Richard - Childhood

Richard Austin Gudmundsen

Childhood and Young Adulthood

Excerpts from the Memories of Myrl Goodwin

We were eagerly looking forward to our baby’s arrival. Richard was born December the 27th, 1922 here in our apartment in Salt Lake City. I wouldn’t go to the hospital. Some time earlier, Aunt Mabel had a baby in California, and she saw the baby when he was born; she knew what he looked like. Later, the nurse brought a baby to her and it wasn’t hers. And though the nurse insisted it was, Mabel made such a fuss they kept bringing in babies until she recognized her own. That scared me so, I wouldn’t go to the hospital. So I had Richard at home.

Richard was a beautiful 9 pound baby with big brown eyes and nice hair. He was always so lovely and such a sweet baby. We had a happy time there. Our great friends, Genna Bradshaw who married Mark Clark, lived right next door. We used to take our babies for walks most every day.

We were to be blessed with another choice spirit. Lois was born in the LDS Hospital March the 28th, 1926. What a little beauty she was. We were only privileged to have her until February the 14th, 1929 when she was 2 years old. She passed away within twelve hours of meningitis. What a sorrowful time that was. She was such a beautiful and brilliant child. The gospel gives us great joy when we realize that if we live as we are taught, we can have her in the world to come. When she died, dear little Richard put his arms around me and said, “Don’t cry Mama, she’s still ours.” Tear, tears, tears as I write this now. We took Lois to Lehi. We have a burial spot there, and that’s where she’s buried. So every year when we go up, we can go to her little graveside and decorate it and appreciate the blessings of having had her at all.

Uncle Stanley Goodwin was a tease. I remember one day Dick said to Stanley, "My father is as strong as an elephant, isn’t he!" And Stan laughingly said, "Well, a middle-sized one!" We had lots of joy with them while they were there in our home.

Austin had received a Sabbatical leave from the University of Utah, and he was going to Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and also doing some work in connection with the United States Bureau of Mines. So we had to pack up everything, taking our Essex car loaded with the necessities and moved to Pittsburgh where we lived that year.

PITTSBURGH

We went to church the first Sunday, but it was over before we could find it. We did learn the church was to be dedicated the next Sunday, so we were early this time. And while we were on the lawn, President Heber J. Grant called Austin over to him and said, “I want you to be President of the Branch.” The surprise is a story in itself! Austin was so surprised that he should be called when President Grant didn’t know him; he had never seen him before. But the prophet promised him that if he would take the position, the Lord would bless him, and he would be able to fulfill the assignment very well along with his educational studies.

Dick had his picture taken with the prophet which we all prize too.

I used to have to take Dick to school almost every day and call for him. He was in the first grade. Darling Lois had passed away. We had quite a hectic landlady. She drank and it was bad. But we were on the third floor where she couldn’t get to us very often, and she wouldn’t let anyone come up and bother us either. She was very kind to us. She had a rooming house and had students going to school. When she’d get on a binge she’d throw their books and clothes out! When violence like this came, we couldn’t stand it, so we moved into a lovely one-room kitchen, bedroom, living room combined. It was very compact. The kitchen closed into the walls. Dick slept in the large dressing room off the bath. He had quite a good time there until someone stole his bicycle from the garage. He was sad about that.

He got acquainted with a little Jewish boy in his class. This little Jewish boy, Aubrey, wouldn’t go to school unless Dick would go with him and always wanted his mother to sit in class with him. So she made arrangements with me to let her chauffeur pick Dick up and take them both to school. For quite some time this liveried chauffeur would take Richard and Aubrey to school and bring them home. That was quite a good thing for me because I was trying to type Austin’s thesis. It was quite a task because I couldn’t type very well, and it took me so long, especially as I had to look up all those technical names and spell them correctly. So I appreciated them taking Dick to School.

(Note from Joyce: On the first day of school, little Aubrey would not leave his mother. Dick walked up to him, took him by the hand and took him into the classroom. Richard told me that he enjoyed playing with Aubrey; he had a play room with a wonderful electric train layout.)

I want to tell of some of the earlier things that have happened and of the trip Thelma and I and Richard took. While Austin was at school, Thelma came back to visit with us in Pittsburgh. And she said, “Let’s go on a trip. I’ve saved up a lot of money and I want to take you on a trip. I can’t go by myself, so I want you to go with me.” It was all right with Austin, (he couldn’t go.) Richard was in first grade, so we took him out of school.

We went to Washington D.C. then up to New York and New Jersey, and we saw all the sights on the way. Then we went over to Niagara Falls. And from there we came back to Pittsburgh. We were gone about two weeks, and we had a lovely trip together.

BACK TO UTAH

Then we bought a house at 546 on University Street in Salt Lake City. Austin was now back home at the University. It was a beautiful little place. It was not far from the University.

WISCONSIN

We hadn’t been there (Salt Lake City) very long when someone, a representative from the A.O. Smith Company of Milwaukee, came and offered Austin a position as Associate Director of Research. So again we moved, this time to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was in the dead of winter of 1930. I had the flu; my bed was the last piece of furniture to leave for the new home. We went to Lehi and as usual stayed at the Goodwin’s, a very wonderful place to be, that large home with a sweeping verandah now around the house on two sides. It was a sweet home to all of us. We spent Christmas there. Richard was baptized by his father in the Lehi Tabernacle on his birthday, December the 27th. We left by train for Milwaukee the next day. Arriving there, we located a fine family hotel in a small place, Wauwatosa, which is a suburb of Milwaukee. We stayed there until we could get a home. We were happy with the one we leased on 82nd Street in Wauwatosa. It was two-story, a colonial home, a very lovely place. (Note from Joyce: The photo is of Richard and his Uncle Ralph Goodwin)

We spent much of our leisure time in Washington Park. Stanley fished in the children’s lake, and in winter Austin took all three of the children tobogganing. What a grand time our family had together. (Note from Joyce: Dad (Richard) told me that to protect the children from crashing into the trees when they were sledding in the park, large bales of manure were placed around the trees. The children returned home rather “fragrant.”)

War Number II came and saddened all of us. At that time, Richard was inducted into the army. He was soon to be 19. He was in Utah going to the University of Utah summer school. He came home immediately and left for camp. Those two and a half years in the army were ones of great concern. He served with the third army with Patton, and what terrible times we had getting his letters to him and getting his. Some of them were partly burned. It was TERRIBLE, not only for us, but for all mothers and fathers and sons.

CALIFORNIA

(Note from Joyce: While Richard was serving in WWII, his family moved to Inglewood, California.)

It was time now for Richard to return from Europe. He was stationed in Czechoslovakia for six months after the war had ended. I’ll never forget the joy, the thankfulness in our hearts that he was safe from all that fighting. We were to meet him at the Union Station in Los Angeles. The train was late due to a wreck, so we returned home and came back early that morning. It was so foggy when we got out to the car, we just didn’t know how we were going to reach the station. You couldn’t see your hand before you. We almost got into the Hollywood Race Track as we were going along. The track was right at the end of 97th street just several blocks from our home. It was so frightening to just move by inches, but we made it to the station in time. And when we saw Dick carrying his duffel bad coming through the tunnel, I thought I had shed all the tears possible, but so joyous were we that the station master came over and let down the chain and said, “Lady, you can go to meet him.” I RAN. Dick looked so wonderful, was well and thrilled to be home. What a happy reunion all of us had together.

Richard was only home a week or so when he met lovely Bernice Sayre. In fact, it was the very first Sunday in church that he started taking her out. When a month was over, they were engaged and were married June the 24th, 1947 in the St. George Temple. They took our car on their honeymoon. We came home with the Sayres. (Cars were another thing that were frozen.) Dick went to the University of Southern California. Bernice worked and helped him get his Ph.D.

Richard and Bernice had six children. Joyce was born January the 15th 1953. Scott Austin was born September the 8th 1954 and went on a mission to Ireland. Mark Richard, who is now on a mission in Colorado, was born June the 29th 1956. Annette was born January the 30th 1958; Lee Karl, August the 7th; Eileen June the 10th 1965. They have a wonderful family with wonderful children.