Beatrice Hyer Brown

Feb 18, 1895 – Nov 3, 1986

Beatrice HYER Brown

Most of this information is from Beatrice's own life history.

Beatrice Hyer Brown was born in a small log cabin near Lewiston, Utah to Andrew and Elisabeth (Lizzie) Hyer on February 18, 1895. She was the 14th child of her father's 25 children and the 5th of her Mother's 11 children.

Education

Beatrice attended grade school from 1903 until 1911, and then graduated from high school at Brigham Young Academy in Logan, Utah. She went on to complete one year of college in Logan before teaching the 5th grade in Lewiston, Utah in 1918-1919.

Marriage

On June 25, 1919 she married Joshua Murray Brown in the Salt Lake Temple. Her brother John Hyer and Maud Peterson were also married in the Temple the same day. The four of them along with her sister Norma and her husband Carl Stoddard spent a 2-week honeymoon in Yellowstone Park.

Family Life Started in Wellsville Utah

After the honeymoon Joshua and Beatrice took up residence in Wellsville, Utah for the next two years where their first son, Carl, was born.

Family Life in Idaho

In 1922 the family moved to Rigby, Idaho where Harold, and the twins, Herman Dale and Helen were born. It was while they were in Rigby that she served as a counselor and president of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association from 1923 to 1927. Beatrice also served as a secretary to the Relief Society from 1928 to 1932.

Then the family moved to the Dewey district in the Idaho Falls area where the children grew up.

Liked to Travel

In 1936 Joshua and Beatrice along with the Aspers went on a trip to the northern Oregon coast. It was Beatrice's first time to see the Ocean.

In 1939 Joshua and Beatrice, along with the Hales, took a farm-hunting trip to Washington. They went through Missoula, Spokane, and what she referred to as the "great sight" of the Grand Coulee Dam, before returning back through Pendleton and seeing the large woolen mills there.

In May of 1943 she experienced her first automobile accident. She then spent until July of that year in the hospital after having broken her pelvis and getting the first of her share of operations.

Beatrice did lots of traveling during her life. She made several trips to the northwest and to the southwestern states, and in fact had been in 47 states at one time or another. Many of the trips were with her husband and Helen, and many just with Helen. She saw Denver, Chicago, Niagara Falls, Washington D. C., Concord, Cape Cod, and Philadelphia to name a few. She also visited many homes of the early presidents, Independence Hall, all of the Capitol Buildings in the Western States, Palmyra, New York, The Hill Cumorah, The Sacred Grove, and Joseph Smith's home.

Church Duties

Throughout most her life, she worked in the church. Besides her duties already mentioned, She taught many Relief Society Lessons, served as a Relief Society Visiting Teacher from 1932 until 1980 and served as a secretary to 5 different Relief Society Presidencies in the Idaho Falls 8th ward.

Life without Josh

She worked as a "Pink lady" and as a Temple worker from 1958 until 1974. In 1955 she was set apart as a stake missionary, and was made the Stake Mission Secretary in 1956-57. She worked in Genealogy for many years. She researched and sent in many sheets, and had them cleared, and has done temple work for many of them. 3

Beatrice lived in Idaho Falls until 1974 when she moved to California to live with her daughter Helen. In 1975 Helen's husband built a small home for her on a part of their five acres where she lived until 1980. Since that time she was not able to stay by her self and returned to Spokane where she spent time with her other children.

Death

She lived through many good times and through some sorrowful times. Two of the personal tragedies were the death of her husband in 1958, and the death of her son Dale in 1973.

At the time of her death in November of 1986 she had 23 grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, and was survived by only 6 of her 25 brothers and sisters.

The last two years of her life she spent mostly with her son Harold. Beatrice passed away very quietly on Monday evening November 3, 1986.