from three million sets in 1950 to 30 million by 1955. A nationwide audience viewed President Eisenhower’s inauguration in January 1953. The same month, even more people tuned into “I Love Lucy.”

By the end of the decade, car ownership had topped 75 million. In 1956, Congress passed the Interstate Highway Act that would see the construction of a 41,000 mile network of superhighways joining virtually every major city.

America was struggling to enter space. The 1957 launching of earth’s first artificial satellite –Sputnik I – by the USSR had stunned America. In the late 50s, American rockets seemed more inclined to crash than fly.

Although the Williams family was not active in the Church, the growth of the LDS Church continued in the 50s with membership increasing nearly 600,000 to over 1.6 million. Stakes grew from 175 to 290. Outbreak of the Korean War in the early 1950s curtailed missionary work some, but by the end of 1959, the total was nearly 7,000 above the level at the start of the decade. David O. McKay became the 9th president of the Church in 1951. The Church became better known as television carried conference outside the Salt Lake City area. President McKay traveled to many parts of the world drawing attention. The Swiss, Los Angeles, New Zealand and London temples were dedicated.
1960s

The 1960s were a time of change. In the early 60s, as the family got a little older, the Williams family became active in the Church. Warren served as Cub Scout Master for a while and as 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency in the West Seattle 2nd Ward in the Seattle Stake.

On December 28, 1960, a fifth and last child was born to Warren and Gertrude, a little baby girl named Marilyn.

In the early 60s, things got so bad that Warren suffered his first heart attack. Warren had been born with a slight heart problem. However, it had not really bothered him up till now. When Warren recovered from his heart attack, he was forced to find work that was not so strenuous and demanding on his health. He decided to become a real estate salesman. Eventually he would become a broker.

Things did not improve in Warren’s marriage so quickly. Things got worse and by the mid-60s Warren and Gertrude got a divorce.

Elleanora, Warren’s oldest sister, and her husband Bert Skinner made several trips to Seattle to visit the Williams family. She described her feelings this way:

They had a good marriage and were very happy. It was always so fun when they came home to Orem to visit. Five children were born to them, Sheila, Gwen, David, Douglas and Marilyn. Sheila was taken home to heaven while still a baby. I never did see Sheila, but Mom (Maria) said she was idolized by her Dad. Bill’s health was very poor because of his bad heart and Gertrude had a hearing problem (as a result of nerve damage suffered around the birth of Gwendolyn). Things finally became so bad they too were divorced. I felt so bad over this and couldn’t see how this could happen to a family who I had seen join hands at the dinner table to talk to their Heavenly Father. Such heartaches this divorcement brought to both of them and the children. As his health became worse, he had to find work that wasn’t so strenuous so he went into the real estate business. Because of his caring for people, he became a very good salesman. Later he became a broker.

On March 8, 1966, Warren married Pearl Jacobs of Seattle. This was a very unhappy marriage. It was a miserable experience for both parties and children. In 1971 divorce actions began when Warren suffered his second heart attack. After Warren regained his health, an attempt at reconciliation with Pearl was made.

On the world-wide front, the United States was catching up with the Soviets in the space race. On February 20, 1962 John Glenn became the first American in orbit by making several orbits abroad the Friendship 7. The space program reached new heights by the end of the decade as Apollo 11 touched down on the moon on July 20, 1969. By 1971, space astronauts took a joy ride across the moon’s surface in the world’s first extraterrestrial car – the Lunar Rover.

Americans were shocked on November 22, 1963 as President John F Kennedy had been shot and killed while in Dallas, Texas. But the worst was yet to come.

Television brought the nation and world closer together. Everywhere, it seemed, there was upheaval. In Czechoslovakia, Soviet tanks ended that country’s brief encounter with humanitarian reform. In France, a student rebellion escalated into national strikes that culminated in the resignation of President Charles de Gaulle. In the United States, a noble but mismanaged effort to create a Great Society combined with the increasingly unpopular and expensive Vietnam War overloaded an already superheated economy. This added a new scourge, inflation, to the world’s list of woes.

In music, first Bob Dylan, then the Beatles, replaced Elvis Presley as the decade’s leading pop heroes.

Still, there was much that was uplifting and encouraging as the LDS Church expanded to an international scope in the 60s. Church membership grew from 1.6 million to 2.8 million. Stakes increased from 290 to 496. There were 13,000 full-time missionaries by 1969. The responsibility to spread the gospel was expanded with “every member a missionary” program. The age for young men to serve missions was lowered from 20 to 19 and a language training program was opened at BYU.

The first stakes in Europe (England) and Australia were organized. The first non-English speaking stake in the Church was established in the Netherlands, followed quickly by others in Germany and Switzerland. The first Spanish-speaking stake was organized in Mexico the next year. General Conference was carried by TV into Mexico for the first time.


1970s: Personal Growth and Church Activity

The attempt at reconciliation with Pearl Jacobs was unsuccessful and finally after several year of legal nit-picking, the divorce became final in February of 1974. Oh, the lessons of life can be so hard sometimes!

Elleanora describes how Warren felt about his relationship with Pearl after many years:

He married Pearl Jacobs, which he told me he came to learn as a very bad mistake, so it ended in divorce. One of the things he told me shows how great a person he was. After the hatred that was shared by him and Pearl got so bad, he finally asked his Heavenly Father to help him get rid of these terrible feelings, and God granted his request. He finally reached the point where there was no hate, but in its place concern. He could actually wish good things for her. That was the kind of man Bill was.

In July of 1972, Warren met and got acquainted with Phyliss Cummings while selling real estate at Benton’s Realty in South Seattle. Phyliss kept a journal of her experiences during what would be the last seven years of Warren’s life. Warren also kept a personal journal of some of his personal experiences. Warren also wrote several letters to his children during these years. The last seven years of Warren’s life were the years that he gained his testimony and shared it with others. The following are quotes from these documents to share Warren’s last seven years.

The following is Phyliss’s review of her beginning relationship with Warren as recorded in her journal:

In July 1972, I started selling real estate at Benton’s Realty, Inc. located on Hwy 99 by Sea-Tac airport. I was new and Bill was an associate broker. He was recovering from a bad heart attack and just getting back to work. The manager, Ed Heidel, put us together for floor time. The whole office made sure we stayed together. They were afraid of him previewing houses and going up and down stairs. So, I drove and he taught me how to look at houses, show them to customers and how to sell and list houses. He answered all the questions a beginner has. So, for two months, I drove and Bill answered questions and drilled me on terminology so I could pass the real estate exam. Every Tuesday we previewed FHA repos for all of the company and wrote down the information so all the salesmen could sell them without going to see what the houses were like. One day in late August, we were drinking coffee and I asked Bill point blank, “Are you a Mormon?” He said yes, after he choked on the coffee and dropped the cup. He had a funny look on his face and asked why? I said for the last two years I’ve been considering a divorce but I’ve made up my mind that my next husband would be a Mormon.

The next Tuesday morning he was at my home at 8:00 a.m. He knew my husband Arthur Wydler. Bill came into the kitchen with a serious look and said, “Hughie, our Broker said to give you this” and he hands me my temporary license. I thought I had failed the exam. Then Bill laughed and said “it’s been replaced with your new license.” Bill was always kidding. I never knew when he was serious or not.

We were on the 6-9 p.m. floor time and just ready to leave when a sign call came in. After getting the person’s name and number, we went to see the house. It was new and vacant. I was standing in the basement looking out a window. Bill came up and put his arms around me and said, “If I sell this house, will you give me a kiss?” I said, “yes.”

In November of 1972 Bill had congestive heart failure and went into the hospital for two weeks. The office and I nourished him back to good health again.

In March of 1973, Benton’s opened its Kent, Washington office and Bill and I moved our license to Kent. We worked hard that summer and business was good. One morning Bill met me at the office and said, “Let’s get lost.” He had gotten a bucket of chicken and a bottle of champagne and glasses. He said, “I want to show you some land.” The land was on the top of a hill overlooking Fall City on the Snoqualmie Pass. You could see for hundreds of miles. Bill spread a napkin over a big stump and we had lunch and spent the day talking. When the sun went down, it was beautiful and the mist lay in the valleys. It was so beautiful and peaceful we hated to leave. We went often that summer and fall to rest on our day off.

Bill got sick (congestive heart failure) again in November and was back in the hospital until Christmas. He got out and then had to go back into the hospital after the new year of ‘74.

After our divorces were final (March 1974), I sold my house in Kent and bought one in Edmonds. Doug Williams and his friend helped us move. Then Bill went to bed and during the night I knew something was wrong. I got Bill dressed and rushed him back to Providence Hospital in Seattle. The doctor met us there and said it was congestive heart failure again. Bill was there until his birthday, April 1. I brought him home. He was home until my birthday on April 12. Then I took him to the doctor for a checkup. Dr. Hale put him in Providence Hospital. He was there until about May 15.

Bill was on so much medication that sometimes he didn’t know where he was or who I was. One day I walked into his room and Bill was really spaced out. He said, “What the ____ are you doing here?” So, I went to find the doctor and Dr. Hale said Bill was as good as dead and that Bill knew it. Well, I went back into the room and Bill was in a fit of temper. When he was finished, I stood at the foot of his bed and looked him in the eye and said, “You dirty ___, ____, ____, you wouldn’t dare die before you make an honest woman out of me after the hell I’ve been through to be free to marry you.” I said a prayer and left. I told the doctor to get him undrugged. If he was dying, let him do it with a sound mind. Bill was taken off the drugs and off the death row and the next morning he was in a new room with a nurse by him constantly. That day I visited him three times, 45 miles round trip. The next day he asked why I didn’t come to visit him, so I told him what had happened. That the doctors had given up. It was up to him. He either wanted to live or he didn’t. He asked me if I loved him. I said yes. He said OK. Then he started getting better. Bill’s children came to visit him.

Finally, in May 1974, Bill came home and was never back into the hospital. We had an oxygen tank in the bedroom until August 1974.

On May 28, 1974, Bill and I were married by Bishop Bendixion in his office at the church. It was the happiest day of my life.

It was about this time that the Williams family started its annual Williams’ Family Reunion. Generally, the family would gather once a year for a weekend of activities and church on Sunday. Edith, Warren’s sister, writes of a memory that she recalls:

Another memory I have of Bill was when we had our very first family reunion. He was so sick he could only lay in the shade and talk. I remember I came up to him as he lay resting and he started to tell me how he was going to try to live a better life if our Heavenly Father would give him a chance.

It was about this time that Warren and Phyliss and her children began to get active in the Edmonds First Ward in Everett Washington Stake. However, Warren’s health was still fragile, but he progressed slowly. Phyliss writes:

On Father’s Day, the kids and I surprised Bill with a cake we had baked and decorated for him. We did numerous things that required no energy of Bill. Ferry boat rides around Puget Sound and fishing at Dusty Lake in Eastern Washington, clam digging, etc.

Our first Christmas we went to Las Vegas to visit my aunt and uncle. On the way home, we hit a blizzard on Donner Pass and had to return to Reno. We went to visit the town and Bill had his pocket picked.

Wanda, Liz and I were baptized March 8, 1975.

In August of 1975, Warren was called as First Counselor in the Edmonds First Ward Sunday School Presidency – a position that he would hold for two years. Phyliss continues her writing:

Bill was working steady again, but money was tight, so I went to work at Craftsman’s Press. We took out the lawn in the back yard and planted a garden and it really grew. We had the Elders from the Washington Seattle Mission living in our basement. We did lots of canning and freezing.

In August of 1975, Warren’s oldest son, David, from his marriage with Gertrude, had decided to go on an LDS Mission. He was called to the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. Shortly after arriving in the mission field, a mission division created the Canada Winnipeg Mission to which David was called. Warren offered to take David to the Mission home in Salt Lake City. In addition, we were going to stop and visit with Johnny and Lois Park in Idaho Falls and take our endowments out in the Idaho Falls Temple. The last week in August of 1975, Warren and his two sons, David and Doug, headed first to Idaho Falls and then to Orem, Utah to visit with his brothers and sisters and then to the Salt Lake City Mission Home to send David on his mission and then the return trip to Seattle.

It was a wonderful experience to go to the House of the Lord. Warren’s experience in the temple was the springboard for further involvement in the Church and further testimony building experiences.


A Temple Vacation

In April of 1976 Warren and Phyliss took a two-week vacation which included visits to many LDS temples. Phyliss writes:

We had a two week vacation and visited several temples. We had a special experience at the St. George temple. We got our testimony of genealogy work there. This was Bill’s first time to see the desert in bloom. We took many pictures of cactus and desert wild flowers. Beautiful colors like the country was doing its best to show off for Bill. We spent a weekend in San Fernando Valley visiting my relatives.

On April 22, 1976 Warren and Phyliss chose to be sealed for time and eternity in the Idaho Falls Temple.

On April 22, 1976 Warren wrote the following in his journal about his feelings:

I entered the Idaho Falls Temple at 5:00 p.m. with Phyliss Pauline Williams, my wife of civil marriage, to have her sealed to me for time and eternity in the House of the Lord. Trying to realize the full implication of the meaning of eternal life. My first thoughts in the waiting room with Phyliss sitting beside me were of joy and expectation; knowing that we were to be together forever. The next hour was one of preparedness. Entering the Celestial Room and seeing her for the first time in her wedding dress and veil, I knew without a doubt she was the one that I wanted to spend the rest of eternity with. As we knelt across the altar from each other to be sealed, our eyes were locked on each other. I was thinking how much she resembled my thoughts of a lovely angel. May God have an influence on my posterity and my loved ones that they may be fortunate and worthy to receive this great and wonderful blessing of eternal marriage.

On May 22, 1976 in a letter to David serving a full-time mission in Canada, Warren expressed his thoughts:

The beauty of the experience and the sensation of the nearness of the Lord in the temple through the session will never leave us. I only hope all my children will experience this someday.

Phyliss wrote these lines in the family journal:

I was in the process of recovering from major surgery. I prayed very hard and almost constantly that the headache would leave me. Lois and Johnny Park went with us to the temple. The four of us and many others were in the prayer circle together….As Bill took my hand and took me through the veil, I had an indescribable feeling that someday he would surely do this again. With mounting excitement, we went into the sealing and marriage room. I don’t think our eyes left each other as we knelt on the altar with hands clasped….I had a feeling of sweetness and full satisfaction come over me as we were sealed for eternity.

On April 24, 1976, Warren and Phyliss were in the Provo, Utah Temple so Warren could be sealed to his parents for time and eternity. Warren recorded the following in his journal:

My thoughts in the Provo Temple were more in regards to the actual purpose of the temple. Being a film presentation and working temple it shed more light on the creation and man’s fall, God’s laws for redemption. Bert, Elleanora, Edith Jones, Phyliss and myself went into the sealing room. Bert and Elleanora were proxy for my parents. A man by the name of Cobley from Alpine, Utah and three missionaries were the witnesses. As we knelt, I laid my hands on Bert and Elleanora’s to be sealed. I had the strongest testimony that my parents were there too. It must have been so because both sisters confirmed that they had the same feeling. Afterward, on the way to the dressing room, Edith told Phyliss she could see Mother with her special little smile that she always had when she was pleased with us.

Elleanora, Warren’s oldest sister, wrote the following:

The sealing of himself to Phyliss Cumings, his wife, and the sealing of himself to Dad and Mother. This was such a special day for all of us. He asked Bert and I to be proxies for Dad and Mom. Such a wonderful experience. We all commented on how we could feel Dad and Mom so close.

On Sunday, April 25, 1976, Warren wrote the following in his journal:

We went to Sunday school and Sacrament meeting with Bert and Elleanora. One fact that was clear to everyone is that President Kimball has asked for everyone to set a special family goal that by December 31, 1976 everyone would have a year’s supply of food, water and fuel for every person in the family. He also asked that everyone turn in family group sheets for four generations. This we will try to do.

On Monday April 26, the family visited the Salt Lake Temple. Warren wrote:

Bert, Elleanora, Chiree (Bert and Elleanora’s granddaughter), Phyliss and myself with Wanda, Elizabeth, and Phillip went to visit the Salt Lake Temple. The four children entertained themselves by taking the guided tour of the grounds and watching movies in the new visitor’s center. The four of us went through the temple. It had snowed the night before and was very cold. The Salt Lake Temple is very beautiful with exquisite workmanship. It took forty years to build and was eventually finished in 1897. Being the headquarters of the Church and housing the Prophet and Apostles, I should have had a more inspirational feeling. But, I guess having the children more or less on their own kept me from the spirit I should have had. The real inspiration I had was while waiting in the Assembly room and looking at the huge painting of Jesus. I asked a prayer of safety for the children while we were in the House of the Lord. He seemed to move towards me as I watched.

On April 27 the following entry is recorded in the family journal:

The family visited the Manti Temple Visitor’s Center. Phyliss has a very bad cold and there was no one to watch the children, so we did not go through the temple. The Manti Temple is a very beautiful setting high on a knoll, very dominant. It can be seen for miles in any direction. It is located on a hill of stone, 63-feet above street level. The preparation of the site commenced April 25, 1877, and the building was completed and dedicated May 21, 1888. It is 171 feet long, 92 feet wide and 79 feet high to the square. The East tower rises 179 feet and the West tower is 10 feet shorter.

The family proceeded on to Las Vegas to visit Phyliss’s aunt. On April 28 they arrived in Las Vegas and made plans to visit the St. George Temple. The journal describes the experience:

We got up at 6:00 a.m. and drove about two hours to St. George. It was a beautiful peaceful morning. Things were just warming up to a summer day. Passing through the desert of Nevada and the canyons of Arizona, we saw wildflowers and cactus in bloom. This all seemed to set the right mood for us to visit the St. George Temple.

Inside the temple was so cool and quiet. I felt like Heavenly Father and His angels must surely visit this temple often. I felt the pressing need for the work to be done for the dead. It left me with a powerful feeling that I must work harder on my own genealogy. We were the first couple for the 9:00 a.m. session. We were the witness couple, which was quite an honor. Afterwards we took pictures and visited the visitor’s center. The president of the temple came over and introduced himself and asked if we were LDS and if we carried a Book of Mormon in our car. After this visit, we will not forget.

Warren describes the experience:

This session was one of the most inspiring sessions of the entire trip. The beauty of the experience and the sensation of the nearness of the Lord in the temple throughout the session will never leave us. I only hope my children will be able to experience this someday.

On April 29, the family continued on their vacation to Los Angeles to visit more of Phyliss’s relatives. On April 30, Phyliss describes the Lost Angeles Temple session:

We got up early to visit the LA Temple. It is huge and impressive but seemed to lack the quiet, humbling, inspiring feelings of the other temples. I was very disappointed in the session. We were ready for the 9:30 a.m. session, but it didn’t start until 10:00 a.m. There was remodeling repair work going on. The man was sawing and kept hitting nails or something. That made my nerves start twitching. The three ladies in front of me fell asleep and the snoring was loud. One lady was eating candy. The man in charge was chewing gum. The guy next to Bill kept complaining about the time. It seems our session was after three big wedding groups. We had a 45 minute delay total. We were disappointed in the session. However, the visitor’s center was terrific. It has a three dimensional type corner showing Christ in Jerusalem and Christ in the New World.

This vacation, which turned out to be the vacation of a lifetime, can be summarized by Warren’s comments to his son David, then serving a mission in Canada. The letter is dated May 12, 1976:

Went to the Salt Lake Temple and Provo Temple. Bert and Elleanora were proxy for my Mom and Dad so I could be sealed to them. We all felt as if they were in the sealing room with us. What a sensation!

Left there and went to Manti – Didn’t go through the temple (couldn’t get someone to look after the children). What a beautiful setting for a House of God; high on a knoll that you can see for many miles in all directions. Went south through the Canyon National Parks – at this time of the year, the whole desert county is in bloom (it’s most beautiful).

Drove on into Las Vegas where we stayed with Phyliss’s aunt for two days. Drove back to St. George and went through one of the most inspiring sessions of the whole trip. The beauty of the experience and the sensation of the nearness of the Lord in that temple throughout the session will never leave us. I only hope all my children will experience this someday. From Las Vegas to Los Angeles for two-day stay with Phyliss’s sister and relations. Went through the LA Temple. It was huge and impressive but seemed to lack the quiet, humbling, inspiring sensation of the other temples.


The Final Years
Phyliss summarizes her notes in the family journal covering the final years:

Bill wrote the largest deal of his real estate career in 1977. He sold 87 acres of beautiful virgin timbered property in Woodway. The price was $675,000.
Bill and I went to Victoria, B.C. to celebrate our temple sealing. We relaxed and soaked up the sun. I talked Bill into getting our picture taken in old fashioned clothes. It was our family joke picture. John and Lois Park came to visit us often while they were on business trips.

In July of 1977, we went to the Williams’ Family Reunion at Bear Lake. It was 92 degrees when we passed through Idaho Falls at 9:30 a.m. The high altitude and sudden heat at Bear Lake made my three kids sick and bad sun burns. We left the reunion and went to Yellowstone National Park. The mud pots and geysers are unique, but no bears. Some of the mountain views and trees reminded me of the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. A fun vacation. We stopped at Idaho Falls and took in a temple session.

Bill was made manager of Duce Realty in the Lynnwood office. I hung my license with him and worked while waiting for my arm to improve. Bill’s big sale closed in October and he bought a new Ford ¾ ton pick-up and paid cash. We drove to visit Johnny and Lois for the weekend. We came home by way on Montana. Bill and I love traveling and took off every chance we had. We had a boat 19-ft. fiberform deep V hull. Bill and I fished often, and I encouraged him to go as many times as he could get away because of the stress of managing the office.

In February of 1978, Bill sold the boat. We caught lots of fish and had several testimony building experiences. One experience – Bill and Wanda got up at 3:30 a.m. to go fishing. Took the boat out to the good fishing hole, cut the motor, put the lines in, and had fish on the lines and realized they were standing in water and the batteries were covered with water. They got the motor started and headed for the boat lift. The operator saw them coming and was ready to lift them out. Bill drained the boat and they went back to fishing after putting in the plug. Tom Duce, Bill’s partner, had forgotten to put the plug back in the boat after using it. He often forgot to do things like filling the gas tanks, the plug, and often forgot to clean the boat. All of this irritated Bill, so he bought Tom’s half. Wanda gave her testimony the following Sunday. She knew Heavenly Father was watching over them because the batteries, lots of times, didn’t start. It was a miracle they started when they were covered with water.

In May of 1978, we took the kids fishing at Dusty Lake in Eastern Washington. We caught lots of trout and celebrated our anniversary.

In June of 1978, we went to the Williams’ Family Reunion and had a wonderful time. We left Provo and went to Idaho Falls to visit a few days with Johnny and Lois. We planned to go to the temple. Wanda had a recommend for baptisms for the dead. Johnny’s ward was called to do baptisms while we were there. Lois and I worked with the girls in the locker room. Bill and John confirmed. There were a record number of baptisms done in a short time span. The temple president came to thank everyone. This was our first and only time that we worked in the temple. It was a wonderful experience! Bill and I talked for a long time of the feeling the experience gave us working in the temple.

Norma, one of Bill’s sisters recalls one of her last experiences with Bill at a family reunion:

The last time we talked, I was so impressed by the greatness of his manner and speech. He expressed great love and concern for his children. We rejoiced at his activity in the church because it was so important to him. He was obviously at peace with himself.

In 1978, Warren got involved with a land development project in St. George, Utah. He and several partners were purchasing land for a shopping center. He and Phyliss sold their house in Lynnwood, Washington and used the proceeds to finance development of this property. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned and Warren and Phyliss purchased a smaller home in Lynnwood while they worked out details for the property in Utah. The new smaller home in Lynnwood needed lots of work and Warren often spent a great deal of time improving the property.

After the William’s family reunion in the summer of 1979, Warren’s health began to weaken. He began to experience chest pains, and the doctor placed him on medication to relieve his pains. There was nothing the doctors could do to improve his heart. They could only try and relieve his discomfort. Although he did not tell anyone (but Phyliss), he experienced these pains. Phyliss prepared each of the children on what to do if Warren were to have a heart attack if she were not at home (what telephone numbers to call, etc.).

In August of 1979 Marilyn, Warren’s youngest daughter from his marriage with Gertrude was about to leave and enter BYU as a freshman. Marilyn shares the following:

This father’s blessing was given to me before I left to go to BYU my first year. The blessing was given in Dad’s home in Lynnwood on August 16, 1979. This was the last time I saw him since he died about three weeks later.

Marilyn Williams, I place my hands upon your head and through the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood which I hold, I give you a Father’s blessing. Marilyn, if you keep the commandments and are worthy, your Father in Heaven will bless you continually. As your father, I ask that you reserve your strength for the times when it is needed to help you through sickness and worthiness. I bless you with wisdom that you might be able to discern right from wrong and always follow in the right footsteps. That you might have the courage to carry on in this path and through this time that you have ahead of you, which is one of temptation and many distractions. Marilyn, if you will keep the commandments and follow them diligently, you will not have any problem with things of this world that are not beneficial to you. They will not help your mind. I ask, and give you a blessing, that anything that you do will be done in safety that you will have your guardian angel with you at all times. Marilyn, I also bless you with the following of the Holy Ghost. That at such time that you kneel and ask fervently with all diligence with faith, knowing that you will receive any answer and that the Holy Ghost will come unto you. Marilyn, if you do the things that you have been taught in this world, the things that are right, carry them to the end, carry them through school, then you will find a mate that will be worthy of you, that you can go to the temple and be sealed for time and eternity. Marilyn, I give you a Father’s blessing that you will be fertile. That you will have children that they will be a joy unto you and that you will be a good mother unto them. Marilyn, these things I say unto you as your father and ask them to be sealed through the name of Jesus Christ, and I do it in His name. Amen.

Three weeks later, while painting the outside of his home in Lynnwood, Warren collapsed on the front porch of the home. The children called the paramedics and the Bishop. The Bishop gave him a blessing. The paramedics worked for 45 minutes and transported him to the hospital. However, Warren’s heart was too weak. He died on September 10, 1979 at 7:30 p.m. He was 58 years of age.

  Begivenheder i hendes liv:

• Indvandring, 1895.

• Bopæl, 1900, Provo city Ward 3-5, Utah, Utah, United States.

• Bopæl, 1920, Salt Lake City Ward 5, Salt Lake, Utah, United States.

• Bopæl, 1930, Provo, Utah, Utah.

• Bopæl, 1935, R, Utah, Utah.

• Bopæl, 1940, Provo Bench Election Precinct, Utah, Utah.