Volunteer Spotlight--Loraine Braithwaite

Peteetneet Museum Volunteer Spotlight
Loraine Smith Braithwaite

We are glad to welcome one of our newest volunteers, Loraine Smith Braithwaite, to the Peteetneet Museum..  Loraine was born in Payson in October of 1929.  She was the second of four daughters of Rusty and Ramona Wall Smith.  She attended schools in Payson.
    During her junior year at Payson High School she met Reed Braithwaite, a senior, from Spanish Fork High School.  She married Reed during the summer of 1946 in the Manti Temple.  After her marriage, she never got the chance to finish her senior year at Payson High School.  They moved to Provo where Reed attended BYU.  He graduated with a teaching degree and they spent the first two years of his career in Rockland, Idaho.  They then moved to Caliente, Lincoln County, Nevada for eight years and then to Elko in 1960 where he taught the remainder of his teaching career.  Reed taught Math and coached basketball.  They lived in Elko until Reed passed away in 2011.
     She has two sisters, one younger and one older, who live in Salt Lake.  Her other sister, Gloria S. Barnett, recently passed away.  Gloria was a long time supporter of the Peteetneet Museum and the Payson Historical Society.  She had served as President of both organizations.
    Loraine has one daughter living in Honolulu, Hawaii, son in Chuckey, TN, and a son in Elko, Nevada.  She has seven grandchildren and a “bunch”of great-grandchildren.  Another son passed away.
    Loraine did have the opportunity in 1973 to graduate from high school in the Elko Adult High School Program.  There was seven ladies and one man in the class.  This was the first Adult High School Program in the area They had their photo in the local paper holding their diplomas`.
    Loraine currently lives in Springville and comes every Friday morning with a neighbor who also volunteers as a Tour Guide.  She enjoys her time at Peteetneet and looks forward to each Friday.

Volunteer Spotlight--Sue Riggins

    PETEETNEET VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
    Sue Riggins.

    When visitors enter the Peteetneet Museum on Wednesday afternoons they will be greeted by a very friendly group of ladies.  One of those ladies with the beautiful smile and sparkling eyes is Sue Riggins.  We feel very fortunate to have Sue as one of our Tour Guides.  When she was asked to give us some background on her she submitted the following:
    “Coming full circle describes my living in Utah – I was born in Payson.  My mother was  Audra Finch of Goshen and my father was Donald W. Wilson of Payson.  They were both raised, schooled and married here.   Their family consisted of my sister Jacalynn and I.   Their marriage lasted but a few years. 
    Mom took my sister and I to California and then on to Kansas after she remarried.  Life there was great fun for a kid.  We lived in a poured concrete house on the plains out of Weskan, Kansas for a few years.  It once was owned by a horse thief, according to my new grandma, hence doors to the outside from every room.   It was hard for my mom (lots of rattlesnakes, no electricity, coal burning stove and water from a pump at the kitchen sink.)   My new dad  eked out a living helping with wheat farming.  It was near the end of the 1940’s.  We finally moved to Wichita where he got a job with  Boeing Aircraft.  It was the main employer of the area.  I went to Kindergarten there.
    We later moved to Santa Monica, CA when I started first grade.  My step-father got a job at Douglas Aircraft. Later my mom divorced, got a job and remarried for a third time.  She married the only man my children have ever known as a Grandfather.  We all call him “Grandfer.”
     I  call Santa Monica  “home” as I was raised there, met my husband Ken there, and we started our family there.  What a fabulous place to grow up.  There was Samohi, the beach and so many great friends. 
    Ken and I moved from city life, post Watts-riots, to Hesperia, CA.  This is the upper desert above Cajon Pass.  It was a great place to raise kids, animals and have a small orchard to can fruit.  Our Children, 4 girls, enjoyed the rural life participating in 4H and then FFA as well as sports and scouts. 
    My husband became a contractor and coached football teams throughout his life.  From pop-Warner to College as time permitted.   I worked there for a physician and then, as my education completed, I worked in the HIM (Health Information Management) field. 
    Ken got an opportunity, after our children had left the nest, to work as a Site Manager for Fed-Ex at LAX.  This great job led me to work for PHS (Professional Healthcare Systems- Later Keane, Inc.)  We moved to Marina Del Rey and lived on a boat in a slip at the marina.  What a fun time in our lives.  I traveled on my job to many hospitals to assist with their medical records software conversions.   I had jobs from Long Island NY,  to Kauai HI.  Ken loved his work and I mine.
    The grief of a tragedy (the murder of one of our daughters) led me back to our home, Ken returned as well after an accident.    We lived in Hesperia until the year both Ken and my mother died.   I sold the house and moved to Arizona with my youngest daughter, where I lived happily for five years, watching grandchildren grow and sharing the fun.  I was doubly blessed as another daughter and her family lived only 2 blocks from her sister.  My oldest daughter and her family live in Colorado.
    I now have returned to Utah, live with Gradfer, and enjoy small town life.  I am lucky to live next door to my Aunt.  The lovely people, and breathtaking landscape keep me content.”
    Sue is one of our most outstanding Tour Guides and the museum and we feel very fortunate that she has joined the other great volunteers at Peteetneet.

Volunteer Spotlight--L. Dee Stevenson

Peteetneet Volunteer Spotlight
    L. Dee Stevenson

    This week we would like to spotlight one of our outstanding volunteers, L. Dee Stevenson.  He has been involved with the Peteetneet Museum for almost fifteen years as a volunteer.  He serves as a Tour Guide every Friday morning.  He also attended Peteetneet during elementary school.
    He wears many different hats at the museum in addition to being a Tour Guide: he is a Past President of the PPP and serves on the Executive Committee was well as the Board of Trustees; he created and maintains our web pages as well as our Blogspot and Facebook pages; he is responsible for the compilation and publication of the museum newsletter three times a year and posting it to our web page; he submits our Volunteer Spotlights to the Payson Chronicle and keeps our marquee up to date.  He also serves as the President of the Payson Historical Society.  He does the historical articles that appear in the local newspaper.  He also updates the Blogspot and Facebook pages of the Historical Society.  He along with Calvin Reece, a Board of Trustee member, collected almost six hundred historical photos of Payson.  Some of these are being posted on our Blogspot as “Photos of the Day.” The photos they collected became the basis of the “Payson–Then and Now” series in the Chronicle and the subsequent book that has been on sale as a fund raiser at the Peteetneet.  He also assisted Gloria Barnett in updating the publication, “A Walking Tour of Old Payson, Old Fort Peteetneet and Historic Payson.  This booklet can be purchased the Peteetneet.  He has also served on the Payson Preservation Board for a number of years.
    He was recently asked to write a summary history of Payson to be included in the cornerstone of the new Payson LDS Temple.  The committee also included a copy of “Payson–Then and Now” as part of the collection in the cornerstone of the new temple..
    Dee retired from Nebo School District after thirty-seven years of teaching.  He taught Computer Technology at the Spanish Fork Middle School.  He was a member of Nebo Education Association, the Utah Education Association and a Life Member of the National Education Association.
    He received numerous awards while teaching.  He was honored in the publications, “Outstanding Teachers in American Education,” and “Outstanding Elementary Teachers of America” and he was the recipient of the “Crystal Apple Award.”  He served as an officer of the Nebo Teacher Association and was a Teacher Leader in Nebo School District for many years.
    Dee and his wife, the former Julie Cheever, have resided in Payson their entire lives.  They have five children and seven grandchildren.  Dee also served his county in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry Division at the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s.
   

Volunteer Spotlight--Kathleen Muhlstein

Peteetneet Volunteer Spotlight
Kathleen Reilly-Muhlestein

    The Peteetneet Museum is very blessed to have so many great volunteers give of their time and talents to our facility. One of these Tour Guide Volunteers is Kathleen Muhlestein of Payson. She has been a volunteer at Peteetneet for about years. She says she is a "local or maybe a loco local" who was born and raised in our community.
    She was the only child of Clarence and Lenore Hill of Payson. Her father at one time served on the Payson City Council and her mother taught second grade at the Taylor and Wilson Schools for many years. Kathleen attended Taylor School as well as Payson Junior High and graduated from Payson High School.
    She graduated from BYU with a degree in Elementary Education.  She started her teaching career in Nebo School District and taught there for twenty-six years (except for one year she spent in Laie, Hawaii).
    Kathleen  and her late husband, Tom Reilly began volunteering at Peteetneet one day a week. They also enjoyed exhibiting their many Irish artifacts that they collected from visits to Tom's homeland of Ireland. Their exhibit a number of years ago was one of the most outstanding ones that has been on display in the Historical Society Room during St. Patrick's Day.  Tom passed away in late 2007 but Kathleen continued her volunteering at Peteetneet.
    Kathleen later met a wonderful widower from Brigham City.  After she and Glen Muhlstein were marrid, they made their home in Payson.  Kathleen and Glenn enjoy traveling and doing things together in their retirement years.
    Kathleen has three children: Sallie, Aimee, and Craig.  She has 11 grandchildren.  In addition, she and Tom shared his 12 grandchildren, and now she is sharing another 24 grandchildren with Glenn. That gives them a total of 47 grandchildren that makeup their extended family along with other additional family members. 
    Kathleen likes to read, cook, sew, see movies, do genealogy, see BYU football games, and meet and share times with "old" friends. Her motto is, "With age I won't be dawdling and dreaming-Fll go out kicking and screaming!"

For a very interesting visit to Peteetneet, be sure and stop by on a Monday morning and enjoy a tour with this witty and bubbly lady. Iftvill be a real treat.