1156. My husband, Wayne D Eckman, and his identical twin Blaine D Eckman, were born on September 18th, 1930 in Murray, Utah, 89 years ago! Great men!
My husband, Wayne D Eckman, and his identical twin Blaine D Eckman, were born on September 18th, 1930 in Murray, Utah. I want to tell things about him, and his brother Blaine -- some of which have been in previous blogs.
There is so much more about both of the twins in different blogs. Please look under the "labels" tab, for their names, and names of other ancestors to find them. They were both wonderful, good men, and raised great families!
The photos above, Blaine on the left and Wayne on the right, were in the 1949 "Granitian" -- the school year book of Granite High School in Salt Lake City, from which they graduated. Granite High School doesn't exist now.
Wayne and I, Pal, wrote a book of our life stories up to our Golden Wedding in 2005. This is what Wayne wrote about his early school days.
SCHOOL LIFE AT LIBERTY SCHOOL (1936-38)
At age 6 we went to the first grade. There was no such thing as kindergarten back in those days. Chrystel Mathis was the first grade teacher, and pretty much a fixture there. All of my older brothers and sisters, Floyd, May, June, and Ruby, had gone through her classes. Blaine and I were a real challenge to this grand old lady.
I well remember the day when a knock came to our door, and there standing in the frame was Miss Mathis. Blaine and I were hiding behind the door, when she sobbingly asked Mom to take us out of school for a year, so that we could mature a little more – we were driving her out of her mind. “I got one of them controlled, and the other is on top of the piano, entertaining the rest of the class.” So we officially began school at age 7. Thus we were always the oldest kids in class, yet the smallest, due to size.
We seemed to settle down that first school year and didn’t have Miss Mathis paying further visits. We have been labeled from time to time as “double trouble,” but that is a prerogative twins have. Wouldn’t it have been dull without the Eckman twins around? I’m sure varied answers would have surfaced on that one, depending who you’re talking to.
Somehow, with 25 in that first grade classroom, we both got a good background in reading. We have both experienced a vocabulary ability and reading skills with great carry-over value to our adult years.
This picture above is my favorite photo of Wayne, taken on his mission in 1950.
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Wayne on left, What a hairdo? Blaine on right.
Priest's Quorum. First row from r to left, Blaine, Wayne, Richard and Rodney Hasler. Two sets of
identical twins in one ward! Richard married Pal's friend, and they introduced Pal and Wayne on a blind date when they got home from their missions -- in August of 1953. Blaine was married in 1953 after their missions, and Pal and Wayne were not married until they got home from the Army in Sept. 1955.
Wayne, Tom Taylor, and Blaine -- Ronald must have been taking the picture. Those four went on a road trip to Idaho after Blaine and Wayne graduated from high school. This is a cartoon photo -- for fun!
Another picture taken on that same trip to Idaho. That trip was a highlight to boys who hadn't had much chance to travel before their missions to Sweden, 1950-1953.
Same trip to Idaho ! They must have really had fun.
Elder Wayne D Eckman, 1950, missionary to Sweden picture.
This was a "Christmas Card" the twins sent home while on their mission in Sweden, 20 years old.
Wayne and Blaine worked one day together on their missions, and a family they met that day later joined the Church. A funny thing happened that day -- They knocked on a door, and the lady that answered had a bit too much to drink. Then the next day Wayne went back to his area, and Blaine saw the woman -- this time sober. She said, "I just need to ask you one thing -- yesterday were there one of you or two of you?"
Army photo, Wayne left, and Blaine right.
Wayne, army photo, 1955, sent to Pal while writing to her.
Wayne, left, and Blaine in "civies", (civilian clothes) while in the army, when they were attending an LDS servicemen's retreat conference in Berchesgaden, Germany, in 1954.
The two of them acting out when they both graduated from Utah State University, then called the Utah Agricultural College, in June of 1959, with their Bachelor's Degrees. Both became elementary teachers.
Brothers and best friends, Blaine left, Wayne right, about 1970s.
An article that was printed in the Spectrum, St. George hometown newspaper about the twins, about 1992. Wayne and Pal had lived in St. George about 10 years, and then Blaine and Joyce moved here. Someone got mixed up when they saw one, and then the other one a few minutes later in another part of town!
Blaine, left, Arlen Craghead, best friends from high school years, and Wayne, sitting on the love seat in our condo at Shadowbrook in St. George, about 1997. This may have been the last picture they had taken together, as Blaine passed away suddenly on March 19, 1999, from what was diagnosed as an abdominal aneurysm.
Wayne, on a July 4th holiday at our son Allen's in Menan, Idaho.
In 1953, Wayne and Blaine returned home from their 2 and a half year missions to Sweden, and were awaiting draft papers to be in the army, during the Korean War period. In August, the next month, is when Wayne and I were introduced by mutual friends, on a blind date. My best friend from Dixie High School had married one of his best friends in Murray, Utah. They picked me up from an old Church in Salt Lake City, I forget which one, where we were attending a family reunion. We just rode around and they 2 men mostly talked about memories of their high school days, and Wayne's mission. Wayne said he would write to me, and I told him to write to: Pal Miles, St. George, Utah, and it would get to me! It would in those days.
Then Wayne went in the Army in September, 1953, and didn't write to me until the next May! He and his twin brother Blaine had their training, etc., and were sent to Trieste, near Italy, instead of Korea. We wrote letters for 14 months, until he again came home on July 4th, 1955 from the army! So July 4th has always been a special holiday for us, for personal reasons, including our country's freedom. I had graduated with an Associate Degree in Dixie College, and had one year at BYU while he was gone, and I was working for the summer at the Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City when he came home. He came in his army uniform on July 4th to meet me -- the day he got home!
I had signed up with the BYU students to go and be in group scenes in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and was leaving on July 28th, to be gone until August 22nd. We saw each other every day but 2 days in those 3 weeks, and the night before I was to leave the next morning, July 27th, he proposed to me, and I was wearing my diamond ring on my way to the Pageant!
Both of our families have been close over the years, "twin cousins"!
There is so much more about both of the twins in different blogs. Please look under the "labels" tab, for their names, and names of other ancestors to find them. They were both wonderful, good men, and raised great families!
The photos above, Blaine on the left and Wayne on the right, were in the 1949 "Granitian" -- the school year book of Granite High School in Salt Lake City, from which they graduated. Granite High School doesn't exist now.
Wayne and I, Pal, wrote a book of our life stories up to our Golden Wedding in 2005. This is what Wayne wrote about his early school days.
SCHOOL LIFE AT LIBERTY SCHOOL (1936-38)
At age 6 we went to the first grade. There was no such thing as kindergarten back in those days. Chrystel Mathis was the first grade teacher, and pretty much a fixture there. All of my older brothers and sisters, Floyd, May, June, and Ruby, had gone through her classes. Blaine and I were a real challenge to this grand old lady.
I well remember the day when a knock came to our door, and there standing in the frame was Miss Mathis. Blaine and I were hiding behind the door, when she sobbingly asked Mom to take us out of school for a year, so that we could mature a little more – we were driving her out of her mind. “I got one of them controlled, and the other is on top of the piano, entertaining the rest of the class.” So we officially began school at age 7. Thus we were always the oldest kids in class, yet the smallest, due to size.
We seemed to settle down that first school year and didn’t have Miss Mathis paying further visits. We have been labeled from time to time as “double trouble,” but that is a prerogative twins have. Wouldn’t it have been dull without the Eckman twins around? I’m sure varied answers would have surfaced on that one, depending who you’re talking to.
Somehow, with 25 in that first grade classroom, we both got a good background in reading. We have both experienced a vocabulary ability and reading skills with great carry-over value to our adult years.
This picture above is my favorite photo of Wayne, taken on his mission in 1950.
These are pictures through the years of the identical twins, Blaine D and Wayne D Eckman. Blaine was about 15 minutes older than Wayne, and born at home. Read of them first in blog # 3. Then their father Roy Waldamer Eckman's story is in blog # 93. Their mother Gladys Dayton Eckman is told about in blogs #106 and #107. More of their lives will come in the future. This is a record of photos through the ages!
They were born on September 18, 1930, and Blaine passed away suddenly at age 68, on March 19, 1999, and Wayne passed away February 21, 2016. Joyce, Blaine's wife, is still living, in St. David, Arizona, near their daughter Janise Wooten. I, Pal -- Wayne's wife, am living in West Bountiful, Utah, with our oldest son, Wayne M. Eckman.
Some are copied from our book, and I will rewrite the captions, as they are hard to read. Above it says "The twins about the age of the Turkey incident, and Ronald about age 1. They had been to the barber! When they were 4 they let lot of neighbor's turkeys out of their pen, and they went all over the neighborhood, causing quite a bit of havoc!
Wayne and Blaine out stomping in the hills, about age 7.
From left to right, front row, Wayne, Ronald, Blaine, and Shirlene. Back row: Ruby and a neighbor. Ruby is still living, and their youngest sister Joyce Marie. They are the only ones left of the 9 children Roy and Gladys Eckman had.
Wayne and Blaine, about age 10.
Blaine, Aunt Jennie (Wallin, Roy's sister) Wayne, about age 15.
Blaine left, Grandma Gladys Eckman, and Wayne on right. About 1950, just before missions, I think.
Priest's Quorum. First row from r to left, Blaine, Wayne, Richard and Rodney Hasler. Two sets of
Blaine D Eckman, missionary picture to Sweden 1950.
Blaine D Eckman, army photo, about 1955.
Wayne, left, Blaine, right, sitting on our couch in the gold brick home, about 1988.
A photo Wayne send me when he was in the army writing to me.
Then Wayne went in the Army in September, 1953, and didn't write to me until the next May! He and his twin brother Blaine had their training, etc., and were sent to Trieste, near Italy, instead of Korea. We wrote letters for 14 months, until he again came home on July 4th, 1955 from the army! So July 4th has always been a special holiday for us, for personal reasons, including our country's freedom. I had graduated with an Associate Degree in Dixie College, and had one year at BYU while he was gone, and I was working for the summer at the Genealogical Society in Salt Lake City when he came home. He came in his army uniform on July 4th to meet me -- the day he got home!
I had signed up with the BYU students to go and be in group scenes in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, and was leaving on July 28th, to be gone until August 22nd. We saw each other every day but 2 days in those 3 weeks, and the night before I was to leave the next morning, July 27th, he proposed to me, and I was wearing my diamond ring on my way to the Pageant!
Both of our families have been close over the years, "twin cousins"!
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