VERDA MAZIE RICHARDSON TYNAN

written by herself.

  I was born on the 6th day of August, 1903 in a little two room house, in Raymond, Alberta.  My mother and father had arrived there three months before, from Payson, Utah.  They were living with my mother's sister, Aunt Laura Betts Neilson.  Aunt Laura had three children and I was the seventh of nine children to be born to David and Eliza Richardson.  Later my family moved to a home of their own.  Just after I was born my Father's eye sight failed and he was unable to tell one child from the other.  After a time his sight improved but he was unable to ever read again.

  I was a very small child and I was seven years old before they let me go to school.  My first girlfriend was Aras Hicken, and her brother, Arvin, was a councilor in the Taylor Stake Presidency.  Another friend was Leah Holt.   When I was ten years old my fathers two brothers came to visit him, it was the first time he had seen them in ten years.  Father took up a homestead 13 miles south of Manyberries, in 1913, where we lived for five summers.  I went to the Ketchum school but in the winter we lived in Raymond so we could attend school there.  We had no church out there for a long time until President H. S. Allen and O. H. Snow organized a Sunday School.  We had to travel ten miles to Sunday School.  In the five years we lived there, we only had one crop, that was in 1916.

  In May of 1913 my Mother's father died.  I remember him very well, he lived in Coutts, Alberta, and had a long white beard.  Two weeks before he died he came to our house to stay and our dog howled all night beneath his window.  He said that was a sign of a death in the family, two weeks later he passed away from diabetes.

  While living on the homestead we were dried out every year but the one, and the last year we were wiped out by hail, so we moved back to Raymond.  I had to make new friends and one of them was Winnie Tollestrup.  Winnie was killed by an Indian and her body burned on a straw stack.  For a long time after that the Indians were not allowed off the Reserve.

  I finished school in Raymond.  The first year I was out of school I worked at the hotel in Raymond for the sum of $12.00 per month, I only worked there for four months.  The next few years I did house work to earn money.  I taught Sunday School and Primary.  In the month of March 1928 I became ill and had to quit work.  I went to Elko, British Columbia and stayed with my sister Laura and her family for two months.  I arrived back in Raymond the 30th of May 1928, and the next day I met Sam Tynan.  On August 6th, 1928 we were married and went to Vancouver, British Columbia for our honeymoon.  We lived in Raymond until the end of January 1929 and then we moved to Calgary, Alberta.  We lived in the Garden Apartment, 2033 - 11th Ave. W., and then to our own home at 6303 Center St. S., where we are still living at this time, (March 22, 1957).

  I have taught Primary in Calgary for four years and I was a Visiting Teacher for six years.  We have five children;  Maisie Romona, Raymond Andrew, Bernard Samuel, Albert Douglas, and David Park.

  Sam passed away on 26 April 1979 and Verda passed away on 10 March 1983.

Their children:

Maisie Romona - born 7 October 1929, married Leroy Earl Jones on 26 July 1951 and they have 7 children.  Roy passed away - 20 November, 1991, and Maisie is residing in Airdrie, Alberta.

Raymond Andrew - born 13 January 1931.  Ray married Helga Kirchaoff on October 11, 1957, and they have 5 children.  Ray and Helga farm at Spedden, Alberta.

Bernard Samuel - born 15 September 1932, married Alma Elizabeth Goodwin on August 20, 1954 and they have 4 children.  Bernard and Alma live in Wandering River, Alberta in the summer time and they winter in Arizona, USA.

Albert Douglas - born 25 July 1934, married Linda Mary Frick on 9 August 1957 and they have two daughters.  Albert and Linda live in Balzac, Alberta.

David Park - born 8 July 1948.  David married Audrey Caroline Smalley (Div.) 21 May 1983 and they had three children.  David currently resides in Calgary, Alberta.

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