Oda Juanita Larsen (1906-1993) 52 Ancestors #7

This week, in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge from Amy Johnson Crow, I've chosen to write about my paternal grandmother, Oda Juanita Larsen.

Oda Juanita Larsen (1906-1993)

Oda Juanita Larsen was born November 27, 1906 in Hyrum, Cache, Utah. She was the third child born to Ernest Andrew Larsen (Swedish heritage) and Anna Hansina Petrea Albretsen (born in Denmark). She had two older brothers (Garnel & Lavon) and seven younger siblings (Mabel, Melvina, Lloyd, Effie, Kathrine, Donna, and Ila Mae).

When Oda was only three weeks old, she had pneumonia and was very sick. The Elders administered to her and she recovered fully.

Grandma never liked her name. Oda was named for a Danish opera singer, and her middle name (Juanita) was for a girl in a novel that her mother had read.

Just before her 18th birthday, Oda and her nine brothers and sisters were sealed to their parents in the Logan LDS temple (November 14, 1923). That must have been quite a sight to see a beautiful family with ten children dressed in white to be sealed together in the temple that day.

Oda in her younger years

Oda worked as a telephone operator for several years at the telephone office in Hyrum, Utah. In 1932 she went to Logan to work as a telephone operator and stayed with her sister, Mabel and her husband, George.

Oda married Wendell Gayle Allen in the Logan LDS temple on November 29, 1933. They lived in a home on Center street in Hyrum east of the town square until 1952, when they moved two blocks south.

Grandma enjoyed going to the Logan LDS temple to do temple work. She recalls going to the temple with her mother-in-law (Margaret Nielsen Allen) and spending all day there, going through two sessions.

Oda and Wendell had five children (3 boys and two girls), all of whom are still living except for their eldest daughter (Gayle), who died in 2008.

Grandma was a quiet woman and never wanted to impose on anyone else. She never had a driver's license, and would always leave the driving to her husband or one of her children. She kept a diary, which contained very short entries on most days, but is fun to read. She also wrote a short life history, which contains a few more details and stories from her life.

In her later years, she had dementia and lived with her daughter, Gayle in West Valley, Utah. I remember that she would sometimes think my dad was her elder brother, Lavon.

I remember going to grandma's house in Hyrum and she would make really good homemade rolls. After dinner, she would often say "Did you get what you could eat?". When it got to be late at night, she would say "It won't be this in the morning."

My grandmother Oda Juanita Larsen Allen passed away July 14, 1993 in West Valley City, Utah at the age of 86 and is buried in the Hyrum City cemetery.