Mary Angela "Angelita" Gavaldón Brown

Mother to Silvestre Gustavo, Pauly, Bertha, Aaron, Mary, Heber, and Martha 

The name Gabaldón (Gavaldón) is a difficult name to find in genealogical research.  There is a rumor among our family that around 1750 three Gabaldón brothers left Andalucia, Spain for the Americas.  It is told that one brother, Joseph, went to Venezuela, one brother, Tómas, went to Mexico, and one brother, Agustin, went to the Yucatan as a priest where he died from malaria. The grapevine seems to be uncertain whether the brothers' arrival was connected to the French invasion of Mexico around the 1860's.  There are many Gabaldón's in Albuquerque and the surrounding area who may be related through one of Joseph's sons, Mauriano, that search bore much fruit.  The Mexican Gabaldón is the one that has been most elusive.

The U.S. Hispanic Name Etymology Resource states that the root of the word Gabalda means "abundant pasture".  The family coat of arms is a rooster in a field of gold.  The word may have first been developed in southern France which is historically a Basque region. The origin of the name may be from the French region Gevaudan, in ancient times written Gavaudan or Gabaldan.  Cuenca, east of Madrid Spain, has a town named Gabaldón. That could mean that some Basques (or people who married into a Basque family) moved there from northern Spain, a short distance from the Basque region, or from France.

Searching further into the Gabaldón name history there seems to be a tie with a name that first came from Ireland ("Gabali") and arrived to a Basque region. This earlier etymology then establishes Gabaldón with more of an Irish- Basque origin. Also found as Gabalitanum in reference to the ancient Celtic tribe Gabali before or around the Roman conquest of Spain. Earlier Spain was inhabited by Celt's  (Celtic tribes extended along Ireland, France and Spain) and it is said that their language was very similar to the actual Basque. So it is probable that Gabaldón has also a Celtic origin.

Also the Spanish language has many ties to the Basque so it is not strange that the names were similar. During a later event it became Gabaldón, a Hispanicized version. It is found often along the Levantine and Mediterranean coast, eastern side of Spain and even in Catalonia where it has assumed the forms Gabaldó and Gavalda. There is another town named Gabaldón near Valencia on the Golfo de Valencia, on the east coast of Spain.

From these very early beginnings the Gabaldón's did arrive in the Americas and are believed to be the predecessors of Tomás, and subsequently, Mary Angela Gabaldón.

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Angela Gavaldón (Gabaldón) was born on August 10, 1900, (her patriarchal blessing gives the year as 1899, her wedding certificate states 1900) in the city of Jiménez located in the Mexican State of Chihuahua. Chihuahua City is the capital of the State of Chihuahua and is located 368 km from Ciudad Juárez, by the federal highway 45 in Mexico. Chihuahua City was founded on October 12th, 1709 with the name of Real de San Francisco de Cuellar. In 1824, it was given the name of Chihuahua, a Nahualt word which means "dry sandy zone" or "place where sacks are made". Nahuatl is Jiménez's heritage language. The Nahuatl spoken in this area of Mexico is relatively similar to the Aztec spoken centuries ago.

Jiménez is a small mountain town located 300 miles south of Casas Grandes and Colonia Dublán and 100 miles south of Chihuahua City. Semi-desert fields that serve as pasture lands for Hereford cows, goats, and burros surround Jiménez. The city is very rural and still relatively undeveloped by American standards. The residents are long established Catholics.

A vast majority of the land in Chihuahua was held by rich landowners.  Angela's father Jose Tomás Gabaldón, born March 7 1874, came from a family that had held much land. When he was of age he received his portion of his inheritance from his father, Maríano Gabaldón, born in 1832.

In December of 1896 Tómas married María Duran de Holguin, born May 29, 1874, also in Jiménez. They then had six children, Rafael, Gonzalo, Concepcion, Angela, Soledad, and Josefa. Tomás headed south to make a living by raising tobacco, this may have been the first time this family had left Jiménez. In 1904 Tomás and María lost their baby Josefa (died at 5 months). The money-crop enterprise failed. Beginning in 1910 the revolutionaries had been taking the land from the rich and subdividing it among the poor.  Tomás became despondent and lost not only his land and inheritance but also his will to endure.

Between 1910 and 1917 the various Mexican Revolutions were destroying the people and the countryside.  The Villa and Carranza rebels looted and ravaged the small towns to feed their armies.  The Federal troops, the Rurales police, were ineffectual against these raiders and at times were a worse threat to the people.  Tomás pined away and at the age of 41 died on February 15, 1915.  The three oldest children were nearly in their late teens and able to find work. This left María to care for their two youngest girls, Angela and Soledad.

Sometime after 1915 an opportunity opened up for María and her girls to leave the ravaged, small town of Jiménez and to go to a safer place, Ciudad Juárez, near the El Paso, Texas U.S. border. With close friends of the family, the Camarenas, María, Angela, and Soledad, found a building where they could live and create some business opportunities for themselves.  They rented small rooms in the back, provided meals, took in laundry, did some sewing, and provided beauty shop services. Angela's brother, Rafael joined them and ran a barber shop business.  Rafael became contaminated with smallpox, he almost died but recovered. His face was scarred from the pox for the rest of his life.

Angela had very light brown hair. In her earlier years it had been dishwater blonde hair, "una guera", but later her hair was golden brown.  She had big hazel eyes, and a very fair complexion. She stood 5'4". Bernarda Camarena, one of Angela's friends, had a generous Spaniard fiancée named Salvador Ateca, he recognized Angela's need for glasses and paid for her to get some. Angela was called Angelita as a nickname.

Around 1918, Angela met Orson Pratt Brown, an older man in the process of trying to put his life back together again.  There are two versions of their meeting.  Their daughter Bertha has written that Angela was working in a pharmacy while she attended nursing school. Orson came into the pharmacy and there he met Angela.  Aron and Mary have written that Orson frequented Rafael's barbershop and flirted with Angela in the adjoining beauty shop. In either case they met and began dating. Angela gave up her "novio", a student of engineering, to be with this blue-eyed charmer. They went to Las Cruces, Dona Ana, New Mexico to be married on Wednesday, March 9, 1919.  Their friends Josefina Camarena and M. Tovar went along to be their witnesses.  Orson (using the Mexican translation of his own name "Silvestre Moreno") was 55 and Angela was 18.

It is uncertain how much Angela knew about Orson or his past during their early relationship.  Some accounts state he did not fully disclose his previous four polygamous Mormon wives or 27 children to Angela. This, of course, is speculation.  It seems that Angela did know as Orson's older children were in business with him and visited him at his home. If Orson did not tell Angela right away about his other families there may have been a number of ascertainable reasons.  He may have been trying to put behind him the pain of his two divorces (another wife had died in October 1904), and loss of his children, as well as the loss of his homes, ranches, farm, livestock, mills, mine interests and other interests in the Mormon Mexican colonies because of the Mexican Revolution and subsequent Exodus of the Mormons from the colonies. His three wives lived in the United States and his children by them were grown up. He had been forced to move on. Or he may have been severely disenchanted with the turn of events and his dispute with George Bentley regarding the Exodus of the Mormon's from the Mexican Colonies (which he later mended). Less likely, but speculated, Orson could have been keeping a low profile when one wife, Jane Galbraith, reported him to the U.S. Marshalls that were still on the lookout for those men who may have been in violation of the Edmunds-Tucker Act. Though Orson's two wives, Jane Galbraith and Eliza Skousen, had divorced him, his marriage to his first wife, Martha Romney, was still valid, though they were separated, with Martha living in Utah or Idaho.

In any case, Angela accepted Orson as her Anglo bilingual husband. At his age she must have realized he had lived a full life.  They lived in Ciudad Juárez long enough to have four children born in that city: Silvestre Gustavo on December 17, 1919 (Orson was told 'Silvestre' was the translation for 'Orson', the middle name 'Gustavo' for Gustavo Madero, the brother of Francisco I. Madero. Orson already had a son named Orson Pratt from Mattie, and one by Jane Galbraith, and another Orson by wife Eliza Skousen, so he named this son after himself but translated into the Mexican language), Bertha Irma on July 31, 1922, Pauly Gabaldon on January 29, 1924, and Saul Aaron on July 29, 1925.

While a member of the El Paso Ward, St. Joseph Stake, Texas, as mentioned above, Orson was excommunicated from the Mormon Church in 1922. It is uncertain how much Angela knew about this action or if she understood what had occurred. Angela and her mother and family were still all devout Catholics. Shortly before Aaron was born Orson was re-baptized into the Mormon Church in El Paso on March 26, 1925 by his good friend Bishop Arwell Pierce and confirmed by another true friend Brother Thomas Kimball of Thatcher, Arizona.

Orson was holding interests in some mines. The work had been keeping him away from his family so after Aaron was born, the family moved to the mining town of Namiquipa, south of Ciudad Juárez, in the mountains. The family also spent a short time in Chihuahua. These moves helped Orson to be with his wife and family while conducting business. He was also able to work along with the adult sons he had there from his former wives.

This did not prove to be conducive for rearing children and Orson wanted to provide a nice home for Angela and their children.  In about a years time they moved to Colonia Dublán to be near a community, schools and in a family atmosphere. Orson was related through his children to the Romney's, the Skousen's, the Galbraith's, and the MacDonald's in Colonia Dublán. These families formed an important and close group in the colonies and Orson hoped his new family would be accepted there.

Orson, a prolific trader, exchanged his black Ford automobile for a run down house and some land. He traded his shotgun for a bag of flower and set to work to fix up the house for his family.  Angela, always an energetic person, full of ambition and loaded with responsibility for her children pitched in to make this place a home.  Angela's mother María Holguin (Uribes) lived with them and helped care for the children, did the mending, and generally helped Angela with all the chores of a farm and family.

Together they planted an orchard, a vineyard, and a garden. Angela raised chickens. Eventually they acquired a cow, some goats, ducks, turkeys, pigs, mules, and all manner of livestock.  Through hard work and cooperation they built up a homestead.  Angela's enthusiasm and stamina were a good balance for Orson's wherewithal and resources.

Orson left Angela and their children alone quite a bit while performing his Church duties and law assignments, and because he still had business in Namiquipa village, in Chihuahua City in the mines.  He would go back and forth leaving his young wife and children but it was a good secure place because of the Mormon people, and Angela was starting to learn the religion.

Angela's children have commented how wonderful and adaptive Angela must have been. She was a young girl in the bloom of life, she accepted a new life away from all her family, she accepted a new religion, a new language, a new town, a lot of responsibility, and a whole new way of life.  She certainly was appropriately named. However, all was not perfect in paradise.  Angela had to live with a certain amount of discrimination in the colonies because the anglos found it hard to accept Mexicans and children of mixed race.  Another thing hard to overcome was the discrimination and hard hearts of people who found it difficult to accept Orson's new, young wife now that polygamy was over and the exodus had taken away many colonists.

(see Cultural Encystment as Cause of 1914 Exodus)

Bertha has written that her "mother did not care one bit if people referred to her as a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Frenchwoman, a Spanish-American, or an Anglo. She said one was as good as another to her and we should take people as they are…brothers and sisters of Christ and that there was no difference between one and the other unless our education, our actions, our deeds, made us different.  But the discrimination was something very hard to fight against, very hard.  Mother worked very hard in the Relief Society and provided a good example.  "I am going to live the best I can regardless of what color, what nationality you come from" and she lived by this and people knew they could come to her and trust her.  Father was very proud yet humble to see that his wife had become such a heroin in the colonies, a hard worker and set an example to those who would have liked to cut her down.  The discrimination was worse when my father was again named Bishop of the Mexican Morelos Ward. As a result our ties were much stronger with the Mexican members than with the English-speaking members.  Many people did not know how to take us, didn't know how to consider our origin and for this we had many fights for our identity."

Orson used to say, "there's not a better cook or a better baker in the whole world than my Angelita." She learned the Mormon ways of baking bread, plus she had her own ways of making different foods and things she had brought back from home in Jiménez, Chihuahua where she had lived with her mother María Duran de Holguin. But she learned to make cakes and cookies, pies and hot breads and she would make bread twice a week.

Bertha says she can't remember "how many piggyback rides I got from Ashton and Preston Longhurst. "I'll give you a piggy back ride if I can have a nice big thick slice of your mothers homemade bread." When we were coming from school we could smell that delicious bread that mother had just baked. Then he would give me a piggyback ride all the way from his home to ours. He'd get a big slice of hot bread with fresh churned butter and, oh, that was heaven to eat. Those boys had lost their mother when they were younger and they knew to appreciate my mothers bread."

Angela was a very active woman, a hard working woman, there wasn't a thing Mormons knew how to make that she didn't learn how to make it also.  She would can all the strawberries, raspberries, and mulberries to make pies, grapes, peaches, apricots, pears, apples, you name it and we had it in our orchard.  Angela would put it up in jars. Angela learned how to make jams and jellies and cajetas.  She dried much of the fruit from our orchard by slicing it thinly, then placing it on the roof of the house with netting over it to keep the flies and bugs out of it.  She would take the quince and make cajeta that would last the whole year.  They could slice the quince on hot bread and butter and eat.  There were always cookies in her cookie jar when we came home from school.

After the dairyman would milk the cows, we would spread the milk in low pans, ladle the cream and churn it into butter.  We had many chickens and ducks, and goats, and lambs and dogs and cats. Angela would never permit animals inside the house.  Outside Angela had a big bucket with cracked corn or wheat to feed the chickens and they recognized her and would surround her as she spread the meal for them.  Bertha used to love to go outside with her to help her because all those chickens would surround her.  Angela sold eggs, milk, fruit, peanuts, lard, hams, pigskins (chorizos).  Besides the orchard Angela also maintained a garden with fresh turnips, beets, green beans, peas, potatoes, carrots, etc. We never lacked for food, we always had the bread and milk butter and cheese and everything else we wanted to eat. Angela's daughter Mary tells us that "Angela learned to raise chickens and pigs, cows and horses. She watered at night with a lantern, made cheese and butter and sold the extra milk. The fruit came and more work with it. We had a cellar year round of food she had canned. All this she learned in this new community."

Bertha tells "the thing that I love most to remember about my mother is when I would see her riding sidesaddle on a horse.  She had such a royal way, she would get up on those horses on the side and sit there real straight.  My father had brought her some riding garb from El Paso and New Mexico.  It was some type of leather clothing that she had the riding pants and boots and she had the riding skirts and hat.  She would wear a riding jacket over her blouses and she would ride so straight. She would go to Casas Grandes. She would go to the Romney's store to get groceries and things on her horse.  She would look majestic.  I always wanted to look dignified and majestic on a horse but I never did.  It was just natural for her to do so."

Aron writes that "Mother was tireless. She had one or two women working for her all the time who helped her care for us and help with the chores until we were able to be of some help."

Mary L. Williams befriended Angela and she was also married to a very good Anglo man.  Mary spoke both languages and started working with Angela, teaching her the gospel. Together they were able to translate the Pearl of Great Price and they would do a lot of work together like this, translating the Book of Mormon and many of the church work's they added to the work of Meliton Gonzalez Trejo. In later years a Brother Valdez verified and published their work They would sit for many hours in the afternoons and translate from English to Spanish much news that would come from Salt Lake City.

Gustavo, Angela, Aron, Pauly, cousin, Bertha

On June 15, 1927 Angela delivered a platinum-hair baby girl who they named María Angela, María for the grandmother and Mary Angela for the mother.  Anson B. Call, the Stake Patriarch, blessed her.

On March 30, 1929 Angela was baptized by Nephi Thayne and confirmed by Jose Taribio Ontiveros (soon to be Orson's counselor in the Branch Presidency in Dublán). According to Wayne Stout, on December 30, 1930 Orson was called to be the Branch President of the Dublán Mexican Branch. More responsibility and work fell to Angela. Though they had a number of Mexican people working for them it was necessary for her to continually monitor their activities, as their nature did not seem to include expeditiousness.

Angela had many talents that she willingly shared with the people around her. After her baptism she was called into the Branch Relief Society c.1930 and served wholeheartedly for nearly seventeen years. Bertha tells us that "Angela was also the director of Drama and Acts, plays she was in charge of and it seemed every youth activity that there was in the ward.  There was not an operetta in the colonies they had ever heard of until mother came along. She would have the highest models in plays that were available in Mexico City.  She would bring the youth of the church and she would untiringly work with them in our livingroom, every night, practicing their parts and showing them how to act.  They would put on some very well acted plays, and operettas.  My mother won the respect and love of the people in the colonies by her activity, and earned respect for the church.  Mother tried to get talent out of whoever it was, whether it was an old man, an old woman, a mature woman, a young lady, a young girl, or a young boy.  She would have them in the different plays. She would work and work hard, until each play was ready to be set. People would come from the near towns of Casas Grandes, Viejo Casas Grandes, etc. to watch those plays and many times they took them to Casas Grandes to show them there."

Life on the Colonia Dublán farm in the Mormon colonies was very normal for the 1900's and busy.  Angela's daughters, Bertha and Mary, have written good accounts of the day to day activities and the special times.  When compared to the journals of other local residents their lives seemed to be filled with everything that is represented in idyllic "good old days" tales.

In Colonia Dublán on September 24, 1932 Patriarch Joseph C. Bentley, gave Angela a powerful blessing to guide her through her life.  As follows:

Bertha remembers that "each Saturday Mother took care to take us in the buggy and picnic near the river. She would prepare chicken in several different ways. Mother always had a lot of good bread, pastries, fruit, vegetables, and goodies. Sometimes Mother would take us into the mountains with the Ontiveros family in a big wagon. We would go deer and turkey hunting. We would pick bellotas (acorns) in big bags full. Father would prepare barbeques and make deer and turkey jerky. We always had lots to eat.

Bertha recalls that when she did "naughty things to mother. Mother would always turn me over to Daddy. If Daddy wasn't around she would chase me. She would chase my brothers with a whip or with a piece of branch from one of the trees and that was our punishment. She'd get us, you can be sure your back and your legs were marked for a long time. I tried to stay away from my mother's beatings because she was a very strong woman and when she would get angry she'd let me know it.

I remember one time that I had spilled the berries and she went after me with the whip. I was barefooted and came to a patch of slivers. There was no way I'd go in there I'd have slivers all over my feet for weeks. I knew she was coming, she was right behind me but I just stood there and folded my arms and when she saw I wasn't going to go into the slivers she stopped. I'll never forget how she laughed at me. She laughed and laughed because I was between the sword and the wall, no way out. So she just gave me one little whip.

It was just wonderful to live in those days when we could go up in the mountains and feel so free and we'd sing beautiful songs. There is where my mother's stories came in, never in my life have I heard of a better storyteller.  Everybody seemed to hurry up and do their chores at home, eat their dinner and come over to our house in the wintertime.  We didn't have a fancy livingroom, it was a small livingroom, we had large bedrooms because my three brothers took one bedroom, and Grandmother María, mother's mother, shared a room with Mary and me.

Angela's mother was a great comfort for the children. Bertha remembers that she slept in her little bed with Grandma María, "Grandma Waleta [María] God must have her on his side, she never did join the Mormon religion. She had her own religion. She lived the Catholic religion. She lived it like no one could live any one's religion. She was a God-fearing woman. She was a loving Grandma she was just a little younger than Daddy and lived with us on many, many occasions. For many, many years and she was always mother's helper and mother's adviser. She kept us in line and she was loveable, so loveable. She always had candy, cookies and she would call us there and give us little goodies and surprises that she had there for us. When she was making quesadero, which is a special Mexican cheese, I remember her very well saying, "No, venga Bertha." That means don't come here Bertha. Don't you dare come here. That of course meant come here I've got something good for you. This meant that I was right there next to her with both my hands ready for that good hot cheese that would spread out and make threads and she would enjoy that so much that we'd just come and grab it away from her.

Grandmother María would be praying her mass her different prayers that she would read from her prayer books and then she'd make a little signal to me, now don't come now, but I'd go and sit right next to her and hold on to her beads. When she saw I'd hold onto her rosary beads she'd reach out her hand in the back of her bed where she had a shoe bag where you could put many shoes and she had it tied to the back of her bed with many little bags. She knew just where she had peanuts, candy, cookies and different little goodies that she had to give us. She always had a sweet disposition. I never saw Grandmother Waleta angry. She was a councilor. Many times I went to her for counseling before I dared talk to mother about things. Of course since I always felt so much closer to Daddy than to mother because Daddy had time for me and Mother just had too many chores and too many children to take care of. I remember in my most important subjects of life I went to him instead of to mother and asked him about problems of growing up."

"When dinner was cleared off our large table that sat 12 people on benches on each side, the Ayalas, Ontiveros, the Moffats,  Spencers and maybe others would come to listen to mother's stories. Hector Spencer, Alberto Thayne, and others would come to sit around our table and listen to Mother's stories. There was not one story of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights that mother didn't tell us as if she could almost see those Arabians dressed up in their gallant outfits and their big horses. Mother would carry us into those far away lands. She would tell us stories about Greece, Turkey, Jordan, the Indians, Africa, the French, and she had such great knowledge of stories in literature of different countries, different poets, that she would go one night from the faraway country of Turkey and Constantinople on to Greece, and the next story from the Old Testament. We would all sit there with mouths open amazed at the beautiful stories that she would bring to life and enrich our simple lives in the colonies.

A catholic was not to read the Bible in those days, so in her new religion she was so tickled to be able to hold the Bible in her own hands and read it. Then at night she would tell us about the beginning of the world and new Bible stories every night.  This is the way we learned about how Jesus Christ was born and came to the earth to be our savior.  She didn't leave out any details and as she told it to us little by little, night after night, it grew as a part of our lives and we enjoyed this very much."

On February 6, 1936 Angela gave birth to Heber Jedediah Brown. This was a painful experience for the whole family. The baby was having trouble breathing. Orson tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Water was not pumped quickly enough from the well to immerse the baby to induce a startle effect and get his lungs working. Heber died in his father's arms. Orson held him and cried so hard for a long time. Both Angela and Orson were deeply affected by this loss.

"It's hard to say good-bye before you've even had a chance to say hello."

"When your parent dies you've lost your past, but when your child dies you've lost your future.

"Death Does Not Come With Old Age, But With Forgetting " 

-a letter from Gabriel Garcia Marque 

Four years later, on July 29, 1940, Martha Gabaldón was born in Jimenéz to Rafael and Guadalupe Gabaldón, Angela's brother and his wife.

In October 1940, Orson, then 77 years old, Angela, age 40, traveled by train from Mexico to attend Church General Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. They also visited Orson's son Miles, and his wife Florence, in SLC. They visited Eliza Skousen, Orson's ex-fourth wife. They stopped in San Francisco to visit Orson's ex-third wife, Jane Galbraith who was ill in the hospital.  When they visited Orson's sister, Phoebe Adelaide Brown Snyder, she brought Angela a bouquet of roses. Orson and Angela both reported that they had a very pleasant meeting, his daughters Betty [Martha Elizabeth Galbraith Brown] and Emma [Galbraith Brown] treated them royally.

On October 2, 1940 or 1941 (one or the other year appears on various records) Angela was endowed in the Salt Lake City Temple. Mary tells us her parents were sealed at this time. Another record has the sealing in 1968 by proxy in the Mesa Temple.  In Mary Brown's Autobiography we are told that later, on November 6th, 1946, with Arwell Pierce as proxy for Orson, Pauly, Aron and Mary were sealed to their father. No mention has been found about Gustavo, Heber, or Martha. Bertha was sealed to Orson on November 2, 1968.

Orson would sometimes assist people with their medical needs and would pull teeth for those who asked him.  Angela would go in her one horse buggy to help deliver babies.  Many times she laughed about this because she was scared to death to have to do it. Both Orson and Angela always provided help to the poor and the needy and the sick.

Aron writes that "Mother's health began to deteriorate in the early 1940's with the change of life, and had seizures and other bad health, including problems with her vision."

Angela, still distraught from the death of her baby Heber in 1936, was visiting her brother Rafael and his wife, Guadalupe.  The family had six young children and the family was overwhelmed with raising them. When Angela entered the house she heard the sound of a toddler crying in a basket or hammock hanging from the rafters of the house. Angela was so taken by this cry that she knew she must have this child to raise as her own.  With great empathy and love the child, Martha, was given to Angela and adopted by her and her welcoming family. Martha became Orson's steady companion leading him by the hand when he grew older and had less sight.

Angela was well known for her delight in giving people nicknames. She called Gustavo: Silvestre Gustavo pide un centavo. Bertha was Bertha Bertina se columpina. Pauly was Paulay nalgas por hay. Aron: Arones Saules ojos azules and also Nononaso Nononon.  Mary was Misis Merri or Missis Mary Guera. Martha was Martha Martina.  Angela gave nicknames to the neighbors, the Ontiveros, and to everyone she knew. Bertha adds " I remember a little boy one of our maids, Manuela, had and she called him Ramon Pinzon and the little boy could hardly speak. He would repeat that whole name and then he would get a sucker from my mother after he had repeated the name my mother had given him. She called another boy, one of the Ayala boys, Coco Fa de macho (sp). That boy is a grown man now and everyone knows him by that name. Bertha felt that Angela gave her the most beautiful name she could ever give anyone. Because of her French heritage and of how she loved the French people and French customs and the anthem for the French country is "La Marseillaise" she called Bertha "La Marseillesa"."

Angela was very supportive of all educational endeavors her children pursued. Bertha tells us that "when summertime came they thought, oh boy now is the resting time from school and lessons, we can go on picnics and how a good time.  Oh no, mother already had us registered for sewing lessons, embroidery lessons, crisscross lessons, you name it. We would go to Sister William's house and for 2-3 hours in the morning, we took lessons from her. We took our lunches with us, we ate at noon and went right next door to Mrs. Ila Deloros who was a retired Spanish grammar teacher that had come from somewhere in the south.  She was a very refined woman at the time of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz.  This woman would teach us correct Spanish, about the Mexican heroes, about history and culture.

On May 25, 1945 Mary Angela graduated from Juárez Stake Academy three days after Orson's 82nd birthday. They had a big double celebration.  Mary was the second of two of Angela's children to graduate from Juaréz Stake Academy.  Gustavo had attended JSA but not graduated. Aaron had graduated the summer before. If Mary had not graduated a year ahead of schedule Orson would have missed the event.

Aaron Brown in JSA graduating class of 1944.	Mary Brown in JSA graduating class of 1945.	Aaron, Bertha, Orson, Angela, Maria, Pauly, Gusavo, Martha, Mary

Angela's children grew quickly and soon found good companions.  Bertha married Everardo Navas de Molina and Pauly married Lilia Gonzalez in a double ceremony on January 18, 1946 at the Mesa Arizona Temple.  Before the wedding a reception was held in Colonia Dublán for the happy couples. Angela spent much time preparing the delicious foods for her many guests. María helped keep the children busy and out of her way. Angela and Orson danced their last dance on this occasion. And quite possibly the last pictures of Orson were taken on that day. Angela had fussed over his suit and hair, and helped him to dress, as was her custom.

In Mesa, after the sealing ceremony, Orson's daughter, Anna Brown Petrie Encke provided a lovely reception in her home for the two couples. Orson ex-wife Eliza Skousen, attended the reception as she lived with Anna at this time. This was a wonderful show of love that Angela never forgot.

Angela's husband, now 82, became ill and bedridden.  Angela nursed him and took care of him while she tried to run the farm. Her mother, María, watched over Orson, her fingers feverishly working the beads of her rosary.  On March 8, 1946, just six weeks after the happy occasion of their children's wedding, Orson Pratt Brown died, ten weeks before his 83rd birthday. He had Gustavo and Bertha by his bedside. Aron was serving a mission for the Church and was given special permission to attend the funeral. Mary tells us that Orson's grandson Ray Jr. (Ray, Sr. had died on October 2, 1945), his wife and son and his mother,  came from Chihuahua to pay their respects.

When Orson died, Angela was only 46 years old.  She stayed in their home and worked the farm that constantly needed tending and supervision.  After five years, Gustavo showed concern that Angela would not be able to continue on alone without help.  Gustavo, a young man of around 25 years, still lived in the area but he had hard feelings toward the farm and how it should have been managed.  On December 29, 1948 Gustavo, 29, married Emma Gloria Tarin. Angela was so happy with this marriage. Emma was a sweet, kind person, and a good friend to her. They enjoyed working together in the kitchen and working on the many duties necessary on a farm. Emma had a mellow voice that was never raised in anger and provided a wonderful feeling of warmth and home.

Angela's daughter, Bertha now had two children and had filed for a divorce from Nano on January 21, 1952 in the District of Bravo, Chihuahua.  She returned home to Dublán with her two daughters for a while until she could get her life in order. Lucy (5) became part of the cacophony of activity on the farm. Lucy remembers playing in the big barn, jumping on the hay, and feeding the animals.  One day Lucy came out of the barn, happy as a lark, whistling Dixie. When Gramma Angela heard her she gave Lucy a lecture saying that nice young girls do not whistle, only farm hands whistle and then completed her lecture with something to the effect that, "Whistling women and crowing hens never come to good ends." Lucy could never figure out what it meant or how it applied to her.

Angela had a bounteous fruit orchard. The children would go out and climb the trees and eat apples, and peaches, and pears, or whatever the trees were bearing.  Angela would have the farm hands pick the fruit and place it near the kitchen where she would wash and slice it then place it on large screened trays on the roof of the side porch for it to dry.  This made a tasty treat. The screens kept the flies and most of the dust from the yard off the drying fruit.

Angela and María did not have indoor plumbing so they would fill a large tub, placed each weekend in the middle of the kitchen floor near the big wood burning stove, for baths.  It was always a great treat to be the first one to use the water.

Around 1952, Bertha and her two daughters left Angela's house.  Bertha found a job at Dr. Frank Devlyn's Optical store in Ciudad Juaréz. For a while she rented a room above the store.

In 1952 Aron took Lucy to visit Gramma Angela. While digging fence posts Gustavo proposed to Aron "out of the blue" that Angela, María, and Martha should leave the farm that very day and be moved to El Paso.  Angela, at the age of 52, unhappily left the family homestead in Colonia Dublán. Lucy noticed how chaotic everything was,  everyone was in a hurry and there was shouting and crying.  Angela seemed very upset about having to give up her home and her animals, and without any notice.  Mexican people would come to the house, have brief words then leave with a piece of furniture, a goat, or a bushel of food.  A Mexican man was chopping the heads off her chickens and lining the heads up along the fence.  Headless chickens would occasionally fly up and run into the yard. Gramma Angela would come out and then upon seeing these activities relating to the disposal of her property she would run back into the house crying and screaming anguished words in Spanish.  It was very confusing and upsetting to see everyone in such a hurry to do one thing or another.  The family members all seemed to be at odds with one another.  It was a very bad time for Angela.  Aron explained he took this action because he felt it would give his mother more independence and freedom from the work of the farm.

Angela Gabaldon January 8, 1953	Maria Gabaldon de Holgiun January 8, 1953

Someone was in a hurry to leave so everyone piled into a car and drove to El Paso.  Gramma Angela was very sad. She was taken to El Paso in Aron's car with her mother María and daughter Martha. When they arrived in El Paso where Bertha, Pauly and Mary were living they were very surprised to see their mother, grandmother, and youngest sister at their front door.

Aron found a house at 5504 Paraguay in El Paso and put the down payment on it.  Mary and Bertha made the monthly mortgage payments. Aron retained the title on it until Mary and Red bought it from him in 1955. Gus helped to pay for some improvements such as new carpeting.  Gus and Aron managed Angela's proceeds from her farm, tools, animals, furnishings, and equipment.

In 1953 Angela's daughter Bertha was having trouble finding some help with her pre-school girls so circumstances made it necessary to move herself, Lucy to Angela's house to live there with Angela, grandmother María, and sisters Mary and Martha.

This house full of women were a jumble of emotions.  Sometimes Angela would get angry with one of her three daughters and would go get the broom to whack them. Of course, they did not want to get whacked so Angela would chase them around the hallway, through the kitchen, around the dining room table and through the hall again. Round and round they would go, sometimes screaming, sometimes laughing. It reminded the children of the Little Black Sambo story of the tigers chasing each other around the tree until they turned into butter. Gramma María would be pleading in the background to stop the nonsense.

Angela's grandchildren also remember that she was infamous for two things. One was for liking to tickle her grandchildren until they were exhausted, the other was her habit of pinching.  Grandkids remember that when she was sleeping with Gramma Angela on occasion Gramma would reach over and give her a big pinch, just to tease her.

When Bertha's divorce was finalized on July 4, 1952 she began to date again. Mary and Bertha dated the G.I.'s (General Infantrymen) from Fort Bliss. Mary married Red Hayden on September 12, 1953 and Bertha married Ronnie Ferrara on November 21, 1953.

Bertha drove to Michigan with her new husband in late November of 1953 and Lucy was forbidden to speak Spanish. They forgot it entirely.  They are the only grandchildren that Angela could not talk to, this was very frustrating for all of them.  Lucy therefore could not communicate with Gramma Angela, Great Gramma María, or many members of the family or friends. They were truly cut off by distance, language, and emotional detachment.

Sometime between 1953 and 1955, Angela's mother, María, decided to return to her hometown of Jiménez to live in Mexico and close to her other grandchildren and family. María died in Jiménez on September 10, 1955 at age of 79. Mary tells us that "we received a call from Uncle Rafael, telling us that Grandma María had died. Mother, Pauly, Lilly, Martha, and Mary traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico to attend the funeral. On the road, approaching Chihuahua, they ran into a lumber truck parked on the road and had a terrible accident. Angela received a broken arm, Pauly received fractures in his chest, Mary tore the bottom part of her lip and her chin and received a wide cut on her forehead. The car was totaled, they were taken to the hospital where Uncle Rafael and the family came to see them."

On June 7, 1954 Aron married in the Salt Lake City Temple, a lovely young schoolteacher from Mississippi . Her name was Jesse LaVerl Whitsell.  Orson Juaréz Brown and his wife, Evelyn, were their witnesses.  Angela felt that Jessie was so beautiful that she nicknamed her "La Encanta."  The whole family was enchanted with Jesse's sweet kindness, attentive way of listening, and her big, beautiful doleful brown eyes.  Everyone loved her accent, she was a fine Southern Peach of a woman.

Mary had her first child on September 29, 1954, he was named Edward John Hayden but Angela thought he looked like a little bunny wrapped up in his blanket. From then on he was called "Bunny."  Angela was very happy to have a baby to love, she would hold him and rock him for hours in her arms, even after he was already asleep.

1955- -Aron Brown's wife Jesse Whitsell Brown holding their daughter Bonnie Brown, Lucy,
Bertha Brown Navas Ferrara holding her son, George R. Ferrara III.
Bonnie born March 10, 1955 and George born May 19, 1955

On April 24, 1957 Mary Angela had a little girl named Helen Marie Hayden for Red's mother Helen. Dressed in a candy stripped pajama one night, Angela looked down on her and nicknamed her "Candy" and that is the only name many people know her by.  Five years later on March 22, 1962 Michael Hayden was born and became the apple of both Mary and Angela's eye.  The maids would take care of the house but Mickey was all Angela's.  (In 1989 Mickey named his only daughter, Angela Jean Hayden.)

Angela had some interesting routines. Angela would collect clothes from various sources. Then once a week or so she would pack them up in large woven grass bags and take them across the border to Ciudad Juárez.  Sometimes she would take Lucy with her. Angela knew that Lucy loved mangoes so she would buy her two or three mangoes, sit her on the curb to eat them. While Lucy was thus occupied, Angela would walk along the streets and distribute the clothing she had brought with her.  Lots of people seemed to know Angela and would look forward to her visits. Sometimes her good friend Ernestina would accompany Angela on these jaunts. They were very good friends and spent a lot of time together.

Angela also enjoyed many good times with her long-time friend, Mary L. Williams.

Angela was having a very hard time giving her permission to Martha to leave on a mission.  Mary took Angela, Bunny (Ed) and Candy, to Dearborn, Michigan to visit Bertha and her family sometime around July. While at Bertha's house Angela fell down the basement stairs. As she was falling she heard a voice telling her to allow Martha to accept her mission call.  Angela did not sustain any serious injury or broken bones but did receive a sure knowledge of what action to take with Martha.  When Angela returned to El Paso she was very supportive of Martha's desire to serve a mission. In September 1961 Martha turned 21 years old. Martha left on November 26, 1961 for the Mexican Mission. Angela wrote many letters of encouragement to Martha to praise her work and dedication.

Martha returned from her mission approximately two years later in 1963.  She met Alan Gardner and they were married sometime in 1964. On May 29th 1965 their first son, Thomas Stuart Gardner was born. Angela visited Martha and Alan (just returned from being stationed in Germany), and their 1 1/2 year old son in Yuma, Arizona (in April 1967). Angela stayed for a month, something she had never done anywhere.  At the end of her visit Angela said that she was now ready to join her elder brother, Jesus Christ.

On November 4, 1966 Bertha's divorce from Ronnie Ferrara was finalized and she sold her house in Dearborn Michigan, moved to El Paso, and on January 27th 1967 Bertha bought a house on Luella Avenue. Bertha brought her three sons, George, Jeffrey, and David, to make a new start close to Mother Angela and family.

On June 20th 1967, five-year old Mickey Hayden, Mary's son was riding his tricycle on the back patio when he spotted a large tortoise. He called to Angela to come see it but she did not respond. Mickey went inside to tell Mary about the tortoise and told her that Gramma was not answering his calls to her. Mary knew Angela must be in her garage apartment because, though she was an early riser, it was too early for her to be gone already. Mary couldn't get an answer either. When she looked in the window she saw Angela lying in her bed. At that moment she knew that Angela had passed away in her sleep. Was it a stroke or a heart attack?

The funeral was held in El Paso and Angela was buried at Evergreen Central Cemetery off Alameda Avenue, El Paso, El Paso, Texas. Her gray marble headstone simply states: Madre, Angelita G. Brown, Agosto 10, 1900, Junio 20, 1967, En Paz Descanse.

 (November 27, 1948 Bertha named her second daughter for her mother.  On August 21, 1968 Martha named her first daughter Angela Marie. On July 24, 1989 Mickey named his daughter Angela Jean. Loving tributes to a wonderful mother and grandmother.)