Item Detail
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Stark, Anna Elizabeth
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1897-1989
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MSS SC 2296
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Interview
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Anna Elizabeth Stark was born on 30 November 1897 in Mammoth, Utah to Moroni Pederson Stark and Sarah Christinia Hanson. She was the oldest of five children, the rest of them being Henry Moroni Stark, Grant Soren Stark, Mark Hanson Stark, and Eleanor Sophia Stark. She never married, but spent 45 years of her life devoted to education in Utah and some areas of the northern-bordering states.
As a child, she lived in humble circumstances, with her father working for the railroad or the mines in Mammoth, Utah, or running a farm in Leland, Utah, when he wasnt serving a mission in Michigan. She also spent some time living in Spanish Fork, but much of her formative years were in Leland.
In school, she excelled at reading. Because of this, Anna was promoted a couple of grades ahead of her peers. The downside of this was that she struggled to keep up with math, and often felt disconnected from her classmates, who were all older than her. As she grew into womanhood, she went on at the behest of her parents to pursue first an elementary teaching certificate, then a bachelors degree in teaching, administration, and supervision, and had a long and fulfilling career teaching and supervising students of all ages, from young children, to young adults aiming to become teachers themselves. Through all this, she never stopped educating herself, too, frequently attending summer schools and workshops, lectures and classes that interested and enlightened her.
Anna Stark died on 20 December 1989 in Leland, Utah, at the age of 92. -
This 28-page, typed and bound manuscript is an interview held by Helen Candland Stark, sister-in-law to Anna Stark, on 11 January 1982. It contains a rich history of Annas life and experiences as a daughter, a student, a teacher, and a supervisor. She begins with a pedigree, naming her paternal and maternal grandparents, then moving to her own parents, giving a bit of background on these ancestors as she goes. She even explains the commonly-believed history within the family of the reason behind the addition of the name Stark to the name the family brought with them from Denmark, Pederson.
Anna goes on to describe some early childhood memories, including a doll she got from one of her uncles, and the day her mother found out that her grandmother was dying. She spends a good while describing the house her father had built once the family had grown too big for their three-room cabin in Leland, and how a painter, possibly by the name of Whitt, came through town and painted beautifully before moving on to others houses in town, as well as the church building. She describes what daily life was like as a child there, including how her family bathed and what kinds of games she would play with her friends, such as Marjorie Peterson and Lillian Larson.
When Anna began her educational career, she started in a small, one-room school house, which contained multiple grades at once. She describes a bad experience she had once, soon after moving to Leland from Spanish Fork, where she volunteered to sing in a Christmas program and was ridiculed for her singing. She isnt sure if the ridicule was because of her singing itself or because of her Danish accent, inherited from her parents. She describes some of her teachers, and their teaching styles, as well as how she was promoted twice for her good reading skills. Her whole life, shes regretted those promotions, because of how they ended up alienating her from the rest of her older classmates. This experience greatly influenced her approach to deciding whether a child should be advanced a grade based on their learning ability.
Anna recounts a memory of a train accident she was involved in when she moved on to a bigger school, farther away, which necessitated the busing of children by wagon there and back. The town had just recently gotten telephones, and the driver was as distracted by the conversation as everyone else, and almost moved into the path of an oncoming train. The engineer sped up to try and miss them, and ended up killing one of the horses, but otherwise, not a soul was hurt. Her brother, Henry, was with her when this happened.
Anna then talks about her experiences helping around the house and on the farm. Their main crop was a cash crop of sugar beets, which she would sometimes help block and thin, and occasionally help harvest as well.
She also relays a memory of their former bishop, John Koyle, who had a dream about a gold mine in Salem and was trying to coerce friends into helping to finance his project. It turned out there was never any gold in the mine, and Koyle was later excommunicated from the church.
Anna describes her childhood self as not very social. Academically, she excelled, but thanks in part to her being moved up a couple grades, she had a harder time making friends. But she still graduated just fine, and after a year at home while her father was on a mission to Denmark, she talks about her BYU experience.
For the first while, she lived with her Aunt Augusta and her Uncle Jim Finch in Spanish Fork, and she would take the Orem Electric from there to Provo in the morning. She received her elementary teaching certificate and spent seven years teaching in the Nebo School District before returning to BYU to get a degree in administration and supervision.
All throughout and after her schooling she would attend summer school programs, evening lectures, and more, to continue learning. Some of these experiences for instance her visit to a Quaker school called Pendle Hill in Delaware even led her to get out of Utah and explore other places.
Her career led her to work for 10 years at Weber State, but once legislation made it so that Weber was only a Junior College, she moved on to the Duchesne School District, where spent another 13 years before moving her supervision work to Beaver and then Rich County.
Anna talks about how leaving behind her 45-year-long career in the school systems was sad, but she was able to do some things shed never been able to with her job. She mentions when her parents died, as well as the things she did in church, and in the clubs and associations she participated in.
She closes with a wish that all children get a good educational beginning; one that helps them grasp the fundamentals and build on what they first learn.