This is my mother's original 'Queen 1936' sash..wow..75 years old.

Macy, 4
Kami, 6
On the float, just before it started out...we were #11 & #12...there were about 150 entries...the parade started at 9:00 am, and the last entry finished around 11:30 am.

My three darlings... the queen bloodline runs true...
This picture was taken by a Deseret News reporter. She was also on the Channel 5 and 13 news that night. For the feature parade story, she beat out the The Days of 47 SLC Parade, soldiers, bands, the Osmonds, assorted LDS Church General Authories (oops) and politicians. Go Girls in the Short Skirt!

The caption reads: BETH SCHLANKER/Standard-Examiner Melissa Fowler — the granddaughter of Lorene Donaldson, the Ogden Pioneer Day Rodeo queen, or “Whoopee Girl,” in 1936 — rides atop a float with daughters (from left) Kami, 6, and Macy, 4, during the Pioneer Day Parade on Friday. The float is a re-creation of the 1964 parade float Fowler’s grandmother rode when organizers were reflecting on 30 years of the Whoopee Girl image. .

The Standard Examiner--Front Page

I was in the parade, too, sitting on the back of a cute yellow convertible in front of their float waving to the crowd... The placard on the side of the car read "Anne House, Daughter of the Original Whoopee Girl"..... Isn't that a trip? My 15 mins of fame lasted 15 blocks. The best was when so many of my former students yelled "Mrs. House!" Yep, that thar's me in the black cowboy hat... Yee Ha ....



Melissa and her daughters Kami and Macy were asked to ride on the float for the Ogden Pioneer Days Parade (24th of July Utah holiday). They flew in from Minnesota Tuesday. They were to represent my mother, the symbol of Ogden..and a famous pin-up girl for the last 75 years. 15 blocks down Washington Ave.... thousands of people cheering them on.Wish mother were here. She should have been the one. But Melissa was the star, in her whoopee girl outfit, huge hat, white boots , diamond belt, and swinging her lariat. The little girls were PRECIOUS. We were also recognized at the rodeo on Tuesday night and the finale, Friday night on the 24th.
I'll post more photos when I get more time.

The Office

My dad bought Bishop House a wonderful gift last October..and since he is in California and not able to travel, I wanted him to see it here. There was a vacancy on the wall behind his desk since Bishop Porter took his painting with him when he left.. This painting of the Savior, is my very favorite. It's a Liz Lemmon Swindle. Thanks Dad!

Old Family Pictures

My brother Brad' Family

My family ... 1970's

My parent's 50th anniversary 1994

OUR TOWN July book club

Dear Shadow Mountain Ward Literary Society,

Our reading this month is the play Our Town by Thornton Wilder.
It explores the lives of people living in a small, quintessentially American town. It was first produced in 1938 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. I have given out a dozen copies, but still have three copies at my house.

Reminder: We meet 7:00 pm Thursday, June 16th at Joan Iverson’s home, or actually, in her beautiful back yard, sitting in lawn chairs with our feet dangling lazily in her sparkling swimming pool with the scripts of Our Town in our laps..….

The play is divided into three aspects of the human experience:

ACT ONE: Daily Life
ACT TWO: Love / Marriage
ACT THREE: Death / Loss

What is Our Town is about? It is about everything. It is about common people living common lives doing common things, experiencing common emotions, and doing it with their family and friends around them. It is….about all of us. About the beauty of love and the temporary and nature of life. About our desire to understand more than we can see and to hold on to things that we must let go….

Here is a copy from a review I found that explains Emily’s emotions about reliving her 12th birthday… she’s allowed to leave the cemetery to ‘live it’, and, worse, ‘know what comes next that they can’t see’…..

Observing the funeral company, she says she never realized in life how troubled many people are. Nevertheless, she expresses a wish to return to life for a little while. Mrs. Gibbs says she can but advises her not to. So does Mrs. Soames. But Emily says she plans to return to a happy day, not a sad one. “Why should that be painful?” .......The stage manager answers, saying, “You not only live it; you watch yourself living it.” He also says she will see the future. Mrs. Gibbs points out another reason Emily should not return: The proper activity of the dead is to forget all about life and to think only of what is coming next and to prepare for it. Emily says she cannot forget–and so she returns to the day of her 12th birthday. First, she sees the routine of life going on as usual–Howie Newsome delivering milk, Constable Warren telling how he rescued a man lying in snowdrifts, Joe Crowell delivering newspapers. Then she sees her mother and father, who are surprisingly youthful to her. They are preparing to give her gifts. .......She speaks with her mother, who tells her to eat her breakfast slowly. Mrs. Webb gives her a dress which she had to “send all the way to Boston” to get. Her father and Wally also have gifts, but Emily can’t go on any longer and breaks down, saying she didn’t realize how much the little things of life–things she did not notice before–really matter. Emily returns to the cemetery and addresses Mrs. Gibbs: .......“They don’t understand, do they?” .......“No, dear. They don’t understand.”