Glimpses into the life of Erwin Holt Farnsworth as related to his daughter and son-in-law - July 2015

Told to daughter Colleen and her husband Steve-

I grew up in Enterprise, Utah.  We had a large lot and had a large garden.  We raised corn, vegetables, and potatoes.  I learned to work hard as a youth.

I always had an interest in radios and how they worked.  At 13 I worked at the picture show and learned how to run the equipment.  After this I was the one to show the movies each week.  The movies were shown at the school or the church.  I worked there until I graduated from high school. 

I started dating Genevieve when we were seniors in high school.  In high school I participated in baseball, basketball and track.  As a senior I took 1^st place in the quarter mile at the St. George Invitational.

After high school I attended radio school in Salt Lake City and then went to Chicago to radio school.

In 1941 I started working for Remington Arms Company in Salt Lake City welding metal ammunition boxes.  It was about that time that we decided to get married.  Genevieve was in Enterprise but had a cousin that was driving truck, so when we were to be married she rode up with him and brought all her stuff to live in Salt Lake with me after we were married.    We were married on August 7, 1942 in the Salt Lake Temple.  My mother and Genevieve’s Aunt Bertha and her daughter in law were there for the ceremony.  Her dad did not have an automobile and could not come up for the wedding.

We moved into an upstairs apartment – 1156 Ramona Avenue and Genevieve worked for the Peacocks while I worked at the arms plant.  I was called a couple of times to be drafted but due to high blood pressure they did not take me the first two times.  On the third time they said I was fine and sent me to Fort Douglas in Salt Lake.  I was drafted into the army and was sent to Camp Hann in Riverside California. My assignment was with the 815^th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) and the automatic weapons Battalion. We were sent to camp Irwin for the practicing.  When the target was flown we would shoot to hone our skills.  If we hit the cable that was towing the target then we would have about a 3 hour wait until they were able to get it repaired.  We slept in pup tents.  One time when I awoke in the morning there was a rattlesnake in the bottom of my sleeping bag that crawled in to get warm.

While there I qualified for the ASTC (Army  Specialist Training Corp) and was sent to Compton California to Junior College for training.  However, the government said that too many were going to college so I was sent to the army infantry and sent to Camp Phillips and Camp Riley.  Here we were preparing to go overseas but I was disqualified for overseas duty due to high blood pressure.  At that time there were many in the Air Force that didn’t qualify for Air Force duty and they were assigned to the army infantry.  I was then transferred to the Air Force base at Wichita Falls, Texas, further basic training in the Air Force.   From here I went to radio school in Oklahoma City.  I spent time also in Little Rock, Arkansas and later an air force base, Esler Field in Louisiana where I spent the remainder of my time in the air force.  Most of the time here, I showed movies to the soldiers in the army barracks.  I felt this due to my learning how to run movies at an early age. 

While I was in the military, my wife lived with the Peacocks in Salt Lake helping with the children and the taking care of the house. During this time Wynn was born.  She returned to Enterprise a couple of months before I was released from the service.

For the first year in Enterprise I worked road construction at Enterprise and Veyo.  [He worked paving the road from Veyo to Enterprise.  This was the first time it was paved.]   We lived in the upstairs of the home of _______.  He said that I should apply for a job with the CAA (Civil Aeronautics Aviation)  I sent in my application and was accepted into the program.  We went to Salt Lake City and lived in the Air Base Village while I was being trained.  The village apartments were converted barracks from the Air Base from the war.  Upon completing in the training in 1949 we moved to St. George where we worked at the old airport and worked there until the airport was closed.  This was where the current airport is in St. George today – after being located on the black hill for many years.  

In 1955 I transferred to the Delta Airport but still worked for the CAA - Communicating with general aviation pilots and following their flight plans.  On August 23, 1958 the name of the organization was changed from CAA to FFA.  We lived and worked there for 16 years - when the station was closed.  I then transferred to Salt Lake City in 1971.

I worked there for 7 years until they said that my high blood pressure didn’t qualify me to be an air traffic controller.  I retired after I used all my sick leave.  I started work for Snelgroves Ice Cream making ice cream and toppings and ice cream figurines.  The figurines were specific for each season or holiday of the year.  I worked for them for 8 years.

I sang in the choir for the dedication of the Jordan River Temple and we worked as ordinance workers until retiring from Snelgrove’s .  Then we went on two missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Our first mission was in 1986 for 18 months and we went to New York City and lived and served in the Bronx.  While there I was called to be the Branch President, and we had many wonderful experiences there.

Ten months after we returned from New York we were called to the Washington D.C. South Mission [1988].  We were in the MTC with our oldest grandson, Greg Rowley, who was going to the New Zealand Cook Island Mission.  We thought that this time we might be called on a foreign mission.  In this area we worked with the Asian refugees.  We were also told that as we worked we could teach anyone who might be interested in hearing our message.  By the time we returned from this mission we had met people from 67 different countries.  In reality this was like a foreign mission.  We had great opportunities to teach and we made many friends.  We do love serving the Lord and the people whom we have served.

We served in the temple after returning and in April 2005 we moved from Salt Lake to Pleasant Grove to be closer to family and not have a home with as many stairs as the one in Salt Lake had.