LaRue Rigby Hunter--August 4, 2012
A grand lady passed away on August 4, my Aunt LaRue (my father's oldest sister). She was really the organizer of our extended family with her enthusiasm and hard work. Every year for Thanksgiving, during the years that we were growing up, she had her parents, all of her siblings, their spouses and families to a beautiful, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. And, she had enough china and silverware to feed everyone!
She always greeted everyone with a kiss and sincere greeting. I'm sure that my siblings and all of my cousins will say that she always had a genuine interest in each one of us. Growing up, she also had a gift for everyone's special occasions.
This is a picture of LaRue on her wedding day and in later life, and a picture of her husband, Vaughn.
Pictures of Vaughn and LaRue and their five daughters.
My father with his two other sisters, Mary Jean and Merle.
A grand lady passed away on August 4, my Aunt LaRue (my father's oldest sister). She was really the organizer of our extended family with her enthusiasm and hard work. Every year for Thanksgiving, during the years that we were growing up, she had her parents, all of her siblings, their spouses and families to a beautiful, delicious Thanksgiving dinner. And, she had enough china and silverware to feed everyone!
She always greeted everyone with a kiss and sincere greeting. I'm sure that my siblings and all of my cousins will say that she always had a genuine interest in each one of us. Growing up, she also had a gift for everyone's special occasions.
This is a picture of LaRue on her wedding day and in later life, and a picture of her husband, Vaughn.
Pictures of Vaughn and LaRue and their five daughters.
My father with his two other sisters, Mary Jean and Merle.
My father's siblings and parents--(l to r)
Ray, Harold, Alden (deceased), Lalovi (deceased), Lester and Hattie (both deceased), LaRUE (in the red dress), Merle and Mary Jean.
The four siblings still alive--Mary Jean, Merle, Ray and Harold
LaRue's five daughters--Karen, Becky, Jolene, Janet and Cheryl.
These girls gave the greatest talks at their mother's funeral. They each read parts of their mother's life story that she herself had written, and they interspersed their thoughts and stories about her. Karen is wearing a suit her mother wore 50 years ago and Cheryl is wearing a purple hat of her mother's. They are hilarious, fun girls. Janet and her husband took a break out of their mission in New York to attend the funeral.
The beautiful casket and flowers
Display of quilts and memorabilia shown at Larue's viewing. The family tree quilt was clever with LaRue and Vaughn's children, spouses and grandchildren's handprints.
LaRue loved collecting dolls. One of her daughters said she had over 1,000. After the immediate family selected the dolls they wanted, they had a few left over and gave one to each of us cousins and aunts attending the funeral.
This picture is some of my girl cousins (and one aunt) attending the funeral--(from l to r)
Front row--Becky and Linda
Second Row--Me, Nancy (my closest cousin growing up), Aunt Merle, Judy, RaNae, Christine and Rita.
The sad thing about funerals is that you lose someone, but a nice benefit is that you have a wonderful family reunion. LaRue's funeral was that to me. I loved my Rigby cousins; they were so much a part of my life and to see them once again made my trip to Idaho so pleasant.
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I thought I would add a couple of paragraphs about my childhood that I wrote in my life story helping you to understand this bond we had as Rigby cousins:
"Growing up in the middle of a large prominent family in a small Mormon community encircled by extended family and a close church community provided me with a very secure upbringing. My father's parents (my grandparents) and two uncles and aunts and their families lived within a mile of our home. Grandpa and Grandma Rigby's big red brick farmhouse was a gathering place for all of their family."
"Along with our many, fun family get-togethers, there were the "work days" where the cousins and aunts would meet at Grandma's to plant the garden; pick the apples and make applesauce; pick, husk and freeze the corn; clean out the chicken coop; and kill the chickens my grandmother raised (something I vowed I would never do and haven't up to this point in my life). I can still smell the applesauce cooking, the warm corn getting "sawed off" the cob, the choking dust as we scraped the chicken coop floor each spring in preparation for the new chicks to be delivered, and (maybe not such a good memory) the beheaded chickens getting dunked in boiling water. Grandma really knew how to chop those chicken heads off??"
"We children didn't even think of those special days as work, but that we were just having another fun day with our cousins. However, we observed our grandmother, mothers and aunts working diligently and enjoying being together. The bonus was that we cousins learned how to work hard. All of these women in our lives were extended mothers, and they nurtured us and helped us grow up securely through their genuine interest and love."
2 comments:
Joyce, thanks so much for taking pictures at the funeral and then posting them. I'm so glad you did because I wasn't able to attend and this made me feel more a part of it. Yes, our Rigby cousins were more like sisters than cousins--and our aunts were like second mothers, weren't they?! We did so many things together, and like you say, we played as well as worked together and learned you can have fun at doing both. I surely wish I could have had a chance to see all these cousins and relatives again, but it was so fun to see the pictures of them. Thanks again!
Yes, thank you for posting the photos of the funeral and the cousins. I loved seeing the tables and quilts also. I haven't seen Karen or Becky for such a long time. LaRue and Vaughn were special to us all. It doesn't seem possible that those years are over but I'm very grateful LaRue is now with her good husband. She lived an exemplary life. Thanks for your stories and this wonderful post.
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