Edith LoRene Thompson Harward

My father's mother is Edith LoRene Thompson Harward. The following tidbits of her life were taken from her own life story and recollections published by her daughters.

Edith was born in Holden, Utah to William Leslie and Eva Merinda Stephenson Thompson on October 20, 1913. Her older sister, Elaine, said that she was a beautiful baby with blue eyes, a round face, brown hair and deep dimples when she smiled. Her father called her "dimples".

When Edith was a child she became quite ill and needed her tonsils taken out. Her father took her to Provo on the D&R G train for the operation. When Edith was released from the hospital, her father prepared for the trip home and purchased a jug of apple cider to take home to the family. She was so surprised to see it--thinking it was home brew. Edith kept the jug hidden under her coat all the way home on the train.

Edith claimed that when she was 16, she dated a boy her parents did not approve of. As she looked back, she thought
she must have been "something of a problem" to them.

The Thompson family eventually moved to Aurora, Utah. It was in Aurora that Edith met and dated a young Kendrick Harward. They went to same school and church and participated together in drama and dancing. Edith was also in the Glee Club and sang in the operettas. She sang as a soloist and with groups often during her lifetime.

In her Iater teen years, she and Kendrick danced together in the stake MIA dance festival competition and were chosen to go to Salt Lake City to dance in the June Conference dance festival at Saltair.

After high school Edith moved to Salt Lake City where she worked in the home of Winifred Daynes, a daughter of President Wilford Woodruff. During this time, she suffered from stomach ulcers and spent a few weeks in the Salt Lake LDS hospital. After her hospital stay, she went to California to recuperate with relatives.

When fully recovered, Edith returned to her family in Aurora where she resumed dating Kendrick. They enjoyed the area dances and singing to old favorites such as: I"m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover. 



One evening during their courtship, Kendrick borrowed his father's Studebacker and took Edith to the neighboring town of Salina to have dinner with her sister Elaine and husband Lynn. This was in the winter and with no anti-freeze in the car, Kendrick drained the radiator to prevent it from freezing. When it was time to leave, they asked Elaine for her tea kettle so that they could refill the radiator with hot water. They placed the empty kettle on the running board, easily started the car, got in and took off with the kettle still on the running board. It fell off and was lost. But this was not the only mishap, because they also hit a horse, killed it and wrecked Ken's father's Studebaker.