Frank Union and Emily Rufi Frazier, Part 3

Frank was a rancher, and did all that entails. He raised and herded sheep. He was involved in the community and with his family and with the Woodruff School Board. He never joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was known for his honesty and always keeping his word.

Frank’s friend and chiropractor from Salt Lake City, Dr. Karl Hawkins, liked to visit the Ranch. He’d come for a short stay, set up shop and give adjustments to family and community members. He too enjoyed the deer hunt. Frank and Emily wrote frequently to their son and daughter-in-law, Glenn and Helen Rex Frazier, in Oakland, California. They sent pictures. Frank also kept yearly day journals.

Emily grew her own vegetables where the growing season never gave a tomato the chance to ripen. She was so pleased when the first peddlers brought their produce to this remote area. They produced their own milk, poultry, eggs, meat, and almost everything they needed. She canned and preserved her harvest. Frank helped her. Emily made the finest laundry soap.

Their children attended the Woodruff school as Frank had done. One afternoon soon after they returned home from school, Emily was frightened by a strange noise in her dining room. After some investigation the children discovered a white pig rooting the table around.

Woodruff stake conference was held in Evanston and required a whole day for the trip, meetings, and lunch at Aunt Maude Frazier Eastman’s.

Emily shared Frank’s enthusiasm for music, and in their early married life they often sang duets. My Wild Irish Rose and When You Wore a Tulip were among their favorites. Her favorite hymn, Nay Speak No Ill, reflected her philosophy of living. Two other favorite hymns are Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses and Let us Oft Speak Kind Words. Frank could frequently be heard singing Margie as he worked around the Ranch.

Frank’s name of endearment for his wife was “Emmie.” After a stay in Salt Lake City, Emily said to Frank upon her return to the Ranch, “I’m so happy to get back and don’t know that I would ever want to live anywhere else.” Frank replied, “You have made me very happy to hear you say that, Emmie.”

While a young woman in Woodruff, her dearest friends were Sophia Ashton and Ephie Longhurst. They served in a Relief Society Presidency together. For fifty-five years Emily served as a visiting teacher in Relief Society; from the days in Union when she traveled in a buckboard wagon with her small children, to later in life when she drove her nineteen fifty-something green Chevy. She shared the joys and sorrows of her family and community her entire life. As each of her grandchildren arrived she made herself available to attend the new mother and baby. She daily lived the principles of love and service she taught her family.

On 17 Jan 1953 Frank passed away in a Salt Lake City hospital. He was buried in the Woodruff City Cemetery.

Emily did not like living alone. Daughter and son-in-law, Delora and Bruce Frodsham, moved to the Ranch and lived with her. She would spend weeks at a time with her son Glenn’s family in Salt Lake City, or in Huntsville, Utah with her son Elmer and daughter-in-law Verla Madson Frazier’s family. Always anxious to be busy and of service she helped with cleaning, laundry, cooking, mending, tending, listening, wherever she was needed.

It was during several of her visits to Glenn and Helen Frazier’s home in Salt Lake City in 1968, that I interviewed her for this history. I kept the notes for nearly twenty years before compiling them in the 1980s. The things she shared with me are as clear today as when she told me her story, because I wrote them down.

Emily passed away at her home on the Ranch in Woodruff, Utah 15 Sept 1972. She is buried beside her husband in the Woodruff City Cemetery.

(To be continued.)

Continuation of History of Frank Union and Emily Rufi Frazier. Pictures from the collection of Glenn and Helen Rex Frazier. Picture of Frank and Emily's visit to California in the 1940s.