Grandpa was as honest a man as you will ever find; his word was as good as his Bond. He took pride in this;  very often he would establish a credit account so as to have a record of his credibility and honesty.

At one time he went to Albert F. Anderson who was in business in St. Johns and had been for many years, he owned Anderson Mercantile Company as well as having an interest in the Drug Store. Anyway grandpa wanted a letter of recommendation as to his honesty and integrity. This was on June 8 1946 Mr. Anderson gladly gave him this recommendation. Grandpa cherished this letter very much and often carried it with him. He also had gone to the Attorney General of Arizona and asked him to write a letter of recommendation as to his character. This he did in April of 1940 and grandpa was proud to have this letter signed by the Attorney General of Arizona with his seal and signature.

When I first met Grandpa I asked him what he would like me to call him. He told me that if I wanted to I could call him Papa but, if I would rather I could call him Uncle George like Hazel did. He mentioned that a lot of people called him that so that is how I came to call him "Uncle George".

I never heard him speak unkindly of anyone, he was a very charitable individual. If anyone ever said anything unkind to him he just seemed to ignore it and acted as if nothing happened. A few times he  said to me of someone that had been sort of unkind to him, "The poor thing, she (he) can't help it, she isn't very bright." He always turned the other cheek and returned good for evil so to speak.

He had a lot of sadness in his life but, always looked on the bright side of life and never felt sorry for himself.

I don't think he ever got over the loss of his darling "Nonie" and very often would tell me what a wonderful person she was and how much I would love her and wished that I could have known her.

He married Alice LeSuer and they had a daughter that they named Ruth Naomi. This little girl was never well and he doted over her taking her to many Dr's to see if they could do anything for her. I'm not sure what the diagnosis was but, nothing could be done for her and she died at a young age. Grandpa never got over this loss either.

Here again although this last marriage didn't work out I never heard him say anything uncomplimentary about Alice.

Grandpa loved his little grand-daughters very much and never seemed to tire of them, I think losing his little Ruth only added to his love for his grand-daughters.

Uncle George was an avid reader but, didn't like fiction. He was interested in politics and read everything he could find to read on it.

He and his sons Roy and Marion would often get in a debate over politics and sometimes it would get a little heated. On one occasion after a heated argument he jumped up donned his hat and said that he was going home and stormed out the door and in just a few seconds he opened the door and called "Scissors" shutting the door and leaving again. There were never any lasting feelings and the next time they were together again all was forgiven and there would be more discussions about politics but, not always very heated.

We lived next door to him at Vernon and Lydia and Nonie loved to go over and have "Flap Jacks" with him. He would fix them all up with butter and honey or syrup and the girls thought they were in seventh heaven.

Uncle George would never let us wash his Levis and he just wore them until they were worn out. He said that he didn't like them to be limp and faded and of course never washing them they were stiff with dirt. This seemed to be a trait with a lot of the old cowboys.

Grandpa was a man with high moral standards. He was a very modest man and you would never hear him tell any dirty stories. He never swore and the nearest I ever heard him swear was, "Well Gee Whiz or Caesars". He was in my home a lot from the time I was married until he died in 1950 and had he of been a profane man I would of known it. He wasn't a religious man by church standards I guess you might call it but, he believed in a God. One day I asked him, "Grandpa believing the way you do what keeps you from going out and finding some wild, wild women and living it up so to speak". His answer, "Well Elva, The Gee Whiz if I did that I couldn't ever love these little girls like I do. I then received a little Sermon on morals so to speak.

Grandpa lived in the day and age when people sometimes didn't see anyone for days at a time, especially when he was out on the range with sheep or cows. He thus got in the habit of visiting and loved to talk and visit. He really loved to be around people and loved talking with anyone that had time to visit and talk.

He smoked a pipe and enjoyed that very much but, I must say that sometimes he didn't keep it cleaned out and it wasn't very enjoyable to be around. That was the first thing he did after waking up in the morning. He would set up in bed and lean back against the headboard and smoke his pipe. They told me that when he was young he would also don his hat. This habit also came about by being out in cow camp, so on would go his hat for protection from the sun or weather.

He would never have done anything to purposely annoy or offend anyone. We loved him dearly......

                                       EBW
                                       1996