Life Story
of Delmer Lehi Olson
by
daughter RaNae, December 1961
It was April 3, 1913, when Doctor
Allen Cutler came to the home of Gustaf E. and Elizabeth Peterson Olson in
Glencoe to bring Delmer into this world.
Both parents had immigrated from Vingoker, Sweden, with their parents at
the age of five. They came on the same
ship at the same time, both from Vingoker and both ended up on Glencoe,
Franklin, Idaho. At the time of Delmer's
birth they had no automobile, but traveled by horse and buggy over the very
muddy road of Station Creek.
During his childhood, Nephi Hansen
was a frequent companion. Playing with
stick horses, rolling wheels, Ginny, Hopscotch, Old Sow, and riding horses were
favorite pastimes.
One time while playing in a straw
stack, he lost a much treasured pocketknife.
Doing what he had always been taught to do when he was troubled, he
prayed. The next day while playing on
the same stack he put his hand down in the straw, and sure enough, it was
there. Thus, he learned from this
experience that God does answer prayers.
Although the Olson family had enough
to eat, they had very few luxuries. Dad
remembers liking to eat at his Uncle Alfred's and Aunt Ester's because they had
enough sugar in their bottled fruit -- his family never did. Living in a small ward and away from town,
the church served as their recreation center.
Delmer was after seven when he
started school in Glencoe. His teachers
were Della Schow, Grace Jepsen, Naomi Forsgren, Melba Obre (she later married
Ralph Baird; Dad didn't know she would some day be his aunt.) , Wallace Jensen
(he's in the Franklin stake presidency), Norman Steele, and Genny Palmer. He skipped the seventh grade and received his
eighth grade diploma in 1927.
Dad was about nine years of age when
his sister Elaine had a baby girl. The
Smiths then lived in Fairview, Idaho, where Welland was principal of the
Fairview Grade School. He listened with
intent when Elaine told him of the tiny thin-and-fine-haired blonde who came
across the street to see the principal's new baby. This girl was Velda Baird, his future
wife. Little did she know this baby
would be her niece.
Some of his childhood chores were
pitching hay, plowing, milking, hauling wood, shocking grain, and going after
cows.
An event that probably affected his
life more than anything else in his youth was the death of his mother when he
was fourteen.
He was baptized in the Logan Temple
July 12, 1921, by L. Vern Tomson and was confirmed the same day by Thomas
Morgan.
The year after graduating from
district school he didn't attend high school because of his mother's
illness. LeGrande was going to college,
and Ruby had to go to high school. The
next year he started. He stayed with his
sister Selma and brother-in-law Orin Fellows in town to attend his freshman
year. In April he returned home and
walked to and from where Lafe Smith now lives every day to catch the school
bus. His sophomore year he worked for
Wayne Evans for a dollar a week and room and board. He rode the bus from their home where Theo
Smith resides at the present. During his
junior year, he, Elva Jepsen, and his sister Venice had an apartment in
Preston. They would go home on weekends and
bring food back for the next week. He
stayed at home again the following year.
When he was a senior, he stayed at his sister Geneva and brother-in-law
bill's home and rode the first Mink Creek bus ever sent. They lived over on the highway where Grant
Docstater does now. He graduated in
1933.
Church offices he held
before his marriage included:
vanguard
(explorer) leader
counselor in
the Sunday School Superintendency
counselor in
YMMIA Superintendency
His brother LeGrande supported him
from March 1937 to May 1939 while he was on a mission. He was sent to the Spanish-American
mission. One day he and his companion
went to the city of Los Angeles. Since
they weren't acquainted with the city, two lady missionaries were supposed to
take them around. They just asked them
where they wanted to get off just like they didn't want to bother with
them. So they got off and went looking
for his companion's aunt. (anyway, this
is the way Dad tells the story.) Neither
Sister Baird nor Elder Olson paid any more attention when they read of each
other in mission publications as they did to someone else (perhaps not as
much), but they didn't know then what was to happen in July of 1940.
Some youthful associates were
Russell Westerberg, Woodrow Rassmussen, Freamon Jepson, Thora and Lima
Rassmussen, and Gertrude Wilde.
Activities they enjoyed were
basketball, baseball, dancing, hunting, horseback riding, fishing, and
trapping.
On July 5, 1940, he married Velda
Baird in the Logan Temple in Logan, Cache, Utah. Home conditions didn't change much for him as
he lived with his father in the same house, although it was to be remodeled
several times.
Some favorite books he has read are The
Winning of Barbara Worth, The Cimarron, and American History. His chosen forms of recreation are fishing
and hunting.
Trips he has taken include one to
Phoenix, Arizona, in 1942 to see his brother Stan receive his wings, one in
1961 to Denver, Colorado, with the directors of the Cache Valley Rocky Mountain
Dairy Assn., and several to Yellowstone National Park.
Since his marriage his church
activities include:
Stake missionary -- three weeks -- sustained July
17, 1940
2nd counselor to Bishop Hyrum Jepsen -- four years
1st counselor to Bishop Hyrum Jepsen -- two years
Bishop of Glencoe -- four years -- sustained
February 13, 1947.
Stake YMMIA counselor -- sustained in May 1951 ---
four years
Bishop of Mink Creek -- four years -- sustained
October 30, 1955
Oneida Stake High Council -- sustained January,
1960.
Outside of temple day he has done
little temple work. His plans for the
future include getting his children educated.
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