Item Detail
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Cox, Lulu Smith
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1895-
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MSS SC 1103
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Autobiography
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Lulu Smith was born June 13, 1895 in Glendale, Utah to William Seymour Smith (Son of Tom and Ann Cross Smith) and Catherine Carpenter (daughter of James D. Carpenter and Catherine Judd). Her father had a sheep farm and lived close to many members of their extended family. While she was still young her father was called to serve a mission in England for two and a half years. Lulu married Dee Thornton Cox, from New Castle, on October 23, 1916 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three weeks after their marriage they went through the St. George Temple and were sealed. Lulu's father built them a home on his farm so that Dee could take care of it for him. Lulu's mother passed away March 14, 1917 leaving behind two very young children. Lulu and Dee offered to move home and take care of the little ones but her father told them no and that they needed to have a life of their own together. On February 25, 1918 Lulu had her first child Aaron Dee. Soon after his birth her father contracted pneumonia and died only a year and nine months after her mother. At this point Dee and Lulu moved into her parent's home to care for her younger siblings. Dee died of a heart attack on December 5, 1956. His cousin Legrand T. Pace came up from Las Vegas a few years later and asked Lulu to marry him. They were married May 18, 1957 and had eleven happy years of marriage together before he died of cancer.
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This collection contains the biographies of the James Leithead Family. Each biography consists of copied pages and many include pictures of the subjects and of their families. Also included in the collection are family group sheets for many of the subjects providing vital records for the families. While the majority of the women included are directly related to James Leithead the collection does not make every relationship clear other than those of his wives and children. Lulu Smith Cox is one of the women included in the collection. Her papers include an autobiography written November 18, 1953 consisting of 19 typed pages of text, a one page typed article of Lulu's memories of her grandparent's (Thomas Goldman Smith and Ann Cross Leithead) home, and a four page continuation of her autobiography written July 15, 1975. Lulu shares memories of her home and childhood. She remembered when she was eighteen her father bought the fourth car in Cedar City and she learned to drive by sitting in the car with her brother and having him tell her what to do. Lulu worked in the Old Sheep Store as a clerk to earn money. Lulu recalls going through the St. George Temple with her husband's blind grandmother, Julia Snow Jones, and that Julia went through as though she could see perfectly. Lulu shares the struggle her husband had with alcoholism and the promise that she and her son William received in their patriarchal blessings that through their faith Dee would lose the desire to drink. One night years later Dee was walking home and was overcome with the most amazing feeling and he never had the desire to drink again. Lulu also outlines briefly all that happened to the extended members of her family and her children in their later years. She concludes by sharing her testimony of the gospel and recounting a history of her church service.
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1832-1967