Happy Birthday Scott, Dad, Grandpa

 78 Years Old

Second from the right

Updated Family Motto

We have joked many times about the Duncan Family Motto, especially as things happened that weren't always pleasant.  Today as I listened to conference I realized that it was time for a updated version of that famous "Learn to Suffer" mantra.  What do you think?

Gerlene Olive Ogzewalla Duncan

Today your grandmonther/great grandmother would have celebrated her 104th birthday.  She was born on April 6, 1921 in Rigby, Idaho.  She was born shortly after her parents moved from Round Prairie, Illinois.  Her mother Matilda was a member of the church but her father Charles wasn't.  He did join the church a few years before she was born.  She had 10 siblings but only 5 lived to adulthood.  When she was in about the second grade the family moved from Idaho to Utah and moved a number of times before settling in Centerville, Utah.  In her life story she wrote that she was a very naive child and once a friend convinced her and her sister that if they put sugar on top of their mud pies and let them bake in the sun they tasted delicious.  After her first bite she said it was a lie!  When she was old enough to start school it was a very terrifying experience for her.  She cried for days and the children in the class made fun of her but she still cried.  As a child they were very poor but she didn't realize it.  They lived in a house with no electricity, no water inside, and no plumbing.  She said as poor as they were there were some far worse then them.  The water was salty and not usable for drinking, so they hauled drinking water in.  Poor as they were they were proud that we received no help from any source.  In 1929 she was baptized along with two other girls in her ward in the baptismal font in the Salt Lake Tabernacle basement because ward buildings didn't have baptismal fonts at that time.  

Louis & Gerlene on Wedding Day

After high school she attended and graduated from the University of Utah getting a degree in elementary education.  While attending college World War II began.  She said they listened to the radio often to hear what was happening and remembers once hearing the "high pitched almost screaming speaking" of Hitler on the radio.  She said although she could not understand the words, it was a frigtening frenzy to listen to.  During that time she also worked at Defense plants in Ogden during the summers.  Once she and her sister were home alone when the phone rang.  It was someone telling them that a neighbor's son had been killed.  They had to go over and tell them that he had died in a plane crash.   She met her future husband, Louis Clifford Duncan in 1944 and they married on January 2, 1946. 

Gerlene & Scott

Shortly after they married they moved to Phoenix, Arizona where they remained until their deaths.  She had her first child Scott Louis on April 7, 1947.  Later another son Kent was born.  In 1952 she had a baby girl Rozanne and then two years after her birth she had Phillip.  When the kids were all in school she became a substitute teacher and served in callings in the church.  Shortly after Louis retired they were called  to serve a mission to the Mexico City North Mission.  After their mission they served many years in the Mesa Temple.  On September 30, 2009 at the age of 85 she passed away. 

I Loved This

 "Christians have nothing to be smug about; we are not righteous people trying to correct the unrighteous.  Just one beggar trying to tell another beggar where to find bread."

R. C. Sprout