Blocked

Notes:

                   Line in Record @I78@ (RIN 19) from GEDCOM file not recognized:
PLAC


BIRTH-DATE-PLACE-PARENTS:  "A Compilation of Historical Facts and Information of the CRAM Family" compiled from various Cram family members by Stu Anthony and printed on May 3, 1992.

MARRIAGE-FAMILY:  Same as source of Birth information.

MARRIAGE-DATE-SPOUSE:  Marriage license records, Kanab, Kane county, Utah.  FHL film #0484816.  [License #83 - 20 Aug 1929.]

DEATH/BURIAL-DATE-PLACE:  Obituary.  Also, information provided by family members.

OBITUARY: The Spectrum, St. George, Utah; Wednesday, November 3, 1999.  Page A5.

ST. GEORGE - LaVon Cram Blackburn, our cherished mother, grandmother and sister, passed away, Oct. 29, 1999 at the age of 93 and is now with her beloved husband  Easton Blackburn.

LaVon's life is celebrated by those she leaves behind - children: Easton Dwight Blackburn, Von C. Blackburn, Clair Blackburn, William H. Blackburn, Bonnie G. Henrie, Betty K. Barnum, and their Spouses; 25 grandchildren; 29 great-grandchildren; and brother Norman Cram.  She is now reunited with son J. Barrie and daughter LuDeane, five grandchildren, eight brothers and two sisters.

Born Nov. 18, 1905 in Kanab to Fannie Bunting and John Smith Cram, LaVon filled her early life with education, service, music, and love of the out-of-doors.  After her marriage to Easton, together they focused on raising a good family.  Their team efforts built businesses and supported the community of Orderville and later moved to St. George to expand their opportunities.  There LaVon returned to education, lovingly teaching years of first grade students at West Elementary.  Seizing any task as a teaching moment, LaVon believed in active learning, especially for her treasured grandchildren.  Renowned for her enthusiasm and energy, she gave service to church, found time to do genealogy, make quilts, fish at Kolob, travel to see family and friends, and to go dancing with her sweetheart.  This lively, cheerful woman was always on the go.

Funeral services celebrating LaVon's life will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, 1999 at the St. George East Stake Center, 449 S. 300 East.  Friends and neighbors are invited to join the family Friday evening from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Spilsbury & Beard Mortuary, 110 S. Bluff, St. George, or Saturday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the stake center.

Those interested in furthering children's love of reading may donate in remembrance to LaVon to the Foundation for Students of Washington County, 189 W. Tabernacle, St. George, UT 84770.

The family expresses sincere appreciation to those who tenderly cared for LaVon these last few years, especially most recently, those at Alpine Valley Care Center, Pleasant Grove, Utah.

BIOGRAPHY: "LaVon Cram Blackburn Shares Her Memories with Others" by Barbara Pyles; Southern Utah News, Tuesday 2/9/93.

         The wind howled and whistled.  Darts of lightning zipped through the sky, with the accompanying thunder shaking the whole house.  Aunt Lunny Brown, the midwife, held Fannie Cram's hand.  She knew, John Cram would never make it home in time from, House Pock Valley.

         When the new father walked into the house, he looked at a small bundle in his wife's arms. Red-head LaVon Cram Blackburn had entered the world.  Now at 83, Blackburn shares her memories with you ... by taking a sentimental journey.

         LaVon Cram Blackburn was born in the Cram house, where the first Kane County hospital was later built.

         She remembers fondly the new house on the corner of  third north and first west.  "I remember my father, Uncle George and Uncle Heber all working on our new home.  It was painted white and we had the first player piano in to town and a six foot bathtub.  It was beautiful."

         Blackburn recalls being baptized in the Kanab reservoir, southeast of Kanab.  Her lovely hair hung in ringlets down her back.  "When I came up, I was full of cockleburs," she says.

         There were wild horses in Kanab Canyon.  The young men would wait by the spring on top of the sand hills while the horses drank.  They would throw ropes around the animal's necks, and bring them down in the morning.

         Growing up in a large family left Blackburn with many fond memories.  When she was 10 her father took the family on a trip to the Grand Canyon.  "We spent ten days going to the Grand Canyon and back," she says.  "We saw all kinds of wild animals; sheep, bear and turkey."

         In the sixth grade, she knew how to make patterns for all of her own clothes.  It was around that time Blackburn won a heifer calf.  It was a reward from her father for having good grades.

         In high school, she vividly recalls learning the art of cleaning and cooking a chicken.  "They chopped the head off and brought it to us," she says.

         Blackburn says, she took choir when George and Clara Shields were teaching at the high school.  She recalls washing dishes for them for ten cents a tub.

         Blackburn chuckled as she recalls another story.  "Grandpa kept his money and tools buried in an insulated box in the walk-in closet.  When my sister lived in the house, she heard a noise coming from the closet.  Her husband shot inside the box." Blackburn laughed, hard.  "It was a skunk and everyone had to move out."

         There is one Saturday while she was in high school that lingers in her mind.  Doctors came to Kanab and spent all day Saturday taking tonsils out in the school kitchen.  "They used our dish pans and Monday everything smelled of ether," she says.

         She will never forget summer spent waiting tables at the Grand Canyon.  "One summer, the Prince and Princess of Sweden paid the North Rim a visit," she says.   "The flowers were all in bloom, and my father gathered them some seeds from the hillsides of Kanab.  They sent word back that the seeds grew."

         Blackburn once rode a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. "It was so hot, that night we wrapped ourselves in wet sheets," she says.

         With high school behind her, Blackburn went to Branch Normal School in Cedar City.  "Mother wanted me to be a teacher so I could help my younger brothers with their homework."

         After college graduation, the Cedar City superintendent asked her to teach in Cedar.  "You have the enthusiasm we need," he said.

         Her parents gave their permission and Blackburn remained in Cedar City.  She taught at West Side Elementary  for $69.00 a month.  The second year, the superintendent promoted her to critic teacher and her salary jumped to $100.00 a month.

         Traveling back and forth from Kanab to Cedar back then was difficult.  She had to travel from Kanab, down around Pipe Springs and then back into Hurricane.  "When I came home, I took an extra day and left after school.  I stayed in Hurricane, because it would take all day to travel to Kanab " she says.  "You could go anyplace in the United States easier than you could go from Kanab to anywhere you wanted to go."

         In 1927, Blackburn recalls going on a trip with her family.  John and Fannie loaded the Ford Truck and their blue Buick with all seven children.  After visiting family in Nevada and California, they traveled down the coast to Long Beach, California.  The group was so thrilled with their first sight of the ocean that John Cram went into the Sears and Roebuck Store and bought eight bathing suits.  The family spent the winter in Arizona, and LaVon returned to Cedar City to teach school.

         By this time, she was dating Easton Blackburn.  They would go to plays and dances and ride around in his 1921 Ford.

         The lasting memories of love are some of her warmest.  One day she borrowed her dad's Buick.  She drove to Orderville and then as far as she could to where Easton was sheep herding.  She handed him a graham cracker and nut cake.  "It's no fun you teaching in Cedar City and me here.  I would like to get married," he said.

         She wanted to teach one more year to get a radio and some more clothes.  "My sister convinced me to marry Easton before someone else got him," she says.  The couple was married on August 22, 1929 on his 25th birthday.  They lived in a small rustic cabin above Glendale were Easton was a sheepherder.  He earned $2.00 a day.

         That summer they w)ere hired to work at Grand Canyon.  She baked pastry and made salads, and he did the cooking.  "We made $180.00 a month.  In those days that much was unheard of," she says.  At the end of the season, the couple was offered a job back East, but they refused.

        The Blackburns' wanted to start a family.  They moved to Orderville and built their first home.  The couples dreams were coming true, they had two sons and a daughter.

         But not all memories are happy ones - their beloved daughter died. The home held too many memories, so her husband built a new house with a fireplace and basement.  When the family grew, he built a larger house.  The last Blackburn house is still standing in Orderville today.

         Because of their son, Von's asthma, Easton stopped farming and built a service station and motel.  They maintained a good reputation for its service and food.

         Von's asthma worsened, so the couple packed up their five sons and belongings, and moved to Chandler, Arizona.  In the early '50's, they moved to St. George, Utah, there they eventually welcomed two daughters to their family.

         Some of her fondest memories are of teaching.  It was her love for teaching that sent I31acl,7burn back into the classroom.  She taught first at East and then at West Elementary in St. George.  Her students understood what she taught, because she made it interesting.

         Blackburn retired from teaching at the age of 62, but she didn't retire from life.  She started making quilts.  This active lady has made over 200 quilts and has given most of them away to her daughters, daughter-in-laws, grandchildren and great grandchildren.  There is nostalgia in her quilts.  She created quilts from handkerchiefs that her students gave her and others from clothes her children wore.

         But she didn't stop at making quilts.  Blackburn made afghans and braided rugs for her family.

         Today, Blackburn is involved in yet another project.  She is doing the genealogy for three families: the Blackburns, the Crams and the Buntings.  Her journey down memory lane isn't over.  "I'm going to live another twenty years.  I still have lots to do," she says.