Emily May Bigelow Stoker


 

(This was scanned into a computer file by Stephen Rawlins in Feb., 1997, from the document: DON AND ANNIE BIGELOW LIFE HISTORY, prepared by their children in 1988.)

Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. on May 26 1909, another daughter was born to Don and Annie Bigelow. They named her Emily May after Don's sister Emily and Annie's sister May. Emily was the first daughter born to them after the loss of their other four daughters. She came to lighten their lives and to bring them joy.


As Emily grew up, she had all of the childhood diseases. She went to grade school in Wallsburg, and graduated from the Wasatch High School in Heber.


Emily's first job after graduating from high school was in a hotel in Vernal, Utah, where her Aunt Emily lived. Later, she worked in Salt Lake City for Mrs. Charles M. Osborn. She also went to Henagar's Business College in Salt Lake.


While she was in Wallsburg, helping to care for her mother who had been ill, Emily began going with Theron LeGrand Stoker. They were married March 15, 1939. They made their first home in Wallsburg. They moved to Midvale, where Theron worked in the U. S. Mines in Bingham.

Their first child, a girl, was stillborn. They gave her the name of Lillian and buried her in the Wallsburg Cemetery. Three other children were born to them:

  • Marie born 14 Oct 1941 Heber City
  • Dan Theron born 18 Feb 1943 Provo
  • Ray Leon born 18 May 1944 Provo

Emily and Theron bought a coal company. Emily worked in the office and Theron delivered the coal. They also bought a fruit stand in Springville. When Emily wasn't busy with customers, she crocheted doilies and sold them, both at the fruit stand and at the coal yard.

In April, 1946, Don and Annie, Emily's father and mother, came to live in part of the Stoker home in Provo.

On January 5, 1955, Theron and Emily's thirteen-year-old daughter Marie was badly burned in an accident. She died on January 26th, 1955.

In 1957, the Stokers gave up the coal business. Theron went to work for the Alpine School District. He worked for them until he retired.

Emily had started working in the L.D.S. Church when she was only twelve years old. She was secretary of the Wallsburg Sunday School. When she was eighteen, she was the president of the Young Ladies Mutual Association. She has also been a teacher in Primary. Primary President, has taught the Beehive Class in Mutual, taught a class in Jr. Sunday School, was work director in the Relief Society and a visiting teacher for the Relief Society. While teaching the Beehive Class she became an Honor Bee.

She crocheted many things, from baby booties to bedspreads. She made ribbon roses, knitted some things and collected a whole china cupboard full of miniatures.

Theron died April 30, 1977 and was buried in the Wallsburg Cemetery. Emily began work in the Provo Temple July 19, 1977. In 1979, she had done endowments for 852 of her kindred dead and many initiatories.

 

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