LaGrande Gudmundsen

LaGrande Gudmundsen was born in 1903, in Lehi, Utah. I find a thoroughly enjoyable account of his life that he wrote prior to his death 1975; this account was given to his son Stewart L. Gudmundsen. I found it in FamilySearch.org.

LaGrande recounts moving to Payson when his father was employed at the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company there. Before this his father had a jewelry store and a bicycle shop and everyone had a bicycle. As he learned to ride the bike he tells of being able to only go straight, with a resulting accident of colliding with a teamster and wagon so that the wheel of the wagon rolled over his foot, breaking it. Fortunately, he tells us, the bicycle was uninjured.

At Petetneet School in Payson during his fifth through eighth grades he struggled with being “tongue tied” and shares some of the ramifications of that. He went to Los Angeles Polytechnic High School in California when the family moved there in 1918, after their first season of operating the Saratoga Springs resort on Utah Lake. They remained in Los Angeles over the winter.

The men, Abraham, Stan, Austin and LaGrande drove to California in a Model T Roadster (mother and sisters had gone done by train), the trip taking eight days. Without bridges the automobiles had to be ferried across rivers. Dragged across by horses, LaGrande wrote. When returning the following April, a snow, as Utah is known to have in late spring, dumped 17 inches on them. Without snowplows the family had to wait out the storm in Beaver, Utah. When they got on the road again they only made one mile an hour!

LaGrande became a competitive swimmer while the family ran the Saratoga Springs, working as life guards, laundry workers, yard and grounds keepers LaGrande says he went from a 65 pounds (aged 15) to 130 pounds. All the children were in good health for the activity there.

After leaving the resort the family moved to American Fork. At American Fork High School LaGrande was class president both his junior and senior years. While working candling eggs after high school he decided he wanted to follow his father and grandfather in jewelry and watch making. It was after developing this skill for a while that LaGrande met Genevieve Stewart at MIA functions. They were engaged for two years before being married in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple by LeGrand Richards. LaGrande continued to work in the poultry and creamery business for another year at which time he decided he was ready to get on with his own business. Setting up a small shop in Payson LaGrande was in that business for close to 50 years. An outdoorsman by nature, LaGrande volunteered time to the Scout programs for many years.

LaGrande and Genevieve had three children. Their first daughter, Betty Jean, died of diphtheria at age four. Their other children were Gloria and Stewart. LaGrande and Genevieve are at rest in the American Fork Cemetery.