Donna moved to Malad Valley from
Downey
,
Idaho
when she married Howard Vanderwood in 1940.
Their first home together was south of town in a two
room, log house. After
the five years using the outhouse to the back of the property,
she insisted on a bathroom being added to the house (spring of
1945). That summer
a new bath and kitchen were constructed to the rear of the
house.
Their first child, Beverly Annette, was born with
eyesight problems. Donna
noticed that the baby could follow her movements when she wore
her pretty velvet red dress.
In 1943 family took a train trip to
California
where a doctor was trained in removing cataracts from eyes.
When more children started to arrive another bedroom
was added to the little house.
Eventually, Donna, Howard and nine children had
out-grown the two bedroom house and so they moved to a larger
home on
Bush Avenue
.
One more child was born after the move making it a
family of 3 girls and 7 boys.
When the boys were older, Donna applied for and got the
Ogden
Standard-Examiner paper route for
Malad
Valley
.
Each of the boys rode their bikes on an assigned route
in the city while Donna & Howard delivered papers to the
outlying farm communities.
They delivered the
Ogden
Standard for 20 years. Donna worked for Brigham apparel from
1965 to 73. Donna
then worked for the Oneida County Hospital until her
retirement. She
joined the Pink Ladies and has been president of that
association.
For her 80th birthday, she and all her
children went on an enjoyable cruise to
Alaska
.
They hope she will take them on a cruise to
Hawaii
before her 90th birthday!
Howard died in 1993.
Since then Donna has enjoyed going to the
Senior
Center
to visit with her friends, plays bingo at the American Legion
and has lots of visits from her children.
Donna is a social butterfly and likes to travel. She
has been to
Europe
twice,
New Zealand
and
Hawaii
once and several cruises.
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