Personal History

Letters to Mother

Conversation with Ben

Mother’s Purse

Photo Gallery

Personal History

It was May of 1967 when Randy took me to meet his grandmother, Florence Peterson.  Randy had told me so much about this stoic woman who could out-cook, out-sew, out-decorate, and out-work any woman who ever lived on this planet.  I was a little afraid to meet her, but she was so warm and friendly.  She passed away two years later, in June of 1969, so I cannot say that I knew her well.  I did have one very sweet experience with her in December of 1968.  Randy’s parents had come up to Salt Lake for some occasion and were taking Florence back to Las Vegas to spend the Christmas holidays.  Randy was taking a two week Christmas course at BYU and would drive to Vegas just for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but Ted and Ann picked me up in Provo and I rode with them to St. George, where Ted and Ann were meeting friends from Vegas who were all going to the temple together.  I was to drive Grandma from St. George to Las Vegas, and Ted and Ann would ride to Vegas with some of their friends.  It was a great plan except for one thing – there was a blizzard raging.  Randy and I drove a little Volkswagen Beetle.  The Peterson’s Buick seemed monstrous to me as I drove that mountainous unfamiliar stretch.  I was scared to death. I don’t know if Florence sensed how nervous I was, but she put on a cheerful, confident face and never stopped talking of her extraordinary life and adventures.  Her voice was so calming and reassuring, and before I knew it, we were off of Mormon Mesa and out of the storm.  I loved her for that.

There is not very much written about Florence’s life.  At one point, she wrote a very brief history for herself.  I found another similar history, which was dated July 3, 1969 (the day of her funeral) and may have been used in conjunction with her funeral.  A few years ago, Randy and I had a phone interview with her youngest son, Bennett Peterson.  Bennett also wrote a wonderful account of The Old Place, which contains some wonderful insights into their family life and Florence’s character. I have drawn from all of these. While the information about her is sparse, my goal here is to gather whatever information we do have into one place.  I hope you enjoy getting to know Florence.

                                                                                       Judy Peterson – September 2022

Woman of Industry

Personal History of Florence Lorene Pulley Peterson

“Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.”

—Calvin Coolidge

On April 14th, 1890, our nation’s capitol was busy celebrating the first International Conference of the American States.  This day was marked by plays, art displays, musical concerts and pageants.  On that same day in the small community of American Fork, Utah, a baby girl was born to Andrew William and Emma Louise Smith Pulley.  They named her Florence Lorene.  She was the oldest of eleven children born to Andrew and Emma.

On Family Search, the following is recorded about Florence’s grandfather (William Pulley) and about Florence’s father (Andrew W. Pulley). “[William] was born in England and came to America in 1848, after which he engaged in farming and wood chopping in Illinois. He was a lumber sawyer in England and after making his home for some years in Illinols he went to Florence, Nebraska, in 1857, intending to continue the trip to Utah; but his brother Joseph who came to the new world in 1844, was then living at Nebraska City, Nebraska, upon a farm, and William Pulley decided to remain in that district. There he continued until 1878, when he crossed the country to Salt Lake City and thence made his way to American Fork. He was even then in ill health and was unable to work after reaching American Fork, where he passed away in 1886. He was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and did everything in his power to promote its growth and extend its influence. He had joined the church prior to his emigration to the new world and was presiding elder of a branch conference in England. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. William Pulley were two sons and five daughters: Emma J., Andrew W., Alice E., Susanna, Mary Ann, George H. and Evelyn. 

“Andrew W. Pulley had but limited educational advantages, for his labors were early needed upon the farm and this precluded the possibility of his attending school. After leaving home his first work in Utah was at cutting wood and later he went to Idaho, where he was connected with a railroad track gang as section foreman during the latter part of a two and a half years' period of employment with the railroad company. At the end of that time he came to American Fork, where he now lives, having his home two miles northeast of the town. He bought eighty-four acres of wild land covered with sagebrush and since then has transformed the undeveloped tract into a beautiful garden spot. The place has indeed been made to bloom and blossom as the rose as the result of his close application, unremitting industry and persistency. He has a fine large brick residence, also extensive barns, a large silo and full farm equipment, and in addition to cultivating the fields he successfully raises cattle and sheep. He is likewise interested financially in the American Fork Cooperative Institution and in the Manilia Threshing Machine Company. Farming, however, is his principal occupation and one can scarcely realize, as one looks abroad over his carefully cultivated fields and fine garden, that this was once a district of sagebrush. He raises fruit of all kinds upon his place and his work has been carried forward so energetically and successfully that his farm is one of the most attractive features in the landscape.”

Andrew and Emma Louise Smith married on May 1, 1889, and Florence joined the family a year later on April 14, 1890. Between 1890 and 1908, ten more children joined the family. Florence’s siblings include: Charles, 2 November 1891; Ruth, 17 August 1893; Priscilla, 6 February 1895; Adolphus, 11 April 1898; John, 30 April 1898; Mary Jane, 18 March 1900; Laura, 25 March 1902; Francis Grover, 10 July 1905; Esther and Jennie (twins), 17 April 1908. Little twin Jennie either died at birth or shortly after. As the oldest child, Florence undoubtedly had a lot of responsibility and learned much about parenting, home management, and hard work.

Andrew and Emma lived in a two-room adobe house, and their surroundings were very humble.  Florence describes her parents as obedient, industrious, humble, exacting, loving, and kind.  They did their best to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Florence was two and one half years old a disease called membranous croup, possibly diphtheria, took the life of her younger brother, Charles, and also several of her cousins.  Although Florence was stricken, through the power of the priesthood her life was spared.  She believed this with all her heart and she knew because her life had been spared she must make it a good one.  She was an industrious child.  Her feet could fly fast and she could do innumerable things.  One of her jobs was to herd the cows and she spent many hours in the pasture with the Hymn Book (and many other books) learning the words to the Latter-day Saint songs, about birds and animals and many other things.  She loved nature—all natural things and was always appreciative of the Lord’s creations.  She worked hard on the farm with her brothers and sisters doing the many chores which were required—planting, weeding, watering the farm, feeding, herding and milking the cows and separating the milk, churning the butter, picking and bottling the fruit, taking care of the duties of the home—working, loving, playing, learning and growing through her many and varied experiences.

 Florence continues, “My father’s two sisters, Aunt Emma and Aunt Sadie, lived in a small house near ours.  They ate their meals with us.  They were both widows who had lost all their children.  They raised vegetables for a living.  They wore long dresses and sun bonnets and worked in the fields all day.”

Florence started school when she was eight years old.  She went to the first, second and third grade at the North School in American Fork.  She walked two and a half miles to get there.  From 4th grade to ninth grade she attended the Forbes School.  Mr. Forbes, Florence’s teacher at the Forbes School, was a Navy man.  He wore glasses.  “He would see what was going on in the school room while he had his back to us while writing on the black board from the reflection in his glasses.  We could never figure out how he could see from the back of his head.  I graduated from the eighth grade.  That’s all that was required.

“My two sisters just younger than I and myself used to have to help pile hay and chop the grain.  We would ride the horse to pull the derrick up while stacking the hay.  We had to herd cows on the sage brush covered hills.  Father was very strict about keeping the cows out of the crops.  One day some horse flies got after the cows and they got away from me.  But it wasn’t my fault.”

“I had a happy, busy home life.  I went to one show as a youngster, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’. We always walked to church.  We went to the Fourth ward. We raised pigs.  Every fall we had them butchered.  They were scalded in a big brass kettle the folks brought from Nebraska.  Father never killed a thing.  He hired someone to kill the pigs.  He sold all the pork.  He said that pork wasn’t good for the body. My mother was a very loving and patient person.  She loved all little children.  All the boys loved to tease her.  She made and sold butter to the stores which she delivered in a wagon.  All the people in town would ask for Emma Pulley’s Butter. My folks were very hospitable.  We always had a lot of company. Father was very stern and strict and not a very good mixer.  Whenever he cleared his throat, we knew we had better straighten up. We had our corn ground at the mill and made into corn meal.  We had all the butter, eggs, cream, and milk we needed.  The sugar and salt and staples we bought.  We grew our own vegetables and our own chickens. My father’s only brother, Uncle George, had land and a home near us.  All the family helped pick Uncle George’s peaches. One of the things I liked best to eat was onion gravy and mashed potatoes.  All of the grownups ate first and the children after them. For Christmas each year, Mother would make plum pudding and fruit cake.”

By 1908, there were 12 people living in the two-room adobe house. The four oldest children were in and out of the house for work, but Andrew and Emma were keenly aware of the need for more space and privacy, so in 1909 Andrew tore down the adobe house and built the new brick home in American Fork. 

     In June of 1910, twenty year old Florence had gone to help her Aunt Alice, her mother’s sister, who had just had a new baby and needed a helper.  “One day while I was at Uncle Henry’s, he asked me to roast a chicken.  He was to bring back onions to put in the dressing.  I waited and waited and he never came back with the onions; so I put the chicken on to stew.  This made Henry very mad and he sulked all day.  The nurse came to see Aunt Alice and saw Henry sulking; so she made some dressing in a dripper pan and put it in the oven.  Then she went down into the dirt cellar and found three toads and put them under his plate (in those days the plates were turned over until we were ready to eat).  When he turned the plate over, the toads jumped out from under it.  He decided he hadn’t better sulk any more.”

One day Florence saw a handsome gentleman approaching the house.  She made a statement, “Here comes the man I’m going to marry.”  It was Bennett Theodore Peterson, a brother of Alice’s husband, Henry.  Bennett had previously been married to Addie May Wood, who had passed away leaving Bennett with four young children to raise – Eva May, Joseph W., Glen W., and Ruth Adelade.  Addie May passed away soon after Ruth’s birth, and Bennett was looking for a new wife to help him raise his brood.  Bennett courted Florence through the summer and they married December 14, 1910 in the Salt Lake Temple.

After Bennett and Florence were married, they lived in her father’s home for about two years..  During this time, Florence Ruby and Emma Lorene were born.  Bennett and Florence then acquired 100 acres of land from Bennett’s brother, Henry, in the southeast section of Davis County Utah, now known as the Val Verda area.  The Old Place gives us a description of their first home on the property: “The first house was a two room frame structure built on the slightly sloping lower edge of the property. On the sandy bluff that rose immediately to the east was a spring of water which provided some of the precious moisture for use in the house and to water the stock. But during almost the entire history of the family on this land, drinking water had to be hauled in barrels by horse and drag from the Val Verde spring about a mile away.

“The unpainted wood house faced west with a porch or veranda along the front. The open area underneath provided refuge for the dogs and cats, not unlike in the rural South where Bennett was raised. Just inside the front door was the kitchen, the most important working room on the farm.  Here the stove provided heat for all cooking and food preserving, and warmth in cold weather.  Here the family congregated for meals, study and any other activities when they were not working or sleeping, beginning when they were only few, and continuing when they were many.

When they moved into this two-room house, the family numbered eight (Bennett and Florence, the four children born to Addie Mae, and the two children born to Bennett and Florence).This already sizable family enlarged to a total of seventeen by the time the house was destroyed by fire on Tuesday, 3 May 1927. This fire is also described in The Old Place:  

“On the rare occasions when Mom and Dad were away, they left detailed instructions for the children on what was to be accomplished before they got back.  So it was on the Tuesday in early May, 1927, when they went to Salt Lake to see Uncle Henry: Ruth and Priscilla were to boil potatoes so that Mom would have potato water for baking bread the next day. But as soon as they were gone, it was all forgotten in the play and freedom the kids were enjoying. It got dark, and the children went to bed before Ruth remembered the directions which must be obeyed. She got Priscilla out of bed to build the fire while she began peeling the potatoes.

“This was no time for lollygagging around, so Priscilla employed the short cut to fire building she had seen Dad occasionally use of pouring a little coal oil (kerosene) on the kindling before touching the match to it. As she lifted the five gallon can in haste, she was unaware that live embers from the cooking fire remained in the grate of the stove. When the petroleum hit the hot coals, the partly-filled can of fuel exploded, searing Priscilla and torching the tinderbox house.

“Confusion and terror erupted with the fire. Priscilla, burned and scared, escaped with her life. Ruth woke up Emma, and they got James, Charles and Jeanette outside. They pulled the wringer washer off the back porch to a safe distance, and put Jeanette up on it as the house blazed. She remembers finding comfort in the presence of their legendary dog, Brown Ear, who whined in his bewilderment.   But one of the children, Ted, not yet eight years old, was still inside.  Ruth ran through the flames and found him in bed, still asleep under the covers. By this time the metal bedstead was so hot she burned her hand on it getting him up and out to safety. But after this heroic and dramatic rescue, all they could do was stand helplessly in their night clothes as the house burned to the ground.

“Meanwhile, Mom and Dad were returning home up the Val Verda road, and saw the fire. The closer they got, the more they became convinced it was their home being destroyed, perhaps along with their children. Uncle Henry was with them and had to restrain Mom from jumping out of the car and running through the fields to the house, because the car seemed to her to be going so slowly. Incidentally, Mom was like that about a lot of things in her life: they just didn’t move quite fast enough to suit her. When they arrived they were relieved to find the children safe, but horrified to see twenty years of work and living on the way to complete destruction. And there was nothing they could do to save it.

“The outpouring of sympathy from the community was overwhelming. Neighbors took in the family members to stay till the garage could be converted to suitable living space. Boxes and boxes of clothing were donated to outfit everyone. Priscilla, who did not go to a doctor for treatment of her burns, rode to Provo the next day or two with the neighbors who were keeping her, and experienced brief notoriety by being pointed out as the girl from Bountiful who had been in the big fire everyone had read about in the newspaper. “GIRL AND BOY SAVE 6 CHILDREN FROM FLAMES” was the banner headline of the Salt Lake Telegram the next day. . .

“Joe visited the smoldering site the next day and mourned the loss of his new guitar that had gone up with everything else. Oddly, several five-gallon crocks on the back porch were salvaged, undamaged by the heat and flames.

“The front of the garage was boarded up and some partitions built to provide a place to live until a new house could be built. They had to spend one winter in these rather primitive conditions. Ted remembers riding a tricycle, intended as a Christmas gift, on the board floor laid down in the loft of the garage in order to create some additional space.

“Almost immediately, preparations began for new construction. The site was cleared in order that the new house could be in the same place as the old one. Almost all the work was done by the family.”

“[T]he new house was a vast improvement over the old one. The concrete foundation enclosed a basement below ground, with a smooth, clean concrete floor. The brick and plaster walls represented a permanency only dreamed of before. The electrical wiring was built in.  However, running, water and indoor plumbing were still about ten years away. But everything was new and fresh and seemed easy to maintain.

“The covered front porch faced north and was approached by flights of concrete steps from the east and the west. It commanded an imposing view of the mountains, the valley and the lake. The front door opened into the parlor with a brick fireplace against the east wall. Large windows let in the north light. On the west was the dining room, with the kitchen behind it to the south, which opened down wooden steps into the back yard. On the east and south were bedrooms. The boys slept in the basement, where the bottled fruit was also stored.

“East and southeast of the house they built a rock wall to hold the bank below the driveway, which was higher than the house: On the level spot between the house and the wall they planted lawn and flowers. There were driveways in front of the house on the north and to the rear on the south, but the garage was above the wall to the southeast. South of the house, below the rock wall west of the garage, was the garden. Just beyond that to the south the grape patch commenced. North and west of the house were fields where grain and alfalfa were generally planted.”

While living in this home, the family grew to 11 children: In addition to Eva, Joe, Glen and Ruth (Addie Mae’s children) Ruby, Emma,Priscilla, James Andrew, Charles Ray, Theodore Melvin, and Jeanette. Their joys were full—also their house. They worked hard, always together to raise their children and to try to teach them the important things in life—obedience, sharing, love, respect for authority, modesty, integrity, honesty, humility, dependability, and always to recognize and to love the Lord.

Florence continues with her story: “During a smallpox epidemic, Ruth and Ruby both got them.  Ruth didn’t break out with them, she only had one pox on her body.  I got them and was in bed terribly sick.  On the twenty-fourth of July, the children made ice cream especially for me and, when they got it all frozen, they found the freezer had leaked and the ice cream was salty.  That same day, fire burned up our grain.

“During the flu epidemic in 1918, James and Emma got pneumonia.  They had terrible nose bleeds.  Bishop Howard came and administered to them.  They were healed. We never worked on Sundays.  This was the day we rested and attended our church meetings.  We went to the South Bountiful Ward.“ Florence’s children were all taught to work hard and to do everything as well as it could be done.  Much was expected of them and they were always being given new challenges – new responsibilities – and they were always included in everything.”

“We never worked on Sundays.  This was the day we rested and attended our church meetings.  We went to the South Bountiful Ward.“All my children were born at home.  I was attended by a mid-wife or a doctor if he could get there.  I had eleven children of my own and the four that became mine to raise when I married Bennett.”

Their life was not easy, but there were fun times. I quote from The Old Place: “There was no television. Movies were black-and-white, and had only recently begun to talk. Radio was a newfangled gadget just coming into common use. They didn’t know what leisure time was. Farming was not mechanized, which meant that manpower accomplished everything. Working from daylight till dark, and beyond, was normal practice for them. They considered recreation for its own sake as foolishness. There was just too much that had to be done.

“Even so, there were some fun times. Most of them centered around music, especially singing. Carrying a tune and harmonizing were second nature to most of the Petersons. Most were too shy to strike out as soloists, but two or more together encouraged each other’s confidence. There were church choirs, school choruses, and family groups. Ruby and Emma could always accompany on the piano or organ. All of this was “by ear.” There were no formal music lessons till the younger ones came along.

“Ruby, Priscilla and Jeanette won a $5.00 prize for ladies’ trio in an amateur contest after which they were very busy singing at all kinds of local affairs.

“James, Charles and Ted made a claim to fame as members of The Rocky Mountain Wranglers, a western band that played on radio station KLO in Ogden on Saturdays. James played mandolin, Charles played guitar and Ted played utility man, including slide whistle.

“Most entertainment was homemade. Church activities, first in the South Bountiful Ward, then in the Val Verda Home Sunday School, then the Bountiful Second Ward, and finally in the new Orchard Ward, provided both musical activities and socials. There were no little leagues, and even church athletics were unavailable because they competed with farm work and chore time. Some school performances in which the children participated brought the family out to witness them.

“There were no real vacations, though there were occasional trips to Fish Lake and Yellowstone National Park. And there were the deer hunts. Trips to Wayne County with the brothers, uncles and cousins were high adventures. In the winter, the Val Verda hill was the best sleigh riding around.

“Outside attractions they rarely visited were Saltair, a world-famous bathing resort and dance pavilion, where big-name bands were regulars, and Lagoon, with its amusement park and dance floor.

“There were even a few practical jokes. Priscilla and Emma surprised Dad in the hall one night after he had been listening to a radio mystery. The program was about a visit from a spirit who came to get the hero.  So as Dad shut off the lights and went to the bedroom, Priscilla stepped out of the dark closet, with a mop on her head, and one of Dad’s old coats on, and Emma came up behind him and stuck the shotgun in his back. One of them said in a ghostly voice: “Bennett, 1 have come for thee!” He made some remark that they damn well weren’t going to get him very easily, and came close to strangling one of them before the other could convince him who they were and that there was really no danger.

“Another incident, which didn’t seem too funny at the time, happened in the early Thirties, when Ted was a teenager. The grape crop was spectacular, but the market was nil because of the Depression. Dad decided to process the grapes into juice and stored it in kegs in the cellar north of the barn. As nature took its course, Dad began tasting it to see how it was doing. This infuriated Mom, whose straight-laced morality was grossly offended. Ted overheard Mom express her desire that it all be destroyed. So he took an ax and broke the wooden kegs, spilling out all the forbidden brew. When Dad found out, the only thing he ever said to Ted was: ‘Why did you go and do a damn-fool thing like that for?’ In retrospect, isn’t there some buried humor in there somewhere?

“They butchered a hog each fall and hung it in the garage, eating it up through the winter. The only unused part was the head, which attracted the magpies and jays out in the field. James, Charles and Ted tried in vain to sneak up on the scavengers; but they always flew away before they got within range with the shotgun. So they got a sawhorse, put a vise on one end, in which they clamped the shotgun; and stuck the pig’s head on the other end. Then they ran a string from the trigger into the house, from which they watched while the birds gathered. They took turns pulling the string and visiting destruction on the unsuspecting birds. In Dad’s eyes, anyone who killed a magpie or a jay was a hero because of the crops that would be saved.

“Emma loved to cook and often stayed in the house to prepare the meals while the others worked outside. Coming in at noon was always a great pleasure because of the wonderful food she prepared. One day, the anticipation was increased because Emma had covered Dad’s plate with another plate turned upside down. Everyone waited breathlessly as Dad turned over the dish to reveal the expected delicacy, and erupted into laughter at seeing a big, brown petrified toad instead. So much for false expectation.”

After the fire and the need to build a new house, Bennett and Florence had no way to finance the construction, so on the 16th of March 1928 they took out a loan of $5,000.00, which they secured by the 120 acre farm. The monthly payments were $66.05 per month until 120 payments had been made. But this was the eve of the Great Depression. Bennett and Florence missed most of the installment payments. They had also not been able to pay property taxes for five out of seven years. When the note came due in January of 1936 the total of the note was $6,660.40. How could things possibly get worse? Well, by the end of that year, Bennett had received a call to serve a mission to the Southern States Mission. As recorded in The Old Place, “Few things could have seemed more unlikely, incongruous or inappropriate. With seven children still at home, the youngest a year-old baby, how could Bennett possibly go on a mission? His rightful place was here with his wife and family, helping them adjust to the devastation of losing their home and property through mortgage foreclosure. They were in the depths of financial depression and poverty.      He had to figure out a new way to make a living, and he was the head of the family, their focus for moral and spiritual support. How could he risk their economic well-being, or abandon them emotionally by leaving them on their own at this perilous time?

“On the other hand, the very extremity of the situation perfectly justified the decision. If you’re on the bottom, what more is there to lose? Making improvements on the house or farm was pointless. There was substantially no work to be had elsewhere. Charles, Ted and Jeanette were old enough, and capable enough, to tend the farm and help Mom in the house. And Florence herself had long since demonstrated her skills in making something out of nothing. So if the ward would finance his six-month’s mission, and keep an eye on his family during the winter, why not take this chance to go on a mission? Why not salvage something significant from the agony of their losses? There had been no contact with his mother’s people in Mississippi since he left them under the cloud of his family’s conversion to Mormonism in 1892. Perhaps he could start building a bridge to span the gap.”

On November 29, 1937, Bennett was set apart by Reed Smoot of the Council of the Twelve to serve a short-term mission. His primary purpose was to establish contact with his family and obtain as much family history as possible. This mission proved to be a great blessing in connecting with Bennett’s family and establishing some loving ties over the years.

Another blessing for the Petersons was that they were allowed to remain on the property until a buyer was found. It took about five years to find a buyer, so the family actually remained on the property until the summer of 1941. The Old Place records: “In desperate circumstance they did not despair. Against hopeless odds they did not lose hope. In fact, hope itself became their happiness. While their prospects of material success shriveled, their faith in intangible things grew. Their religious faith, their faith in their family, faith in their friends, who could provide them no money but only moral support, sustained and elevated them through this time when their material prospects were ground to dust. What did they have left when their house, their land, their means of current support and the promise of a prosperous future had been confiscated?  EVERYTHING!

“By the measure of true greatness they prevailed. They were generous in their poverty. They continued to look forward in the face of repeated and heartbreaking disappointments. They regained and encouraged faith in their fellow human beings after numerous failures of confidence . . . They remained engaged in life to the end, demonstrating that they never lost faith in God, or thought that He had forsaken them. No matter what happened, they just kept going.”

“Sometime in the spring of 1941, Franklin Building and Loan Company notified the family that they must finally move off the place. The purchase of the Murray property was completed on 21 June 1941.  In between, the family spent a couple of months “camping” in a tiny two-room board house just off the north boundary of the old farm. Some of the children slept in the adjacent chicken coop. It had a concrete floor and was clean. The Murray place was cramped for the seven family members moving there, but was in very good condition.”

“The feelings they carried with them are difficult to imagine. To say they were disappointed seems too mild. But once having reconciled all the terrible things that had happened to them, there was only occasional reference to their disappointment. And so they spent their lives.”

This is the home where Florence lived out the rest of her life. Wonderful descriptions of this home and property are included with “Letters to Mother.”

One fun thing happened to Florence and Bennet in 1956.  Unbeknownst to them, the ward planned a surprise “This is your Life” party.  The entire ward attended to celebrate the lives of these remarkable people who had been such a beacon for others to follow.

About six months later, Bennett passed away on January 16, 1957, leaving Florence a widow for another 12 years. Florence missed Bennett terribly, “but she picked up the pieces and went on with her courage undaunted and built a new life by giving service to her children and her friends.” Florence’s favorite hymn was “The Lord Is My Light.”  It was the first song that Bennett ever sang to her while he was courting her and it set the pattern for her life. Hers was a full life, a life of complete service to others.  Her love and courage are indeed most commendable.  She has been and will continue to be a tremendous source of strength to her great posterity because of the effort she has put forth.  Florence passed away on June 30, 1969, surrounded by loved ones.  At the time of her passing she had a posterity of 195.  She left this message for her posterity:

“From the time I was so sick and administered to and healed, the power of the priesthood had made an impression on me and I thank Heavenly Father daily for his blessings.  I know I must have had a mission to perform and I know that the fifteen children I had to raise was my mission.  I need help from the Lord in all I do.  Pa was a faithful man and he prayed for help often and administered to the sick.  The Latter Day Saint people have help from our Father in Heaven through the priesthood and administrations.  We have to keep the Lord’s commandments.  The gospel has all we need.  If we live right, we can be self sufficient.  From the beginning, man is trying to live and gain to be like our Father in Heaven.  Our Father in Heaven didn’t mean for life’s school to be easy.  The help of the Lord is endless.  Boys and girls, be obedient to your parents.  Parents, obey the laws of God; make a good foundation for life and appreciate your ancestors.  Boys and girls, keep the commandments and be obedient and wonderful things there are for you.  I appreciate my children and my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren and I love them all.”