Tribute to Irene Flake, by Lavona Flake Richardson

My thoughts today are of my dear Mother who was born 107 years ago today.    I am blessed to be born of goodly parents who as a child taught me the gospel in our Home Nights and by their example.  Some of my family has commented that I am looking more like my mother every day.  To me this is a great compliment.  My hope is that I can live my life so that Mother and Daddy will be happy with my activities and that I can endure faithfully to the end of my life like they did and that all of our posterity will honor their name and their lives by the way they live their lives.  

Mother had such a great influence on my life. I have so many memories of my mother.  I want to list just a few of them.

   1.   The great love that Daddy and Mother had for each other and the joy they had being together.  They liked to go on trips together and my memories are that Daddy always came first in her life.  Mother always did everything she could to make Daddy happy—fixing special meals when he had stomach problems, traveling with him, and being his scribe.  

  2.  Mother was always interested in our activities—I remember all her help  when I was married and coming back to Chicago to help me when my first baby   was born.  She was always there for all of us when we needed her. 

   3.  Mother was the one that wrote us each week while we were on a mission or at BYU and wherever life took us.   Daddy would sometimes tell her to tell us something but she was the one that kept the correspondence going.

    4.   Mother and Daddy came and picked all of us up from our missions when we had successfully fulfilled our missionary assignment.  They let us know how happy they were that we had served well.    

     5.  One of the biggest motivations that I had to do well was the motivation to make my mother proud of my activities.  She made me want to be as better person so that I could give her a good report of my activities.  Even at 95 years of age she was interested in each one of her children, grand children and great grandchildren.  She knew each one of us and our activities.  She loved to visit about what we were all doing.  

     6.   Mother was a great helper to Daddy when he served as Bishop—she helped with tithing settlement from the big desk in our living room, gave parties to the servicemen when they came home on furloughs, and any other activity.  They always worked together.
 
      7.    Mother had several businesses that she ran from our home where she could first be our Mother and then add to our family income and give service to others.  She had a bookstore, picked up and delivered dry cleaning, wrote for the newspaper, ordered movies for the twice weekly ward theater and  many other worthwhile activities that enriched our lives.

       8. Mother had a keen mind—just a month or so before she died she was saying the Articles of Faith and naming the presidents of the church.  She would go down listing all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and knew them all by name.  She graduated top of her class out of High School and in those days not many went on to college.  She worked hard at NAU to put herself through college and get her teaching certificate.   She enjoyed teaching and taught all of us.
  
        9.   Mother was a people person.  She had lots of friends and always remembered what they were involved in and would visit with them about their interests.  She knew everyone.  I could ask her about anyone and she would know if or how they were related and their interests.
 
        10.  Mother loved the temple.  She enjoyed her temple friends and being involved.  She especially liked to help with the new brides, and liked to help with the temple weddings of her daughters and granddaughters. Even though she didn’t speak Spanish she learned the temple ceremonies in Spanish and made lots of friends with the Mexican people that would come to the temple.
       
         11.  Mother loved books.  She enjoyed her home bookstore and always provided good reading material for all of us as we were growing up.  Whenever I had been away from home for a length of time one of my first stops upon returning home was to see what the new books were and made plans to read them.  ·
   
         12.  I can remember of always having family prayer as we were growing up and home night before it was promoted by the church.  I remember cookouts on the hill, taking lunch to the cowboys and , performing for the family in the “lodge”.     Christmas and Thanksgiving were big holidays in my growing up years.  The races to the tree have been carried down to our children and grandchildren.  I remember the big Thanksgiving dinners.

         13.  Mother was a good cook.  She made great rolls, pies, carrot pudding and cinnamon rolls.   I remember the Saturday night cinnamon rolls after the house was clean and ready for Sunday and we had our Saturday night baths and maybe a movie at the ward movie theater. I remember coming home to the aroma of freshly baked bread.

  Thank you Mother  for the influence you and Daddy had in my life through the years.   Thank you for your great example.  Thanks for all the great memories I have of you and your life of  love and service.

Our Snowflake Heritage, by Lavona Flake Richardson

 I enjoyed showing seven of my children around Snowflake on Monday, January 20, 2014.  I shared lots of memories of growing up here.

 I attended Snowflake Union High School in this Academy building.  I had orchestra on the bottom floor and home economics and algebra on the upper floor of this old bjuilding.

                                           I have so many memories of attending school here.                                    
                               
The high school then consisted of just these two building.  I had English, Driver's Ed and Social Studies in the Fish Building.

 The building was named for Silas Fish, who was the principal for many years before I attended High School.

 Our school mascot was the Lobos when I attended there and it is still the mascot for Snowflake High School.

                             We went to Marion's home in Snowflake to change our clothes.
                                 
                         We stopped at the Jesse N. Smith home which is the home of our grandparents.

 We enjoyed having Marlene, Mark and Rebekah, Tyler and Ryan join us for our tour of Snowflake.

 We had to wait to get a key to be able to enter the Jesse N. Smith home.  This plaque stood out on the ground.  Our grandfather Jesse Nathaniel Smith lived from 1834 to 1906 and was the first Stake President in Snowflake.

                               We stopped to see the restored log cabin of  Uncle Locy.

               It was locked so we couldn't go in but we enjoyed looking through the windows.

 My father supervised the building oif what we called the "show house".  We paid our ward budget which allowed us to watch movies here twice a week.  My mother selected the movies that our ward watched.

                         The church building where I went to church is right next to the theater.

We stopped at a memorial next to the church that lists those men who lost their lives in World War I and World War II.  

                    Miriam looks into the door of the church building.  It too was locked.

 Lots of significant things in my life happened here in what they now call the Main Street Church Building.

 Here I was baptized, graduated from elementary school, participated in a high school musical, had my missionary farewell and homecoming, and wedding  reception and lots of other important events in my life. 

 I have so many memories of things that happened in this church building.

                                      We lived just across the street from the church.

                   The Snowflake Monument is on the same lot as the church building.

 This plaque tells about the monument which depicts the naming of Snowflake for my grandfather, William Jordan Flake and Erastus Snow who called them to go to Arizona to colonize.

I am happy that so many of my children were with me to enjoy this tour of the town where I grew up. 

                                     I like this picture showing the monument and the church.

                                                          I had a wonderful childhood.

 The home where we lived in Snowflake is now the Chamber of Commerce.
                               
  The home hasn't changed too much since we lived there.  I am happy that we were able to go inside to see some of it. 

 This is my Dad's cattle brand that he had built into the rock on the front porch of our home.

                                                                       So many memories. 

We called this home a lodge.  Daddy built it so that we could hold home evenings and other family events out there.  We enjoyed the fire place in the building.  It is now used as a store.

 

                         We enjoyed the fire place in the building.  It is now used as a store.

On the other end of the block from the home where I grew up is the original home in Snowflake when my Great  Grandfather William Jordan Flake bought the Snowflake valley and invited other to come and live here to begin a settlement..

                                           These are the photos of my Great Grandparents.

                                            
In this Stinson Museum I found myself on a family tree pedigrees owing the descendants of William Jordan Flake  in  1939 when my twin sister and I were four years old.

                                             It was fun to find my name to show my children.

                                                     This was my great grandfather's hat.

                                    The pioneer kitchen displayed in the Stinson Museum.

                                  This is like a kitchen my great grandmother  would have had.

                         Aunt Gusta was my father's oldest sister.  She  taught me in 4th grade.

                                                I enjoy learning more about my pioneer ancestors.

                        Pioneer farming equipment were displayed at the side of the museum.

                       Jay would have enjoyed seeing the equipment like his family used on their farm.

                    We went to the log cabin belonging to my great grandfather  in Beaver, Utah.

                                 The family brought the log cabin down to Snowflake.
                                  
          We visited the childhood home of my father.  It is lovingly called "The Big House"
                                               

                    I have lots of memories of visiting my grandparents in this home.

                                                    I remember the old wood cook stove.

I remember eating as a child around this table when my mother was in the hospital with a new baby.                                           

                      I remember my grandfather sitting in this chair while my mother read to him.
                                                                     This is how I remember my grandfather, James Madison Flake.  He was hard of hearing and would lean close to the radio to be able to hear it.

            I am in this photo of my grandfather's 80th birthday.  I was eleven years old when he died.

  

                                     My father was one of fifteen children who lived in  this home. 

                                                   This is the way I remember Grandpa Flake.

                                                                My father was a great man.

                                                         I could not have had a better father.

                                 My father was fourteen years old when this photo was taken.

                                                        My father also had a great father.

I wish I could have known my Grandma Flake.  I know she was a great woman.  My father always paid such high tribute to his mother.

                  I am on the front step of the Big House in this photo showing all the grandchildren.

                                        It was wonderful  to share my memories with my children.

              My father had eight brothers.  This photo was taken at a reunion in 1959.

I have a great heritage.

                                                      This collar belonged to m Grandma Flake.

                                                                   My great grandmother.

                                               Baby clothes belonging to my Dad's little sisters.

                              I remember when this mural was painted in the hall of the "Big House".

These are the pictures of Daddy and Mother and their family displayed in what was the boy's bedroom.

                                          This picture of our family was taken in about 1950.

                                           A later picture of our family with our spouses.

                                                     Another beautiful mural in the home.

                                                            More photos of my ancestors.

                                                                    Grandpa Flake's bedroom.  

                                                                        So many memories!

President and Sister McKay came to Snowflake in 1953 to celebrate it's 75th birthday.  I was eighteen years old.

We had a wonderful tour of my grandparent's home and the home where my Dad grew up.

                                         The horse head at the top of "The Big House".

                         What a thrill to be able to share my memories with my children.
                        
                                  
We now had a tour guide with a key so we went back for a quick tour of another great  grandfather's home.

Jesse N. Smith was the first Stake President in Snowflake.  He was Grandma Flake's father.

                                                     His home is also nicely restored.

                                                               Another pioneer kitchen.

           The Snowflake Stake Academy building was still around when I went to high school.

     I remember looking at pictures with this viewer at my Grandma Stratton's home (my mother's mother). Both my mother and father great up in Snowflake.

                                            We share this common ancestor with Joseph Smith

We enjoyed a fun but quick tour of the home.

                                      This room in the home was in memory of my Grandmother.

                                               A pointing of the Jesse N. Smith home.

                                    My great grandmother, Augusta Marie Outzen.

                                                     Here she is with her brothers and sisters.

A photo of my great grandmother when she married my great grandfather.

In this photo I caught a picture of me taking a picture of my Great Grandmother's furniture.

                                                    Photo showing the naming of Snowflake.

                               An early picture of Snowflake.  Snowflake was founded in 1878.

                       I took these photos of the Snowflake Temple as we left to drive back to Mesa.

This has been a wonderful trip.  What  a great pioneer heritage we have.  What  a blessing it has been to share my memories of growing up in Snowflake with my children.