MARJORIE SOUTH’S LIFE SKETCH

GIVEN BY GLENNA SOUTH JONES

THURSDAY, JUNE 17,1993

MENAN, IDAHO LDS STAKE CENTER

 

Brothers and Sisters, I hope you can hear me above the heartbeat. It's pretty loud. I want the family to know that I feel it is a real privilege to be asked to be part of the service today, to give Marj's life sketch.

 

MARY MARJORIE SOUTH was born February 14, 1917, a daughter of Justin Willis Knapp and Mabel Fadelia Hale. She died at age 76 of respiratory failure at the Idaho Falls Hospital on Tuesday, June 15, 1993. .She is survived by her children David Barney South, Phillip Barry South, M'Jean Lund, Myrna Lynn South, Susan Crandall and Randy John South; 32 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Brothers living are: Alma Knapp, of Idaho Falls; Bernard (Bernie) E. Knapp, of Provo, Utah; a sister, Anna Knapp Walker Yorgason of Cascade, Idaho; a brother deceased, Warren Knapp, of Ashton, Idaho; sisters deceased are: Claudia Knapp Snowball Johnson, Marie Elizabeth Knapp; and Justin Knapp.

 

Marj was how she was known.  She always preferred to be called Marj, even by her children.  Her husband, Barney, was also called by his first name by their children.

 

She was born in Hibbard, Idaho, the 5th of nine children. Hibbard was named after her great-uncle, George Hibbard. All of her siblings were born in Hibbard except "Bernie" She lived there the first twelve years of her life.

 

One of her first loves was to ride in her grandmother's model T coupe. She was fascinated by the trinkets her grandmother had hanging in the window of her car. How they would swing and sway!

 

The family spent the next substantial period of time in Island Park, for four years as her father worked for the Targhee Tie Company. Then Marj lived in Goshen, Idaho where she graduated from Firth High School; then she graduated from Ricks College in 1936 with a teaching certificate. She taught the 1936-37 school year in Sugar City, second grade.

 

At the winter break, she and Barney traveled to Randolph, Utah where they were married December 31, 1936. This marriage was solemnized in the Idaho Falls Temple on April 24, 1946. Marj kept their marriage a secret for the balance of the school year or she probably would have lost her job. The depression was on, and it was the school policy not to hire the wife of a man with a job. It was very important she not lose her job as she was  helping to support her immediate family.  When the school year ended, she and Barney moved to Island Park, Idaho.

 

Barney and his family owned and operated the sawmill at the Island Park Siding.  Marj cooked for the mill crew, and this was a tough job. There was no electricity, the water had to be carried by buckets from the well and the stove needed lots of wood that had to be carried. (I identify with this because I went through all these things.)  The kitchen would become almost unbearable in the summertime.

 

The annual routine was to live in Island Park in the summertime and live and operate a lumber yard in Idaho Falls in the winters.  With the advent of WWII, Barney took his family in 1942 to Bakersfield, California. He was not. eligible for the Army, and he felt he could do best by helping to build the defense plants needed to supply the war materials.  He worked as a carpenter on various plants.  He moved Marj and the family with him from place to place.  At the war’s end, they were in Susanville, California, and when it ended they returned to Idaho.

 

In 1946 Barney bought his brothers' interest in the sawmill. He ran it in the summer, and the family lived in Idaho Falls in the winters where he had a small lumber yard. Barney built the family a four-room log home in 1946 and later he built them a larger home, both homes being located in the 900 block of Ada Avenue.

 

Upon returning to Idaho Falls, they drove a truck as their means of transportation, and by 1948, the family could afford a car, a  1946 Chevie. (“A truck with two rooms” is what M’Jean dubbed it.)

 

It was during this time that Marj and I got to be good friends. Of course, they are our relatives and we see them on and off, but Gene and I moved to Island Park about 45 or 46 years ago. Barney was my uncle, and my husband and my father, Ren South, operated another sawmill at the same location in Island Park. And that's where we really got to know each other.

Our children were all small and we had lots of fun and good times together.

 

During the last few weeks Susan has called our family in Evanston, Wyoming with the news that her mother Marj was really critical. Since then I have reflected often about the times we all spent at Island Park together.

 

This is sort of an amusing incident that happened to Marj and me.  One day we got all our kids together and took them to Ashton, but I don’t recall the reason we did this. I remember it was a commotion. We took a young man with us who worked for Barney. He didn't say much about the trip — he was really quite a gentleman but when we returned to Island Park, he said, "You know, I've always thought I would get married and have children someday, but this trip today has changed my mind."  We chuckled about that.

 

One day Barney broke our son David of a habit he had. (We have a David and a Barry as does Barney). Our David was about two years old and on occasion he would bite. Myrna and Jeannie were three years older than he was. Myrna liked to carry him around. She would get him under her arm, and he hated that. One day she had him under her arm and his face turned in, and he bit her something fierce.  I remember Barney got after him.  David came home at once, and that was the last of his biting others!

 

There are so many things that I think about. Those were good years at Island Park (and Idaho. Falls), and I'm glad that we had that time together.

 

By the late 40s the depression lessened and life was getting better, but it was always a struggle. For Marj life in Island Park was without running water and electricity and many other treats of comfort, as I've mentioned. Nevertheless, it was still a place of great joy for her.  Winters were spent in the homes Barney built on Ada Avenue, and the kids' schooling took first priority in the winter.

 

On February 21, 1955, Barney died of a heart attack in the Ashton Hospital. He had an initial attack while an a trip with his sons, David and Barry, and two of the boy’s friends.  The trip was to Island Park to shovel the snow off buildings at the mill sight.  He’s had a heart attack then, and the boys took him on a snowmobile to the Ashton Hospital where he passed away the following morning. And things changed immediately.

 

Marj kept her family together. David was barely 16 and Randy was 5 months old, with the other four children in between. They ran the sawmill that summer and for four more summers before selling it. After the sale of the mill, Marj  sold real estate far a few years. In addition, she went back to. teaching school. She also. had to go to college as her earlier teaching required but two. years of education and now she needed four years, or equivalent.

 

Marj would teach days as a provisional teacher and take night classes and summer classes until she graduated from ISU in 1968. Upon returning to. teaching, she first taught at Riverside Elementary, and by 1964 she decided she wanted her children to. grow up out of the city.

 

In 1964 Marj purchased an 80-acre farm south of Idaho. Falls at Taylor. David and his wife (Judy) and children and Marjorie and the other children made it their home far the next several years. There they raised horses, cattle, hay, grain AND ESPECIALLY KIDS. The family had many fond memories of life on the farm.  Living there allowed Marj to work at local schools and still have some of the life she had enjoyed earlier.

 

In addition to. teaching at Riverside, she taught at Teresa Bunker and Dora Erickson as well as to do substitute teaching at other schools. She also. enjoyed teaching adult remedial reading and night classes. She was a superior teacher at teaching reading to. those who. needed help.

 

In 1972 she joined her sons in business, known as Souths Inc. It was a company to spray polyurethane (sp) foam for insulation. She was their star salesman and saleslady. Marj traveled all over the valley meeting old friends and making new ones selling the insulation. This freedom was very welcome. She was able to. spend much time with her family, both at work and at home.

 

In 1970 Marj moved to. Menan, Idaho. into. one of the monolithic homes her sons were pioneering. Her lovely home on the bank of the Snake River was always a source of joy and contentment to. her. The view from her window was constantly breathtaking. Scenes included the bald eagles and water birds in the winter and the life of nature in the summer and ALWAYS the ever-changing patterns of the river.

 

Marj loved music. She had a piano class on dummy pianos when she was six years old. That was the only formal training she had other than singing in school glee-clubs, but she got to practice her grandmother’s piano occasionally and that was a treat to her.

 

When she married Barney, he taught her a little more about music. He had taken a correspondence course in violin and taught himself to play one as well as to play a little on several instruments. Marj learned from him, even to play the violin some and the piano a little more. She would often go into the living room and start playing "Jeannie, My Queen, of Lilac Time." She passed her talent on to her children and always encouraged them in their music.

 

After Barney's death the finances were very lean, but Marj made sure that the kids kept on with their music lessons. She would :: often tell the girls she would do the dishes if they would go practice. She loved to hear a male quartet, and especially enjoyed hearing her sons sing.

 

Marj didn't even consider the thought of remarrying. She always maintained she was married for time and all eternity in the sacred. temple. She felt that she would enjoy the next few years alone and rejoin her husband, which she has done. Their joy must be indescribable.

 

About seven years ago Marj became afflicted with a lung disease which necessitated fulltime use of oxygen. This slowed her down, but did not stop her. She still did temple work, published the South Company newspaper, and she carried on with her church and family activities.

 

Gradually she became weaker and could do less and less, but she never quit. Her last church calling was to be a name extractor, and this she really enjoyed, spending about two hours daily doing this work. She was also responsible for the musical numbers to be performed in church. She never quit exhorting her family to do better and better.  Marj Supported five of her own children on missions, as well as helping others.

 

In conclusion, let me read to you something Marj wrote for all of us.

 

"Dear Friends, I KNOW this gospel is true; I KNOW Joseph Smith translated the account of it from the gold plates which was the will of God by the gift and power of God, for my sake and for you sake also, that each of us may know the plan of salvation.

 

"I KNOW that by obedience to the principles the gospel that you and I, and all those who obey and love the Lord, will be candidates to inherit a place in His celestial kingdom for those He loves.

 

"The Apostle John said, ‘If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.' (John7:17) The Lord bless you in your endeavors in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."