My sister, Winifred Cruikshank Sweet Smuin, the fourth child was born to Martha Ellen Burgoyne and Fred Locke Cruikshank on September 2, 1906 in Montpelier, Bear Lake, Idaho. She was blessed on November 4, 1906, by Elder W. W. Clark in the First Ward of this same city. The death of our brother, Eynon, and sister, Agnes, had left its mark on our Mother’s life. Mother had seen two babies who “did not appear to be very ill” die in her arms, and she feared losing more. The least case of sniffles caused Mother to panic. Childhood seemed to be one crisis after another. Winifred was the child who seemed to take diseases the hardest. One bout with erysipelas and convulsions accompanying small-pox are but two of these frightful experiences. Although there had been several years following the deaths of the babies when Mother was unable to have children, the four of us were born about the same times: Louise (1905), Donald (1908), and Genevieve (1911). We had a noisy time growing up together. Winifred was an imaginative, tense child with a great belief in fairies. I remember her placing her dolls behind the stove at night because she though they became children and would need warmth at night. I remember the night she awakened Mother to see her standing at the foot of the bed with a picture frame draped around her neck, nails sticking into her flesh. “Mother,” she said, “ will you take this thing off me?” Mother responded, “Take it off yourself, dear.” “I can’t, Mother. There’s a ghost standing in the corner of the room and he says, ‘Leave that picture frame on your head...’” Such imagination! Winifred had an easy time learning in School. She didn’t have to study hard to learn. One reading through her lesson sufficed. She knew the material. I envied her the ability to learn so readily. During her junior year Winifred was elected Prom Chairman. The day before the Prom there was still much to do to finish the decorating. Feeling the loneliness of leadership, she decided to do the job herself; therefore instead of reporting to classes, she went into the Pavilion where the dance was to be held. She did finish the decorating. Then in order to get back into her classes, she had Papa write a note of explanation to Mr. Winters, the principal. Mr. Winters said the excuse as no good. Winifred now became hopping mad. “No one can say my father’s excuse is no good! I”ll quit school,” she flared. “It is no good, and you’re expelled,” Mr. Winters countered, This decision of the principal was not too serious, however, for Winifred was soon forgiven. She was graduated with her class of 1924. A family trip in our Dodge touring car to visit relatives in Chicago and St. Louis filled the summer of 1924. Uncle Al, Robert A. Bowan had married Papa’s older sister, Louise. They had been very successful in helping to establish the Bowman Dairy of Chicago. During our visit with them they took us to the theatre, the opera, the baseball games, the best cafes and hotels in the city where the dining was breath-taking. One day Uncle Al took the four of us to visit the steel mills in Gary, Indiana. Then, upon our return to Chicago, he took us to diner at the Congress Hotel where Paul Whiteman’s orchestra entertained the diners. We country cousins were awed by the situation. The following winter, Winifred attended school at Albion Normal where she prepared to teach in the elementary schools of Idaho. Then she taught one year at View, Idaho–a small town near Burley. The next year she attended the Agriculture College in Logan, Utah. Following this year, Winifred was called to serve on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the West Virginia and New York L.D.S. Mission. After completing her mission she enrolled at B.Y.U. to finish her work for a degree. She went to Minersville, Utah, to teach in the high school. Here she met Clarence D. Sweet who died in 1930. Winifred was graduated from B.Y.U. And her son , Richard Donald Sweet, was born September 1930. From January 1931 to June 1933, Winifred worked in the Montpelier, Idaho schools. Then she met and married Frank Smith, keeping their marriage secret for some time. They lived in Montpelier where Frank practiced law until he decided to give up the profession to enter military service. Just prior to the birth of their daughter, Barbara Ann (1935), Frank left for California where he worked as an officer in the C.C.C. Camps. After the birth of the baby, Winifred with her two children joined Frank for a time, but later she returned to Montpelier where she divorced Frank. From September 1938 to May 1940, Winifred taught school in Georgetown, Idaho. In spite of the fact that she grew to love her students there–[many of them speak of her today as “the best teacher we ever had”] she felt discouraged by the demands to teach subjects she felt she was not prepared to teach. The $1,080 Per year salary was hardly enough to care for the needs of her family; therefore, in August 1940, she quit teaching to work as a case worker for the Department of Public Assistance. It was not long before she became a county supervisor and then a district-supervisor. So it was she worked with the department until 1954 [14 years] at Blackfoot, Twin Falls, Coeur de Lane, and Lewiston Idaho. Then she returned to teaching in 1955 when she moved to Blackfoot and from there to Pocatello, Idaho. It was in August 1959 when Winifred decided to try her luck in the California schools. She found that system left much to be desired. The advantages of school teaching in that state varied according to the wealth of the district. In her school the principal, who had at one time been a successful teacher, now was putting in her time waiting for retirement. As a result, the school was suffering. Winifred could not stay. In 1960, she went back to Pocatello. By this time her son Richard (Dick) was stationed in Germany. She decided to go to that country to be with him. Here she taught in an ideally located school in Frankfurt, Germany, from which base she was able to take tours on week-ends and holidays to many places in Europe, the Holy Land and North Africa (Egypt). Considering the advantages of retirement from an Idaho school, Winifred returned to Pocatello to teach until her retirement in 1968. Here she bought a mobile home which she moved to Cedar City, Utah. When I suggested that she move to Montpelier where she owned an interest in the home property, she said, “I want to be where the young people are.” Since moving to Cedar City, Winifred has attended classes at S.U.S.C. to develop an appreciation of art which she has helped instill into the children with a special understanding of puppetry. At the present time she misses being near her daughter’s family–three lovely grandchildren: Brian George Risher, Heliene Patice, and Serenia who live at Poway, California, and her son Richard who is at the present time with the Department of Emigration and Naturalization Service, Presido, Texas. She does enjoy their visits and looks forward to their letters and frequent phone calls. Winifred’s love of honesty is deep-seated. Her sympathy is with the underprivileged. “Granted there is danger in communism,” she said,”there are multitudinous dangers in fascism, also. I am a firm supporter of the citizens’ lobbying group, “Common Cause”, which calls for lobbying accountability. A man should be accountable for his voting record and source of support. Winifred objects to any praise anyone gives her. Nevertheless, I feel she has been guided by the Savior’s teaching: “In-as-much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my children, ye have done it unto me.” She can always find someone who needs something she owns, therefore. She gives it away. Two years ago when I had the misfortune to break my back, before I left the hospital, Winifred had come to Montpelier to care for me. Also, when Barbara Adams had the opportunity to work as a speech therapist in Nevada once a week, if she could get a person to be responsible for Joshua’s welfare, Winifred offered her services. Winifred bought and donated complete sets of art prints, mounted with study guides to the elementary schools of Cedar City. That the student be given the study of puppetry, she had made and donated stages for their use. Generous to a fault, Winifred gave away whatever she had. Tomorrow might bring hunger, but today’s needs of a daughter or son, or a grandchild or a next-door neighbor must be met. This is my sister. Still interested in the welfare of children, Mrs. Smuin has organized a course in art appreciation for the elementary grades in Cedar City, Utah. This summer she plans to work with puppetry for children. She was honored in 1976 by the Iron County P.T.A. for her contributions in elementary art to the Iron County School District. During her years of teaching she has taught in every grade from the second through the twelfth. Today her hobbies are reading, gardening, attending college classes, and grand mothering Joshua. Her own beautiful Risher grandchildren live in California so are a little too far away to be mothered by Grandmother Smuin. Later, Louise Cruikshank Adams, her sister wrote: “Tonight Winifred my sister is facing an operation. Actually she is contemplating death for she has made her will and in a way said goodbye to us all. I wanted to be with her, but I gave up that privilege years ago to quit–to hide because she had been so deeply hurt and she couldn’t face life. At that time she said she would cook and keep house for m. Instead of welcoming her as I wanted to do, I turned her away to make her realize her great talent as a teacher. She proved herself, but she found she didn’t need me–her sister. Winifred is a remarkable sister, a great soul. Her life has been marked with her generosity and her honesty. Many of us decry the worth of “things”, but Winifred lived to show her contempt for the material. She always gave beyond her ability. For example, in 1977 Winifred received a check from the gas company for $30. She had overpaid her account. How it pleased her for she was broke and Sidney’s boy Locke Edward Hahne had been called to go to Italy to preach the Gospel. She gave him the $30 to help him on his way. When I read this accounting to her she said to me: ‘You write a Pollyanna account. It is not objective. It does not give true feelings. It is not worth having–cut what you have here in half and forget it.’ Some of us fearfully prepare for the day to come. Winifred met the needs of other today. She had an insatiable desire to learn, but she had shut the door to the greatest of all teachers–the Church. She loved the Savior, as she loved his little children–especially George Brian Risher. I wish I had been a more understanding sister. Who was I to insist that she teach school! I need my sister.

Editor's note: It appears from the California, Death Record Index, 1940-1997, via www.mocavo.com that Winifred Cruikshank Smuin, who was born on September 2, 1906 died in San Diego California on April 19, 1990.