Marriage and Family

(Garry Bowen 1959)

The day of Garry's mission homecoming finally came, and I took a bus from Logan to Salt Lake and met him at the train depot. I called his name before he looked through the crowd and recognized me. What a glorious reunion!

We traveled up to Rexburg and spent Thanksgiving with my family, after greeting his folks in Logan on our way home. They were on their way to spend Thanksgiving with Milo and Evelyn in Provo. Since we had been engaged for three years, we decided to get married in December so Garry could begin his schooling in January. It was a busy three weeks, but we were finally married in the Idaho Falls Temple on December 18, 1959.

(Leaving Rexburg on December 18, 1959)

We left Rexburg and drove to the Idaho Falls Temple early in the morning. It was a beautiful ceremony!

(December 18, 1959)

President Albert Choreles married us, and Garry's brother Milo Bowen and cousin Keith Buxton were the witnesses.

We had our wedding dinner at La Barrens, and then it was time for the wedding reception! My sister-in-law, Evelyn, made my wedding dress.

(Nada's wedding dress)

We had a beautiful Christmas wedding reception held in the Rexburg 5th Ward. The decorations were red and white, with big 12 foot Christmas trees covered in red lights and angel hair. My bouquet was made with red carnations mingled with red bulbs and holly.

(Garry and Nada Bowen)

Aunt Beulah made our wedding cake surrounded with red poinsettias. 

(Wedding Cake)

(Wedding Reception)

We stayed in Idaho Falls the first night, then went back to Driggs on Saturday the 19th and had a reception and wedding dance at the little Bates Ward church.

(Wedding Reception)

On Sunday we headed back to Logan, as my students were waiting to greet me the next day. I held my wedding cake on my lap all the way home to show them and let them have a piece. I had left my little second grade class as "Miss Hemsley" on December 17th, and came back on the 21st as "Mrs. Bowen."

(Mrs. Nada Bowen)

We continued living in Mary Jensen's apartment while I taught at College Young until March. Then a big wind storm came through and blew the roof off the school house. My parents were there to help me pack up what we could salvage, and they moved us to Welksville School. I was given a new 3rd and 4th grade class. It was so sad to have all my students divided up in new classes and given a new group.

After 2 months of adjusting (while expecting our first baby), the principal asked our class to present the 'Maypole Dance' for the closing Spring Festival. After making it through my first year of teaching (trauma), my sweet husband took me on our long awaited Honeymoon to Las Vegas (as my cousin Ellen had invited us down for a visit).

We stayed in St. George, and while crossing the desert our car broke down, so we had to be hauled to the nearest town to get it fixed. Needless to say, I was glad to get back to our little apartment and enjoy the rest of our summer. It was the first summer I had free for 4 years. I enjoyed reading and preparing for our first son, Kim LeGrand Bowen, to be born on September 20, 1960.

(Kim LeGrand Bowen 1960)

(Nada and Kim 1960)

(Garry, Nada, and Kim 1960)

We were so excited, and loved our little boy. He was so alert and such a happy baby. In October, Garry got a job as office manager for married housing at Utah State, so we moved into campus housing. I loved staying home with Kim while babysitting for my neighbor.

(Nada and Kim 1961)

(Garry and Kim 1961)

Soon we were expecting again, and welcomed our baby girl, Pamela, on November 4, 1961.

(Pamela Bowen 1961)

How beautiful she was, with dark hair like her dad's. I was called to be Primary President of our college ward that year. It was quite a job, with two babies 13 months apart, but a great experience.

(Kim and Pam 1961)

Spencer's Mountain

(LDS Chapel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming)

In March 1962, our college funds had run short to finish Garry's senior year at Utah State University. So we packed up with our two babies (Kim-18 months and Pamela-5 months) and moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My sister Beth and her husband Reed were there with their family helping build the L.D.S. Chapel, so they helped us find a little house (which had been a chicken coop with a slanted roof) and a job.

(Nada and Kim in Jackson, Wyoming 1962)

Garry worked for Clark Ready Mix from March to August, while I tutored reading and math students in our home. They would ride their horses over to lessons and tie them up behind our house. Nancy (Beth's oldest daughter) worked at the Jackson City Library part time while going to high school, so she would bring me books to read, to help fill in my days.

(Nada, Pam, Kim, and Garry 1962)

(Nada and Pam 1962)

It was fun to be at home sewing Pam and I some matching Easter dresses. That summer we enjoyed playing on the big lawn with Kim and Pam and their puppies, while enjoying the beautiful scenery and surroundings of Jackson Hole. We also had fun times with Beth and Reed and their neat kids.

(Job and Jennie Hemsley, Nada and Garry Bowen, Fred and Rhoda Bowen 1962)

During that summer we had a very famous experience! Warner Brother's Motion Pictures came to Jackson to film the movie "Spencer's Mountain" with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.

(Warner Brother's Studio Filming in Jackson, Wyoming)

Our Jackson Ward members were asked to be in the 'audience scene' of the movie. They paid each member (old or young) $10 a day, which we all put into the building fund of the new chapel.

(Jennie Hemsley, Beth and Reed Hollist Family, Nada and Garry Bowen Family, Fred and Rhoda Bowen 1962)

It was exciting, as Beth had made her four girls' dresses alike for Easter, so we could easily spot them in the movie. We dressed Kim and Pam up cute so they could be "movie stars" like Mom and Dad, but Pam was enjoying her fame too much by singing and yelling her excitement. The director, Delmar Daves, had to say "Cut! Take out!" (which cost the Warner Brother's hundreds of dollars every time they started taking a scene over) so many times because of our excited Pam that we had to take her home. Our neighbors tended her for the rest of the day so we could finish earning $30 for the building fund.

(Filming "Spencers Mountain" from the audience 1962) 

It was a very hot day, and after 12 long hours out in the sun, we all came home with sunburns and grateful hearts for being 'common folks' instead of famous movie stars. The camera men even focused the cameras in on Kim and I, plus Beth and Reed and their six cute kids all dressed alike! "Spencer's Mountain" is the Bowen Family's favorite movie.

"The world steps aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."

Fresno, California

At the end of our summer in Jackson, Wyoming, Garry's mission converts (The Parnell Family) came from Kansas to be sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple to their two little girls. My brother Dan went through the temple that same day for his endowments before he left on his mission to the New England States.

Garry had one more year of college, so I taught at Providence and had to leave my babies home with a sitter. We made it through, and Garry graduated from Utah State University in June 1963. Then we packed our car and loaded up our cute babies (Kim-3 years and Pam-2 years) and moved to Fresno, California.

(Fresno Home 1965)

We arrived in Fresno with $5 in our pocket, but Ruth and Laurn had just gotten transferred there and were so anxious for us to live close. They helped us find a new little house and furnish it, and within a week we both had jobs. Garry worked at Spreckles Sugar Company for a month before he began his first job as a Social Worker. I was hired to teach 3rd and 4th grade in a small community, out in the cotton fields, named Caruthers (30 miles west of Fresno).

(Pam, Nada, Garry, and Kim 1963)

We were so grateful to Ruth, as she tended her three girls (Lorilee-5, Sherri-4, Judy-6m) plus Kim and Pam: All five children under 5 that year.

(Sherri, Judy, Kim, and Pam)

My health wasn't too good. I got huge boils on my back, and when the pain was too great, I would call Ruth and she would load all five kids in the car and drive out through the cotton fields to take me home. I was in a carpool with Keith Larson and another teacher. Keith and I were the only L.D.S. members in the school. He and his wife and five boys lived only a block away.

(Shane Larson and Kim)

In 1964 I stayed home, as I was expecting our third child, and helped Ruth as her cancer had returned. (She had been diagnosed with breast cancer previously in 1960 before they left Oregon. Little did we know my precious sister/best friend would suffer 30 more years. But her special blessing was they were able to adopt Judy in 1962 and Bob in 1965!)

(Laurn and Ruth's Family: Lorilee, Sherri, Judy, and Bob)

I was sustained as the Stake "Gleaner" Leader, then Garry and I were in charge of a Stake Hawaiian Dance just a few weeks before our baby was due. The stage curtain caught on FIRE just an hour before it began, so Garry ripped the very heavy drapes down and dashed out the back door just as the firemen drove up to the Stake Center. We got everything back to order and the fire was put out, but as the crowd came in they said, "It even smells like the volcanoes in Hawaii." ...Little did they know of our 'just about' burn out!

Our third child, Craig, was born on April 8, 1965. My doctor was the Stake Young Men Leader, so after he delivered Craig he said, "Well, there's a Stake meeting tonight and you're expected to be there. Are you coming?" ...I took a rain check. It was fun coming home with our new baby, as we had waited 3 and 1/2 years. Ruth had just adopted Bob, who was a month old, so my mother and Aunt Edith traveled to California by bus to help Ruth and I with our new babies.

(Nada with Craig, Pam, and Kim 1965)

Bates and Brigham City

When Craig was six weeks old, Garry's dad needed help on the farm in Bates. So we sold our home for $14,000, packed up the U-Haul, and returned to Driggs. Two Gleaners from Fresno drove the kids and I in the car, and Garry and Kim drove the U-Haul. Garry's parents were building a home in Driggs at the time, so we were all at the farm house for a few weeks. We loved being on the farm and away from California, although Ruth and I had a hard time parting.

When we got to the Bates Ward, I was called to be the Young Women's Secretary and the 'Blazer' teacher in Primary. Pam and Kim paid their first tithing to Bishop Furniss. We lived in Bates for about two years until Garry's dad got well again. Then we left the farm and moved to Brigham City, Utah in 1967, where we bought a small home and Garry got a job as a Social Worker.

I did a lot of substitute teaching at the school while I was expecting our fourth child. While I was pregnant, my wonderful neighbor, Sharon, came to my rescue when a bee stung my foot. She helped me to the bathroom every hour and brought meals for the next two days. Then, on December 21, 1967, our 4 pound 7 ounce baby girl was born. Cindy was so small, Pam dressed her in doll clothes. We were so happy to have two girls and two boys. What a happy family!

(Cindy Merinda Bowen)

We had such a close bunch of neighbors on Willow Street in Brigham City. We were in Bishop Jerry Twitchell's Ward, and Sharon and Dan Cameron lived across the street from us and spoiled us. They had such a tiny house and big family, yet insisted on having us over for Christmas dinner the day we brought Cindy home from the hospital. The Ogles Family were friends of ours before they moved. Pam was friends with Elizabeth Ogles. Then The Becksteads moved in just south of us. Kathleen and Karl had five boys and Becky. Pam was friends with Becky Beckstead and Danene Cameron. Kim's friends were Bobby Beckstead, Brett Barber, and Perry Griffin. Craig played with the Beckstead boys, and we really got along well.

When little Cindy was only a month old, the Brigham City School District called to ask if I would take over a Kindergarten class, as the teacher was very ill. So I finished out the school year at Hillview, and had an older grandparent couple come in to tend the children. Kim was in second grade and Pam was in first grade. I was also asked to start a new church course in our ward, the "Teacher Trainer" class. It was a busy few years!

In 1969 there was a celebration for the 100th anniversary of the Railroad coming through Utah. It was joined at Promentary Point, west of Brigham City. My parents had just returned from their mission to Texas and were leaving to Florida on their second mission, so they stopped in Brigham City to join us for the celebration and ceremony.

(Jennie and Job Hemsley at the Brigham City Celebration 1969)

In September 1969, I was asked to start the first Kindergarten at Lake View Elementary School where Kim and Pam attended, only three blocks from our home in Brigham City. I had 70 Kindergarten students: 35 in the morning, and 35 in the afternoon.

(Nada Bowen 1969)

In January 1970, Garry got a job as a Social Worker in Twin Falls and had to leave me behind for 6 months with my four little ones and 70 Kindergarten students. He found a little house in Murtaugh, Idaho by the lake for $40 a month, and spent February and March painting inside and out for free rent. We would go and see him every other weekend, and the kids had fun staying in sleeping bags, but we missed him as we struggled through.

(Garry and Nada Bowen Family 1969)

Murtaugh

I finished teaching in May, and we left Brigham City and went to Murtaugh. I served as the Librarian, Weblo Cub Scout Leader, Relief Society teacher, and Primary Chorister in our new ward. Craig started first grade in Murtaugh with Nell Hulse as his teacher. I started teaching 4th grade in 1971 with Pam in my class.

(Nada Bowen 1971)

(Pam Bowen's 4th Grade Class 1971)

The next year I taught 2nd grade with Craig and eleven other boys. There were no girls, except for one who joined our class about a month before pictures were taken.

(Nada Bowen with Craig's 2nd Grade Class)

Garry would take Cindy into Twin Falls with him where Karen Burke tended her during the day. Then we met some dear friends in our ward, Elva Rae and La Mar Egbert, who tended Cindy while I taught school. It was a great ward. Another dear couple we loved was Verla and Norman Shirley. Norman grew up in Salem, and his brother married my cousin Ellen Purcell, so we felt like they were family.

The children loved ice skating on Murtaugh Lake in the winter. The last year we were there, we moved out to another farm home, and we had chickens and a garden. Garry even bought the kids a horse.

(Pam and Kim with horse in Murtaugh)

 Then one weekend, Pam fell off Dusty and broke both arms. Garry's dad and Rhoda had come down for a visit with the girls, and I sure was glad to have a nurse in my house.

(Coleen, Pam, and Carma after Pam broke her arms)

When Cindy was going through the "terrible twos," May Moyes could always interest her for the last part of church. These Murtaugh and Brigham City friends have kept in touch for over 40 years. Cindy's friend, Nola Egbert, is still in contact with her. Craig's friends were Tim Gott, Roy Nebeker, Arlin Earl, Hugh Hurd, and Todd Crossman. Pam's friends were Karrie Sue Bates, Rhonda Crossman, and Denise Bright. Kim invited his friend, Chris Biggers, to Primary and soon the whole family joined the church. They were our closest neighbors.

Sugar City

1973 began with a surprise change. There was a Social Worker job opening in Rexburg, so Garry went up to interview and got the job! He started working with Fred Scoresby in January, while we finished out the school year in Murtaugh.

We moved into our home in June on Fremont Avenue in Sugar City. Nancy and Evan Meyers had owned it as a rental property, so when their renters moved out, we bought it for $21,000.

(Kim, Craig, Cindy, and Pam in Sugar City)

(Nada, Pam, and Cindy in Sugar City)

As soon as we moved in, Craig was baptized in the Rexburg Tabernacle. He had waited two months so he could be baptized in the same place I was baptized 30 years before. I thought I would get to stay home that school year, but Hazel Hendricks was in a severe car accident in August, so the district asked me to take over her first grade class at Central Elementary. Garry and Cindy played 'Kindergarten', as she scored too high to get in the summer program. Kim was in Junior High, Pam was in 6th grade, Craig was in 3rd grade, and Cindy was 6-years-old.

In October, Garry took Pam and Craig to see the Prophet Harold B. Lee. He passed away in December and Spencer W. Kimball was sustained as prophet. The following year, Hazel Hendricks recovered and came back to Central Elementary, so I got a job in the Madison District teaching first grade at Washington Elementary in Rexburg. This was the very school where I did my student teaching 14 years prior. I felt bad not being in the same school as my kids, but after three years the long awaited call finally came, and I was offered a job at the elementary back in Sugar City. I was thrilled!

In 1975 I had a hysterectomy operation and was recovering most of the summer. Then in July, Kim was working for Garry's brother, Milo, on the farm in Driggs and fell off the tractor and broke his arm. He had to have plates put in his arm, so we were back in the hospital for another operation. By August we were both mending, so our family went to Southern Utah and swam every day in the St. George motel swimming pool. It was so good to get away after a summer of illness.

(Garry, Craig, Pam, Kim, and Cindy in St. George 1975)

Teton Dam Flood

In June 1976 we decided to go camping up in Horseshoe Canyon. We went up on Friday night, enjoyed our camp out, and came out of the canyon on Saturday, June 6th. As we were coming out of the canyon, Evelyn came speeding up the road with the news that the Teton Dam had broken!

(Written account by Nada Bowen, Published in "That Day in June" (1976) p. 43)

"We drove on to a brother's farm west of Driggs, Idaho. As we entered the front room, the television report was showing pictures of the flood hitting our hometown of Sugar City. That was when we realized we might not even have a home to go back to. Even though the T.V. scenes were bad, our first thoughts were not about our home going under, but of our loved ones."

"Our four children, Kim, Pam, Craig, and Cindy, were worried about their pets, bikes, friends, and belongings, but their attitudes were great, and through all this they have been so understanding, patient, and calm. All day Saturday we were informed of the flood happenings by radio and T.V. Saturday evening we drove down to Rexburg. What a sight as we saw the whole valley covered with water and a haze of smoke from fires."

"After many detours, because the roads were washed out, we made it into Rexburg and up to Ricks College, which was such a blessed haven of refuge for the thousands of homeless people. After reporting in, we went to see if my parents' home was still there. It was, even though the water had gone up to three feet in their home."

"How sad it was to see all the smashed cars, floating homes, trailers, dead animals, trees stripped of their bark, and strips of highway lying across the farm lands that once were beautiful." 

"We went back up to Driggs, still wondering if our home and loved ones were safe."

"The next day, a stake conference was held at Ricks College Fieldhouse. What a spiritual feast. Each ward sat together, wearing what they had left home in the day before. After the great encouragement and counsel from President Ferron Sondregger, our bishop, Glenn Dalling, met with us to report which homes were left, which he had spotted from a helicopter. Our home was still there! Our family shed tears of joy and thankfulness."

"After lunch, we hiked through water up to our knees from the Sugar City Cemetery into Sugar City (2 miles) to see our home. Many have asked us if we were really upset when we saw the inside of our home covered with ten inches of mud, all the furniture covered with water, much of it tipped over and floating, the garage torn off, three apple trees, a hedge, and garden fence gone. But our reply was, "No, we weren't upset, only thankful most everything was there and that our family survived."

"Our front yard was covered with mud a foot and a half deep. There were three sheds that had floated into our yard, a trailer house crashed into our garage and tore out two walls, which lodged against our tree and our house. Also, a pickup was lodged between the trailer and the house. A crippled cow was lying under a tree on our back lawn. There was no sign of our three cats, but they returned one at a time the next day. Our mother cat brought a litter of kittens with her. How her babies survived, we will never know."

"The next days were spent in shoveling mud and pumping water out of the basement. Then the volunteer help started coming in to help us really clean out. The first group was from Ammon. It took six men two days to clean the mud and debris out of the basement and crawl space. Garry and his father emptied 600 jars of fruit and vegetables, which amounted to 100 gallons, into garbage barrels to be thrown away. Six ladies later came to spend the whole day washing 600 jars."

"What seemed to be an overwhelming burden at first turned out to be a great blessing because of the tremendous people who gave of themselves, sacrificed and labored so hard to dig us out and clean up the mess."

After cleaning out our flood home all summer, we sold it in the Fall to Nyle Garn. Then we moved into a HUD trailer behind mom and dad's home in Rexburg, and waited until Spring when we would begin building our new home.