EARLY YEARS -1945 - 1959
On April 28, 1945, I was born in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was born to Melvin Brent Richards and Margaret Jean (Marjean) Elggren Richards. At that time. Mom and Dad were living in her Dad's home at 1372 Yale Avenue in Salt Lake City. They had moved there in 1943 at the request of Mom's Dad, when her mother took ill. Her mother, Flossie Elggren, passed away in November of that year but Mom and Dad stayed at the Yale Avenue home to take care of Mom's Dad whom we called Dad Elggren. According to Dad's history, these living arrangements were very helpful as it was during World War II and rations for food and gas were scarce. When they all pooled their food and gas stamps they could make ends meet. When I was one years old, Dad got an offer to move to Bakersfield, California to be the office manager for a branch office of the International Harvester Co. According to Dad, "It was with a sense of adventure that I headed off to California to make my f...