Marshall &Kay Family  Histories

Living in Sparks, NV

with The Cauble Family

When I was between four and five, my father came back from Reno, NV (after looking for work there - see John B. Kay Hist.) He and my mother moved to San Francisco. I went back to live with my Aunt Janet in Sparks, Nevada, because they were both working at that time and they didn't have anyone to take care of me. That's when I began to be real good friends with my cousins.

There was Bernard, who was a couple of years older that I was, and Don who was the same age as I was and by that time Aunt Janet had had Ben, who was just a baby. I guess you might say my cousins and I became quite close. I always thought of them as my brothers because I was little. And when I went to live with them that's how I was treated. And we used to do the fun things brothers and sister do together. Except that I might have been kind of a tomboy because it seemed like I was always into whatever Don was doing and that usually somehow or another would always get us in trouble - whatever it was.  Bernard was always the one who was always trying to get us out of trouble. 

I lived there for a few years and during that time, just before I left, I can remember starting school out there.  I can remember some kid pushed Don into my swing in the schoolyard, and it was so bad for Don. He hit his head and he went down, and I went flying out of the swing flat on my face. And I came up with a mouthful of gravel, and Don's head was bleeding, and we went staggering home like that. I remember that so well, it was some kid just being smart. Most of the time I was mad at Don, but I remember I felt bad for Don that time. I felt sorry for me too, we both cried all the way home. 

While I was in Nevada my mother(Mary INGHAM) came to visit me once, in fact I have pictures of when she came to visit. The thing that stands out in my mind about those pictures is that I didn't want to get cleaned up and neither did Don. My Aunt Janet wanted us to get cleaned up for these pictures and we didn't want to and Bernard was the only one that looked good in the pictures. Don and I were standing there and we were both dirty and nether one of us would smile, I remember that real well. We were both mad because we didn't want our pictures taken. 

Bernard's drowning

I lived there for two years, as I mentioned before. The last summer I was there we had gone down to the beach, to the river for a picnic. That's when my cousin Bernard was drowned. That had a lot of implications for me. It was the first real tragic thing that I felt happened to me. Don and I both loved Bernard so much, he was the oldest, he's the one who took care of us and he was just perfect in our eyes, you know. He had just turned eight, but had been eight long enough to be baptized. It was about a few months after his baptism that it happened.

I guess the only other reason that it has a lot of meaning in my life, is because of all the things that transpired in Don's life throughout the years after Bernard's death . And the fact that Bernard kind of watched out for Don, I think, all the rest of his life. And I think that Bernard probably watched out for his parents too, as much as he could. And in many times I think, Bernard watched out for me because I could kind of feel him, but at that age, I didn't understand it. 

As we were having a picnic there, the whole family and my Aunt Janet and Uncle Angus were laying on the blanket up the beach a little ways with the baby, Ben. And they had kind of dozed off. And Don and I, and Bernard were kind of playing in the water. And I remember standing on a log. I remember that real well because I couldn't swim, and I was kind of frightened of the water. And all of a sudden, I remember Don yelling and yelling. And he wasn't too far off shore but he got caught in some quick sand, and he was yelling because he couldn't get out. And Bernard went in, he could swim a little bit, and he got Don out of the quicksand, and kind of threw him up towards the beach. But the tricky river is not a good place to be because the tides in that river were bad. Getting Don out, the currents apparently pulled Bernard in, further in the river. He kept trying to get out, to swim out, but he wasn't that strong a swimmer. And I can remember both Don and I crying, and yelling and so forth. In the meantime, my Aunt Janet and Uncle Angus had woken up and realized what was happening, and I can always remember my Aunt saying something like, if I just hadn't stopped to take my shoes off, you know. Or something like that, because they were trying to get their shoes off and run toward Bernard to pull him out. Especially my Uncle who had these big boots to work in, that's what he was wearing to the beach.  He was trying to get those boots off to get in the water. So he dove in after Bernard, and he said he can even remember touching Bernard once, but he couldn't grab him, he kept going down and down. I guess he must've been under the water at that time, and the current had taken Bernard so swiftly that they finally found his body five miles downstream. There were some fishermen down there that saw the body and grabbed it, the same day. 

It was a very difficult sad time. I was six years old and Don was six. Don was so upset, he was crying all the way home, and he was mad at me because I wasn't crying. And I don't know why I wasn't crying, I think it was I didn't believe it, I really didn't believe that it had happened. I was in shock I think. That was a very painful time for the family. My Aunt Janet and Uncle Angus were not really active in church(The Church of Jesus of Latter Day Saints) and my Aunt kept saying that if she'd been active in church, God wouldn't have taken him and stuff like that. I know that Bernard went when it was his time, it was his time. But it was hard for them, it was really hard. 

Bernard Saying, "Be Good"

This story goes along with the other one of Bernard's Drowning. I told you that Bernard took care of us and kept us out of trouble. We all went to church the day he was confirmed, after his baptism, and Don and I were sitting towards the back. They called Bernard up to the front to confirm him, and I guess Don and I were doing what we usually were, we were in trouble, messing around making noise or something. And when he came to his seat he scolded us and he told us, he said, "I'm not always going to be here all the time". I remember that really well. He said, "I won't always be around to get you guys out of trouble." And I don't think either one of us thought anything of what he said at the time, but later on I remembered. And years later I remember reminding Don,  he had forgotten that. It was kind of like he didn't really know he was going to go, because I don't think an eight year old does, but I think something inside of him prompted him to say that to us. So he admonished us to be good kids, like he always did. 
 

SEE  ALSO    A Special Family Story - Bernard Cauble