Adelbert Aaron Gay

by His Three Daughters

This is a record of the life of Adelbert Aaron Gay, known as Del Gay, by his daughters, Zella Renee Gay Edwards, JoAnn Gay Johnson and Gaylene Gay Roylance. Dad was born in Provo, Utah on June 23 1906 and died on April 14, 1988 in Provo, Utah. He was born to William Aaron and Clara Ann Stewart Gay. He married Merl Ianez Knudsen in Heber City, Utah on April 13, 1928. Their marriage was solemnized in the Mesa, Arizona Temple on February 7, 1939 at which time all three girls were sealed for all time and eternity to their parents. He received his education in the Provo and Orem school systems. However he never finished high school formally due to other pressing career demands; he was playing semi—pro baseball and working full time at the Provo Post Office and courting mother. He was a pitcher for the Provo Timps ball club.

During his career he won many awards as outstanding pitcher of the season and also for pitching so many shutouts. He owned and operated the Merl Del Dairy for many years. The name of the dairy and later an exotic game bird business, was derived by combining both mother and dad’s names. When he retired from the dairy business he sold it to Cream of Weber Dairy. Because he was such a young man at this time he worked for Cream of Weber until he was 65 when he retired a second time. During his tenure with Cream of Weber it seemed as though he didn’t have enough to do, so it was at this time that he decided to build an exotic game bird business. He did this and sold birds all over the world for 17 years. He made more money at his ‘part time’ job than he did at his job with the dairy. As with all of his business ventures the whole family became involved in helping him prepare for his show time and competition with his birds. Gaylene and JoAnn and their families would spend hours scrubbing the feet of the birds, tying their feet, trimming their bills, and carefully putting them in nylon stockings for transporting to Salt Lake to the State bird show. We all saved nylon stockings all year. JoAnn and her family and Gaylene and Keith used to drive all over the State from St. George to North Ogden to Vernal to take birds and eggs to various places for sale and incubation. Rushing to the airport to catch a flight to ship birds to some other destination became a tricky pass time.

One of dad’s earliest memories which he often related to us and to his grandchildren was when he was about 8 years old and he had his mother fix him a lunch as he was going to the old Provo Brickyard to get a job. When he arrived and asked the boss for a job he laughed at him and told him to come back in a few years. The next morning dad told his mother to fix him a lunch and he went to the brickyard again where the boss told him the same thing. The third morning he had his mother fix him a lunch again and he went back to the brickyard again. This time when the boss saw him he decided he’d better give him a job, which he did. Dad said that he was never without a job after that experience. Dad was always an animal lover. He loved cows and worked with them all his life. As a young child he had pigeons and one of his favorite animals was a big pig he dearly loved. One day his huge pig followed him right into the house and his mother, who was ironing, swatted him on the rear with the cord of the iron until he got the pig out of the house with the admonition that the pig was to remain outside forever. Another favorite story of his was about how one Christmas he received a shiny new hatchet and was chopping at a fence post to keep it sharp and tested. His little brother, Grant, came up and dad told him to put his finger on the post and he’d chop it off. Grant did as he was told and he chopped off most of his little finger. Uncle Grant still has a short finger. Another time dad was playing with a knife and managed to get Grant in the eye with it. Fortunately Grant survived.

As mentioned before he was a pitcher and he was invited to try out for one of the professional teams. He debated for sometime but decided to decline. He loved baseball all his life and was involved over the years in many professional and semi—pro, community, church, and family ball games. In his older years he suffered from much pain in his pitching shoulder and by the end of his life he had lost most of the use of his right arm completely. But he loved the game and played every chance he got until he couldn’t play anymore.

Dad was a workaholic. He owned his own dairy business and bred and milked some of the finest Jersey cows in the nation. He owned one especially outstanding animal who held many national and state records for the amount of butterfat in her milk. Her name was Spot and when she died we felt sure we would have to have a formal funeral because dad grieved so for her. Before he became the owner of his first dairy business he worked as a milk tester for the State. He tested every herd in Cache, Weber, Davis. Salt Lake, and Utah counties for about 5 years. He was also a salesman for Brampton Bull and Sons, from Toronto, Canada. He made many trips to Canada to move Jersey cattle out to the west. He was an expert on pedigreed animals whenever he dealt with them. On one trip back from Canada in a cattle car with some of his prime stock he brought back to us a darling red cockerspaniel named Daisy Mae who was a much loved member of the family for at least 15 years.

Dad had a delightful sense of humor. Some prime examples of it were seen when he would get prank phone calls and the caller would say, ‘Is Ben Gay (a popular pain rub) there?’ Dad would respond with 'Yes, but I always keep him locked up in the medicine cabinet.’ As dad aged he had a tumor removed and when he went in for a checkup with the doctor, he asked, ‘Well, Doc, do I have Aids yet?’ The doctor was flabbergasted because nothing had ever been mentioned about this new fatal, sexually transmitted disease common among homosexuals and intravenous drug users. The doctor wanted to know why he would even think he could have such an awful disease. Dad looked at him and said, ‘Well, I’ve been a ‘Gay’ for 80 years now, and I just wondered if I’d get it.' The doctor almost had to be scraped off the floor he laughed so hard. At one point in dad’s life he injured the bicep muscle in his right arm. The muscle pulled loose from the elbow joint and when he would bend his arm, put his thumb in his mouth and pretend he was blowing up that muscle just like ‘Popeye the Sailor Man’ everyone would laugh with glee. He always loved to tease the grandchildren during dinnertime on Sundays. He would always pick up the bowl with peas in it and say to the nearest child, ‘Do you want to pea?’ The child would start to say, ‘Yes’ and grandpa would say, ‘Don’t you know where the bathroom is?’

One of Renee’s earliest recollections of dad was going to baseball games, being in the stands with mom and cheering and being bored. She also remembers going to County and State Fairs and being bored because dad not only showed animals he also was on the County Fair board and had many responsibilities. Often, when the State Fair was on she would go up to Salt Lake as often as possible just to get a chance to see her daddy because he slept right there in order to take care of his prize animals. He won many blue and big purple championship ribbons.

Once when she was really young and sick as usual, he came in from one of his favorite pass times, pheasant hunting, to check on her. He caught his foot on the cord of the steamer beside her bed and tipped it over on his foot which was quite badly burned. She remembers this with great sympathy for him. Renee remembers when she was in grade school going out to the barn and having dad help her with homework while he milked the cows. He had an uncanny knowledge of and talent for working with numbers. Once when she was helping him haul hay into the loft the derek horse ran away with her and scared her and dad right to death. Renee remembers as a teenager having sleeping parties in the barn when everyone had to be super quiet, which was quite difficult. But dad needed his sleep because he got up at 4:00 am every morning to milk cows and mother insisted that there be quiet for him. Things changed when JoAnn and Gaylene got older and had their parties in the hayloft cause we roller skated and hollered and screamed and yelled all night.

Renee married Harold Edwards, who was later to become a forest ranger, and they spent many many years on some exciting hunting trips for elk and deer. When Renee and Harold went to Germany their car was sent to Europe by way of San Francisco, Calif. She and dad drove to California to ship the car. When they checked into the motel in Las Vegas the clerk at the motel looked at him like he was a dirty old man and he was always quite insulted but thought it was quite humorous. One time they were hunting in the Uintas when dad was in the bishopric. He had to go home Saturday night for church and when he came back Monday they were snowed in and he could hardly get back to them. Due to Harold’s occupation they lived in many areas in the West and dad was one who always enjoyed visiting and becoming familiar with all the wildlife and geography of the area. After mother’s death Renee went on many trips alone and with JoAnn with him. It was on one trip with JoAnn and Renee that he went into Mexico for the first time. It was probably his first time out of the United States. He was in Tijuana sitting and observing the tourists and natives and was appalled at the poverty and sad state of especially the children and the mothers begging in the streets. One little girl came up to him to sell him some gum and he reached into his pocket and took out a handful of coins and held them out to her and asked her to take what she thought it was worth. He gave her something like $1.25 for a 25 cent package of gum. Renee flew with him to Kansas, Seattle, and Oakland to visit children and grandchildren. He loved going to Nauvoo and seeing all the historical church sights. It was at this time that one of the tour directors asked him if he was George C. Scott. (a prominent movie star) Another time he went with Renee and JoAnn down to Kanab to visit JoAnn’s daughter, Jean. (Gaylene couldn’t ever go cause she was so busy) We then went over to St. George where they put down $500.00 on a condominium for him. Shortly after our return he changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to be that far away from his children. Needless to say he lost most of the money on deposit. He loved going to Nevada to visit one of his grandchildren. He was always enthralled with the changes that had occurred in Las Vegas from when he played ball there. He had the opportunity to buy some land where the strip is now and he lacked the foresight to buy
it. He always cussed himself for not having done it. Once when he was down there playing ball he went to the dedication of the Hoover Dam sight. (Currently known as Boulder Dam)

One of our first family outing memories was of trips to Utah Lake and playing ball on the beach. Everyone would congregate at home for food afterwards. It seems as though some really fun Easters with baseball at Aunt Laurels and Thanksgiving and movies at Aunt Arthellas were great times with families. It was at one of these family gatherings that Jerry West, as a child, came up to dad and said, ‘Ok, Uncle Del, cough up. It’s my birthday’. Not only did he cough up for his birthday but when Jerry was old enough to go on a mission he supported him with great love and was pleased for the opportunity. He was the one to whom members of the family came for financial assistance in times of need. He was extremely generous.

When Renee’s husband was in a military camp for the summer, and JoAnn had just finished high school and Gaylene was still in high school the family took the only prolonged vacation we ever took. Dad was always so involved with work responsibilities that he felt he couldn’t get away. Mother always said he was married to the cows and if they could have cooked he would have had no need for her. She also said she hoped God didn’t have any cows in heaven. This vacation was taken to California to see Grant, Maude, and Elwood and their families. We went on up the California Coast through the Redwoods and into Oregon where we promptly visited more dairy farmers. We also saw some of those dairy farmers in California. He never went anywhere unless there was a cow or later a bird at the end of the trip or somewhere along the way.
Renee remembers also the great love and respect that he taught us as children to have for his wife, our mother. Dad had a little switch, I don’t think he ever used, as a reminder just in case any of us ever talked back or showed disrespect to her. His great love for her was evident all his life even after her death 7 years before his own death.

JoAnn’s earliest memories of her father go way back to when she, still in the high chair, commented about how come dad had his ‘bare udders’ out when he would go shirtless on hot days before his temple marriage. She also has fond memories as a small child of sitting on his lap and taking off his hat and wrapping his tie around his nose and ears. He would take her occasionally with him to the cheese factory in Spanish Fork. Whenever he was gone to sell cows or just to deliver mail or milk he would always return with a piece of black licorice for everyone. As a child she recalls what a hard worker her dad was. He always encouraged and sometimes insisted that she work, if not for him washing bottles and cleaning up in the processing plant, then for Grandpa Knudsen stomping hay or riding the derek horse to pull hay up into the barns. Dad was often bothered by a bad back and JoAnn often worked with him delivering milk before school because it was so difficult for him to get out of the truck so often. This became quite embarassing for her when she was in high school and when she was asked by one of the boys in school if that wasn1t her when he saw the milk delivered to his house she thought she would die of humiliation. But her dad helped her through this by telling her, ‘Jo Jo! She was only the farmers daughter, but all the house men—u—her’(manure) This situation was also made easier because that boy was one of the first to ask her out in high school. One day she asked him if he wasn’t ever even slightly disappointed because he had never had a son, and didn’t he wish that at least one of us were a boy. In great sincerity he answered that he had never even thought of it. He was one who always made her feel that she was ok. This was probably one of the greatest blessings he ever bestowed on his daughters.

When JoAnn was in college her father was most supportive and always paid the tuition and never griped about grades, number of hours carried, number of boys dated, amount of playing done, etc.. He just paid the tuition, greeted the guys with respect, and supported her and all her playing all the way. No one was more surprised or pleased when she finished college than he was. When he became a bishop he influenced many of her friends into activity and one young man into the church. These young men had a great love and respect for the kind of person and bishop he was. They loved him because he wasn’t the stuffy, rigid, judgmental kind of person young people sometimes associated with someone who was a bishop. He was accepting and positive but firm with everyone. He had a great love of the gospel and an especially strong testimony about paying tithing. At one time in his life he lived contrary to the teachings of the gospel as far as the word of wisdom and activity on Sundays was concerned. Even during this time in his life he always paid a full tithing. When he was asked to be Bishop he threw away his cigarettes (even though he never smoked around the house or smoked much) and became a very faithful church goer. In his aging years he and mother attended the temple 2 or 3 times a week and performed many thousands of endowments and many hundreds of sealings. Before he became active in the church he would also drink occasionally and one time when Elwood, his brother, and wife, Dorothy were visiting from California they were dancing at a club up Provo Canyon when Elwood said something that precipitated a fight. Dad became involved in order to help his brother when someone decked him right in the nose with a pair of brass knuckles. This broke his nose quite badly. He was out of it at 4:00 am the next morning when it became necessary to milk the cows so mother and Elwood and Dorothy tried to milk for him. The cows would not give a drop of milk until they brought out dad, set him on a chair in the barn, and had him talk to his cows. The chores were completed but only in his presence. Apparently they also loved him.

Some of Gaylene’s earliest memories were when mother and dad were sealed in the Arizona Temple. As a child she was extremely sick and the doctor suggested she be taken to Phoenix for the winter for her health. Dad stayed in Provo and mother took the children to Phoenix for one winter. She also remembers being in bed and sick so much as a child and dad coming into visit a few times a day and telling her what a sweetheart she was for being such a good girl to stay in bed while mother was out helping him by washing bottles for the dairy business. He often gave her 50 cents for being such a good girl. She started school at age 5 with her peers and became so sick with rheumatic fever and a heart murmer that she lost 2 years of schooling at this time. When Renee became engaged to Harold she went into a coma from Lobular Pneumonia. This was before the days of sulfa, penicillin and modern medicine. Dr. luff Jefferies came to the house and stayed to doctor her through the night. The elders also came to administer to her. When she was administered to she could see her body in the bed and all her family gathered around. She was promised that she would recover to live a normal useful life. There were memories of Renee and JoAnn shoving her up and down the clothes chute and how terribly upset dad was when he couldn’t find her cause she was still in the chute. There were parties where baseball was played with Aunt Maude and her kids and Aunt Arthella and her kids with home made ice cream and all the trimmings. When she was a teenager dad was made a Bishop and she was really upset because whe anticipated that her life would be so drastically changed. But guess what? It wasn’t. Dad told her she could stay home from church and he’d go. She stayed home for about 3 weeks and then decided she’d go back to church cause that was more fun than being home. She remembers dad as being a kind loving Bishop with lots of compassion and concern for the members of the Ward. He kept track of all the ward money, as well as much of his business money in the kitchen on the bar. No one ever thought of touching it.

Gaylene remembers how dad always encouraged all of us to work. At a very young age she too hauled hay for Grandpa Knudsen, worked in a hugh vegetable garden, hoed beets, picked strawberries, peaches and pears. JoAnn’s checks weren’t ever as big as Gaylene’s because she sang all day with Norma and Gaylene was better coordinated.

When Gaylene was in high school and JoAnn was in college, mother had a nervous breakdown and dad was so concerned that things be taken care of for her that he had Gaylene cook numerous cakes, cookies, and all kinds of munchies. That’s probably why Gaylene is such a marvelous cook and JoAnn is such an eater and player. Be had Gaylene put up 7 crates of strawberries into strawberry jam.

She remembers spending many hours making candy, fruitcake, banana bread, and all kinds of goodies to make boxes to take to all the widows and those in need in the ward and neighborhood. Dad would sometimes put cash of his own in some envelopes. Gaylene learned her love of giving to those in need from these early experiences with her mother and dad.

By the time Gaylene got to her parties in the barn they had hamburgers, fries, and they hollered and screamed and yelled all night. I wonder if the folks changed or if the situation changed in the neighborhood?

After Gaylene married she and her husband and dad and mother spent many hours hunting with Renee and Harold. This gave Gaylene the opportunity to get to know Renee better as she was only 9 when Renee married and left home. They took many trips into Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and all over the State of Utah hunting various and sundry beasts and birds. They bagged elk, deer of every kind, antelope, Rocky Mountain goats, bear, and many species of birds. Dad spent thousands of dollars mounting many of his trophies bagged on these hunts and he gave them to his grandchildren before his death.

As was mentioned earlier Del was the one in the family on whom his brothers and sisters relied in time of need. Dad had a brother, Royal, who was a sad alcoholic. He married and later divorced and dad and mother befriended him and his wife and often rented, and sometimes just provided an apartment in the basement of the house for them, and after they divorced, for Red (Royal’s nickname). When Red was a baby, as I was told, he had an illness referred to as ‘brain fever’ and he came near to death. At this time his mother pleaded with the Lord to spare his life; that she would endure anything if this child was allowed to live. Apparently our grandmother suffered much anguish because of her ‘black sheep’ son. He wrote forged checks and was arrested and also forged checks to our dad. For this he spent some time in prison at the Point of the Mountain in Salt Lake County. Dad often visited him during this time and provided a job, clothes, and a home for him whenever he was released from prison or jail. He had a difficult time keeping a job because he became addicted to alcohol. He eventually died at age 48 in the Provo City Jail. This was especially difficult for dad because he was a Bishop and was in charge of the funeral and burial. He loved this errant brother of his and assisted him as often as possible.

These memories expressed by his daughters and some of his grandchildren were written with great love and respect for this great man.