Mary Ann Bowen Creer Funeral Services

 

IN REMEMBRANCE: Funeral Services for Mary Ann Bowen Creer

She was born in Spanish Fork in a home. The home in which she was born was located on the lot where the Rees School now stands. She attended the following schools: the little white school where the Thurber school stands, the Bell school on 5th East and Center, the Dalley School on 4th North and Main, Ideal, Central, BY Academy and University.

For five years she taught school in the public schools; one year in Santaquin and four years in Spanish Fork.

After her marriage, Morris and Mary rented rooms in the Lew Banks home and then in the John Morgan home before living in their own home in Leland where Morris farmed. On April 24, 1914, they moved to idaho where they lived until the autumn of 1945. Mollie built her own new home and moved into it in 1949, next to Brother and Sister David and Hasel Brown.

She carries a beautiful spirit of love, interest and optimism wherever she goes.

''Well I do remember when my mother taught me how to pray. My brother, David, was a young baby. He was very ill. Mother and Aunt Elisabeth were in the bedroom caring for him. He had a convulsion. Mother told me to tell Grandpa Bowen to come and administer to him. I did so, but he told me to go and get Mr. Robert McKell, Aunt Hasel's grandfather, to come and help him, because he had the power of healing. I did so, and he and grandpa administered to David and before they finished he was out of the convulsion and asleep and he too recovered and never had another. This incident made a lasting impression on me and taught me the great value of prayer.”

She talked about how hard she tried to get into college, how difficult it was. She talked about how anxious she was to go but she was afraid that her father wouldn't have the money to send her. She says she got work in Mapleton picking fruit. ''Sometimes one of my brothers would take me on a horse up there on Monday morning. Often the canyon wind was very cold early in the morning. Sometimes I walked home which was about four miles. I earned enough money to buy my clothes and some of my books. Father paid my tuition, for some of my books, the $1.00 rent on the room which was my share. Kate Wilkins and Hannah Christensen and I lived together.''

''The dress I wore when I started college only cost about fifty cents. My mother and Aunt Elizabeth made it from a calico which cost three yards for twenty-five cents. It was trimmed with white lace-''

On her courtship: ''Our happy courtship culminated in a wonderful marriage in the Salt Lake Temple, 6 June 1906. It was the most joyous experience of my life. Our wedding reception was a quiet one, my wonderful parents prepared a delicious turkey dinner for both families and a few intimate friends.''

She went to BYU for 2 years and one summer school. ''I started to teach school in Santaquin at the age of eighteen. I went back and forth on the train. The station operator must have thought I was a little girl, because he only sold me a half fare ticket.'' She had worn her hair in two braids up to this time, but then she rolled them up into what she called a bob, hoping that this might make her look a little older.