George Samuel Reid Family Roots

LAVON HOLT (28 Jun 1905 – 20 Mar 1987) was born in West Bountiful, Davis County, Utah the daughter of John William Holt and Annie Thurgood.

LaVon married George Samuel Reid in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah on 2 Dec 1925 at the age of 20.  She and George had 5 children, all sons.

• Donald Holt Reid, married Beverly Jean Allen in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.
• Charles Richard Reid, married Ila Howarth Parker in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.  After Ila’s death, Dick married Patricia Pickworth.
• George Stephen Reid, married Patricia Louise Merrill in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.
• Paul Holt Reid, married Colleen Bennett in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.
• Stanford John Reid, married Carolyn Rogers in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah.  After Carolyn’s death, Stan married Patty Jo Quinn.

LaVon and George lived most of their married lives in Sunset, Davis County, Utah.  She lived there until her death on 20 Mar 1987.  LaVon is buried in the Clinton City Cemetery, Clinton, Davis County, Utah.

It was apparent to all who knew LaVon in her adult years, that not only was she devoted to George, but that she and George were united in purpose to God and to their family.

Prior to her marriage, LaVon had intently pursued a good education, and she had enjoyed applying her education in the business world.  However, once she met and married George, LaVon had no greater priority than giving graciously of her time and many talents to being a wife and mother in Zion.

George revered his beloved LaVon, and described her as “a beauty, full of faith“.  Indeed, her beauty was undeniable, but it was her faith in God that sustained her in good times and bad.  It is the consistent application of that faith, and its effect on her and her family, that she will be most remembered for and cherished.

Much will be written of our beloved matriarch, LaVon.  As it becomes available, it will be posted here.

In Her Own Words

A brief, uncompleted history of LaVon Holt Reid as written by herself.

The most important day of my life was June 28, 1905.  That was the day I was born in West Bountiful, Utah.  I was the 6^th child of a family of twelve.  Mother’s first born was Harold, then Lawrence, my oldest sister Genevieve, Bessie, and a little girl, Ethel, who died at birth, then me.  Of course one can see Mother was a busy person by then.

When I was two years old, Dad got the moving bug and we were transplanted up to West Point, the north end of Davis County, Utah.  They called it the “great sandridge”, very little water and a lot of blowing sand.  Father bought 50 acres of barren land with nothing but sand, sand burrs and weeds on it.  He built a 2 room house for the family of seven.  My earliest recollection of this was when I was abruptly snatched out of bed one morning at daybreak and taken outside and held over a snarling badger dad had caught in a trap in the chicken coop.   I remember I screamed in terror and when he put me down I ran for the house and crawled under the bed and stayed there until lunch time.  They couldn’t get me out to eat breakfast.

Lots of mornings when we got up the floors would be covered with sand and we would run around bare feet making marks with our toes.

We had a cellar covered with dirt.  Lizards used to run up and down this cellar and I was always terrified when I had to go down to the cellar.

Dad planted most of this land into orchard with apples of all kinds, and plums right up to the house.

When I was 5 years old they bought more land about a mile south and built another 2 room home.  I used to sleep with my two brothers.  Now days nearly every child has a bed of his own if not his own room.  It was a happy day when Mother prevailed upon Father and they built 2 more rooms and 3 more rooms upstairs with no heat.  Right to this day I never get in a warm bed without thinking how frosty that bed was in the winter.  After building more rooms I got to sleep with my two older sisters Genevieve and Bessie.  When they got married, I was finally in charge of the room and slept with my sisters Emerald and Erma.

I had fun as a child and used to be a regular tomboy.  I was my Dad’s shadow.  He always had one of us just follow him around.  I had to pour water on the grindstone while he sharpened mower knives.  Also I would hand him the tools while he shod the horses.  It used to intrigue me to see how much of the hoof he would have to cut in order to fit the shoe and I never could understand why it didn’t hurt the horse.  One day he was working on a horse that had gotten into the grain and it made his feet grow extra big.  He had his foot up over his knee and the horse moved and stepped right down on my Dad’s foot.  It looked so funny I started to laugh but soon stopped when I saw my Dad’s face.  The horse just stood there and he almost had to lift his foot up to get his out.

My Dad always roared like a lion but it didn’t take long to find out that he was all noise and usually gave in to everyone.  We always looked forward to fall when the thrashers came to thrash the grain.  They used a huge steam engine with smoke rolling out of the smoke pipe on top of the engine.  It took about twenty men to do all the jobs that needed to be done and any number of horses.  Mother always had them for 3 meals, breakfast, dinner, and another big meal at night.  They would be eating breakfast at the break of dawn.  It seems we would just get breakfast dishes over when it was time to start dinner.  The men would always come in with grime and dirt on their clothes and body.  We would have a big tub of water outside and they did the best they could to clean themselves.  It always amazed me to see how much food they could eat.  After the threshing was finished there was always the large stack of new straw.  We used it as a slide and it was always looked forward to at threshing time.

Another big event in the fall was the picking and storing of apples.  Dad had about every kind.  We had a strawberry apple that ripened the first part of August and from then on there was always some kind of fruit to harvest.  We had Quinces, prunes, plums, crab apples, Jonathan, Winesap, Rome Beauty, and also several kinds of pears.  It was always the latter part of October before we could start to school.  In those days they didn’t bring in foreign labor to do the manual labor like they do now.  Of course, we were behind in our classes and would really have to study to catch up with the class.  I was in the third grade when the principal of the school came in and called out three names, mine being one.  We were told that we were being taken into the fourth grade.  That put me in the same grade with my sister Bessie and we enjoyed being together.  When I had attended the fifth grade about six weeks, this same thing happened again.  They called six names this time and put us in sixth grade.  This was the first male teacher I had and I have always remembered and loved him.  That man was Irvin Call from Layton.

As we grew through our childhood, our main entertainment was holding parties in the home.  We would get together and have a lunch and play games.  Going to the pictures shows, playing golf, bowling, none of this entertainment was available then.  We would plan a party and could always depend on holding it in the Olson home.  She was a very lonely lady with gray hair and always had her home open to young people.  We had many happy times in this home.

I remember my first picture show I attended.   I was lucky enough to go with Dad and Mother to Salt Lake and stay overnight with my Uncle Sam and Aunt Prude Holt.  My cousins took me to my first movie.  I was really impressed with the organ music that played soft and loud when the occasion called for it.  To me it was another world to see moving pictures.  That was in the days of the silent movies.

I went to school in the West Point school house which is still being used.  In those days we attended grades 1 through 8 in the elementary school.  I went to the old North Davis High School for 2 years.  This was located in Syracuse a mile north of the Syracuse church house.  I used to walk to school until it was such bad weather that it was hard to walk, and then I would ride a horse.  I have been afraid of animals ever since.  It would stand all day in the cold and when I would start home it would really take off.  I finally got so I refused to ride it and this ended my school days over to North Davis High School.  When I was eighteen I, with five other girls, went to Ogden to go to school.  Some of the girls went to Weber College and I went to Smithsonian Business School and graduated from there.

I got a job with the Goddard Brokerage Company as an office girl doing the book work and general office work.  I thought I was really rich; I received $40.00 per month.  My Father was really proud and never came to Ogden without coming up to the office in the Eccles Building and spending an hour or two with me.  We five girls; Cumorah Thurgood (Alder), Virginia Fisher, Cleo Fisher, and Portia Holt rented some rooms from Earl Read on 2535 Madison Avenue.  They were really nice people;  just my second family.

Leadership

In 1949 LaVon was called to be the President of Y.W.M.I.A. of the North Davis Stake.  Lavon received the following letter from the General Y.W.M.I.A. Presidency,  June 3, 1949.

Dear Sister Reid:

We have just learned of your appointment as Y.W.M.I.A. of the North Davis Stake.  We congratulate you and wish you every success in this new position.  It is a big responsibility, especially in these times when our young people need our help more than ever before, but we know that you are well qualified for it else you would not have been chosen.

You are now, undoubtedly, becoming acquainted with your new responsibilities, and are cognizant of the needs of your stake.  We want you to know that we are eager to do everything we can to assist you.  Your name and address are now on our records and in the future correspondence and other material for your stake Y.W.M.I.A. will be sent directly to you.  Do not hesitate to call on us at any time that we may be of service to you.

You have ahead of you one of the most satisfying experiences of your life, for there is no work that we know of that gives the dividends of contentment and peace of mind that this great work does.  The knowledge that you are actively engaged in the promotion of the work of the Lord, that you are working among the choicest of the children of our Father in Heaven, gives you a feeling of gratitude for this opportunity to serve Him.  We pray that the Lord will bless and inspire you and help you in every way.

Sincerely your sisters,

Bertha S. Reeder, Emily H. Bennett, LaRue C. Longden

General Presidency Y.W.M.I.A.

The following letter was sent by the Business Manager for The Improvement Era magazine, March 13, 1950.

Dear Sister Reid:

President Bertha S. Reeder of the Y.W.M.I.A. has given us a very glowing account of your recent ball in which The Improvement Era quota was a requirement for recognition.

Do you have a copy of the program or any advertising matter that would give us a little more information regarding it.

We are delighted with your attitude toward the Era and will appreciate anything you can send us that will contain the information we would like to have.

Yours sincerely,

John D. Giles

Business Manager

Editors – George Albert Smith, John A. Widtsoe, Richard L. Evans, Managing Editor – Doyle L. Green,  Associate Managing Editor  – Marba C. Josephson, General Manager – Elbert R. Curtis, Associate Manager – Bertha S. Reeder, Business Manager – John D. Giles, Advertising Director – Verl F. Scott

Lavon was sustained as Relief Society President of the Sunset Ward May, 1956.  Her 1st Counselor was Marion Bonham, 2nd Counselor Florence Mumford, and Secretary Terese Measom.

Church Mission

LaVon and her Husband George were called on a Church mission by Spencer W. Kimball on October 30, 1974 to serve in the New York Rochester Mission.  While serving as missionaries they were hostess and host in the Joseph Smith home.

80th Birthday

LaVon received the following letter from Sunset City Mayor Norman R. Sant.

Dear Mrs. Reid:

It is with appreciation that the City of Sunset recognize your recent milestone of reaching your 80th year.

It has been Sunset’s privilege to have you and Patriarch Reid as residents and we are grateful for your long service and association with Sunset and the community at large.

We thank you for your charm and graciousness.  We recognize the example you have set as a wife, mother and person who has shared her talents and energies with others.  Your contributions to your church, family, neighbors and the community are noteworthy and appreciated.

Thank you for being such a lovely person and for being a good citizen.  We wish you many more years of continued good health and happiness.  Our very best to you and Patriarch Reid.

Sincerely,

Norman R. Sant – Mayor, Sunset City

Funeral

Life Sketch by Son:  Paul Holt Reid

“. . . Mother lived a full life certainly not easy, but seldom did she complain.

She was born in Bountiful, the fifth child of John Holt and Annie Thurgood Holt.  She had three brothers and seven sisters.  Being a member of a large family, she learned some valuable lessons, how to work hard, how to give and take, how to be thrifty, and how to share, among many others.

She was raised in West Point on a 50-acre farm, and had to work on that farm just like one of the boys.

Mother was taught the gospel of Jesus Christ in the home by her loving parents.  She was baptized in the Hooper Canal.

Dad was raised in Clinton.  He says the first time he can recall seeing Mother was when he was 14 or 15 years old.  He and his boyfriends had ridden their horses to Jenson’s store in West Point to get some candy.  They tied up their horses and went in the store.  Mother was there with some of her girl friends.  They asked the boys if they could ride their horses.  Mother picked Dad’s horse.  Dad still had that horse when they were married and apparently that horse, believe it or not. Became jealous of Mother because every time Mother would get near that fence, that horse would come running bearing its teeth.

There was another time when a couple of his boyhood friends from West Point had a surprise birthday party for him and they invited Mother to the party.

On one of their courting experiences, they had gone to a dance in Syracuse in the horse and buggy.  The dance orchestra didn’t come, so they had to go back home.  On the way home, Dad said the horse kept stopping.  Now to me that’s a likely story.  It sounds a lot like what I used to say when the car quit or I ran out of gas.

About a year before they married, Dad gave Mother a ring.  Mother said she wasn’t ready to get engaged.  Dad gave her the box, anyway, and she opened it.  When she saw that red ruby ring, she blushed.  Those of you who viewed Mother today or last night may have noticed that ruby ring on her finger.

They were married, 2 December 1925, in the Salt Lake Temple, by Joseph Fielding Smith, and went on their honeymoon to Stanley Basin in Idaho that’s near Sun Valley.  One of the reasons was that Dad’s sister, Myrtle, and her husband, LeRoy Davis, were there on a work assignment.

Their early married life was pretty tough.  Jobs were hard to get.  They moved quite a bit.  It was the beginning of the great depression.

In the Spring of 1935, I was not quite one year old. My brother, Steve, and our cousin, Allen Davis, were playing with matches which resulted in our home being burned to the ground.  So, for the next two months, we lived in the orchard in a 9X9 tent that is four children, Mother and Dad.  I’m sure the boys thought it was great, but I’m not sure Mother enjoyed it very much.

After that they moved several times until moving to their present location in Sunset in 1939.  They had a basement home built in 1946; they built on top of the basement home, as you know it now.

Mother taught us to work hard.  She worked right along with Don, Dick, and Steve for three summers picking beans in Clinton.  She taught us to cook, wash and iron.  However, Colleen says I didn’t learn very well.

Don says he remembers one of our home cleaning days in Roy on 6000 South.  Mother rolled back the rug after we had cleaned there in the front room and let us roller skate around the room.  So, she enjoyed fun, too.

While living in the basement home, Dick and Steve got Rheumatic Fever and were really sick for about one year.  Steve was so bad he was bedfast for several months.  She nursed them back to health, though.

As you know, Dad’s pretty fussy.  He ran a service station for many years.  His clothes would get really quite greasy.  But Mother worked very hard getting that oil and grease out so he looked really nice in his coveralls.

Mother was also very proud of us boys, and she effectively taught us that she expected us to live righteously.  Just one teaching moment that I may share with you:  I was madly in love with my wife Colleen and wanted to get married.  She simply said, “Be sure because you are married a long, long time.”

She was very unselfish and gave a lot. Ila says every time Mother and Dad would visit them when they lived in California, Mother would come in a new dress but when Mother left to come back to Utah, she would leave the new dress there for Ila.

Mother was very energetic.  The girls affectionately called her the “White Tornado.”

It’s tough on a woman to live with six men, and it was hard for Mother, too, so the five boys got her five daughters.  She had an excellent relationship with them and helped teach them some homemaking skills.

She had a great sense of humor.  Even as recent as a few weeks ago even though she was deathly ill, she came up with some statements that would make all those in the room laugh.

She was also very thoughtful.  Until she got sick, several years ago, she would remember all of us, including the grandchildren and great-grandchildren on their birthdays.

Mother was always engaged in church service, serving in all the auxiliaries, as the Bishop said, on a Ward and Stake level.  She loved to sing and did so in many Ward and Stake choirs.  She also participated in many Ward/Stake plays.  She enjoyed that.

Mother and Dad really enjoyed church service together and they gave total support to each other.  Probably the highlight was their mission at the Joseph Smith Home in Palmyra, New York, 1974-76.  They also enjoyed very much their assignment in the Ogden Temple.

Mother and Dad had great love for each other.

. . . That is a brief synopsis of our Mother and Grandmother, and Dad’s Eternal Queen.  As a daughter of God, she fulfilled her role as a woman, wife, and mother very well.  We believe she graduated from this earth’s experience with high honors.”

Enos 1:27 “And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in Him I shall find rest.  And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see His face with pleasure, and He will say unto me; Come unto me, Ye blessed.  There is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father.”

Obituary March 31, 1987

LaVon Holt Reid, 81, of 231 W. 2300 N. Sunset, died March 20, 1987 at her home of cancer.

She was born June 28, 1905 in Bountiful, the daughter of John and Annie Thurgood Holt.

She married George S. Reid December 2, 1925 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.  She had been employed at the Ogden Arsenal (Hill Field), Morbys Furniture Co., and the Clearfield Department Store.

She was raised in West Point and attended West Point and Syracuse schools.  She also attended the Steven Henagers Business College.

She was an active member of the Sunset 8^th Ward.  She had been President of Relief Society, Primary and YWMIA.  She served a mission with her husband at the Joseph Smith home in Palmyra, New York.

She had been an ordinance worker at the Ogden Temple.

Surviving are her husband, five sons, Donald H. Reid, Roy; Charles Richard Reid, Bountiful; G. Stephen Reid, Plano, Tex.; Paul H. Reid, Sunset; Stanford J. Reid, American Fork; 30 grandchildren and 49 great-grandchildren.

Also surviving are one brother and five sisters, LaMar Holt, Sacramento, Calif.; Bessie Gwilliam, Roy; Emerald Loveland and Erma Blake, both of West Point; Bernice Rohmer, Washington Terrace and Cleon Flint, Layton.

She was preceded in death by two brothers and two sisters.

Services were held Monday, March 23 in the Sunset 1^st, 5^th, & 8^th LDS Ward Chapel with Bishop Clifford R. Argyle officiating.

Family prayer was by Donald Holt Reid; prelude, Charlotte Hill; “O How Lovely was the Morning” by Joey Johnson accompanied by Colleen Reid; invocation, Charles Richard Reid; remarks, Bishop Argyle; biographical sketch, Paul Holt Reid; medley, “That Wonderful Mother of Mine,” “I am A Child of God,” “Love one Another“ and “Love at Home: by Colleen Reid; speaker, Stanford John Reid; violin duet, “Hymns of the Restoration” by Ila Parker Reid and Kathleen Reid Smoot accompanied by Grace Parrish; benediction, James Reid Davis.

Interment was in the Clinton City Cemetery.  Dedication of the grave was by George Samuel Reid.  Pallbearers were George Stephen Reid, Richard Parker Reid, Chad Bennett Reid, George Allen Reid, Gregory Merrill Reid and John Morgan Reid.

Honorary pallbearers were Kenneth Arave, John Paulsen, Chris Reid, Evan Parker, Scot Reid, David Reid, Douglas Reid, Steven Smoot, David Cook, Brent Haslam, Kelly Oram, Bryan Reid, Randall Reid, Nathan Dickson, Mark Reid, Bruce Reid, Blake Reid, Cory Hall, Mathew Reid and Ryan Reid.

Funeral directors, Myers Mortuary of Roy.

View the Photo Album of LaVon Holt

This page has the following sub pages.

• Donald Holt Reid
• Charles Richard Reid
• George Stephen Reid
• Paul Holt Reid
• Stanford John Reid