History of JEWEL TERRY
10th January 1933 to 8th January 2019
Daughter of:
Franklin Amos Terry
Ellen Anna Terry
Married to:
Mead Forsythe
Interviewed by Diane Forsyth Hoff, her daughter
Jewel Elizabeth Terry was born January 10, 1933 in Enterprise, Utah. Her father is Franklin Amos Terry. Her mother is Ellen Anna Goodliffe. She was the seventh of ten children. When her father first saw her he said her name would be Jewel and that is what she has been all of her life, a jewel.
When she was three years old, she and her brothers and sisters were sitting on a bridge over the canal. Looking at the water move made her feel dizzy and she fell into the water. Her brothers and sisters started screaming. Stan Stahli, a newly returned missionary, just happened to be close by dressed in his suit. He jumped in and caught her just as she was going into the covert.
Another time she was jumping off the mowing machine. She was told to stop doing it, that she would get hurt. She thought, I’ll do it just one more time. This time she fell and hit her knee on the spout of the oil can. Her knee still carries the scar.
Every summer the family would go up to the ranch for the summer. She would hide because she didn’t want to go. One time at the ranch she was looking for a nail that helped close the door on her playhouse when she happened on a rattlesnake. She screamed and ran for her dad. He killed the snake with a shovel.
One time Grandma and some of the kids went to pick pine nuts. They had to cross a field with some cows and a bull in it. They tiptoed across the field. The bull saw them and started to come after them. Grandma called for the dog and they slid under the fence just in time!
Another time when they were at the ranch LaVerna, Leona, Wendell, Arnold, Jean and Jewel were reading Heidi. Grandpa and Grandma were somewhere else. They saw an old tramp coming up the road. They were so scared they all climbed into the rafters. LaVerna said he was an old Indian with long hair. He roamed the property and went inside the house but finally left. They were still so scared that they stayed up in the rafters for a long time.
One time Grandpa sent her over to a guy’s house to get some money that was owed to them. She got the money, a hundred dollar bill; she put it in her coat pocket and started for home. Half way home she checked her pocket to make sure the money was still there. It wasn’t there and she was in a panic! She looked all around and retraced her steps. She could not find the money. She was so upset. It was a lot of money and she knew her family needed it, so she said a prayer. As she opened her eyes she looked down and there was the hundred dollar bill right next to her! She was so grateful. I am sure she learned a great lesson about prayer that day.
Her favorite movie growing up was Snow White. When she was just a girl her Mom and Dad took just her to see that movie. She said it was because she was extra good.
When she was nine years old she entered a Fourth of July race and beat a girl who was two years older than her. She used the money she won in the race to buy a box of melt nickels (this was vanilla ice cream that was covered with a thin layer of chocolate and was attached to a Popsicle stick). She ate them all in one sitting. She got very sick!
She said that she was not baptized when she should have been. Because of the canal experience she didn’t like her face to get under water. Her parents took her three or four times to get baptized. The last time Grandpa said if she didn’t do it this time, he was going to throw her in.
Her favorite grade teacher was Bessie Snow. She was a great reading teacher. She told the kids she would give them a penny for each page they read. When she was in second grade there was a Tobler kid that caught a blow snake and chased her all the way home.
When she was in junior high, Camille Terry, her second cousin, had a picture of her that she tore up. It made her mad. Some boys dared her and Camille to fight, which they did. Leona came out of the high school and saw what was going on and told them to get out of there and then walked her home.
In seventh grade a doctor checked all the kids. He told her that she had a heart murmur and that she should not run or play sports. She did just the opposite! She played basketball, baseball, volleyball, and took modern dance. She was on the high school team and played in different towns. Gracie Snow was her high school teacher. She had previously taught Meade in Junior High in Cedar City. Jewel asked her if Meade had been a good student and Gracie said, “He could be.” Gracie also used to compliment her on her small waist in proportion to her hips.
One time Jewel was over to Camille’s house. Camille’s dad liked to drink and she got down a bottle of liquor. Camille passed the bottle around and everyone took a little sip. Jewel said she only took it to her lips and didn’t drink any. The little bit on her lips tasted so nasty she never did it again.
One of her friends, Dellma Busher’s mom owned the store. The mom would have Dellma and other girls stock the shelves. For payment they could get things they liked to eat. One time Dellma ordered two piece swimming suits all alike. There was one for Dellma, Jewel, Camille and Delores.
Now for Mom’s romance life: Before she met Meade she dated a kid named Kendall Webber. She thought he was cute. She had to have some dental work done, so she talked her Mom into letting her go to a dentist in St. George. The reason she wanted to go to St. George was because that was where Kendall lived. The dentist office was close to where some of the kids hung out and she hoped that she would see him. She finally did and he asked her if she needed a ride. Of course, she said yes! She had met him at a dance earlier and said that the thing she did not like about him was that he held his butt out when he danced! The dentist in St. George did a bad job filling her teeth and in a couple of months she had an ulcerated tooth. She ended up going to Dr. Anderson in Cedar City to get her teeth fixed. She had just started to date Meade at this time. He came to see her one night, her mouth was swollen and she wouldn’t turn on the light. He tried to talk her into turning on the light, but her vanity won out.
Which brings us to the question of how she met Meade? She was sixteen and he was seventeen. Jewel and her friends were on Main Street in Enterprise. Meade and his friends drove up. They asked the girls if they wanted a ride. They said no and went into the store to get a pop. The guys followed them into the store and they all started talking. Finally Meade asked her if she would go to a movie with him the next weekend. All the other guys asked the other girls if they wanted to go. They all went to the movie and had a good time. Meade and Jewel started dating.
Delores, her best friend, and Gary, Meade’s best friend, started dating too. Both couples ended up getting married. LaVerna has given more information about their courtship. Grandma thought Jewel was getting too serious with Meade. LaVerna and Lee were visiting from Salt Lake. Grandma talked Jewel into going to Salt Lake with LaVerna. Jewel was very quiet and doing a lot of thinking but went with them. The next evening they took her to Lagoon thinking she would have a good time, but she didn’t. They even took her to Salt Air to meet Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and to see the Great Salt Lake. Nothing worked! She only wanted to get back to Meade. So they took her home and they got married on February 24, 1950 in Pioche, Nevada at the Courthouse. Jesse Turner Forsyth and Franklin Amos Terry were the witnesses. Their mothers were not able to be there. They decided to get married because Grandpa and Grandma were moving to Salt Lake and she did not want to go. Clifford was going to loan her some money for a bridal shower but then Grandma Terry’s mother died, so it was called off. But they did go ahead and get married anyway as planned. A week later Meade’s brother, Lee, gave them a dance in New Castle.
Their first home was a little house next to Meade’s parents. Meade’s sister and her husband, Lucille and Walt Stingle, owned the house. They rented it for $15 a month. They lived there for five months. When Jewel became pregnant the creosote on the ties for the walls made her sick, so they moved into two rooms in Meade’s parents’ home.
Grandpa Forsyth died of a heart attack in September 1950. Grandma Forsyth stayed in the house with Meade and Jewel, during which time Diane was born on January 14, 1951. When Diane was about two months old Grandma Forsyth moved to California to live with Doug. Dean bought the house and cattle from Grandma Forsyth. Meade and Jewel then lived with Dean and Luzon for another year and a half, and then they moved to Cedar City and lived in Pete and Leila’s basement. (Leila is one of Jewel’s older sisters). They paid $25 for rent each month.
Meade and Jewel’s best friends, Delores and Gary Tullis, were married a few months after Meade and Jewel. They were over to Cedar City doing some Christmas shopping and were on their way home to New Castle when they had a head-on collision with an Adams guy who was drunk. They were both killed instantly. This had a profound effect on Meade and Jewel. Eternity seemed really close and they prepared to go to the temple. They went to the St. George Temple to get their endowments and to be sealed. They did not realize that they had to have blood tests, so they could not be sealed at that time. They finally made it back to the temple a year later and were sealed on February 15, 1952.
Corrine, Meade’s sister, gave them a wooden stroller. It had a split in it and would pinch Diane’s leg. She taped it up and started to walk up town, but that road was too bumpy so she turned around and went back home. One time she decided to carry Diane and walk up town with Jerri Thompson. She said it took two days before she felt like she had arms again!
Allen Kent Forsyth was born March 31, 1953 in Cedar City, Utah. They were still living in the basement of Aunt Leila’s home. Allen and Diane shared a room they called the dark room. Aunt Leila watched Diane while Jewel was at the hospital delivering Allen. Allen was anemic when he was little. He was allergic to milk and couldn’t keep it down. They must have tried canned milk too. Dr. Prestwich told them to feed him diluted, homogenized milk. He was able to keep this down. One time he got really sick and was throwing up everything and got so dehydrated he started convulsing. They took him to the hospital where Dr. Prestwich said he had intestinal flu and Dr. Graff started an IV. After a couple of days Jewel was sitting there with him in the hospital and noticed one eye was strained. Dr. Graff was walking down the hall and she asked him what was wrong. He told her he didn’t know. When they got home the next day Dr. Williams called and said they thought Allen had polio. He told them to get him to the hospital in Salt Lake quickly. Meade had gone to work and Jewel was without a car, so she called Dr. Prestwich and asked him about a second opinion. He agreed that Allen might have polio, but a specialist was coming to Cedar City in the next couple of days. By the time the specialist arrived Allen was fine.
When Allen was six months old Pete and Leila moved to Milford and they moved upstairs and rented the house for a while and then bought it from them. The address is 27 North 1050 West. Jewel started working at the hospital about that time. She worked with special diets for the patients. She stayed there for several years until the second mortgage was paid off.
Jewel had many church callings. She was a beehive advisor, primary president, relief society president, activities chairman, Mia-Maid advisor, primary teacher, blazer scout leader and Sunday school teacher. She really enjoyed her calling as relief society president.
There was a big willow tree in the back yard and Allen and Diane liked to play in it. They would take a blanket and drape it between two branches and lay in it like a hammock.
Jewel played baseball and she would take them down to the ball field while she played her game. They would play in the dirt. One time Jewel went to Las Vegas to play a ball game. Grandma Forsyth came to stay with Diane and Allen. She fixed vegetable soup for lunch and it had peas in it which they did not like. They didn’t want to eat the soup. Grandma said she was going to get a willow off the tree and the soup better be gone by the time she got back. The soup was gone by the time she got back! Grandma Forsyth got quite a laugh out of that situation.
The family would go down to California to visit Grandma Forsyth, Uncle Doug, Uncle Keith and Aunt Francis. Grandma would let Diane sleep with her and she had really long hair. She told Diane it was really important to brush her hair 100 times each night. They went to Knoxberry Farm, Marine Lane and San Diego Zoo. They went to California several times to visit. They started late afternoon after Meade got home from work and would drive all night until they got there. They would always stop in St. George for beef jerky. The only air conditioning in those days was called 270, meaning roll down two windows and drive 70 mph.
They took a trip to Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park and into Canada in the summer of 1961. They went with friends, Darlene and Arnold Larson and Harold and Jerri Thompson. The men decided they wanted to feed the bears. Harold was chased by a bear because he had a piece of watermelon the bear wanted. On the way to Glacier National Park they were following a pickup with a camper in the back. The camper was full of Amish people. There was enough room behind the camper for people to stand in the back of the truck. There were two Amish girls standing behind the camper as they were traveling along. Meade and Arnold started flirting with them. The girls would giggle and laugh, finally a man had the girls come inside the camper.
There was one Christmas when Meade and others had been on strike for a couple of weeks from the mine. They went down to California to find work to no avail. Jewel told Diane and Allen that it would be a slim Christmas. They each received a camera, film, toothpaste and a candy cane. Diane said, “The gifts they have been few, but having Dad home was all that mattered.”
Jeffery Meade Forsyth was born on October 18, 1963. Meade and Dr. Prestwich were waiting for Jewel to have this baby so they could go deer hunting. When she finally had the baby they brought him out to see Meade. The spirit told Meade that they would not have Jeff for very long. Jeff was a good boy. Meade said he never had to get after him, but when Jewel got after him he went to find Meade. He would always climb onto his lap and give him a big hug before he went out to play. He was always rocked to sleep. He started out with his arms around his dad’s neck and then he would lay him down on his lap, and then he’d finally lay him down in bed. He would wake up every night and come and get in bed with Meade and Jewel. Meade felt Jeff knew he wouldn’t be with them long. One time he was in his walker playing with the pots and pans and a lid fell out and hit the end of his toe, taking the end of it off. He once fell off the stage at the church and hit his head. Meade took him deer hunting when he was only three years old and Jeff never gave him any problems. They took him out to the cemetery in New Castle to show him Grandpa and Great-Grandpa’s graves. When they were leaving Jeff said, “Let’s dig them up.” Meade would take him up town almost every day.
Jon T. Forsyth was born on June 15, 1966 in Cedar City, Utah. He weighed 10 lbs. 2 oz. and was 23 inches long. He never seemed like a baby. He never liked to cuddle. He wanted to be fed and put down. He was always active. When Jewel was on her crutches he would get out the front door and run down the middle of the street. Bob Moss would head him off at the pass and bring him home. Jewel would stick cardboard and newspaper between the door and the jam so he could not open the door. When he was about 2 years old he went over to the Thompson’s next door and was playing on the jungle gym. He climbed all the way to the top and slid down the fire poll and broke his foot. The cast never slowed him down. He was still able to run. When he was a baby he was sitting in his stroller in the house. Suddenly he disappeared and no one could find him. They looked everywhere and finally found him in the pantry. Jeff had pushed him in there and closed the door. He sat there for a long time without making a peep.
On June 22, 1967 Meade was working the swing shift. Jewel had been cleaning out the garage. She, Allen and Jeff put the trash in the truck and went to the dump. Diane stayed behind to keep an eye on Jon, who was sleeping. They were gone a long time and Marva Sandberg came over and told Diane that Jewel had been in an accident. As they were driving home from the dump Allen was practice driving and the right tire got on the shoulder of the road. Jewel grabbed the wheel and over corrected and they swerved to the other side and went down a 30 foot embankment. They were all thrown from the truck through the wind shield. Allen was thrown free of the truck but Jewel and Jeff were pinned underneath it. Jeff was killed instantly. Jewel was in critical condition. Where Jewel was pinned under the truck there was a perfect dent that could not have been caused by her body. That miracle saved her life. Allen had a broken collar bone. Jewel didn’t get out of the hospital until September. Her pelvis was broken in several places. She had a broken shoulder, a broken knee, and internal bleeding. Diane was so scared. She knelt and prayed at her mom and dad’s bed and pled with Heavenly Father to save her mom. He answered her prayers and she knew her mom was going to be alright even before the doctors did.
David Jamieson Forsyth was born November 11, 1968 a year and a half after Jeff’s death. Meade and Diane were up at the hospital when they brought David out to them. He was such a cute baby. Whenever Jewel would ask Diane if she wanted to do household chores or feed the baby she would always chose to feed the baby. Diane said she loved having these little brothers; they brought a young spirit to their home. Sometimes Allen would tend the boys. He would tie them on a rope to the patio pole so they couldn’t get away. Allen had a dog named Mutz that David didn’t like. He would jump up on him. One day when David was outside with the dog he got the stroller and started chasing the dog all over the yard. That made David’s day. Gib Hull said he never saw anyone enjoy life like David did. Paul Warby said that Meade and Jewel must really discuss the gospel with Jon and David because they were so knowledgeable. Jewel took institute classes and discussed what she learned at the dinner table.
Before Jon went on his mission the mine had closed down forcing Meade to retire. It was really hard to make ends meet on his retirement so he went out and started working for Mr. Allred running a grater. He would have to call in each day to see if he was working that day. The stress was really great. Meade ended up having a heart attack.
About this time Jewel decided she needed to go to work. She went up and down Main Street asking each business if they needed help and found a job at the Best Western as a maid. She worked there for about seven months and then business really slowed down. She was only going to be working one day a week. Meade had not found steady work either. Jewel was so upset. Jon was on a mission and she prayed that Heavenly Father would provide because they had done everything they could. She was prompted to go back to Days Inn where she had previously applied for work. The lady said she needed help and asked her how soon she could start. She ended up being the assistant manager and getting as many hours as she wanted.
Soon a job came open at FEMA where Diane’s husband Dale worked in Denton, Texas. The opening was for an electrician. Meade applied and got the job. He came out to Texas the day after Thanksgiving 1986. Jewel and David came out for Christmas and looked for houses. They put a bid on one and in February Jewel and David moved to Texas and moved into their new home at 3101 Old North Road, Denton, Texas. They lived right across the street from the new stake center being built and the church paid Meade and Jewel to do the construction cleaning.
Diane’s family helped Meade and Jewel get their yard ready for sod. There were millions of clods that needed to be picked up. They would load them into the wheelbarrow and take them across the street to an empty lot. Jewel and Diane had a hard time getting the wheelbarrow across the street. Michelle, Diane’s daughter, said let me do it. She literally ran the wheelbarrow across the street like there was nothing to it. We all had a good laugh!
Meade and Jewel lived in Texas for seven years. While in Texas Jewel started working for FEMA taking applications from disaster victims. Later she worked the help line and then became supervisor and monitor. She was really good at her job and got a lot of recognition.
Meade and Jewel had some neat calling while in Texas. Once a week they went to the Dallas Temple to be temple workers. They were also young adult leaders. Meade was called into the bishopric and was also a ward clerk. He contributed a lot to the gospel doctrine class. He studied the gospel for years and was very knowledgeable. Jewel was called into the stake primary presidency, meeting house librarian and taught a primary class.
In the spring of 1992 Jewel discovered she had cancer. She was told she had a 50/50 chance of survival. Dr. Fielding was her doctor. She was okay with it, she felt it was in Heavenly Father’s hands and whatever happened it would be fine. How she found out about the cancer is a story. She was driving home from work on Sherman Drive and it began to sprinkle. The combination of oil buildup and rain made the roads very slick. She slid into a concrete wall. A guy with a cell phone called an ambulance and she was taken to Denton Community Hospital. Her ankle had been dislocated and she was in great pain. After what seemed an eternity a specialist came and set her ankle, put a cast on it and sent her home. A day or two later she discovered she was leaking in her left breast. A biopsy showed she had cancer. She had a mastectomy and she was in a bad way. She could not walk because of her ankle, one arm had an IV, and the other side had stitches. It took both Diane and Meade to get her into the house from the car when she got out of the hospital. She was on home health for quite a while. She drained her own blood out of her chest. She started chemotherapy with Dr. Caudy and had radiation too. Jewel felt like she was blessed and had a peaceful feeling and knew everything would be all right.
The summer of 1993 Meade retired and they moved back to Utah. They lived with Allen while they were building their house at 253 South Sunset Pointe Drive. Jon drew up the plans and Meade, Jon, Allen and Jared built the house. Jewel was the boss and she cleaned up after them every day. They moved into the house in February 1994.
Jewel was still working for FEMA, except that she had to travel now. She went to Denver, San Francisco, New York, Kentucky, North and South Dakota, Idaho, New Jersey and Redwood City, California. She said she enjoyed Denver the best.
When she had been home from Denver three days Meade had a terrible accident. He and Jon were putting plywood on a roof and the wind came up and carried a piece of plywood down, around the house, and up on the roof again. It hit Meade and knocked him off the roof, he fell 25 feet. He hit his head on some rocks. He was life flighted to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City. Besides severe head injuries he also had pneumonia and also had a heart attack and had to go back into intensive care three times. The doctors were not sure if he would be able to walk or talk. One morning he said, “I gotta go to the bathroom.” We were so excited! Jewel brought him home on Saturday morning one and a half weeks early because she felt he was not getting proper care. They left him in the eating area for three hours while they checked on his roommate. The roommate left the light on all night. It took Meade six months to recover.
Jewel continued to work for FEMA. She went to San Francisco. Meade got real sick so she came home after three weeks. He had glaucoma and was taking the wrong medication which made him really sick. They got it all worked out and she went back with FEMA to Kentucky and South Dakota. She came home in July. She got sick and stayed sick with upper respiratory infections for six months. Then she started having a hard time sleeping. She thought her esophagus was giving her problems. She was scheduled for bladder surgery and she told the doctor about her problem. Her sister, Leona, had just had bypass surgery so the doctor told her to have her heart checked. She had a Valium infusion and found out that she had closed arteries. She had an angioplasty and stents place in two arteries. She did fairly well except for having real low blood pressure. Then the problem of not being able to lie down started again. They did more tests and found out not only had the stents closed off, but three other arteries were plugged. She had open heart surgery with five bypassed on April 15, 1999. She had a real bad time. She was allergic to all the pain medication they tried to give her. She started throwing up. She was so sick she didn’t think she was going to make it. She was in intensive care for four days and then a regular room for two days. She was still throwing up the day she left the hospital. After she got home she had to make a trip to the emergency room, but finally started doing much better.
Meade and Jewel celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary on February 24, 2000. Their children gave them a surprise anniversary party. It was held at the Cedar Creek Restaurant in Cedar City. All of their children were there. Jewel and Meade’s brothers and sisters were there as well as many of their good friends.
They have been a shining example for all of us. They lived good lives and raised a wonderful family. They have given many hours of friendship and service to others.
Meade and Jewel have 20 grandchildren:
Diane’s kids: Michelle Hoff Salgado, Heidi Hoff Decker, Jeffery Dale Hoff, Angela Hoff Vincent, Stephen Meade Hoff, Janet Hoff, and Kristen Hoff Winn.
Allen’s kids: Jared Forsyth, Amber Forsyth, Dana Forsyth, and Lori Forsyth Shoemaker.
Jon’s kids: Gregory Forsyth, Ryan Forsyth, Rachel Forsyth, Mathew Forsyth, Sarah Forsyth, Julia Forsyth, Allison Forsyth, Turner Forsyth, and Brooke Forsyth.
Meade died on April 9, 2012 in Cedar City. Jewel continued to live in the house they had built together and continued to take care of it herself. She did spring cleaning every year and took care of the yard by herself until the last few years when she would hire someone to mow the lawn, but would do the rest herself. She would grow a garden every year. She had an apple tree and a peach tree. She did lots of bottling and canning and fruit drying.
She had two knee replacements that did not slow her down very much. She always had nice family get togethers on the holidays. On the day that she went to the hospital she had just wrapped and labeled 30 gifts to deliver to all the neighbors for Christmas. While she was waiting for Caitlin, her granddaughter-in-law, to come pick her up to deliver them she was out in the yard and fell and broke her arm. She never recovered from that and died on January 8, 2019, two days before her 86th birthday.
She was faithful to the end and this is her testimony in her own words:
“I have been active in the Church and I am so thankful for the opportunities the church has given me to grow in the gospel. I am truly thankful to Heavenly Father for all of the callings I have held in the church. They have strengthened my testimony. I know the gospel is true. This testimony sweeps over me at times with an almost startling reality. There is a Father to whom we may go in prayer and find comfort, inspiration, and guidance. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God chosen to bring to earth in this dispensation the gospel of Christ. This is the only plan by which we may live and gain exaltation in the Kingdom of God. I am so thankful for all of our children. I pray that Heavenly Father will watch over them, that they will always have a strong testimony of the gospel. This is the prayer of a humble mother.”
NOTE: Diane interviewed her parents a year before their 50th Anniversary; this history is from those interviews. This last page was written in 2019.
5 Generations (2014): Diane Forsyth, Michelle Hoff Salgado, Jewel Forsyth, Lauren Ashley Helwig-Hoff, Evelynne Blake Helwig-Hoff
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