Wallace Henry Prigmore

Jerry shared this with me:

Life Sketch of Wallace Henry Prigmore

Wallace Henry Prigmore passed away peacefully on JULY 8, 2010. He was born to Charles Henry and Bertha Windross Prigmore, English immigrants; in Kaysville, Utah on December 17th 1922 in a small two story house across the street from the Deseret Mills granary where he was raised with two brothers and two sisters.

When he was a boy, Wally was the youngest of 5 children, and he appreciated the watching over that he received from his older siblings, and enjoyed their company.

He was active as a child, and used to tell the story of when he once jumped from a ledge with scissors in his hands and cut his abdomen. Others gathered around to console him about his wound and one of them offered him a drink of water. He was glad for their kindness, but he refused the water fearing that if he drank it he would leak.

As he got a little older he worked in the pea cannery in Kaysville and working long hours gained a reputation as a hard worker which he was all of his life.

He was active in sports, playing football in high school, and also had the lead in the Davis High School play, along with Esther Mitchell from Woods Cross whom he eventually married. There was some concern in the family many years later when they found some love letters from this time period, to someone named Nancy. Finally it was realized that Esther’s name in the play was Nancy and he had picked up on it as a pet name for her. He graduated in 1942.

World War II was on when he graduated from high school, and he joined the Marine Corp. He was sent to the South Pacific as an anti aircraft gunner for three years, and was stationed in the South Pacific in Hawaii, Australia, New Britain and in the Solomon Islands. His favorite spot was an Island in the Solomon’s called Woodlark, about 150 miles Northeast of New Guinea. He described it as a kind of paradise with palm trees, beautiful beaches and many colorful parrots in the treetops. He always talked like he would like to return there to visit some day. It was a considerable distance out of the way however and he never made it back.

During his tour of duty because he was a Mormon and did not drink or smoke he was nicknamed Brigham. The other men would tease him about having a drink with them but he always refused. At the end of the three years when the war was over and they were about to be discharged one of the men held out a drink and told him that surely after all they had been through together and to mark the end of the war he must now have a celebratory drink with them. With no intention of actually drinking it, he played along and reached for the drink. Showing a respect that Wally did not anticipate, the roughest character among them who had always been active in taunting him stood up and grabbed the drink out of his hand saying “You’ve come this far Wally, you’re not going to give in now!”

I loved as a child to hear his stories of the war, and I begged him every night to tell them to me before I went to bed. In the process he inspired in me a desire to visit the islands he saw, and when it came time for my generation to go to war I followed his footsteps in joining the Marine Corp. I’ve seen Hawaii and Australia, but I’m still working on that trip to Woodlark.

After the War, he married Esther Mitchell of Woods Cross, Utah in the Salt Lake Temple. For a time he attended the University of Utah, and also learned an electrical trade in which he worked for a time winding large electric diesel motors for train engines while working for General Electric in Salt Lake.

They lived in Salt Lake City and in Bountiful for several years then moved to Billings, Montana where they stayed for 48 years. While there he worked in the wholesale electronics business and later in real estate sales. On the side he also ran a nursery and landscaping business planting lawns and shrubbery; a business which kept both him and me busy during the summer months of my teenage years. I’m sure we must have planted half the lawns in Billings during that time.

When he wasn’t working, he was usually in a church meeting. The Church was growing in Billings, and Mom & Dad were in meetings so much that I was pretty sure Rella and I were orphans. They travelled the Mission, the District and the Stake often, and our family vacations were nearly always tied with an assigned Church visit somewhere or to attendance at General Conference in Salt Lake. He was a counselor in the West Central States Mission Presidency and spent nine years as a counselor in the Billings Montana Stake Presidency.

After Esther passed away in 1990, he did landscaping and maintenance work for the Church in Billings. When he got to the point that he could no longer work, he thought it was a rotten deal when he was forced to retire. I think given a choice he would have just worked every day until he died.

When he could no longer work, the family brought him to Utah where he has lived for the past 8 years. In recent years he has lived in Salt Lake with his daughter Rella and her husband Ken Roberts.

He has missed Esther ever since she died, and I am sure he is delighted to be with her again.

Leola Webster Prigmore

In Loving Memory of
LEOLA WEBSTER PRIGMORE
April 17, 1923 - May 17, 2010
Funeral Services- Saturday, May 22, 2010
Kaysville Tabernacle- 11 a.m.
Interment- Kaysville Cemetery

I have a lot of fond memories of Aunt Leola. She was a very special aunt to me. I had many good times staying at her home as a kid, dropping by to see her as an adult, listening to her talk about her beloved Jazz basketball team, receiving and reading her Christmas letters etc. It was nice to see everyone even though it was under such circumstances. I love the old Kaysville Tabernacle with its stained glass windows. It is the meetinghouse where Grandma and Grandpa Prigmore attended church and where they had their funerals as well. I remember going to sacrament meeting there with cousin Kathy to hear Uncle Gene give a high council talk.

The last leaves on the tree:

Uncle Gene

Uncle Wally

Beautiful casket spray

Floral offerings

L-R: Mary Ann, Sarah, Kathy (partially

hidden) Ed, Uncle Gene and John

Family at the gravesite



Larry, Jill, Annette, Don, Ron, Jean, Lorraine

Bernice and Jerry

Family headstones in Kaysville Cemetery:

Progress on the Windross Line

In the time when Marilyn is not assisting patrons at the Family History Library in Salt Lake, she has been working on the Windross family line. That is Grandma Bertha Prigmore's side of the family. Some of the individuals Marilyn has found are not our direct line, but are branches on the same tree...siblings, their children etc. At least we have a common ancestor with them. Some of my grandchildren and Marilyn's granddaughters have done baptisms and confirmations. Ron and Jodie had their ward youth complete some also. Marilyn has handed out name cards to some family members and would appreciate prompt completion the work and then returning the cards to her in a timely manner. (That note is for me!) If I understand Marilyn correctly, there is no way that a few of us will be able to do the ordinance work for all relatives she has documented. I think she is having to send some of the cards to the temple for other patrons to complete. Sometimes temple work seems more meaningful if there is a personal connection to those for whom you are acting as proxy. If you are interested in doing some of this important work, please contact Marilyn to see if she is able to supply you with some name cards. Her email address is: mmadams99@yahoo.com.

Decendancy List

I have withdrawn the bulk of this post. It contained names and dates of Grandma and Grandpa Prigmore's posterity. I thought I had made the security settings strict enough that the general public couldn't get on the blog without knowing the address of the blog, but that was not the case. I appreciate Ken Prigmore raising the question of security where everyone's (living individuals) information is posted for the world to see. I certainly don't want anyone becoming the target of identity theft. I would still like every branch of the Bertha and Charlie Prigmore to email me with all the names and dates (birth, baptism, endowment, marriage, death etc.) of each family member. I could then share that information with any of the other family members who would like it. The last information I have for most of the family (except Edna's decendants) is from a gray Prigmore Family binder that Uncle Wally and Jerry put together about 15 1/2 years ago. Please email with new information! kathyreedc@msn.com.


Charles Henry Prigmore (b.21 Nov 1883;d.29 Oct 1982)
sp: Bertha Windross (b.11 Apr 1882;m.28 Oct 1910;d.27 Feb 1968)

Rose Alice Prigmore (b.17 Dec 1911;d.30 Jun 1966)
sp: Jesse Brough Flint (b.17 Oct 1884;m.15 Mar 1948;d.12 Mar 1969)

James Windross Prigmore (b.14 Mar 1915;d.4 Jan 1994)
sp: Myrtle Jane Moss (b.2 Feb 1917;m.1 Oct 1934;d.13 Aug 2000)

Edna May Prigmore (b.2 May 1917;d.22 Feb 2009)
sp: Horace James Milligan (b.13 Mar 1921;m.20 Nov 1946;d.8 Jan 1998)

sp: Esther Mitchell (b.1 Jul 1922;m.7 Nov 1945;d.27 Oct 1990)

Meet The Prigmores--They're Among Best Americans

July 1952 newspaper article:

Since Friday is the 4th of July, and we all wave flags and talk loudly of independence, I should like to tell you about some good Americans. Although both Mr. and Mrs. Prigmore of Kaysville still carry their broad English accents, they are, nevertheless, as fine Americans as anyone could be.

'Way back in 1910 in Sheffield, England, Charlie Prigmore's uncle, one James Smith from Kaysville, went to study some geneology. It was not hard to persuade his nephew to come to America. Charlie, on the other hand, experienced little difficulty in persuading Bertha (who was not then Mrs. Prigmore) that here was the land of opportunity. So, in May, 1910, while hating to leave his native England, Charlie Prigmore came to America and straight to Kaysville. Bertha came a few months later, in October, and they were almost immediately married by the late Henry H. Blood.

The Prigmores were converts to the LDS church but they became Americans, too, as soon as they arrived. Immediately they started taking out citizenship papers, it took five years to complete, according to law, and they have been good citizens ever since.

Mrs. Prigmore is a dear little lady, still unmistakedly British in appearance and talk. She is a great lover of the literary. Her father was somewhat of a poet (Rose, one daughter, has some of her grandfather's writings in a scrapbook), and she inherited from and was encouraged by him to pursue matters poetic. The result is that you would travel far to find anyone with a wider knowledge of the best in English and American literature. She can quote reams of poetry-- including Shakespeare -- and for several years has been in charge of the literature lessons in the Kaysville First Ward Relief Society.

She says she has always found comfort and enjoyment from the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and likes to quote her "Psalm of Life" when she feels the need for some sort of uplift.

Charlie Prigmore, too, is an unusual person. When I was a child, I remember well the beautiful grounds surrounding the U.P station in Kaysville. There were roses, many other flowers, and a small hedge that spelled "Kaysville." He tells me that, back "on the other side of the water" he first started working with flowers when he was 16 on a huge estate.

When he had been in Kaysville only a few days, his uncle took him to Lagoon. Seeing the gardens there, Charlie said "There's a place I'd like to work." It so happened that the chief gardener there was looking for a helper, so he was hired. He worked there for five years, then later for the McDonald Roof Garden, and for seven years cared for the U.P. grounds.

There are three Prigmore sons and two daughters. Two of their sons were fighting Marines during World War II, seeing action on Pelelieu, Iwo Jima, and many other bloody places. One daughter, Edna, was a Wave, too, during the war.

The Prigmores are ideal citizend in many ways. They have raised their sons and daughters to be active members of society. I don't suppose, either, that any member of the family has ever done anything which was harmful to other people or to society. They are, indeed, the type of people who make America, and especially Davis County, the best place on earth!

---newspaper clipping does not give the author's name. The title of the column is "Personalities." Newspaper name is not known, probably not the "Davis County Clipper," but was possibly called "The Reflex."

About James Windross by Charles Prigmore

James Windross was Bertha's father, he was a good Christian gentleman, he believed in truth and honesty, he was a great man to study the scriptures. Sometimes in an evening we would read the bible and comment on what we had read. Sometimes Bertha (your mother) would play the piano and we would sing hymns. It was something like Home Evening. He was a writer for what was known as the Factory Times that was in Lancashire, and the pieces he used to put in the paper, he made lot of enemies because he believed in the right. Your Mother told me at one time there was a man very faithful at his job who was getting starvation wages, he felt so badly the way the factory had treated him with the hard work and low wages that he felt so sorry for him, he (Grandpa Windross) just broke down and cried. And this man had a large family. Well when the writeup was put in the Factory Times, it did not please the bosses too much. That caused a rumpuss, but Grandpa did not mind for he believed in fighting for the poor, helpless man who was being took advantage of. The last I see of him, Grandpa Windross, he had come with me from Sheffield to see me off on the ship, Zeeland. I shall never forget it, when I had to say good bye to go on the ship, he said, "Goodbye, trust in the Lord, and don't forget your prayers." And he tied his handkerchief on his cane and waved it as long as he could see. And I never shall forget his answer to my letter when I told him we were baptized into the church. His answer back: "Now you have joined the LDS Church is a sign you believe in it, so now, work for it, live for it and if needs be, die for it, and May God Bless you, love your father, James Windross. The temple work has been done for him. I am sure he is now rejoicing.

The above story was handwritten by Charles Prigmore for his children. At times I had a hard time deciphering the writing. I tried to keep it as close as possible to the way he wrote it. I have looked through Grandpa Prigmore's album dozens of times but I don't recall taking the time to read the note containing the above remembrance. I can just visualize Great Grandpa Windross tying the handkerchief to his cane and waving it.

Poem by James Windross

Shadows are we one and all;
A photo is a shadows play.
And written words like shadow fall;
The shadows of the mind are they.

Then shade this page whoe'er you be;
Tho' also here your mark must fade,
Except not immortality;
Where even light itself is shade.

Yet, all the same your hand display;
Yet, all the same your mind relieve,
If like the flowers we pass away;
Like them expressive let us live.

By James Windross
April 22, 1907

This was taken from a page hand-written by Grandpa (Charles) Prigmore.