Daughter and oldest child of George and Martha Radford

In the picture above are Charley Haskell, Vera Lavona Radford Haskell, and children Dean and Blaine. Vera LaVona Radford Haskell was born 28 October 1908 in Perry, Jefferson, Idaho, and died 2 June 1992 in Carey, Blaine, Idaho. She married 26 June 1929 in Idaho Falls, Idaho to Charley Hans Haskell, born 28 November 1905 in Kilgore, Clark, Idaho, son of Charles Oscar Haskell (1870-1917) and Elena Maria (or Eline Marie) Christiansen Haskell (1877-1947). Charley died 1 February 1994 in Hailey, Blaine, Idaho.

History of Vera LaVona Radford Haskell

Mostly copied from her own story with a little added by her son Blaine Haskell

In 1988 the Carey Ward honored mom for the years of dedicated service to the many callings she held. Following is from the account read in that meeting and in some cases combined with her account of some of the same events.

She was born 28 October 1908 in "Perry," now called Ririe, Idaho. She is the eldest of 12 brothers and sisters. She was blessed by Bishop Henry Perry, Grandfather to Apostle L. Tom Perry, of the Council of the Twelve. She was baptized 30 Jun 1917, her father and uncle were baptized at the same time. Vera recalls that day as one of the very early remembrances from her childhood as follows from her Personal Record (PR) in her Book of Remembrance and is in her own handwriting.

Some important events I can remember. My father and two of his brothers (uncles Jim and Ted) and their oldest sons Glen and Loren were baptized the same day I was, in an irrigation ditch in Brother Richard Dutson's field of which Brother Richard Dutson Confirmed me the following day in Sacrament Meeting. I can remember thinking would I ever receive the Holy Ghost? Now I can truthfully say I have been blessed many times by the Holy Ghosts presence and the wonderful feeling of its promptings and direction.

She attended school in Perry and then the school was moved to Ririe and she finished up through the 8th grade there. For poor communities and families in those frontier days it was fairly unusual to go on to High School. Helping with the chores was far more important as younger siblings needed attention. Her first Church calling came at the age of 14 as a secretary to the Young Women. While she got ready to go her brother Elmer would saddle up a horse for her to ride so she could do her calling at such a young age. Then she was called as secretary to the Sunday school and was also a Sunday school teacher in the Primary Class. She held all these positions at the same time. She dated Charley Haskell for a couple of years and they were married 26 Jun 1929 by a justice of the peace in Idaho Falls. The justice of the peace noted that it was quite unusual for the bride and grooms to have parents with them when they got married as Vera's parents and Charley's mother accompanied them. They had a reception that night and afterwards their friends took them on an all night car ride.

Charley was baptized one month after they were married. The story goes that once they were married she asked him 'alright, just when are you going to join the church?' To which he replied 'just as soon as someone asks me.' He had always been close friends with Parley Ririe, the Bishop Ririe's son, and had been in their home often and to church a lot. People probably thought he was already a member. He was serving as the secretary to the Young Men's organization while dating Vera and both were going to Mutual to fulfill their callings. Anyway missionary lessons were arranged and the rest is history.

The happy couple lived in Ririe for seven years. In 1931 they were blessed with a baby boy, Dean. Five years later they moved to Carey where in 1938 she was called to be President of the Primary and held that position for 6 years. Vera, Charley and their son, Dean were sealed in the Logan Temple in 1940. Their second son, Blaine was born in December of 1944.

Vera has held many positions, such as Coordinator for the Sunday school for both Ward and Stake. Also 1st Counselor in Relief Society , Stake Relief Society Counselor, Ward Relief Society President, and visiting teacher for 45 years. Vera and Charley were both called to officiate in the Idaho Falls Temple for seven and one half years. They were also called to work as genealogy leaders on May 12, 1963 after ad-hoc service since early 1962, where they helped others extend their lines and taught them the basic principles of doing research on their lines, recording the information properly, and doing the temple work for their ancestors. Much of the information we have today on their lines is as a direct result of their efforts while their parents and others were still alive. Pictures were identified to include people, time frame, and location. Vera loved to write and compiled histories of many family ancestors that continue to be of great historical value to day.

Both sons served missions and were married in the temple. In 1988 she has nine grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. She really enjoys being with her family and loves her husband dearly. The entire Ward enjoys Sister Haskell's spirit of happiness and love. She is a fine example of being a true Child of God.

From her personal journal come some reflections on her childhood. Going back to some events that I can remember as a kid at home. Us kids hustling to see who could be dressed first. Everyone had to be fully dressed, washed and hair combed by breakfast time. Dressing in winter by an old flat top wood stove was quite an experience. Dad always made the fires early so the rooms would be warm and put on the kettle for hot cereal then the tea kettle which would be singing in no time at all, giving us kids plenty of inspiration to hurry by. Our home life was one happy one full of hurts, bump's, burns and what have you. A hot pan of grease tipped over and some of it fell on Jesse burning his arm badly. One day as mother and I was standing with our backs to the kitchen stove, a gust of wind came down the chimney and blew the blaze out the little draft opening catching my dress on fire. We had been planning on what we were going to do the following day. We always planned our work ahead and this time it was to make me a dress. We had gone to Ririe and with our groceries had bought the material. Well the making was prolonged as I was ill and missed school four weeks. At this time I was in the seventh grade. Mr. Vern Bitters was my teacher. He had an idea; we were graded according to our ability and grades and arranged so in seats numbers 1, 2, and so on. When I went back I was put in the last seat, I worked this coming month real hard and merited number 5 seat, which I thought was very good after missing a month of school. It was during this winter the county schools had many spelling bees, we also had tests on arithmetic and the multiplication tables traveling to the different schools was fun. We also had a story writing contest. School was let out for the afternoon. Our county superintendent visited our school and said all the kids were to go home. Clean up their yards, write a story telling of the things we had done, like picking up rocks, piling them and raking up weeds and ridding our yards of trash. The best stories were handed up to the county superintendent and he being the judge would give the winner one dollar. This dollar looked good to me so I got busy on our badly looking yard. With Elmer helping me we worked all afternoon. I wrote my story, handed it in, to my surprise I won the coveted one dollar. Another contest I won was about the time I was seventeen where in a traveling show troop came to Ririe. The one young girl receiving the most votes with each ten cents worth of candy sold to the patrons received a valuable set of table silverware. I was most happy when I was called up to receive the table silverware of which we used for years.

In the picture above are Vera, son Dean, and husband Charley Haskell.

Going back to our home life, we had much sickness. Several of my brothers and sisters were frightfully sick, when we came down with the diseases children usually have. I came down with the measles first. Dad had them along with the other kids. I was better by this time and could help mother and the neighbors, as they came to sit up and care for the sick. Aunt Maud, dad's sister was so good to come and hold the little ones on her lap administrating of her strength and care until every one was well on the road to improvement. From her list of "Illnesses I have had" Vera includes both types of measles, chicken pox, mumps, whooping cough, maybe on the scarlet fever question, pneumonia, the influenza epidemic of 1919, and quite a few more. Most of the rest of her story can be found in the section on Charley. They did everything together and their history is mostly one of being together in everything. While Charley ran the ranch and worked for Kraft all those years Vera was working in the large vegetable and flower gardens surrounding their home. They each helped the other, but they were clearly in charge of their own domain. He would gather up and apply the manure, plow it under and together they struck the rows and planted the seeds. She tended to the weeds and a lot of the harvesting of the produce and berries. Her strawberry and raspberry jams are legendary and probably just about paid for the building fund required for the new church (just joking, but did bring in a tidy sum when offered for bid). Her cakes and divinity were also in high demand at both fund raisers and church and community events such as the rodeo town feast for Pioneer Days. When the Pioneer Days Celebration committee decided it was time to have a "Grand Marshall" for the event it was Charley and Vera who were chosen for the first ever co-Grand Marshall honor. There they were all gussied up riding in that fancy convertible at the very front of the parade, just behind the horses carrying 'old glory' waving to every one with the elbow first, then wrist following move.

Vera was able to be quite active up until a hip fracture set her back at about age 80. From then on she was not able to walk on her own so Charley cared for her for the rest of her life. She was still able to bark orders from the rocking chair as to the correct ingredients, stirring motions, and cooking times for treats to be enjoyed by her family and friends.

Charles Oscar Haskell

Click on the link above to see the gravestones for Charley Haskell's father and mother in the Shelton Cemetery.