After leaving my Heavenly Home, I arrived on Earth September 4, 1919, and joined my earthly parents Gustave Adolph Rupp, my father, and Evelyn Bringhurst, my mother.
This reunion took place in a home on Redwood Road in Taylorsville, Utah. I was the first child and one of three girls and one boy in the family, i.e. Dorothy, Elsie, Willis and Carolyn.
I lived all my life, until I was married, in Taylorsville, Utah on 4700 South. It was a very happy life with a fine father and mother. I had a lot of swimming in the irrigation canal when mother wasn’t watching too close.
It didn’t matter much to me then that we had to shove aside the dead chickens and other debris while we were swimming. Nearly every year dad would drive us to Boise, Idaho and Los Angeles, California to visit relatives. These were fun trips over rough roads and much slower cars than we have today. Then there were always those fun camping trips up the Chaulk Creek in Parleys Canyon with the Frames. On one camping trip I remember mother and dad’s brand new bed breaking completely down as they went to get in and how we laughed and were up most of the night. I remember the bear tracks we would find around our camp some mornings.
I have always felt I had the advantages of being raised in the country, yet close enough to the city to reap the advantages there also.
My father was a mechanic and owned and operated his own garage all his life. There were many advantages of having my father’s business across the street from the school – because, you see, I could always go over to his place of business with a few friends and ask for money to buy candy. I can’t ever remember my dad saying no (my mother said he didn’t know the word). My brother and sisters were given the same privileges. We have talked about it many times.
For many years my father also sold Hudson cars. Sometimes we would have five or six new cars a year and that was always exciting to me.
I can remember mother assigning us work to do on Saturdays and inevitably Elsie and Willis would goof off and I would end up doing their work. It got so that if mother wasn’t home and they were goofing around I would make them outside and stay (remembering to throw a coat out after them if it was cold weather). When mother arrived home, I would get the scotch blessing for making them go outside and in the meantime I had finished their work. We get smart too late, don’t we.
I remember my mother’s sister, Bessie, living with us for a few years. We had a great time with her. My mother was a very good homemaker. She kept a very clean home and was an expert seamstress. As a result, we all had very nice clothes to wear.
I remember only two grandparents – Pauline Rupp and Joseph Bringhurst – as the others had passed on.
I also vividly remember a pear tree out the back of our house, that mother used branches off of, to apply pressure to the back of our seats if we had misbehaved. The trouble was – she made us go get the branch and she applied the pressure. One day I remember telling her to go get the branch herself. That was a big mistake, I found out. I never tried it again.
My childhood was very pleasant growing up with my brother and sisters. When we get together, we have pleasant times recalling the past.
During part of my teen years I was organist for the M.I.A. in the Taylorsville Ward. For about four years I was dance instructor for the M.I.A. Young Ladies. Ronald Frame was my partner.
In 1937, the Henry H. Hintze family moved into our Taylorsville Ward, and I was soon to meet their son, Wayne. At that time I had been dating Ronald Frame, along with a few others. It was on a double date with Wayne and his girl friend and Ronald and I, that Wayne asked me for a date. I guess you could say it was “love at first date”. April 1, 1938, Wayne and I became engaged, an engagement that lasted two years while Wayne helped keep his brother on a mission. On October 10, 1940, Wayne and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. After a honeymoon to Portland, Seattle and Canada, we returned to our home in Taylorsville, a home that we had started to build several months before.
December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which meant a world wide war as Hitler had already been trying to conquer Europe. Wayne enlisted in the Navy and was sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco. He was stationed later in the Federal Building and San Francisco, where he remained for the duration of the war. I was able to come and live with him during these years. We lived at 150 Haight Street, Apt. 407. After four years of service, Wayne received an honorable discharge from the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer. He worked for a plumbing supply business in San Francisco after his discharge until we returned to Utah again in November 1947. Wayne then worked for U. S. Gypsum Company for a few months and then went with Zions Savings Bank & Trust Company.
We had waited a long time for our family to arrive, and finally after nine and one-half years of frustration, hope, prayers, and the best medical advice and help, on March 19, 1950, our first child, a beautiful daughter was born. We named her Kathleen, and we were both walking on cloud nine. She was a good baby and we enjoyed her very much. Kathleen remains to be a great joy to us. Three and a half years later on September 13, 1953, we were blessed with a second child, a beautiful baby boy, and we were again walking on cloud nine. We named him Larry, and he has also been a great joy to us. Five years later we had our third child, another beautiful boy, born on April 15, 1959. We named him Brent, and once more we were on cloud nine. Brent has also been a great Joy to us.
I feel so blessed and eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for these three choice spirits, after waiting nine years for a child, it is hard to put into words how happy we were to finally have a family.
I have held many positions in the Church over the years. In the San Francisco Ward I was M.I.A. President, Secretary to the Sunday School. I have had teaching positions, Primary Counselor, Social Relations teacher in the Relief Society, visiting teacher; and at the present I am an ordained Temple Worker, Relief Society Supervisor and visiting teacher.
I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for my husband and family. For the choice spirits that were allowed to come into our home to raise. 1 am grateful for their partners, as I feel I now have three daughters and three sons. I am grateful for my beautiful grandchildren that we love so dearly. Indeed, we have been blessed all the days of our lives. I am grateful for a good heritage. For a loving mother and father and for my brother and sisters. They mean so much to me.
I thank our Heavenly Father for all his goodness to me and to my family, and ask that we may all of us continue to have His spirit with us always. May the years ahead be good ones for all of us.
Love,
Dorothy
Dated – August 1983