Oral History Program Elizabeth Brewster Interviewed by Kandice Harris 27 June 2019 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Elizabeth Brewster Interviewed by Kandice Harris 27 June 2019 Copyright © 2021 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Beyond Suffrage Project was initiated to examine the impact women have had on northern Utah. Weber State University explored and documented women past and present who have influenced the history of the community, the development of education, and are bringing the area forward for the next generation. The project looked at how the 19th Amendment gave women a voice and representation, and was the catalyst for the way women became involved in the progress of the local area. The project examines the 50 years (1870-1920) before the amendment, the decades to follow and how women are making history today. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Brewster, Elizabeth, an oral history by Kandice Harris, 27 June 2019, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Elizabeth Peterson Brewster Circa 1960 Elizabeth Peterson Brewster 27 June 2019 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Elizabeth Brewster, conducted on June 27, 2019 in her home in Ogden, Utah, by Kandice Harris. Elizabeth discusses her life, her memories at Weber State University, and the impact of the 19th Amendment. Marina Kenner, the video technician, is also present during this interview. KH: Today is June 27, 2019 we are with Elizabeth Peterson Brewster. Kandice Harris is doing the interview and Marina Kenner is doing the videography. When and where were you born? EB: I was born in Salt Lake at the LDS Hospital, February 11, 1941. I was a war baby. KH: Would you talk a little bit about your early life and some historical background? EB: I was raised from age six in this home in Ogden that we are in today. My dad built it, so that makes it very special. I had an older sister, LaRue 12 years older than me. A brother six years older, Edward, and a brother six years younger, Craig. So you just add or subtract six, you get us all. We are now down to just two, my younger brother and me. It was just a neat childhood because back then, you didn’t have a lot of the fears that they have today. We ran the streets, we rode our bikes everywhere, behind the house over on the hill was the sleigh ride. You climbed the mountains. It was a pretty special childhood. It really was. I went to school over here at Wasatch Elementary on Polk. My name a long with all 9th graders was 2 placed under the flag pole in a time capsule and they wouldn’t dig it up at 50 years. I thought, “Dig it up, I want to see what was said.” But anyway, it was just a neat time of life, very carefree. I feel sad for the children of today, I really do because they are so protected and I don’t blame parents. KH: Who were your parents? EB: My parents were Alma Mattie Moore and Lorenzo E. Peterson, and Dad was a professor at Weber College. He became dean of the technical division. This street, was called Professors Row from Polk to Baker. There was about six homes that were built and they were all professors. In fact, two doors down was H. Aldous Dixon who was President of Weber State. Then he became a congressman and when he went back to congress, his son John and wife lived in it. His son was Dr. John Dixon, who became dean of University hospital in teaching and such. So, it was kind of neat… they had one horse. I have to tell you about this horse that they shared up and down the street because the lane was nothing but rocks. My mother said this house was built on an ant hill and dad said it was built on rocks. And so they had to load a lot of rocks out of here. They did that by using the horse named Acifidity. The Acifidity horse, yeah, that was fun. But it was fun there so there was a lot they did. It was a neat street. Anyhow that’s who my parents were. My mother was from South Carolina and her mother brought her and six of the eight children here to Salt Lake City when she was 18. She never had an accent, I never heard the southern bell accent. She always sounded like the Ogden accent. Dad was raised in Scipio, Utah. 3 KH: Where did you go to junior high and high school? EB: Junior high, we were bussed down to Washington Junior High, which was on Washington and about 34th. And then I went to Ogden High, I’m an Ogden Tiger. In fact, we have a class reunion tomorrow night, and Saturday. So it’s for the older people, darn it, here we are. We’ve gotten there. I’m glad I’m still alive so that I can go play. KH: What did you do in high school? EB: I’ve always been a very social person, so I did get decent grades. But I could have done better, I guess. But anyway, just a lot of play. We were in the pep club, in fact, I have my uniform I have to take to the school reunion tomorrow. I’m taking that and my girlfriend is taking her cheerleader outfit, so we are trying to show off who we used to be. I just enjoyed high school. I loved college more, I really did. I loved Weber more. KH: Did you go to campus events a lot as you were growing up? EB: As a child, my dad of course, his office was on the lower campus originally. So I was put into swimming classes as a child every summer. That would keep me out of trouble I guess. And then when I got older, at age 11, he put me into typing classes over here at Weber… well maybe it was down there on the lower campus. And then I was the little girl used for demoing for the cosmetology department, that used to be under the tech division which my dad was over. And I was taken down to the cosmetology and they would cut my hair. I can remember one guy came in from California and he was going to show all of these 4 women how to cut hair. I was 11 years old and he was pulling, and tugging, and flipping, and I was crying. I had tears running down my face. I thought he was killing me off and that’s kind of my beginning and my end of my cosmetology life. That’s kind of where I was. I was always at the college, I was one of the college brats. Because the college was small enough at the time you knew all of the professors children there was a lot of life amongst the faculty. Now the faculty is so big that they kind of don’t know each other. But we really knew each other then. So it was different. KH: Were you encouraged to pursue an education? EB: There was no question. You went to college. Weber College at the time, when I went, was in its last two years. And I graduated in ’61 and that was the last of the two years. The next year was three and the next year was four and there’s a little history on that. I’ll back up a little bit on the history—President Dixon and Dad, like I said, the campus was all down on 25th and Jefferson. And Dad said to President Dixon, “Let’s go for a walk.” And they went walking over through the alfalfa fields and so forth and said, “This…” he said, “This is where I think we ought to have the next Weber College campus.” So that was kind of exciting. Dad had been friends with Governor Clyde for 20 years. They kind of grew up in the same area, Dad was born and raised in Scipio and I think Clyde was somewhere down and around there. So they had been friends forever and Dad was kind of, I guess you could call him a lobbyist at the time for Weber College. And he met with Governor Clyde many times on getting this made a four year college. And he finally agreed, with the terms that 5 they kept the emphasis on technology. And we look at this Weber today and what is it? Technology. It’s always been there, so that’s how we got our four year. So that was kind of exciting because my dad was very involved in that. KH: Would you talk a little bit about the stuff that your dad did for Weber? You mentioned that he was the dean for the technology department and helping getting the campus going. EB: Dad was extremely involved. I wish I had his history here to give me a little better overlay. He registered night school, and was completely involved in all of day school. I can still see him walking down Taylor, towards the house here for lunch and then a ten minute crash nap, laying on the floor. Right here on this floor. This house has a lot of history. Anyway, he was just involved in everything and he died at 59 of cancer. And Governor Clyde spoke at his funeral, so it was a huge funeral. Which was exciting to know. He was in the stake presidency at the time and also so involved in the college so there was a huge crowd. The history I have of him is amazing I wish I had it more in my head, but I don’t. Just very, very involved in everything that was around there. And how it grew. KH: Why did you choose to attend Weber College? EB: Because it was close. Plus I wanted to be in a sorority and I was lucky enough to make into La Dianaeda, which is what I wanted and I got it. I can see myself bawling my eyes out thinking that was the neatest thing that ever happened. Yeah, I think every girl wants to be accepted and know that they are valued. So that was a neat time in my life. 6 KH: What was Weber College like when you started? EB: Well, not like it is today. It seems like there was like, two or three thousand students. There was five buildings, the old flat top buildings. Oh I had a locker, in building four and I could make it to my locker in seven minutes from the house. You just knew everybody. We were talking about it not too long ago about how there was freshman. We had a greenie beanie. A cap that you were supposed to have worn and I can remember seeing it. I think I had one, I may still have it up in the archives of my boxes upstairs. Anyway, back in the day with the sorority stuff, there was a lot of hazing. But it was fun hazing, it was silly. But it was who we were back then, it was safe. I think life has gotten a little crazier but back then. There was still a lot of antics going on. In fact, when I was working with the sorority as an advisor, hazing had to be totally discontinued. And that was kind of interesting, how we had to choose a different look at how we introduced the newcomers into the sorority. It was fun though, it was challenging but we made it. KH: Did you have to go between the lower campus and the upper campus very often? EB: Just for sports. The temporary Union Building which was called the Tub and it was just old barracks from World War II. And the antics there, I can still see me. I’ve got a picture of me in the yearbook, I’m dressed like Santa Claus, I don’t know my girlfriend Nancy has got some crazy 1920 swimsuit on and somebody is pushing cigarette across the floor with their nose. I mean, everybody met at the Tub. Fraternities and sororities they were huge at the time; And it was just a fun time. It was fun, fun time. 7 KH: Who were some of your favorite professors? EB: There was Professor Smith and he taught chemistry. And because of the subject that I chose. It was home economics that was a thing back in the day your limitation back then was, it probably wasn’t really as narrow but it was in a way that you could be a secretary, or you could be a nurse, or a hair dresser, or something like that. Today the girls have dreams that they can… my grandson’s girlfriend is waiting to get into med school. She wants to be a surgeon. He made it into med school, he starts in August. The kids today, their dreams can go anywhere. Our dreams were kind of limited. Smith was good because he knew that us gals in his class were just there because we had to be there; because, it was one of the requirements to finish our degree in that area. And then Mrs. Mumford, she was our sewing teacher and of course, I took sewing from 7th grade on and so I thought, “Well I can teach sewing or I can teach cooking, or I can teach whatever.” That was kind of where I thought I was going. But life didn’t take me that way, but that’s alright. KH: What were some of the student organizations that you were involved in? EB: I was secretary of the Associated Women Students. I was secretary for La Dianaeda—the sorority. We had a lot of competition back then between the sororities and the fraternities. We had Song Fest, which was huge. It was so huge that sometimes you even had to pay money to come and see it because so many people wanted to come. And it was a real competition, a lot of fun. We had sports—we played basketball against each other. I remember getting a red 8 ribbon in swimming. And like I said, all of the sports were down at the lower campus, but everything else was up here for my year. KH: Would you talk about the Associated Women Students? What was its purpose? What did you guys do? EB: Oh my goodness, that’s so long ago. I think it was just a connection. It’s kind of like, making sure that all of the women that were on campus knew what was available to them. Keeping the organizations involved with each other. I’m sure there was other groups on campus, I just wasn’t apart of them. I just remember sitting in meetings and taking notes. I can’t give you more than that because I can’t remember what all we did. Keeping everybody together. KH: Would you talk a little bit about the stuff that you did with La Dianaeda? EB: It was probably the funnest two years of my life. It really was. It was so carefree and so fun. I say I probably could have been more academic, I was having too much fun being social. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, today, the gal that was the president, Marybeth Hall Cragun, she and I have become friends again on Facebook. And she makes me laugh every night because she’s always putting on these funny, funny statements, about getting older and whatever. So many of us we have a connection. I am still friends with Otyokwa, which was the other sorority that we were very competitive with. There was Sharmea, Otyokwa, and La Dianaeda, and we were very competitive. We are down to ten, but to this very day, we’ve had a whole bunch of gals from both sororities that have gotten together, and from Ogden High—every month for all of these years. 60 years, I 9 hate to say it but that’s how long it is. That’s for the older people, I’m not there— yes, I am. I don’t want to be there. It’s okay I still stand up, and take nourishment, and play tennis. KH: What events do you remember attending at Weber? EB: I think I went to every basketball game, football games, I’ve always been so involved all my life with Weber State. Very proud of my heritage. Like to this day, I have season basketball tickets and I try to make it to some of the football games. It’s just very important to me and of course, a lot of fraternities and sorority exchanges. Those were probably the most important in my life back then. Yeah, we had a lot of fun. The Old Mill was out on 12th, below Harrison. It was a real old working Mill with the big wheel and everything and they just turned it into kind of a restaurant and you could rent the upstairs. We had some very interesting exchanges out there. I remember that we were with Sigma and they invited their rushee’s to come and these three guys came—I think it was three that came in. These rushee’s were from Elko, or somewhere from Nevada and this one asked me to dance and I thought, “Oh dear.” I mean they looked like cowboys, real cowboys out of Nevada. He ended up doing a double-two step. And it was so fun, but at the end of the night he starts talking about, “If you really like a girl, you give them the spurs. If you really into them, you give them your belt buckle.” And I remember saying to, Bart Nelson, who became Dr. Nelson, he’s still a doctor in emergency out in Roy. Anyway, I said, “Bart, throw me your car keys, hurry! Throw me your car keys. I got to have an escape here.” So I tell him to this very 10 day, I’ll tell him at the reunion again tomorrow, “You saved my life back then. You’re still my buddy.” KH: You mentioned that as a rushee, you had to go through an initiation process, what were some of the things? EB: Do you want to know? KH: Yes, I do. EB: Okay, alright. They blindfolded us and took us up to Rainbow Gardens. Rainbow Gardens at the time, was a swimming pool and a restaurant, a little restaurant. And they lead us through down through the rocks and up and, we are crawling, and we are blindfolded. Then they took us across the street to the barnyard over there, it was pretty wild. Then they took us to lower campus and again, we are blindfolded. And now we’ve got to go down the hall and into the restroom and reach in the toilet, and they’d put a banana in the toilet. And then they put honey on our arm and went like this [motioning arm moving at the elbow joint back and forth]. One girl got hives. I think it got all around the school and then we were banned from doing anything that ridiculous ever again. We did a lot of hazing back then. They took us down to the Navy Reserve. Which is on 20th and before you go down to Lorin Far Park, and we would start in there and of course, sailors were the thing so, that was the Navy and bla bla bla. Yeah, in fact we would take the sorority girls when I was involved as an advisor, to the Navy place too. Until they told us we couldn’t haze anymore. 11 KH: I found out in the signpost that you were nominated to be the Snowball Queen. EB: Oh, yes. KH: What was the Snow ball like? EB: Well, Snowball was put on by Phoenix, one of the men’s fraternities. And of course, my boyfriend was a member of Phoenix, that’s why he nominated me. Do you know what my mother said when I lost? “Your hair was too short.” I had cut it into a pixie, what we called a pixie. Just real short and kind of feathered around your face, mom says, “Your hair was too short, that’s why you didn’t win.” Oh, the memories you are bringing it up, this is crazy. KH: Did you go to the Orchid Ball? Did they have that back then? EB: I don’t remember the Orchid Ball. Excels put one on the Sweetheart Ball. But usually the gals that were put up for that were from Otyokwa because they were brother (frat) and sister (sorority), and we were sister and brother with Phoenix. KH: Was that the Sweetheart Ball? EB: Sweetheart Ball, yes. KH: Was there anything that La Dianaeda did that was specific to them? EB: Probably. EB: Can I get my book out right here behind me? KH: If you really want to. EB: And then we can look and see what happened. I do have it right here. KH: When did you graduate from Weber? 12 EB: 1961. KH: And what did you get your associate’s in? EB: Well it was just general at the time. See I wanted to go onto Utah State and I’ll tell you kind of a little bratty story. I had met this Gary that I was going with. But I still wanted to go with my girlfriends from the sorority because they were all going to Utah State. Now, my dad never really ever put his foot down. He really didn’t. I knew when I was late, I knew I couldn’t bend the rules. I was an easy kid. I guess I was a bratty kid, but I was an easy kid too. Anyway, they were going to get a four bedroom apartment in Logan and they had paired everybody up. I mentioned it to Dad, and Dad just said, “No, if you go, you have to live in the dorms.” And I’m going, “No Dad, why would I live in the dorms with strange people I have never seen, or met, or nothing about when I could be with my girlfriends and I know who they are and what their background is.” It was just a dead end and it was just like, “Awww.” So I got married instead. so that’s what happened. So a lot changed quite a bit then. KH: What did you do after you left Weber? EB: I got married. I got married and I worked as a secretary for Delter Corporation and that was an investment company. Then I was pregnant and I wanted to be a housewife, and three children later is what I did. KH: What were some of the challenges you faced while obtaining your degrees? EB: Finals. I even walked in an hour late for one final. Do you think I took that one really fast? Uh huh. I said, “I’m an hour what?” I don’t know what happened on 13 that one. I do remember being an hour late for my final and I went, “Oh man.” See you guys can now go in to take a test almost whenever. We had to go into the room with a professor there, bla la la and take the final and it was usually a written or it was the ones that punch the tabs out. Just normal stuff, studying when you should be playing. Or playing when you should be studying. Probably playing when I should have been studying. KH: What were your career options once you had your degree? EB: I think I mentioned them earlier. What I ended up doing, and it was after my divorce, I had three young children ages 4, 8, 10 and I had really just been a homemaker once the kids came and I was just home. So I ended up doing hair. I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have a job and a friend of mine, she was selling Avon. She was moving and she said, “Do you want my Avon district?” Which was across the street, or South Ogden from me. I thought, “Oh yeah, okay, at least I got something to work on.” And that’s where I’ve been now for all of these years? KH: You’ve been working for Avon all these years? EB: All these years and doing hair. KH: Oh that’s amazing. EB: Oh yeah, at one point I was doing 25 women in a couple of days and I’m now as of two weeks ago, I’m down to six. Well, about six regulars and then there’s the ones that come in for cuts and stuff like that. I lost two hair ladies in five days about two weeks ago that about killed me off. It was sad, good friends. I 14 remember years ago there was six couples sitting around and the men were talking about, “Where are you in your degree? Where did you go?” One, out of all six couples, and that was my second husband, who stayed with his degree which was education. He became personnel director for Granite School District. That was the biggest school district in Salt Lake at the time. And so it was interesting everybody else had degrees in different things and yet that’s not where they ended up. So I think you find yourself sometimes not where you plan to be. I was a secretary for about two years and that was it. KH: But you became a business woman. EB: I run two businesses. I’ve been good to the business and they’ve been good to me. KH: What mentors or resources did you have available to you in your career? EB: Well, Weber being so close, physically to me, a block and a half away. That was always available to me. All resources there. The teachers that I always had and people, that I looked up to. And of course, my parents were probably my best cheerleaders they always were there for me. Of course, I was almost 23 when my dad died, I remember him being my rock. And my mother was my cheerleader as far as who inspired me? I think it was just everybody around me, my friends and the gals that I go around with at this point; they’ve all been business women, they’ve all achieved, they’re amazing. In fact, this group are just amazing women. We all started like poor little urchins back in the day and some of them are millionaires and some of them are very accomplished, and so 15 that’s the women who have been around me. I say my whole goal is to champion women. I worked with the sorority, La Dianaeda, for 17 years; and to watch girls come in, quiet or loud, and to watch them learn to follow the rules, and know what we are all about, and where they need to be and how they get there. I wanted to be a mentor to people and then I was lucky enough to go and teach at the jail down on 12th. The correctional facility, and I was down there for 11 years. So if you don’t think that was a growing experiences, it was one of the neatest times of my life. And yeah, I champion women. I want them to know who they are and be proud of who they are. We all can succeed if you just care about who you are. But then I think, that growing process is daunting, it really is. It’s scary and people say, “You are so strong, Liz.” You don’t remember me back when. I was a very noisy kid, but I didn’t have a lot confidence in myself. So if I can instill that in women to love themselves, believe in themselves. I loved being a mentor, I really do. I’ve had the seniors from Ogden High School this last year, as a church teacher, and my whole goal with them was, “Stupid is as stupid does, so we are not going to go out here stupid, okay kids? Fasten your seatbelts because this older lady has got a lot to tell ya.” I think we connected because I gave them jail lessons. That’s what they needed. Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John were 2,000 years ago. They laid a base, that’s not what’s happening today. So that’s who I am. KH: What did you teach at the jail? 16 EB: It was church based. But I became what they called the relief society president, and when I would get teachers that would come in to teach and they look at me, “Do we have a manual?” “No.” “Well then what do I…?” I said, “It comes from heart. [Gesturing to the heart] It has to. If it doesn’t come from your heart, then they are going to look right through you.” It was pretty special. We had to keep it down on a third or a fourth grade level because some of them had never been in a church. We got all kinds that came into that Sunday session. We have a little chapel down there that is used by all denominations. I had a young 35 year old gal come up to me at Olive Garden in Layton about two months ago. I had to leave early and I was looking for my waitress and I was standing up looking for her and all of the sudden I had this, “Is it you? Is it really you? No, is it you?” I had these arms all around me and here is this darling little Spanish gal and I looked down at her name tag and it was Angel. “Liz, Liz, it’s you.” And I thought, “Is that the neatest compliment in the whole world to get?” And she whispered to me, “Liz, I ended up going to prison, but I have my kids now and I have a job.” And you know, that’s all you wish for them. I used to hold up two fingers to them when I was talking to them one on one. I had a lot of that. I’d say, “Okay, your drugs or your children? Which one do you love the most?” “Oh my kids.” “Then what are you doing in here?” Yeah, what are you doing? I said, “When you bring those babies into this world then you’ve got my attention because I’m a mom, and no way, they did not ask for this. So you get your stuff together fast.” So that was me. That’s how I run. KH: Did you face any resistance or battles as you progressed in your career? 17 EB: Well, using the word career, the career that I started in we didn’t ever get. So the change of career. I say, “I have been so lucky.” I think because I’m dependable. In my hair work, if they came in at 10 o’clock they knew how long they were going to be there, and then they would be put in the chair at 10 o’clock. I tried to live for them like I would want them to live for me. And I’m the same with selling. I’m a friend, hopefully, and they’re my friend. They can trust me and I think that’s so important, trust and believing in people and knowing that you can. Life was a challenge. Marriage is a challenge. Yeah, that’s where the challenges came more than anything. And raising kids, that was a huge challenge. But I was up for it. I have three amazing children. Adults that are now grandparents themselves, I can’t believe I’m saying that, but yeah, there we are. My daughter just had her birthday yesterday and she’s the baby, I told her yesterday, “You’re making me so old. Stop this.” KH: What was it like being a single mother? EB: It was hard because when I got out of that marriage—the first one. No money and I didn’t know if he would be helping out or not. And so that was scary. I remember, seriously, going down to welfare. I thought, “I’m going to have to go down there. I’m going to have to sign up.” And sat there with all of these other ladies and felt out of place but I never had to, thank goodness. Thank goodness. Everything started pulling together. But it was scary in the beginning because I had no money. I had to have $50 as a deposit to hold, back in the day, a two bedroom apartment that was available. At the time, I was living in a 4,000 square foot home and had no money. That was quite scary. The gal that was 18 running the apartment at the time said, “Well, let me check with the owners because they may have some stipulations… they would accept no more than four people.” Well that was three kids and me. So I made it. Yeah, being a single mother was a challenge, and my kids only have me to blame basically for everything that is wrong in their life. But, as I said, I made it. I really did. Thank goodness for the strong parents that I had. Like I said, I was only 23 when Dad died, but I had that strength that was given as a kid growing up. So I think that’s what helped me get through. Mother just knew I was going to be over here living with her. And I said, “No, I’m not. I’ve got to make this work. I’m not coming home.” I can remember telling her that. KH: What was your work and home life balance like? Were you able to do your work around your kids schooling? EB: Oh yeah. See because I was self-employed basically. Both hair and Avon selling. So there was a gal in the next building over that had two young children and sometimes we would trade and she would kind of keep an eye on my kids for an hour or two. So help with friends and such, I was able to always work around it. I didn’t have any salon or anything to work out of, so sometimes they had to come with their hair all washed. I’d do it from that point on. Yeah, a lot of changes over the years. But all I can say is that I made it. I married again about three and a half years later. And then 10 ½ years into that, he had a cardiac in front of me. That was not fun. That was a pretty ugly year because he was revived but he lived in a care center with brain damage for almost a year. So that was a hard one that was way hard. I had one child married, and two still at home 19 when that happened. So I’ve had two 10 ½ year marriages. Does that count? Can we add those up? Anyway, that was challenging. It took me a lot of years to get on top of that one. Because when he died quickly like that, there’s nothing in place. In that second marriage, he had five kids and I had three. The estate had to be divided. So there was a lot of lawyers involved and it was interesting. I’m glad it’s way behind me. I made it. A lot of fight and a lot of upstream, but we’re okay. KH: What committees and organizations have you or are you a member of? EB: A total of 9 years on Weber State’s Emeriti Board. I was six years, became the president and then I was off for a couple and then they pulled me back on for another three. Which was great. As I said, I bleed purple. I really do. The expression gets used quite a bit, but there’s a lot of truth to it. There’s a lot of love there. And a lot of fun people to be around and meet and know. It was quite daunting when you knew that there were doctors, and lawyers, and Indian chief’s sitting around that big conference table. But it was neat and Margie Esquebel who was the advisor over us—now that’s a mentor. I give her many props, she made us all look so good. She was amazing, she follows me, I follow her on Facebook still. KH: How is she enjoying retirement? EB: Oh, she’s got a grandbaby so that made her very happy. Because she waited a long time for a grandchild and of course, Nancy Collingwood—I’ve known her since she was a little girl and her mother was one that died that was one of my 20 hair ladies. And that was really, really hard. Really hard. Nancy worked with me when I was still a sorority advisor, so I’ve known Nancy for a long time. So those are some neat women that have mentored a lot of other women. KH: What about organizations or committees outside of Weber? EB: I have been involved for 30 plus years with a civic group called Camenae. Also the calling down at the jail was definitely huge. You know that was 11 years of volunteer. I was involved with a tennis organization. When my husband was alive, we were head over “team tennis.” He had almost over 700 people play, a day. We had a lot of work we did with that. I haven’t been on a lot of city committees or anything like that. KH: You kind of mentioned this already, but how are some of the other ways that you’ve stayed connected with Weber since you graduated? EB: Well I think we already mentioned a lot of it. Always involved with the sports and the plays and the musicals. I have season tickets to the Utah Symphony over at Weber. Basketball tickets, I have season tickets…. It’s kind of sad in a way to not be on the Emeriti because you got to see Weber as it is today. I tell people, I say, “Watch, it’s not “Harrison High School” anymore, like it used to be called back in the wherevers.” I say, “That place is amazing.” I mean to go through that science building and some of the upgrades and all that they’ve built. Now I know they are going to take down my dad’s building and it’s like, “I might have to go get a brick.” Because his office on the lower campus and this one here are both 21 the two that are left standing out of all of the buildings. So it’s kind of hand over heart. KH: So how did you get involved as the advisor for La Dianaeda? EB: In ’86, my husband passed. That was Blair Brewster. My daughter, Michele, my youngest one was 18. Very involved with the guys and I said, “You know Michele, you need to be put some women in your life. You need girlfriends in your life. You really do.” And she had more fun with the guys. I mean, seriously, when she was in elementary, this kid came to the door almost daily. “Can Michele come out and play football with me?” She had girlfriends… she wasn’t that thrilled with girlfriends. If she went to somebody’s house to play, within an hour she was back home. “Well what happened?” “I don’t know, I just didn’t like the way…” She didn’t like the way they played. Whatever, they were catty or whether they were whatever. When she got into mutual and church, she quit at 14. All I can say is maybe the girls were catty, I don’t know. That was not her thing. So I said, “Men can’t fill a void. But girlfriends are kind of always there and you need some girlfriends.” Well we had one of the rush parties at my house out in Layton. She was upstairs in her bedroom. She wasn’t coming down. I knew some of the gals from the 70’s that were getting together and going to put on a rush and I honestly can’t remember how I got involved. I guess I must have known one of them and said, “I want to play too.” “Let me come.” And that was 17 years of awesomeness. It was sad in some respects because sometimes I spent more time with—I called them “nanana’s.” Where somebody was bickering. Sometimes more trouble with that and having side conversations with 22 one on one girls to chill it out. You got to make this all work. And that’s kind of how it all started. I needed them that was what filled my void. KH: What were the types of things that you would do on the Emeriti Alumni Council? EB: Well there were committees. I remember there was like four subcommittees? And each one, had their own specific agenda to follow and I was placed on one. And then all of the sudden I was—I guess I was on that for a couple of years then I was asked to be the vice-president. Basically just setting up different programs to be used for Alumni. Volunteering for graduation. We used to have it all over at the Alumni Center. All graduates came there and signed in and we gave them their ropes and their tassels or whatever they needed. We also set up a fund that if a student was having an emergency problem could borrow from it. It got used at least a couple of times a semester! Now that’s been taken over to the Union Building. But there was just a lot of things we had going. I remember one time, I don’t know which committee thought this up, but we went up towards Morgan and cleaned on the side of the highway. Yeah, we had buckets and cleaned. It was wonderful, I thought, “This is what the jail people do.” But it was fun, we giggled and laughed and went back to Subway and had a sandwich and giggled and laughed some more. So there was just crazy things we would do. But just the meeting of the minds was really the best part I thought. Because I said there was doctors, and lawyers, and I had such great committees that I worked with—Monty Shupe, Margaret Miller Conolly, President Miller’s, daughter. I’ve lost them both! While we were on the council, we had known each other for so many years and we were so naughty at 23 the other end of the table. I told the president at the time, she kind of cleared her throat and wanted us to settle down. I finally said, “We can’t hear you. You’re talking too quiet.” In fact after, I didn’t say it to her at that point, Margaret said, “Settle down.” So I went up to her after and I said, “You’re sitting so low and you’re not very tall, and we are clear down at the end of that long table. We don’t hear a thing that you’re saying.” So we just had our own little conversations clear down there because we were social. And anyway, those two people I really, really miss. Margaret was a neat, neat women. And Monty lived down the street here from me. Just a lot of things that just connected us with Weber State. We gave purple paw awards, we would ask people to come in and speak from the campus, the president or anybody, that we sought out. Maybe the new baseball coach or the new football coach. When Hill came in it was great to hear him. And Randy Rahe Basketball Coach, we had him come in, those are just connection times. KH: I read somewhere that you are on the Alumni Association Board of Directors? EB: That probably was the year that I was president. That’s an automatic seat for one year. And all you do is sit there and listen and be from the Emeriti. So every president, that’s an appointment. It just comes with the job. You’re not given a job on the committee, you are just there being a representative for the Emeriti. You can put input in but jobs are already assigned. KH: What recognition have you received for your accomplishments? 24 EB: Oh, I’ve got some plaques earned through Avon, I have probably in 47 years gotten 44 porcelain statues. There’s a couple sitting there in that hutch. I’ve got a hutch downstairs that is full. So I get one of those a year. You have to sell a certain amount, and then I’ve got plaques, and thank you’s, and photos of Waldo the Wildcat. Just fun things like that. The one thing that I did that’s going back into outside accomplishments. I belong to a civic group called, Camenae. It’s been around for 50 years and it was a break off from a large civic group called Chayreya. In which Telitha Lindquist and that age group were members of. Some of the daughters and daughter-in-laws started Camenae 50 years ago. We have our 50th anniversary this year. I’ve been president of that civic group twice. So I guess I did do something civic. KH: And what is Camenae? EB: Camenae is a civic group. We donate money to a worthy cause ever year. The Christmas Box, Ronald McDonald, we’ve gone to the YWCA. We have speakers that come and it’s up to the vice-president as to who she wants. Like when I was president, I was at the jail at the time and I had teachers and the branch president come and speak to the women about the jail and the people there. And like I told the women many times, I say, “You know you are known as ‘those people’.” I tell people, “No, they are just me and you. And we are lucky we didn’t get caught.” KH: You’ve already talked about this a little bit, but how have you become a mentor to others? 25 EB: Well like I said, that has just been my whole goal and I have been absolutely blessed in the last 45 years at least to work with just women. The Avon is all women, the hair is women, the sorority is women, the jail was women. I was blessed with that gift in life that I can be a mentor to other women, to know who they are. To believe in who they are and care who they are. I noticed that your topic, when you sent the email was something about voting—women voting. Of course, I’ve always been able to vote. That started way back in the 30’s or 20’s when they gave women the right to vote, and they didn’t have it before. Like the old saying goes, we’ve come a long ways baby, we really have. And like I’ve told many of the women, in my day, Weber State, here we are 21 years old. And they used to put a lot of social things coming up in the newspaper with pictures and who was standing in the picture if you got married, it was Mrs. Gary Hancock. Mrs. Robert Peterson. We didn’t have charge cards unless they were in our husband’s name. We didn’t have personal I.D. In the newspaper, it was under your husband’s name. We were not “Elizabeth Brewster.” We’ve come a long ways, and it’s an important thing that we’ve achieved because I’ve always said that women have made a lot of men look good. That maybe isn’t the way to put it, but it’s the very honest statement… I say that without the secretaries and such in the world we have always made the men look good. We can multitask and I don’t know if you know or not, but men are usually one thing at a time. It feels like the last lesson I gave at the first of the month to my Sunday School class there was a couple of gals sitting in class and I just said, “You have to know that you have to be able to stand on your own two feet 26 at all times. You never know where life is going to take you. If somebody told me when I was 18 where my life was going to go, I’d say, ‘Nah.’ I’ve been a good kid.” No, two marriages, divorce, a death, cancer, things that you don’t expect, be prepared, know where you are going to go. Have your feet planted because if you step on his feet too long or him on yours, that tears it down. So those were my thoughts. KH: What advice would you give to students or women starting in education or a career? EB: I’ve said it before. The world is open to them, to women. It’s open to women and to men too. The boys, it’s opened. The world is wide and you can do what you are meant to do. If that’s where you want to go, be the surgeon. You don’t have to be just the secretary anymore. You can be the president of the company. You can run your own company. It’s opened and maybe what you choose today isn’t where you are going to be tomorrow. I’ve said that before. My career did not take me where, or what I was studying didn’t take me. Although, I could still sew something I don’t like to cook or sew anymore. I just have to find a good sale and takeout. Learn to believe in yourself, I think is your bottom line. Learn to believe and trust in yourself that to me, is top dog. And I think you’ve learned that being where you are at. Right? You feel good about who you are. But I say, “Sometimes we have to get to an age, is like watching the women who are hooked on drugs and jail.” Good people, smart people. I had some of the women give the lesson on Sunday. They knew more about the church than I did. I mean, they were amazing. But those darn drugs, it’s scary, scary. The last drug 27 that came in was called the “croc” and it was out of Russia. And it ate the skin. One girl pulled up her pant leg and it was all gray down one section of her leg. It’s mean out there once they get hooked, then they look for something to chase that, and to chase that. But I’ll tell you a little bit about a drug—Meth as an example. It will eat the teeth, it will eat the skin. Our libido on a good day runs about 54 or 55… on the top of happiness—200 max. One hit of meth, 1200. You chase it. So you can be hooked the very first time. That’s why I said, the young teenagers in church got jail lesson because they are headed out into a world that’s pretty dang scary! KH: What are some of your favorite memories of Weber? EB: Oh man, Song Fest, Rushes, I mean, all of the friends over the years. My Facebook is just loaded with some of my sorority girls. And they are all over the United States. One right now is in Korea. Her husband is in the military. He’s been sent to Korea. It’s just exciting to see where they are at. And I keep thinking that they are still 18. Oh and several of them are grandmas. Now when did this happen? Just everything that happens is a lot of good memories. Like I said, this house is full of them. Knowing that my dad built it. Even at church events when he had many very high people in the church having dinner with us on a Sunday if they were here for conference or something. So a lot of memories are still talked about amongst us girlfriends. We love the memories that we have, especially sorority. I don’t know what’s happening over there right now, and I don’t know if there’s these girls that we’ve talked about earlier if they’ve made it work. I hope that they have. I hope they are there I think they 28 need to be. And the boys too, I hope there is something for the boys because that’s what gave us fun instead of just sitting in a class and not knowing anybody. You can go in there and you all have the same sweatshirt on and that was important. KH: What was La Dianaeda’s purpose or mission? EB: Well when it started in 1936. I think Otyokwa was ’35, we were ’36. It was, at the time, a lot of the men were going off to war and so there was supposed to be like a pep club kind of thing like you have in high schools to keep the spirit up, give the women something to do while the men were all away. You talk to somebody like Dean Hurst he can tell you some really fun stories they were that much older than me. We always had men around while we were here at Weber fraternities were huge. KH: What was its purpose or mission when you were a member? EB: Again, it was a social, it was definitely social. I guess you would even call them social clubs. I know while I was with the girls, I would take them to conferences. I took them up into Montana, we used the white vans from Weber State and we had two or three full and headed to Montana or we went over to Colorado for sorority/fraternity conventions so to speak and they would come back and of course they saw and talked with girls that had sorority houses like down at the U or up at Utah State. We didn’t have things like that. I would have to say, “It’s something that we could have, but we are local and everybody drives in.” Today, they probably could have a house better than we could have back in the day. 29 When we took other road trips, they felt they were not Greek enough and wore Greek letters on their sweat shirts. So finally, it was allowed. La Dianaeda always had to be the bold words on the sweatshirt but they took the three pearls which were the Greek letters from our crescent moon pin, and used the Greek word for each pearl. They could be about an inch underneath so they could feel more Greek. KH: What do the three pearls stand for? EB: Oh. I was afraid you were going to ask me that. Beauty? I can’t remember. Beauty, Love, and Friendship. KH: How do you think women receiving the right to vote, shaped or influenced history, your community, and you personally? EB: It gave us a voice. Which many years ago, like I said in ‘72, I was not “Elizabeth,” I was the husband’s name. So more and more it gave us a voice of who we were. Gloria Steinem, she was quite radical, but she was also a leader back in the day of change. And just women like her, gave us more of a voice and now you see more and more women getting involved in politics and being more involved in the cities. I think it’s given a voice that we are smart. In fact, through school K-12 girls were actually ahead of the boys until they got about to juniors and then I think. Boys finally kicked in and picked up some speed there. But I remember the girls were always taking the honors and once in a while a boy would be in the mix. But spelling bee mix or something. I don’t know, it’s given us a voice, that’s the bottom line in my book. But, we are smart. We do need to 30 be heard. I haven’t seen the right women come around to run for president yet, but maybe that day will come. So we will see. I’m not against it. I just haven’t seen the right one yet. [To Kandice] How do you feel? I want to know how you feel about it. You’re in the younger generation and I want to know how you feel because your perspective has got to be that much different. KH: Well I was a history major so I feel like I have a better understanding of how far along they’ve come. They couldn’t own property, they couldn’t inherit, all of those things that—and to me as a young person, it just boggled my mind. Why can’t they? They are just as capable as men? I mean, my mom was a very strong woman and I’ve always felt that women are equal to men. There’s never been a question of that for me. EB: Yeah. And we have our own charge card today. And we do own property. I own a house. Like I said, it took a struggle, but I made it. Because I’ve been single most of my adult life here and there. That’s why I said, women know who you are. Understand. Believe. Care who you are because you do have a voice and let it be heard. That too, sometimes I’d rather work for six men than one woman. But I’ve worked with those who I have not enjoyed. And I did work for six men, for about a year and a half and I loved it. They were easy, they were fun. And the one gal that I worked with her desk was just across the isle from me and she was probably 10 years older and she made me feel inferior to her. And I just always felt a little bit of animosity and I thought, “Maybe that’s what my daughter felt when she was younger and growing up.” She just didn’t like the girlfriend thing, she really didn’t. She did join the sorority, she even became an officer and she 31 still has friends from that sorority time. I was glad, I was glad because she now sees the value of girlfriends. She had two boys, married and has chosen not to have any more children. So anyway, I begged her to try one more time and maybe get a daughter. KH: Great, well those are all questions I have. Is there anything else you’d like to share? EB: No, I think I’ve tortured you to death. KH: No, not at all. EB: It’s been fun. Thank you. That was kind of a special morning. I’ve got all sorts of stories but I think we need to know when to stop. KH: Thank you for your time.