Gwenna M. Haynes

Gwenna Morton Haynes died on Thursday, May 29th, at her home in Hyde Park Utah. Though she was 90, she continued to enjoy good health, to be active, and able to enjoy the things she liked to do even on her last day with us. Gwenna was born the 8th child of Susie Orilla Woolf and Lawrence Wright Morton, in Rigby, Idaho. Her father died when she was 6 months old, and the family moved back to the Cache Valley area, where she lived until she was 14, at which time she moved to Salt Lake City to live with her sister Golda. She worked in Salt Lake at Wasatch Pharmacy as a soda jerk, earning little money and one meal a day and she was such a hearty eater that her boss said it would be cheaper for him to pay her rent than it was to feed her, but he kept her on anyway as she could work circles around everyone. When Gwenna was 17 she met her first husband James Owen Johnson, when he delivered a jar of pickles that her mother had sent from Richmond. It must have been love at first sight as the two became inseparable and married shortly thereafter. A daughter, Gwenna Louise, was born to that union. Jimmy was killed in an automobile accident when Gwenna Louise was 9 months old, and Gwenna continued to live in Salt Lake until 1934, when she moved to Southern California to join her family there. Her parents and siblings have all preceded her in death, as did two of her grandchildren, so she will be greeted with open arms. Gwenna met her second husband when she made the choice to go frog hunting with her sister and friends rather than go to the movies with her mother, and she married Rowland Wiley Haynes in 1940. In 1943 a daughter was born to them, Teri Maureen. Gwenna worked in Southern California as a clerk at the Guest Drug Store, later as a clerk at General Pipe and Steel. In 1966, when her husband died, she sought better employment through an employment agency, who decided to hire her for themselves. Gwenna attended business college in the evenings and secured a job as a private secretary to the sales manager of I.C.X. Trucking company, where she worked until she retired , at the age of 62. Gwenna loved her family and though she only had the two daughters she ended up with great sons-in-law and a large osterity, having 9 grandchildren, and 10 great grand-children, plus step grandchildren and great grand children, whom she adored. She also had numerous nieces and nephews that kept her happy and helped to make her life full. She was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and served in many positions in the Huntington Park Ward in Southern California. She was secretary to the Primary President, taught the 11 year olds in Sunday School, worked with the young women in what was then called Mutual, teaching the Mia Maids and the Laurels. In 1997 Gwenna moved back to Cache Valley to live with her daughter Teri and son-in-law Will, and was a member of the Hyde Park 7th ward, serving as a visiting teacher. She was active in the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and loved the meetings and hearing about the ancestors. She loved pioneer stories, but the true life ones were her favorites. She loved reading and had all but worn out the quilted cover that every book she read had to fit. She loved handwork and kept good eye sight and took great pleasure in making things for people. She completed her last project the evening of her death. She loved road trips and took one just last month with her daughter going to Oregon for the memorial of a friend, down to Sacramento for a baby shower, then to So. Cal for the wedding of a great nephew. She was a good traveler and a good sport always. She was generous, loving, understanding, and above all, non-judgmental. Each of us was precious to her and we always knew it. Her love was unfailing and she was a treasure to our family and will be terribly missed. A viewing in her honor will be held at the Nelson Funeral Home, at 162 East 400 North, in Logan, Monday, June 2, 2003, from 6 to 8 p.m. Burial will take place at the Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier California.