Thursday, November 12, 2009

Glenn and Helen Rex Frazier, Part 8

After his wife, Helen, passed away June 26, 1982, Glenn overcame his fear of flying. He flew to Maryland to visit his daughter Susan as often as he could. She treated him royally and they enjoyed one another’s company. He began using Helen’s cane after she passed away. For the most part he enjoyed good health, and always had plenty of energy to help someone else. He helped his son and his daughter’s families in countless ways.
Glenn is standing next to Brigham Young’s statue in the United States Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D. C. Susan took him to the White House, the National Cathedral, the Smithsonian, the Washington, D.C. Temple, and introduced him to her friends. He loved staying there, and looked forward to each trip.
Daughter Susan took Glenn to New York City. His son, Rex, was there on business at the time. They had a wonderful time together.


Glenn and Susan outside her Bethesda, Maryland home.


May 25, 1989, Susan received a Masters Degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Glenn was proud and happy to be with her in Baltimore to celebrate her accomplishment.

Friends and family celebrated Glenn’s 80th birthday on December 27, 1989 at a gathering in the South Salt Lake City Hall.

Glenn loved to reminisce and visit with family. His siblings kept in touch. L-R, Delora Frazier Frodsham, Bruce Frodsham, Verla Madsen Frazier, and Elmer Frazier visited Glenn.

His sisters-in-law, Winnie and Flora, kept in touch with Glenn. One day they met at his home in Salt Lake, spending the day with him, washing his walls, blinds, curtains, cleaning his house, and lifting his spirits.
Symbolic of the countless celebrations Glenn participated in with his family, he is with his son and daughter at the Salt Lake Temple, attending a granddaughter’s 1989 wedding. Glenn and Helen have three children, fourteen grandchildren, and thirty-six great grandchildren.

Glenn continued serving in his quorum and watching over the widows he was assigned to home teach. Many a lonely, needy person he comforted in their loneliness, and was thus comforted in his own. Helen’s passing was a deep loss. He said there was no way he could go on without her for more than ten years!

In June, 1992, a month before Glenn passed away, he was with a granddaughter when she graduated from the University of Utah.

Glenn and his grandchildren had such good times together. He was an available and willing chauffeur. And as such, they became good friends with their grandpa. He got them to gymnastics, dentists, work, school, practices and they frequently went out to lunch together.

The Iceberg, an old fashioned drive-in, selling the world’s best shakes, was a frequent haunt of his. A couple of granddaughters reported a challenge they had in the drive-through there one day. They stopped by the Iceberg after gymnastics. Glenn hadn’t noticed a plastic milk crate in the middle of the drive way when he turned in, and drove right over it. Unfortunately it got stuck under his truck.

He attempted to dislodge the thing by first rolling back and forth over it, to no avail. He got out of the truck and used his cane to push against the crate from every conceivable angle. As his granddaughters looked by, calling from the truck, one of them suggested he let her crawl under the truck and free it. He would have none of that, and continued poking at the crate with his cane.

As the tension of the situation mounted, Glenn began experiencing some tightness in his chest. He pulled out his little bottle of nitroglycerin tablets and popped a few. He had angina, and this kind of stress brought on pain. Calming finally, he drove off with the crate dragging under the truck. In recounting the tale Glenn laughed as much as his granddaughters did.

Glenn passed away the afternoon of July 4, 1992 at the L.D.S. Hospital. A couple of nights earlier his grandchildren had been with him, sitting on his bed laughing, and playing cards together.

Glenn and Helen Rex Frazier are buried together at Elysian Gardens, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Pictures and history from my collection.

1 comment:

  1. I have so enjoyed these wonderful accounts. Thank you for posting them. One of our favorites is your folk's house with "Sophia Jane" and your dad's truck.

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