Rulon Pearce was the seventh of ten children born to Charles Rodwell and Agnes Hogensen Pearce. He had seven sisters: Mary Fredone, who died at age three; Nellie, Mable, Irene, Jennie and Ruth. Their ninth child was stillborn, also a girl. Norman was his only brother.
There was a lot of rejoicing when Rulon was born October 9, 1898, as he was the first boy in the Pearce family after six girls. When Rulon was just nine days old his father left on a mission to England. When he was just a few months old he had pneumonia. His sister, Nettie, tells of going to the church very late one evening to get the Dr. There was a dance going on and the Dr. played in the band, and as Nettie and Mabel were afraid of him, they waited by the back door until the dance was over and he came out. They told him about their brother and he said he would come, but grumbled that the Pearce's always waited until the child was near death to call him and then expected him to make them better. After five days of constant watching by his mother, Rulon began to improve and was soon back to normal.
Rulon was probably a typical boy, most of the time doing good, but every once in a while getting into mischief. Marriner Swenson and Cleon Hogensen and Rulon were always playing together. One evening they were on their way to bring the cows home from the pasture. In going through some willows they discovered a nest of duck eggs - no duck. They proceeded to blow the contents of the eggs out of the shells and took the shells with them. Pretty soon a car passed them with two men in the front seats, and their wives in the back. One of the boys suggested throwing the eggs at the wheels of the automobile. One of the shells went right into the lap of one of the women, she screamed, the car came to an abrupt halt and the men began chase. Luckily the boys were young and ran fast for the men gave up after awhile. When all calmed down the boys went on to fetch the cows.
In the fall of 1918, Rulon enlisted in the student Army Training Corp. and was stationed at Fort Douglas. In November Rulon became very ill with pneumonia and shortly after his recovery, around the 11th of Dec. the group was discharged and he returned home.
Rulon graduated from Montpelier High School in 1919, along with eleven other students.
On January 20, 1920 Rulon received a mission call to the Brooklyn, New York, was set apart by Melvin J. Ballard. Finished and released June 1, 1922.
Rulon didn't enjoy farming very much so after attending summer school at Utah State University he taught school in Nounan for a few years, 1925-26. (Their was some stories that he was also a principal of a school in the area) He then went to Brigham City and got his hair styling licence.
Rulon met Grace in Brigham city. He was working for Mr. Hodges as a hair stylist (barber) and she came in to get a permanent. Rulon lived with Della Larsen, who was a sister to Ezra Larsen who lived across the street from the Just family. He had Della arrange a blind date with Grace for him. Rulon was going with Grace Watkins at this time. They had dated about three times when he asked her to go to Montpelier with him. She was floored when her parents gave her their permission. When Rulon proposed to her, he asked her to meet him outside the Second Ward church. They sat on an iron fence and he gave her a diamond. She was engaged to someone else at the time, he said she didn't have to answer him right then, but if she decided to marry him, all she had to do was put on the ring and he would know her answer. They were married April 3, 1931. in the Salt Lake Temple. Grace's mother went with them to Salt Lake where they met Rulon's sister Ruth and her husband Doug Shelton. Rulon was late arriving at the Temple and Grace was afraid he had changed his mind.
Rulon and Grace lived in the basement apartment of the Sackets in Brigham City for about four or five months after they were married, then they moved to Salt lake. They moved on the average of once a month for the first year of their marriage. Rulon graduated from beauty school March 28 1938 he then got a job working for ZCMI in the beauty shop.
In the spring of 1935 they bought a home at 427 B Street, Salt Lake City. Bootleggers supposedly had lived in the house and it was in great disrepair. There had been a fire that had burned part of the roof. The floors in the living and dining room were red. Rulon and Grace worked hard to fix it up, the red floors turned out to be beautiful hardwood floors. Rulon came down with pneumonia again, the results of steaming layers and layers of wallpaper off the living room wall. Rulon built two bedrooms in the attic. Later they enclosed the screen porch, extending the kitchen into a lovely large room. Through all their hard work and ingenuity, they made a lovely, comfortable home where they raised five children, Leonard, Barbara, JoAnn, Douglas and Carol.
For awhile they rented out the front bedroom; Frank Campbell, Clair Likes, Venice Spendlove, and George Eason. They have been life long friends ever since. George taught violin lessons at the house to pay for his schooling. The old upright player piano was a gift from Venice. One of the great things about the house on B street was the swing on the front porch. Later Rulon turned the front bedroom and the foyer which they had been renting out into a beauty shop, here he built a business styling and cutting hair and eventually Grace began helping in the shop doing permanents and styling.
Rulon was 5'6" tall, had hazel eyes and dark brown, wavy hair. He played the Saxophone as a young man. He was well known for his story telling ability, which was an added bonus for his customers while they were having their hair cut. He was always busy, whether it was fixing up his home or building in his wood shop in the basement. He and his brother Norman built a boat in the shop, and when they got finished they realized it was to big to get out, so they had to take one of the windows and frame out of the wall so they could get it outside. He loved doing handyman jobs around the neighborhood. He organized a neighborhood 4th of July Parade, which became a tradition for years to come. He worked a great deal with the Cub Scouts and Scouts, in fact he and Leonard earned their Eagle awards together, He also earned 3 palms plus other scouting awards. He was a faithful Latter-day Saint and was always an example of good to those around him. Some of the adjectives neighbors used in describing him were: thoughtful, helpful, jack of all trades, encouraging, thrifty, ingenious, persistent, imaginative, had a sense of humor, kind and loving.
Rulon contracted cancer around 1952. He had two surgeries, but the cancer had progressed too far and they were not able to help him. As a last resort he went to Hoxsey Cancer Clinic in Dallas, Texas. He mentioned at the time that it was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do to get on the train and leave his family behind. This treatment was also unsuccessful. Rulon suffered a great deal the last year. On one occasion he was in a lot of pain, so Grace called a good friend, Willard R. Smith, to give him a blessing. In the blessing some of the words were that he commanded the pain to leave his body, which it did. As the time went on the problems got worse, I can remember as a child dad calling for mom to come give him a shot (they called it a hypo, whatever that meant). When I returned home for lunch from elementary school, they told me he had died that morning, February 7, 1955. He was 56 years old. He was at home at the time. He was buried in Salt Lake City.