Our third lovely little daughter was welcomed into our family that afternoon 5 September 1929. We named her Margaret. Her father, Frederick, gave her a blessing and a name on 3 November 1929. How thankful we were that we had been able to get efficient help and all had gone well for us. When we asked Sister Smith how much we owed her for her work, she said, “Oh, five dollars will be plenty.” That is quite different from the way doctors charge now for such services.
During the winter of 1929-1930, there was an epidemic of red measles in the country. Our children all had the measles, including baby Margaret. They all had a bad case, except Margaret wasn’t so ill. Some thought she wouldn’t take the disease because she was so young, but she did. The measles seemed to have had a bad effect on the children’s eyes. June, Mary and Dawn have had to wear glasses.
One morning in early spring, about 1934, after the children had started walking to school, I was eating breakfast with Margaret and Gloria, when suddenly the house began to shake. It felt as though the house was being rolled back and forth over logs or something of the sort. I hurriedly picked up Gloria and took Margaret by the hand and went outside. There was another quake a while later that morning. The children said that as they were walking down the highway on the way to school, they noticed the water in the barrow pits rolling back and forth and wondered what was happening. About two weeks later, I was attending a Stake leadership meeting in the old church house (the show house) in Malta when another quake occurred. Some of the women screamed. President Elison spoke calmly and told them not to be alarmed and that everything would be all right.
The children liked to make little biscuits when I made bread. One day Margaret had made a pan of little biscuits and was real proud of them. She covered them with a clean cloth and put them on the table to rise, then went out to play. When she thought her bread was about ready to bake, she went to look at it and to her horror, there was an old black cat lying on top of her biscuits. We didn’t have a screen door and the cat had slipped in without anyone noticing it. Margaret came crying to me and said, “Mama, just see my biscuits. That cat has mashed them all to "smoothereens”.
Margaret was valedictorian for her class when she graduated from grade school in 1943, and also when she graduated from high school in 1947. She attended U.S.U. for two years, then was married to Dean Udy Ottley, of Elba, Idaho, on 16 September 1949, in the Salt Lake Temple. Dean had served over two years in the Navy Air Corps, and a two year mission in England. They lived in Malta and Elba for several years.
Margaret worked in Sander’s store for a while, then worked for the R.E.A. as a bookkeeper. In 1955 they moved to Quincy, Washington, and settled on 120 acres of sagebrush land they bought through a G.I. drawing. Since then, they have bought 120 acres of an adjoining farm, and 54 acres from the Government. (They first lived in a small trailer house, then built a two-room cinder block house which they used in connection with the trailer house.) They now have a lovely, modern, brick home, and a large lawn in both front and back of the house.
Both have held many responsible church positions. Among other positions, Margaret has served as President of the Y.W.M.I.A. and also as Relief Society President, and is currently Stake leader in Spiritual Living in Relief Society and teacher of the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School. Dean has served on the Stake High Council, as a bishop’s counselor, Sunday School Superintendent, teacher, and other jobs. They have three fine sons and a daughter, Gary, Janet, Richard and Curtis. Gary filled a mission for the Church in the Southern States Mission. Their second son, Forrest Dean was born prematurely 10 July 1952 and died on 12 July 1952.
(Margaret was diagnosed with colon cancer in April of 1978. By that time it had spread to her liver and she died on 25 February 1979.)
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1930 census
1940 census
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| 1941 Margaret in dark dress |
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| Margaret and Dean Ottley |
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| Margaret 1954 |
Quincy Cemetery, Grant County, Quncy Washington
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