A Little Life History on Randy: 1st Segment..Updated



Randy and his Mother

 Randall DeWayne Minor was born on March 13, 1942 in Brownsville PA.  It was a Friday the 13th. He was a preemie and weighed around 3 pounds. His parents were John Minor and Trenna Catherine Baer. Before he was born, his mother divorced her husband John and married William Meighen.  William got sent to world war II to fight. Trenna moved back with her first husband John Minor. It was there in Brownsville PA that she gave birth to Randy. John Minor was supposedly the father although they were divorced and William was in Europe.

When William came home in 1944, Trenna went back to him taking Randy with her. They then lived in Ohio. Randy was baptised with the name of Randall DeWayne David Michael Meighen in the Catholic church. They later moved to Waynesburg PA. when John Minor found out that William was claiming Randy and had baptized him with the last name of Meighen, he was livid. He went to court and had Randy's last name changed to his (Minor) and was told that he was to have visiting rights and that Randy was not to be be taken out of the state of PA. He wanted custody of Randy but the court said even if the child did not belong to William Meighen, that Randy should stay with his mother.

Randy in one of his Elementary Schools

So his mother and William took Randy and his little sister Terri, who had been born in 1945 to California to get away from John Minor. And Randy's grandmother worked in the mountains of San Bernardino as a cook for the people who lodged there. Later, Minor found out they had taken Randy out of state and they had to come back to PA and obey the court rules. So from time to time Randy went to stay with his real father but mostly with his paternal grandparents. They lived in Brownsville PA.

His Grandfather Minor (RD) was a railroad man and Randy loved sitting in the big locomotives and watching everything his grandfather did. He wanted so much to work on the railroad as well when he got older. His grandparents treated him well.  His father had remarried and Randy had two half siblings. Johnny and MaryLee.

Randy, Terri and William Meighen (his stepfather)



Grandma Baer

 Back at the Meighen home in Waynesburg, Randy served as an alter boy for the Catholic church. His stepfather was staunch Irish Catholic. His maternal grandmother, Edith Baer lived with them. He and his sister Terri used to love to chase each other around, Randy with a samurai sword and she with a baton. They were only allowed to eat in the living room on Sunday evenings when Disney hour was on.

St Anne Catholic Church in Waynesburgh Where Randy was and Alter Boy

His parents spent a lot of time at the Knights of Columbus which is a Catholic club of some sort. His stepfather worked for the city of Waynesburg and his mother did as well. They lived in a 3 bedroom upstairs apartment. On March 13, 1955, on his 13th birthday on a Friday the 13th, Randy was riding his bike home for lunch from school. His mother was going to meet him and have lunch with him. As he was turning the bike on the hill, he was hit hard by a Buick Roadmaster. They took him to the hospital and found no broken bones but yet Randy could not walk for several days. Back then, all they had was x-ray machines, no MRI's CT scans or anything and so something was not showing because of the rest of his life, his back and neck gave him so much trouble that he the rest of his life in chronic pain.

It hurt so much for him to do anything that some people just thought he was lazy, but the chronic pain was what caused him try to avoid too much physical activity.  Because his stepfather wanted him to be a football player and he could not because of his injuries, his stepfather did not want him in regular high school and not play football so he enrolled him in a Catholic school in Washington PA.  It was quite a distance to the school and he had to get ride there everyday. One day at school, he had a bad stomach ache and nobody believed him as he tells it. I guess his were parents called and he was told just live with it. Anyway, because it was so bad, Randy walked all the way to the hospital in which I do not know and told them about his terrible pain. They immediately took him in for surgery. He had an appendix that was about to burst. Everybody apologized for not believing him. I guess he complained too much about pain and everyone got tired of hearing about it so sometimes they they he just trying to get attention or something.

The name of his school was the Immaculate Conception. He liked it most of the time but the nuns could be quite mean. And Randy could be a little rowdy. But he had bought a Packard (I think) and nuns loved it  because it was a big car and Randy could take them to musicals movies, operas and the theater.  Randy was a trained scuba diver and also was a trained lifeguard.

Since his paternal grandfather did not want him to work on the railroad, he gave Randy money for college. Randy did not want to go to college so he signed up for the air force. His stepfather had been in the air force in WWII. He was sent to Spain. He was an air force police. One night while on duty he stepped on a rock and fell down and was injured. After the air force had him checked out, they determined that the injuries he suffered in the fall were not that bad but that he had previous injuries from long ago that made him illegible to be in the service; he had had passed the physical and told them of his previous injuries before but they didn't seem to worry about it at that time. So he got an honorable discharge and felt like a failure.

He got a job as a lifeguard at an girl's school where he met Becky Woods. He took her to his senior prom and they later married and had two children, Jessica and Damon. He had a hard time finding work and they had to live with Becky's parents for a while. She was an only child and her parents were none too fond of Randy as he had made her marry in the Catholic church and she was Presbyterian. Also, his inability to find work had made them upset. Finally he found work in Maryland on some government project and Becky did as well. So they moved to Maryland and Randy's grandma tended the kids while they worked. Something happened with Becky; supposedly she and another employee had an affair, though never proven and she was fired from work. She took the kids home to her mothers while Randy continued to work. She wanted him to come home with her but he said somebody had to earn a living and he did not know when he would come home. One day, he did go home and was greeted at the door by his father-in-law who told to pack up his things and get lost that he was not welcome. He said Randy had deserted Becky and her family.

So they got a divorce and Randy's stepfather and the priest told him he was now excommunicated from the Catholic church because of his divorce.  At this Randy became so discouraged that he turned against the church. He got training in Washington DC working on the computers. He met his second wife there. Her name was Barbara. They married. She suffered a couple of miscarriages. One night on New Year's Eve as they were going WV to her parents home, there was a terrible storm in DC and Randy wrecked the car, broke his neck and injured his back further. He had to have surgery and in a body cast for 6 months. Even after that, the surgery failed he had many back operations after that.

There were a lot of riots going on back then in DC. Guns shots and fighting in the streets. Barbara was very weak mentally and had a nervous breakdown. Randy was on disability for a time and Barbara still worked a good job for the government. Because of Barbara's nervous breakdown, they left DC and moved in the Barbara's folks in Wheeling WV.  After his disability, Randy drove a milk truck for a while. Barbara's brother lived in AZ and talked Randy and Barbara to move out there and that Randy could drive for Carnation. So they did. Barbara got a job there as well. She got pregnant again and this time it looked like the pregnancy would would go full term. Randy got truck driving fever and made one the biggest mistakes he ever would make. He talked it over with Barbara and talked her into staying in AZ and working and his getting his own trucking company started back in WV. He said she agreed and he left her there because they needed the money that she earned working. But leaving a mentally unstable pregnant woman on her own proved to be a disaster.  She returned to WV, gave birth to their son Christopher Lee and she had post patrum depression and hate for Randy for leaving her. She did not tend to the baby.   Her mother took care of the baby and Randy drove truck. Had been home more, he might have worked things out with Barbara but since he was gone so much and Barbara also thought he was having affairs. So he was turned away again. Whether Barbara got over her depression and started to take care of the baby, I never found out but he lost the child and he and Barbara divorced. He always gotten along with her folks but now they hated him.

Death is part of our Family History

As I write in here today, history has changed in this family yet again. My special best friend and husband Randy has died. There has been so many deaths in our family. My dad's mother, My Grandmother Kate Johnson died in Jan 1950 at 60 years of age of heart problems. I don't remember her only that she had white hair in a bun. I was sick at my Grandma Sander's home during her death and funeral.


The first real death that I recall was Great Grandpa Brady in 1952. I was only 8 so it didn't affect me too much. It was the custom to put the bodies in the family home until time for them to go to the church. I just remember his lying there in the open casket and all kinds of people coming in and out of my Grandma Sanders house. He was staying with her when he died. He had a good long life. I think he was 89. But he spent most of it in his wheel chair because of a bad hip injury years earlier. He had a very large family and his wife preceded him in death. His children took turns taking care of him.

My excitement at that time was all the goodies and cakes and things that people brought for us to eat. It was the same with my grandpa Sanders. He died when I was 12 and he moved around jobs so much I hardly knew him. He was a quiet man. He died at only 56 on March 11, 1956. He had bad lungs.

The first death that effected me and it really did, was my cousin Bessie in 1961. She was only 16 and my favorite cousin. She had scoliosis and they were trying to straighten her back by putting her in a body cast after surgery for 12 months. After the year was over they removed the cast and she was excited to see if she could walk straight but they had not given her enough blood thinners or something and a clot formed. It rose to her brain killing her instantly. Her viewing, unlike the grandfather's was in a mortuary. She looked like an angel from heaven. I was affected by her death for many years and still it sometimes haunts me.

In 1972 my Dad's father passed away at 83. I did not know him well. We did not visit my father's parents much. They were a little odd and farmerish. I remember him having  beautiful white hair, blue eyes and a toothpick in his mouth and wearing chambray shirts. He was old and had some kind of stomach cancer when he died. He had converted to Jehovah Witness and had remarried. I remember that funeral but with little emotion.

There have been other deaths. My husband's father in 1976 at 72 from heart failure, his younger brother from an accident at work in 1978 at age 24. Then his mother in 1991 at age 80 from diabetes and Alzheimer's.  Then in 1996, Alex favorite brother died from colon cancer. He was the life of the party and I loved him as my own brother. He was only 46 and died May 1996.

Then my beloved grandmother who was so very special to me passed on January 24, 1993.  She was near 92. I miss her very much to this day. She was always so kind to me but a little preachy about religion.

My mother had been ill for years and years but nothing fatal. Finally in Feb of 2003, she got an intestinal blockage which caused aspiration pneumonia. The pneumonia would not clear up and they had to put a breathing tube down her. They removed the breathing tube from her throat after about 5 days and she passed on Feb 19, 2003. She had been in so much pain I am sure it was a blessing for her but a big loss for us and I suffered a very bad break down in which I could not stop crying for weeks and was under the care of a DR. I myself had suffered many physical problems prior to my mother's death. My mother was a wonderful person always making cute dresses for my girls and teaching me how to can and be a good mother and housewife. I was finally recovering when my father was found dead in his chair on a Sunday afternoon when he was supposed to have come to our home for dinner. My son went to check on him and he seemed so peaceful just lying in his chair as if asleep with his dog near by. He probably died of a heart problem coupled with his bad kidney failure but I really think he died because he was my mother's caretaker and did not know what to do now that his job was over. He was deaf and it was hard to make new friends. I miss him. He did so much for us and was such a loving father. He was 83 and he died on Sept 13, 2003.

I was working then and fighting depression and problems with one of my siblings over my parents estate. It was all I could do to keep it together and it was by pure will and a greater power that let me go on. But then as if nothing else could get worse, my own husband Alex, was found dead on the floor face down on  Friday, April 9, (Good Friday, not good for me) 2004. His sleep apnea and heart killed him. For months I went to counseling, people at work treated me strange. I was still working on my parents estate and Alex's things and I was sleepwalking through life. I finally went to part time during my work. I tried to make life more enjoyable by going places with my girls. I went on couple of cruises and vacations. I was managing OK. I went on a trip with Tammy and her family and it was fun.

I got fast Internet and met Randy Minor online. I needed attention I guess and was spent hours online chatting and hours on the phone. We fell in love that way. I had extra airline miles so I visited him in AZ and was it was then we really fell in love. He decided to move here with me and I drove myself all the way to Mesa AZ and I have never been more confidant in my life. We had 5 wonderful years together. Our favorite being camping and road trips traveling to visit my kids whom he loved with all his heart. In March we finally got a motor home, Randy wanted one of these forever and he was crying he was so grateful. But in April 2012 he was not well and the diagnosis turned out to be MDS a type of leukemia. He got treatment early but it did not work and he quickly spiraled downward and on Sept 17, 2012 he died. He suffered many days in pain, fear and confusion and lost his mind several days at a time especially at the end. He was really not himself for at least 4 months. He kept falling out of bed and finally when brought home from the nursing home where he stayed a few days, he was peacefully in his own bed here at home where he died peacefully the next day. Everyone told him goodbye but he could not talk but I am sure he heard. His wish was to be cremated and sent to the mountains with his dog Duchess. His wish has been fulfilled. We also gave him a wonderful memorial and wake. I hope his real family (other than Terri) knows that somebody did care. Whatever he did to make him hurt them so I am truly sorry.  And I hope nobody judges them like they have judged him. His sister Terri has been his and my angel through this whole process and as for the others, I have no hard feelings for you; I don't know how he treated you and can't judge you, but know that he had changed and he had thought of you often and always hoped someday you might at least drop him a line or call.

The Good Old Days

I remember growing up things were so much different. We walked almost everywhere. I had to walk to primary which was quite a distance. In the summer we played outside most days and nobody worried about us. I liked to catch toads and grasshoppers and watch ants. We always had cats and dogs and we never took them to the vet. If they got sick, they died. We never bought pet food. They had to live off table scraps. In the summer the cats would catch grasshoppers to eat. One cat we had like to climb the corn cobs growing in the garden and strip them down and eat them. We had a large garden and we canned many things even tomato soup. We even canned root beer.  One summer we slept in the garage as my aunt Beverly was going to summer school at BYU and our room was given to her.

My brother Chris was quite the character. Once he and his friend found an old tricycle and took the front tire off.  Then they tied the back wheels to a horse and wanted to pretend they were gladiators riding chariots. Of course they fell of the trike in minutes but the horse ran off with the chariot still attached and nobody really said what happened after that. My brother also used to go camping all by himself down at the swamp and use our poor dog as a pack mule tying all his gear to the dog. Then he would set up his tent and build a fire and stay overnight at the swamp.

My mother always had health problems and spent a good deal of time lying down. In the hot of summer, we never had air conditioning. All we had was a fan. One summer when it was so hot, my mother spent most days in bed by the window with a fan blowing in her face. She still managed to back 8 loaves of bread a week and do her canning.

I liked to go to the little Wilkins grocery store. One time my mom gave me a dime died in a handkerchief and I lost it on the way to the store. Dad was always busy. He worked so hard and did not believe in anyone doing anything if he thought he could do it himself. He was very tight with money and we lived on a strict budget. My mother bought some candy once and it was not in the budget so she was given a real tongue lashing.

The church was my mother's life. I sprained my ankle once after school and did not go to Primary after school and my mother was more concerned about my not going to Primary than my sprained ankle. I used to think everyone was Mormons. I got culture shock when we went to Wyoming and I saw a woman smoking. I also got culture shock when up in Salt Lake I saw my first black person. A old black lady cleaning the restroom at the zoo. I used to be scared of them.

I always watched people and I could tell if they wore garments or not. If they were married and did not, I thought they must be bad. The church really influences people especially back then.

In the summer we slept outside a lot and nobody worried about that. But one time there was a prowler we were told and that was the night we slept out. I guess he was just hungry as he stole a frozen chicken from our neighbor's freezer in their garage.

Until I was 11 years old, I had to sleep with my brother. Our house in Lakeview was so small. Two bedrooms, a very small kitchen which had to house the washer, a very small bathroom. It did have an attached garage. I could never could figure out why on one acre of ground, they had to build the house so small. It did not have a basement and my dad built a root cellar to put our canned goods in. These are just some of the things in those days but we enjoyed them immensely.

Clear Creek

When we were camped up on Diamond Fork, We took a ride to Clear Creek Utah. There is where my mother was born and where my grandparent's met. My grandfather was a coal miner and my Grandma worked for a Doctor.

These are some photoes of the area which was so quiet it was almost like the Twilight Zone. But the places had been taken care of and probably were summer homes. This place was truly beautiful.

Old Days and Changes

I can't help sometimes thinking about the the especially summers. I miss the sound of cruickets, the moon and stars, sleeping outside, gathering cat tails, sitting outside and counting the few cars that venture down out street.  Sometimes I hate progress. Our little town with its dirt roads, where did they go? In school we played jacks and jump rope and tether ball. We brought heavy metal skates with a key so we could skate. We played games like, Anty Ey Over, Butcher Boy, Colored Eggs and much more. Tag was another.

Sometimes I with I was born in the 30's.  When I read about all fun things my mom did with her cousins in her small neighborhood and even when she moved around so much seemed a lot more fun that today or even in my day. I liked the music more then too. Why do we always think other times were better?  I don't know but right now the way this place has changed so much, I would really just like to move away from here and try someplace else!

Living in Lake View in the 50's

I need to get busy and update this blog more ofren. Right now I would like to talk about family when we lived in Lakeview. It seems like Dad could do anything. He went up into the mountains himself and cut down his own trees and built a barn. He even left the bark on it. We had a small farm. We had chickens, pigs rabbits, cows, pigs and doves. Dad worked long hard hours and came home and used a push mower for the lawn and a push cultivator for our garden and our garden was big!.

He worked two jobs and we were very poor. We had no furniture and ate a little doll table. Mom had to have sugery and they had to hire a babysitter a lot. They had no medicl insurance. They were desperately poor. Dad had hoped to get his GI bill and go to school but with the bills piling up and mom being so sick, it just did not happen. He worked at the pipe plant, at Geneva Steel and at Ralph's radio in Provo where he learn electronics. Dad could fix just about anything. Later he began work at the Orem Post Office and he finally found his niche in life.

Mom and I used to put chickens in boiling water to get the feathers off. My dad had already killed them. The feathers smelled so bad it made me want to puke. We had to dig the guts out of the chickens and many time found eggs. My mother made her own lye soap. She rendered pig lard in the oven and boy did it stink. After the lard was rendered, she made the soap with the lard and lye. My grandma swore that the only way to wash clothes.  These are just a few things I remember when we were living in Lake View. I am going to go through Mom and Dad's letters again and get some more info and some more family history on both sides.

My life Continued

I am going to skip a little of my dark side and my health problems now and talk about some of the neat things I did as a child. I know this will be much different than what kids do now and they would probably think it is dumb but in looking back, I consider it some of the funnest times we had.

My cousin and I liked to play up in the attic. My grandma kept his bench saw up there and it was fun to play with the shavings. it could also be scary up there as there were wasps and big flies up there and it was very hot in the summer and you had to be relly care of where you stepped otherwise you would go through the attic floor as on the side it was very weak.  We used to find all kinds of old paper dolls up there and old valentines. And even some stuff up there that my Grandpa hid that my grandma did not want him to have.

There was a large ditch in front of my granadma's house. We like to wade in it. It tall poplar trees all around it. One time my cousin threw my nicets doll into the ditch. For what reason I will never know other than being jealouse. We liked to walk down to the Sanpitch River and wade and once saw a horse skull and stepped on some glass. He to run bacl to grandmaaa's and she put pepper on the blood that was coming out and slow the blood and quadulate it. That how she did it back then.

We like to sleep on her large front porch at night and listen to the moquitoes and look at the neon light up the road with Phillips 66 sign all aglow. Those happy sunny days of long ago, how did they pass so quickly?

My Personal History Part One

I was born of a rich pioneer heritage. My mother’s grandfather Jordan Henry Brady and his wife Levee Sanderson were born Nauvoo, Hancock County Illinois. Originally from Kentucky, Mormon missionaries visited and they were converted. They later crossed the plains with the saints. They settled in Fairview (a small town in Sanpete county) A town which they was settled by them and few other Mormon families. My Grandma’s grandmother was the second wife of a polygamous (Henry Weeks Sanderson.) Her name was Sarah Jane Cole. Between her and his other wife, there were 31 children.

On my fathers, side it was an entirely different story. He grandfather was from Sweden and his grandmother was born in Denmark. They met each other on the ship to America. Neither spoke each other’s language but somehow they must have spoken because they married. His grandma had been married before and was a widow with a child.

They had come over because the Mormon missionaries had given them the gospel. The missionaries told them about the land in Fountain Green UT and that is where they settled. They joined the church but were never that active.

My grandmother on my mother’s side was Christa Vale Brady. My grandfather on that side was Goveita Sanders. From that union came three children, Duane, Fawn and Beverly Ann. My grandfather was orphaned at an early age and he was raised by his aunt Lydia Halberg. From that union, my mother, Fawn was born.

On my Dad’s side, my grandmother was Katie Larsen. She came straight from Denmark with her family. Her family came because the missionaries told them that it was beautiful in UT. They had not converted yet. After arriving they had bad luck in that their young son died of appendicitis right after their arrival. They hated the sage brush and the landscape of Sanpete County. Denmark had been so lovely and green. They left for Portland Oregon feeling cheated by the missionaries about who wonderful it was in Sanpete County. Only my grandmother, Katie Larsen remained and she had a job working for my grandfather’s father (Alfred SR born in Fountain Green) in their household. They had many duties as they owned sheep farms. My grandfather was Alfred JR and he and Katie got married. They lived on a sheep ranch far out in MT Pleasant UT. My father Kenneth Johnson was a son of that union. From this point on, I am not going to talk about my extended family history, only some of my memories with them as I grew up. I just wanted everyone to know roots of it all.
I came about on a cold January day the 11th day of the month in 1944. Weighing in a 7 lbs and 8 oz. After a long and brutal labor, I arrived. My mother was ill right after my birth. She lost her milk and I was allergic to the replacement milk. My father was serving WWII and my mother living with Grandma Sanders. From this one event, (my allergy to formula.) I myself believe caused both the history of myself, my motherland father to change radically.

In all the photos I see of myself as a baby and young child, I look so very happy. In spite of my health issues, I was always happy and full of life. I was very thin because of my allergic issues but I never knew I was any different than anybody else. I was blonde and blue-eyed and very curious. My parents moved into a new small home in Orem when it was decided that my father didn’t want to be a sheep farmer any longer. He planned on going to school full-time on the GI bill and get his diploma. He had not been able to finish school because his father wanted him on the sheep ranch and so no need for him to go to school after grade 8. But ever since my birth and mother’s infection, she had not been well. She had several operations and had to go to SLC to have them done. My dad had to scale his schooling to part time and get a part time job. They wanted to have my Grandma Sanders come take care of me and my mom but there was an emergency in Fairview and Beverly was still a child and so she had to go back to Fairview. My father had to hire outside babysitters to live in. The DR told my mom if she wanted another child, she better get one as she had too many cysts and soon it would not be possible to become pregnant. She had my brother Chris. And then she had a hysterectomy at 25 .

My mother spent most of her time on the bed, even after her hysterectomy she was still very ill. My baby brother slept most of the time and I ran the streets of the sub division. I got in fights with kids and knew how to stick up for myself. My mother told me to fight my own battles when I told her about the mean kids on the street. So it was all up to me. My dad was not home very much because he was working two part time jobs. He got his diploma and wanted to go farther in school but they were very poor with no health insurance. So he worked on a job at Ralph’s Radio in Provo learning how to fix electric appliances and electronics. He also worked part time at a gas station.

I was a very smart vivacious little girl. When I was two years old, I recited a long poem at a family reunion and sang Jolly Old ST Nicolas with all the verses at a Christmas party. I was not at all shy back then. Many people told my mother that if she ever wanted to let me go, they surely wanted to take me home. I did suffer a lot from throat infections and colds, probably because I was so run down.

The problems that would haunt me for many years to come define most of my life started when I started school. In the neighborhood, I had been able to defend myself well and was very outgoing. I guess the kids in the neighborhood knew me and didn’t make fun of me. However in school, the minute I sat at my desk, the kids all pointed at me and said “skinny, skinny. Skinny.” And then they would grab my arm and compare it to theirs and tell me I was just way too skinny. Nobody wanted to play with me. One girl was very nice to me but she never became a real friend. I did not even know what the word “skinny was until then. I thought it meant I had too much hair on my arms. My parents had to take me out of school and they took me to the DR who told them it was their fault because I was skinny. They were told that any kid would eat on their own before they got that skinny. The wanted me to go to Primary Children’s Hospital in SLC. In the meantime, my dad made me eat and I had to force it down and it took me hours to eat a small plate of food. I did gain weight however and my stomach stretched so I could eat a little more without being sick. I never went to Primary Children’s Hospital as I had improved so much in one month. I know whoever reads this will think my being skinny is very strange as today I am far from being thin.

I will write more on history in the days to come if I don’t die before I get it completed. There is a very dark side of me and feel like I need write it down. That will come sometime down the road. I do need to explain what school bullies can do to ruin a life and the saying “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me,) is not true at all even though my mother told me that every time I came to her over being bullied.