William Elvis Lambert

Today my dad would have celebrated his 101 birthday.  He was born on January 31, 1924 in Rotan, Fisher, Texas.  His parents were Marion Franklin Lambert and Pearl Noles.  He had one older brother, Marion Jr. and two younger sisters, Edith and Marie, and two younger brothers Chester and John Henry.  When my dad was nine years old his mother gave birth to a baby boy John Henry who died four days later.  My grandmother never recovered from the delivery and died a month later.  My dad said that each of the kids were brought in to say goodbye before she passed.  He said she told him to promise he would always keep his hair combed and his shoes shined.  He took this very much to heart and you never saw him without his hair clean and combed and his shoes shined.  I knew as a little girl to never step on his shoes!  My grandfather Lambert was left with five children to raise and often they were sent to stay with other family members while my grandfather worked outside of the area. 

Taken shortly after his mother 
died.  Youngest brother Chester
was living with another family

Eventually he met and married Miss Edna.  After he married her he went to pick up the kids to bring them home.  As they rode in a wagon my grandfather stopped at a fork in the road and told the kids that their new stepmother wanted him to take them to the orphanage and he told them that he didn't want to do that so they had to promise never to cause her any problems.  Unfortunately, rather that was true or not my dad was not a fan of his new stepmother and they often butted heads.  His older brother who they called Junior died four years later at the age of 15 as a result of Bright's disease (a kidney disease) which caused a great deal of grief to my already grieving dad.  Because of troubles at home and the loss of his brother he left home at 13 and rode trains and hitchhiked until he ended up in the Sacramento California area.  There he met a dairy farmer who took him under his care and dad lived and worked there.  The farmer had a son who was dad's age and they became great friends.  After a year he left to go back home and check on his sisters and brother although the farmer asked him to stay.  Years later dad went back to the farm and although the farmer had passed away he was able to see his old friend.  After coming back to Texas he joined the CCC (Civil Conservation Corp) and ended up in Phoenix, Arizona.  He worked on developing South Mountain Park along with other

CCC Camp or Miltary Picture

corp members.  While there he met my mother and they married in August of 1942.  In June of 1943 my brother Bill was born and shortly after dad joined the Army Air Corp.  He served in Europe and was there at the end of the war.  He told a story of a time when they were out patrolling and a group of German soldiers were walking back towards Germany.  Germany had surrendered and the war was at an end.  One of the soldiers asked the officer in charge if they should take them into custody and he said no.  He said they want to go back to their families just as much as we want to go back to ours.  My dad was really touched by that lesson from his commanding officer.   After the war dad worked on cars for quite some time and then eventually became a bricklayer.  I loved it when I was little and we would drive around and he would point to a house of another building and say, "I built that."  He was a hard worker and often times a very stubborn man but he always did his best.  He laid brick for over 35 years on his 62nd birthday he retired.  Living in Arizona in the summer is not always a pleasant experience when

Dad served as president for the 
Bricklayers Union for several years

the temperatures is in the 110 range but he did it.  One time he talked to my brother Bill who was deciding what he wanted to do in life and my dad said, "I didn't raise you to be a bricklayer" and encouraged him to go to college.  Bill did that.  Although my parents weren't active in the church for many years they began to attend church when they moved to Kingman, Arizona.  They eventually served a mission in Salt Lake City at the family history department and were active in the church the rest of their lives.  

Dad could be very difficult to live with and my mom deserved sainthood for continually loving and forgiving his shortcomings.  Both my brothers stayed as far away from him as they could.  I was pretty much the one who was left to deal with my dad.  But what a blessing that became for me because I saw the side of my parents that the others didn't get to see.  He was a very strict and demanding parent but I saw a kind, gentle and loving grandparent after the grandchildren came.  He was absolutely the proudest grandad and adored my children and a few of his great grandchildren which made all the difficult experiences of the past become irrelavant for me.  Dad had a heart attack in August and died on August 24, 2000 while awaiting heart surgery in Phoenix.  I will always believe the birth of Ruth on August 24, 2004 and the birth of Caleb on August 24, 2011 was orchestrated by my dad to let me know he was thinking about me!