#3 Beryl Burt Sanborn. Concluded.

Continued from here.

In 1976 Beryl joined the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (DUP), Hanauer Camp.

She was proud of her ancestors and cherished her pioneer heritage.

 It is evident from this well-used list of ancestors,

 she turned here frequently to keep track of family members, and their names.

After Pete's retirement, they frequently vacationed with friends, 

Harvey and Veda Danks (Harvey must have taken the picture).

In 1962 Richard, Beryl, Pete, with Ringo.

Beryl enjoyed playing the slot machines whenever they vacationed in Nevada, 

and she liked to win!

In 1979 their children invited friends and family to celebrate

 Pete and Beryl's fiftieth wedding anniversary.

Elizabeth is her youngest grandchild, and is shown here in 1984 near Beryl

with the family kitten on her lap. 

Beryl was always the care giver. In the last few years of her life, Beryl's family had the opportunity to reverse roles with her. She lived in her daughter Marlene's home, until she passed away on December 22, 1986.

Pete passed away the following September 21, 1987.

After Beryl began receiving Social Security she had a little money to call her own. She did with it whatever she chose, and tithing was on the top of her list. She was a great one for stashing money in a “safe place,” and sometimes had a difficult time remembering where it was. 

A pile of books from Pete and Beryl’s house was headed to “good will” following their passing and the sale of the home. Their son Richard rifled through the pile, retrieving a few he could use, a good dictionary in particular. Months, or a year or more, later one of her grandchildren picked up that dictionary to look up a word, and out fell a hundred-dollar-bill. Forever after they searched through anything that came from their grandparent’s house—looking for one-hundred-dollar-bills.                          

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Bonus picture here

#3 Beryl Burt Sanborn. Part 4.

(Continued from here.)

Pete and Beryl's grandchildren in front of their grandparents' home.

l-r; Suzanne, Gina (in front) Dawn [(behind her) Dawn Valene Silotti Newren 1952-2001], Jimmie [James Kevin Sanborn 1954-2000], Becky, Sherry, and Vicki Gwen Sanborn [ 1951-1999].

Beryl treasured her grandchildren. There were seven when this photo was taken in about 1963, ultimately there would be thirteen. Beryl was a modest woman and not inclined to boasting. She enjoyed reading a good book, being with her family, her favorite soap opera, quilting, and attending relief society.   

In the final year of her life she wrote, “We have 12 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Pete helps Richard at his antique shop so between times we are kept busy cutting lawns and keeping our garden weeded.” 

Beryl is the lady in the front on the right of the quilting frame.

This picture was undoubtedly taken in the Millcreek 1st Ward .

Beryl is the second lady from the left.

The other ladies in both pictures are unknown to me.

The garden! Pete and Beryl's garden was something to behold, encompassing most of their back and side lots; perfectly pruned rose bushes producing glorious roses, and peonies--huge peonies, and a bounty of vegetables. Produce enough for the family and neighbors. Traditionally the grandchildren sold much of the harvest to raise money for their school shoes and clothes. The annual ritual of the garden, the work  and the reward, is now fondly remembered by her grandchildren.

Beryl wrote, “The first time Pauline [Burt, her sister-in-law] had me go to R. S. [Relief Society] I had left beans on cooking and had to leave. I was secretary in R. S, then I was put in [as] organist for a while [James Burt purchased a piano for his children, and Beryl learned to play the piano as a girl]. Oral Greening was president and she asked me to cook & serve on workday. So I got my dear friends Leola Austin & Veda Danks to help so we were in charge of that for a year.”

Veda Danks and Beryl in Pete and Beryl's living room.

In 2004 Beryl’s descendants wrote their memories.

Daughter Marlene: “When I think of the years after my marriage and when my girls were little, I really know what a wonderful mother I had. I was so miserable during my pregnancies and Momma was always helping me.

“When I hurt my back doing yard work and had to stay in bed for a month Momma came up every day. If I had to take one of the girls to the doctors (which was often with Becky) she was my chaffer.

“During those years we were just barely getting by money wise, she would always buy me a dress for church.

“I had a huge ironing to do every week, so early every Tuesday morning she would come up with her iron and ironing board and help me do it. She always brought something nice for lunch. I know that is why I have always liked to iron. Whenever somebody in the ward needed help I have offered to do their ironing.”

Son-in-law, Gene:  “Every year for many years we would go to Payson [Utah] and hunt pheasant. We would bring home the pheasants along with some cotton tail rabbits, Beryl would cook a big meal of rabbit and pheasant for the whole family. (Next to the [Beryl’s] pot roast this was my second favorite meal). I think that her Thanksgiving dinners were a close third.

“Pete never seemed to get enough of yard work, he loved being outdoors and in his gardens. The way his yard looked with his flowers and the (raked) gravel driveway, was a testimony of this. Not to mention the best corn in the valley. Which brings us back to his love of hunting .... It seems that the pheasants loved Pete’s corn too. Pete would get his 22 rifle using a 22 short (a bullet which makes very little noise) standing inside his backdoor he would shoot at the pheasants .... A few minutes later Beryl would go out with a dishpan [to] hang out some clothes and come back in with dinner.

Daughter-in-law, Joanna: “Remember Grandpa’s Iris and Rose Gardens. They were the prettiest things on that street.

“Planting corn in the Spring and the harvesting it in about August and then letting the kids go door to door selling it for school clothes. It was the best and sweetest corn I have ever eaten.

“Nobody could fix pot roast like Grandma. It makes my mouth water now to think about it.

“I remember when Grandma and Aunt Leah [Sanborn] would go to Salt Lake maybe 2 times a month. They would have lunch and then take in a movie. (This was about when they started rating movies). Well, they went into the old Rialto Theatre on 3rd South. They got their tickets and proceeded in. The usher met them and explained that the show was x-rated. They said that was fine. About 10 minutes elapsed and 2 red faced women came out. Aunt Leah asked the Usher why he didn’t tell them it was a dirty movie. He said I told you that it was x-rated. They thought he meant the movie had been x-rayed.”

(To be concluded.)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5

An Unexpected Bonus!

I noticed at the Utah State History Site that they have a collection of High School Yearbooks. I spent an hour there one morning going through a few of them and reaped a jewel.

A yearbook staff member, or someone, got the spelling of Beryl’s last name wrong. This is seventeen-year-old Beryl Burt, pictured on her Senior Class Page (23) in the 1923 Granite High School Yearbook, The Granitian, and a thought attributed to or about her. I wonder if she selected it--she wouldn't have misspelled her own name.

She looked just like her granddaughter, Sherry, looked as a young woman.

You can read Part 1 of Beryl Burt Sanborn's biography here, and find links to additional posts about her.

#3 Beryl Burt Sanborn. Part 3.

Front row, L-R: Beryl, Margaret, Ag, and Edna (married to Irvin). Back row, Sid Park (married to Margaret), James Burt (father), Mel (holding son Bill), Irvin (holding son Merrill).

Continued from here.

Pete and Beryl lived with her father James while they built their own home. Beryl cooked for her father and cared for his home. James was a plasterer by trade, and did the plastering in Pete and Beryl’s home, as he did in each of his children’s homes.  He did most of the plastering, crown moldings, and decorative cornices in the Mill Creek Ward they all attended on 6^th East and 3900 South.  James wasn’t one to attend church, and his son-in-law, Pete, wasn’t either.

After Beryl moved into her own home, she and her brother Mel’s wife, Pauline, took care of James’ needs for the following six years. They took turns seeing that he had meals, his clothes were washed, and that his home was clean. He soon learned to play one against the other for additional food and goodies. On the week that Beryl cooked, her dad would go to Pauline and say, “My girl, I haven’t had a bit to eat today.” Pauline would immediately prepare something special for him. The same thing would happen when it was Pauline’s week. James was happy to spend his later years right with his family.

Beryl said she worked for a time during World War II at a small arms ammunition plant on Redwood Road. That was presumably the Remington Arms Company, that operated from about 1941 to 1945. They made 30- and 50- caliber ammunition and created 10,000 jobs.

During this time Beryl gave birth to her youngest son, Richard, on June 1, 1941, and gave him her given name for his middle name, Richard Beryl.

Beryl is the woman in the middle of the front row looking forward. 

The workers are all wearing corsages. I wonder why.

Beryl later worked at a Cannery in Murray, Utah. It’s difficult to determine what it was called while she was working there.


“Another smaller cannery in the state was the Twin Peaks Canning Company in Murray in Salt Lake County. The factory was burned twice. After the second fire, the factory was rebuilt and reorganized as the Rocky Mountain Packing Company. The cannery was later owned by the Hunt Company.”

Beryl was a hard working woman. She kept her home neat and tidy, and prepared delicious, nourishing meals for her family. There was a half wall dividing her kitchen from her dining room. The upper portion was an open knick knack-shelf unit. The light passing through the rooms shown off the white high gloss painted shelves that displayed her treasures.

Her daughter, Marlene, wrote of her mother that "during the 2nd World War nylons were hard to get. She had me stay out of school and go to town early in the morning to stand in line to get her a pair. When the store doors were open it was a mad stampede to get in. She did it the first time and that was enough for her. I was glad to get out of school and she always gave me money to have lunch in Kresses or Grants."

To be continued.


Part 1
Part 2
Part 4
Part 5    

#3 Beryl Burt Sanborn. Part 2.

Once when Beryl was able to get away from the fields and garden,

she did go swimming. 

A photographer snapped this picture, and it appeared on the front side of a Post Card

Typed on the face of the card is, Aunt* Beryl is on picture

also Bessie Love, wife of Earl Love.

The penned in * star identifies Beryl. My guess is she’s 14-16 years old.

Is this happy group of women at Saltair or Blackrock Beach?

James Burt in front of his home at 407 East 39th South

Salt Lake City, Utah

Continued from Part 1

Beryl wrote that after she and Pete were married in 1929 they lived near the fairgrounds.  Pete’s parents, George Benjamin and Amy Lavena Haywood Sanborn, lived at 928 West South Temple, near the fairgrounds. In the 1929 Salt Lake City Directory Albt [Pete] Sanborn is listed as a chfr [chauffer] boarding at 138 South 10^th West.

Currently the Utah State Fairgrounds address is 155 North 1000 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116.

A year later Pete and Beryl moved to Euclid Avenue. Their two oldest children were born while they lived there; Albert James “Jim” on May 25, 1930 [he died December 22, 1993] and Amy Marlene on November 22, 1931 [she died July 12, 2009].

By 1937 Pete and Beryl were living at 1044 Euclid Avenue in Salt Lake City, and Pete continued working for the gas company. In early city directors he was listed as a meterman, a repairman, or a helper. He was employed by Mountain Fuel company for 42 years.

Beryl’s mother, Amelia, became ill during the late 1930’s and following her death on March 13, 1939, Pete and Beryl moved to 4^th East and 39^th South to take care of Beryl’s father, James. They lived with him a year, then decided to build their own home.

                 

James Burt had carefully acquired his home and farmland years earlier. Beryl’s oldest sister, Margaret, wrote that while James and Amelia Burt lived in his mother’s home on I street and 5^th Avenue in Salt Lake City, “James kept a cow and a horse which he used to hitch to the wagon and go to work. Irene and Margaret delivered milk to several of the neighbors, and when their deliveries were finished, they played on the foothills and gathered sego lilies” … James “preferred to raise the family on a farm rather than in the city so he began a search for suitable property. He located ten acres of land in Mill Creek, on 39^th South and 3rd and 4^th East. He didn’t move his family down until he had a lovely two story red brick home built, had planted an orchard, lawn and shade trees.”

Margaret said, “he had everything ready for them when they came to the place.” They moved their between 1900 and 1903. In 1922 one of the younger boys threw a sparkler on the roof of this home and burned it down. All of the family pictures and records were destroyed at this time. The house was re-built as a one story home.”

James Burt gave portions of his land to each of his children. Beryl and Pete built their home on land at 3873 South 4^th East. The field at the back of their home always housed a big beautiful garden; first James' and then Pete and Beryl's.

The house Pete and Beryl Sanborn built 

at  3873 South 4th East, Salt Lake City, Utah

(To be continued.)
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

#3 Beryl Burt Sanborn. Happy Birthday!

#3 Beryl Burt

b. March 13, 1906, Salt Lake City, Utah

p. #6 James Burt, #7 Amelia Catherine Jorgensen 

m. October 19, 1929, #2 Albert Joseph “Pete” Sanborn

d. December 22, 1986, Salt Lake City, Utah

b. December 27, 1986, Elysian Burial Gardens, Salt Lake County, Utah

No one seems to know why James and Amelia Burt picked the name Beryl for their sixth child. Beryl is a precious pale green gem that is mentioned in both the Old and New Testament. It was the first stone of the fourth row of the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:20), and the eighth stone in the foundation of the wall of the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev. 21:20).

Beryl Burt grew up on her family’s farm and declared early that she would never marry a farmer. The nine children born to James and Amelia Catherine Jorgensen Burt worked their farm. They were Margaret, Irene, Stannie, Gilmour, Melvin, Beryl, Agnes, Ervin, and Herman. Their home was at Thirty-ninth South and Fourth East in Salt Lake City, Utah, with ten acres of farmland adjoining it. They raised sugar beets, a vegetable garden and hay. Beryl weeded and thinned the sugar beets, and when the hay was ready she road on the wagon and leveled the hay bed as the hay was thrown in. She got to ride the horse while a fork-lift pitched the hay into the barn.

During summer’s heat their friends would come to the fence in the field where they were working and want Beryl and her sister to go swimming with them. Beryl would tell her older brother, Mel, who was the boss, she was thirsty and wanted to leave. His retort was always, “let’s see you spit.” She would, and he’d say, “you’re not thirsty, keep working!”

Beryl told me that she and her sisters scrubbed their huge kitchen floor on their hands and knees, and she helped her mother with the wash. On wash day it was Beryl’s job to turn the washer for twenty-five minutes for each load, which was carefully timed on a clock. Mischievous Beryl turned the clock forward when her mother wasn’t watching.

The children attended the Millcreek Ward and Lincoln School. Beryl went to Lincoln through the 8^th grade, and completed four years of high school at Granite High.  She took a six month course at Henagers Business College, after which she worked as a stenographer at National Biscuit. It was there she met Leah Sanborn. Leah introduced Beryl to her husband’s younger brother, Pete Sanborn. They courted for a year before marrying on October 19, 1929.

Beryl’s father, James, was a plasterer. Beryl’s husband, Pete, worked for the gas company. Both men liked large fruitful gardens.

(To be continued…)

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4
Part 5

From a personal interview with Beryl in about 1980, a family history she contributed to in 1978, her 1986 autobiography, and family records.

Amelia Catherine Jorgensen Burt

After discovering Amelia Catherine Jorgensen Burt’s funeral book posted here, a descendant asked if I had a picture or history of Amelia. I don’t have a history. But I’m happy to share this lovely family portrait of the James and Amelia Burt family. My sister-in-law, Marlene Sanborn Silotti, gave it to me years ago. Taken in 1925, each family member is identified. Click on the picture to enlarge.

My mother-in-law [Beryl Burt Sanborn], “Aunt Beryl,” on the left, was about sixteen years old when the picture was taken.

The descendant looking for a picture, and a history of Amelia, is a 2nd great-granddaughter through Amelia’s oldest daughter, Margaret Gilmour Burt [center back row], “who married Charles Luther Carlisle and had my grandmother, Lois Carlisle.”

I’d welcome any history or pictures from this family.

#7 Amelia Catherine Jorgensen Burt, on the Sanborn line.

This beautiful little book fell into my home. Literally! I wasn’t home when the giver came by with it a month ago, so he propped it up against my front door. When the door was opened, plop, it toppled in. What an exciting windfall!

It is from Grandmother Burt’s funeral services in 1939. And someone (probably daughter Beryl Burt Sanborn) actually filled in many of the pages.

The following is my favorite page.

Other pages list more information.

Services: Milcreek Ward House, 1:0’clock, 16 Mar., 1939
Officiating: Mill Creek Ward Bishopric; A.M. Cornwall, Bishop, L[l]oyd Park, [ blank] Burbidge
Sermon Notes: Richard R. Towler, E. M. Rynearson, A. M. Cornwall
Music: Abide With Me, In the Garden, My Heavenly Home, and Face to Face.
Bearers: David Hilton, Cottonwood; Therman A. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah; Vinton Smith, Centerville, Utah; Roy Turner, 7th East & 39 South; Jack Hartshorn, Salt Lake City, Utah; McKeith Burt, North Salt Lake.
Final Resting Place: Elysian Gardens, Murray, Salt Lake, Utah.
Laid to Rest: Amelia Catherine Jorgensen Burt, 3:30 p.m., 16 March, 1939

There are pages filled for each of the following: Relatives Attending, Friends who called, Tributes from Friends, Automobile Donors, and Societies Member of: Relief Society was the one society listed.