William Aaron Gay

by Laurel Gay Gibson

Just two days after Christmas, in 1872, my father, William Aaron Gay was born. A son of Aaron and Emeline Packett Gay, he first opened his eyes to the wonders of this world in a little farm house in Spanish Fork, Utah.

He grew up much as all boys who live on a farm do and when he reached young manhood, instead of the serious religiously devoted person his parents had hoped and wished that he would be, he was rather a harum scarum young scamp.

He did nmothing malisiou but he was far more interetsted in drinking and smoking than he was religious. His parent were devoutly religious and it grieved them deeply to see how little the Gospel meant to him.

He was a very practical young man and he told his father the Gospel would have to be proved to him on a scientific basis and on natural principles.

He finally met a beautiful young girl named Clara Stewart. They fell deeply in love with each other but when he asked her to become his wife she told him she would not unless he would go thru the Temple with her. He couldn't see things this way at all but she stayed by her ideals and when he realized that was the only way he could win her he consented.

He went to the Bishop and applied for a recommend. The Bishop asked him if he thought he really deserved a recommend to the House of the Lord. He gave my father a very good talking to and also the recommend. Father and mother were married in the Salt Lake Temple January 31, 1895.

Soon after they were married they moved to the mining town of Mammoth, Utah. Mining towns in those days were very wild and this one was no exception. Father fell in with a wild crowd and it wasn't long before he was drinking and smoking again. This nearly broke my mother's heart but she stayed by him.

They had had three children by this time but my little brother, John William, died when he was six months old. His death sobered my father somewhat and for a time he really tried to be a better man.

My little sister, Maud Lorie, was a delicate child and was ill most of the time. Mother wanted to return to her home in Provo, but dad wanted to stay in Mammoth.

Once, int he middle of the night, mother thought she heard dad call to her. She went to look for him but couldn't find him. She called her father-in-law and together they looked for him all around the house. When they failed to find him, mother knew that he had been hurt. Sure enough he had been in a fight and had been severely injured. After this incident, mother persuaded him to come to Provo.

After coming here he had one job after another. He finally took the civil service examination and as a results was appointed to the position of letter carrier. This position he held for twenty—five years.

With this appointment and a more sober way of living he began to take more interest in the Church. Consequently in 1904 when my sister Arthella was a baby, he was appointed President of the Y.M.M.I.A. in the Provo 2nd Ward. Even after his appointment he occasionally drank and smoked. According to the teachings of the Church he knew it was wrong for him to hold this important office and still indulge in liquor and tobacco. He knew he must give up one of the two so he decided against the Church.

Mother’s step—grandfather, John Stevens, or Uncle John as he was lovingly called, was a wonderful man and very religious. Previous to his death prior to this time, my father had been a very devoted admirer of him and thought the world of him. He appeared to father in a dream one night and showed him what a mistake he was making in giving up his Church and how wrong it was to do it. This dream impressed father very much. He awakened Mother and told her that he had decided to give up smoking and drinking. This resolution he kept from then on.

He was later sustained as Superintendent of the Sunday School in the Provo Second Ward. It was while holding this position that he inaugurated the 'perfect attendance' plan and the music and memory gem, which are still used throughout the Church today. He did a most wonderful work in this capacity.

In 1915 he dreamed that he had only thirteen more years of life left to him. He dreamed also that two very close friends of his were to precede him in death. This dream made a deep impression on father.

His two friends died just as he had dreamed they would and he lived just thirteen years and six months from that date. Mother followed him six years later.

One morning in 1913 he told mother something terrible was going to happen but he did not know what it was. My brother Grant had one of his fingers chopped off. We asked him if that was it but he said that it was not. Later my brother Royal had his arm run over by a sulky plow and badly crushed. Again we asked father if this was the terrible happening but again he said that it was not. Then one day I took sick at work and had to be taken home. The doctor said I must have my appendix out immediately. Father was sent for and when he arrived I asked him if this was it and he answered this time in the affirmative. I was unconscious for three days and large purple spots broke out on me. I nearly died but our prayers were answered and I was spared.

In 1920 Dad had another dream or vision, call it what you wish. He didn’t tell the folks this for some time. He finally told mother. She told him to tell the rest of us and he did. We persuaded him to write it down and he did.

During all these years my father had been a great lover and grower of flowers. He was known as ‘Gladiola Bill’. At his death his friends knowing of his great love of beautiful flowers, brought bouquets from their own gardens rather than from the florists to pay their respects to him. The chapel was a mass of gorgeous bloom.

The speakers at his funeral emphasized the different sides of his nature. One spoke of his religious or spiritual side. Another of his worker temporal side. Still another spoke of his great love of flowers and all they stood for. He died May 20, 1929.

Dad wasn’t blessed with riches or financial power but he had many friends. At the time of his death he held the office of High Priest in the Church.