Marie Dalley Crawford

Marie Dalley Crawford is my mothers mother. She gave me a history that she had written about herself when I got married. Here are some excerpts from that history. If you want the complete history leave your e-mail address in the comments and I will send it to you.

I was born in the year nineteen hundred and five, on the twentieth day of June in the little town of Summit, Iron county, Utah. I can scarcely recall any very important events in my earlier years, with the exception of a few contagious diseases, common among children from which I recovered with no bad results.

During the summer of 1922 or 1923 I went to the El Escalante Hotel to work and while I was there I met my future husband. I worked as linen girl. Counting soiled and clean linen and giving the linen to the maids. The boiler room attendant who worked there was one person I thought of as a pest. He often locked one door so I had to go through the boiler room to go home. (I will post the history of the pest at a later date)

An old wanderer came to the Hotel looking for work and got a job as janitor. One night before I left work he asked if I would go out with him; I refused and he started to follow me home. I lived six blocks from the Hotel and had to go up a back street. The Hotel was on a northeast corner of the block and on the southwest corner was a great lumber place with a big German Shepard dog that always scared me. The gate to the lumber place was always locked, but this night the gate was open and the dog came out and walked beside me right to my door then turned and left. It was a welcome visitor for I was really scared of the old man. The next night I passed the place and it was as mean as ever. I believe today that the Heavenly Father sent that dog as a protection. This has been a great testimony to me.

My sister Ola and her husband, Marion, went to Springdale to live while Marion worked on the East Rim Trail at Zion. I went to visit them and while I was there I went to visit Carl a few times. When I went home he wrote for a spell then he quit writing. I went to a fortune teller in Cedar and she told me all about him and said I would go with him again, so I sent a valentine to him. It had bows to punch out and a verse that went something like this “if you’re heart is out of reach, send me back this bow of peach.” “If of me you sometimes think, send me back this bow of pink.” “If to me your heart is true, send me back this bow of blue.” Carl nearly sent the pink bow but decided to send the blue one. He didn’t know it was a punch type of valentine, so he took his mother to the store to buy a blue ribbon and had her make the bow. When he got home he found it was the punch type of valentine so he sent back two bows. We started writing again and he came to see me. At the time I sent the valentine he was going with another girl and I thought sure he would get her.
I stayed at the Crawford’s a few days before we got married.
We were married on the tenth day of October nineteen hundred and twenty-eight, in the St. George Temple in St. George, Utah.