I was born in 1941 to Ray and Carrie Peterson Williams, the oldest child, while my parents were living in Emery and dad taught school. We moved from there to Mt. Pleasant and Dad taught at North Sanpete High, and from there we came to Castle Dale where Dad was owner/publisher of the Emery County Progress. My earliest memory was hearing the town whistle blow late in the afternoon one day. Since it wasn’t lunch time I asked my parents why the whistle was blowing, and they said it meant that the war was over. I also remember going to the store with mom in Mt. Pleasant and watching her count out the ration tickets. We didn’t have a car until we moved to Castle Dale, but I remember riding the train from Mt. Pleasant to see my grandpa and grandma Peterson, and then taking the train home late at night and having dad carry me while I pretended to be asleep on his shoulder so I wouldn’t have to walk.
I married my first husband when I was 20 and had my first of eight children when I was 21. My husband was a dreamer and always thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence so we lived in about 65 places during our marriage, and had a lot of adventures. We lived in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Met a lot of nice people and saw a lot of pretty country, but the marriage ended in divorce after 23 years. I took the four kids that were still at home and moved to Hillsdale, and worked at the college there. I met my husband who was a native Hoosier and within the year we were married and living in Indiana. Indiana is almost as conservative as Utah in politics, etc. The people are nice. When my husband became ill with lung cancer, he thought it best that I be out here with my family, so I came back about 3-1/2 years ago, and we had a good year before he passed away. I still have two sons living in Indiana and I try to visit them at least once a year.
Senior of the Week: Rachelle Liddil
