I attended Aunt Jen's funeral on March 12, 2016. She was my mother's last remaining sibling, out of 17 children born to Edward Eyring by his two wives, Caroline (my grandmother) and Emma. The 15 children who grew to adulthood are pictured above, in order of their birth, left to right, with Aunt Camilla Kimball (Caroline's oldest) at the far left and Uncle Roy Eyring (Emma's baby) at the far right. Mother is fourth from the right, in the blue dress, and Aunt Jen is next to her, in the red and blue print. Mother was the baby of Grandmother's family, but she had three younger siblings, on Aunt Emma's side. I believe this photo was taken at our house in Holladay in 1970, the summer Dave and I were married. I remember being there, helping Mom, but not realizing what a historic family occasion it was.
Aunt Jen lived to be 98, the mother of nine children and a gracious, stylish, lovely lady. She wanted to be a fashion designer when she was young, until Grandpa told her, "Our family are teachers." She changed her plans and graduated in home economics, as a teacher. Jen was more obedient than her sister, Rose. When Grandpa told Mom, at the outbreak of WWII, that he'd rather see her in a coffin than in a Navy uniform, she joined the Navy, anyway.
As a little girl, Mom played in the wash (dried creek bed) behind her home with her sisters and friends. She remembered climbing out of the wash to see what was happening when the Church bells began to ring. WWI had ended. I think that's Mom on the top right.
Mom skipped three grades and graduated from BYU as one of the top students in her class.
Mom's parents, Caroline and Ed, grew old in Pima, Arizona. Grandpa was rich and dashing as a rancher in Mexico, but he lost his land and his verve in the Mexican Civil War of 1912, when the Mormon colonists were forced out of Mexico.
"Our little Henry boy" visited Gotha, the German town where the Eyrings emigrated from, as a missionary in 1930. He went on to develop the rate theory, which predicts the speed of chemical reactions, as a professor at Princeton. My father met Uncle Henry there during WWII, when Dad taught naval ordinance (how to fire the big guns on ships) at a naval officers training school. Aunt Camilla ate dinner at Uncle Henry's house in Princeton while Uncle Spencer was touring the missions. Dad was also a dinner guest and Aunt Camilla asked the pivotal question, "Mr. Calder, where's your wife?" When Dad responded that he didn't have one, Aunt Camilla said, "Then here's a husband for Rose." The rest is history.
