Melvin Sevey Turley

Back to Ann Lewis's Table of Contents

Melvin Sevey Turley (1913-1934)

The Theodore Turley Family Book, pp. 245-24

Melvin Sevey Turley was the ninth child born to Hyrum and Pearl Sevey Turley. He was born at Woodruff, Arizona on November 7, 1913. His family nicknamed him “Babe” When he was very young, because he was so small, and the name stuck with him throughout his life. When he was fully grown, he was still the smallest of the Turley boys, with a height of 5'6" and weight of about 145 pounds. He had black, wavy hair, a medium complexion, and was a handsome boy.

He was always faithful and active in Church; tried to take part whenever he was asked; attended all meetings and served in all Priesthood activities. He also sang in the Woodruff choir for many years. His habits were good. He never did smoke or drink, swear, or even use slang expressions. He was honest and kind in all his dealings with his fellow-men and was quick to do a good turn for the elderly or for any one who needed help. He was fond of all children and they loved him; in fact, he was very well liked by every one he came in contact with.

Melvin was a very fast runner. He could out-run all his brothers and nearly all his friends. In school he was a good athlete. He loved to play basketball, baseball, and football. He also enjoyed Boy Scout work. He was handy at nearly everything and had a natural aptitude for making and repairing things. Melvin was a hard worker all his life and could be depended upon to see that a job was finished right. His dad was a contractor for building and plastering and later formed a Turley Brother’s Company with his sons. Some of the boys would go off to other towns with their father on these jobs and some of them would stay home to take care of the farm. The boys were taught to work hard. The father was a very stern man and expected a lot from his boys.

One time, when he was about fifteen years old, he and his younger brother, Edgar, were coming back to the house from the field. It was raining and there was lots of mud and water everywhere so they took a short cut through a field where a big bull was pastured. The bull charged and knocked Melvin down and rolled him in the water. Ed managed to crawl under a fence and then distracted the bull over to where he was so that Kelvin could get away. Luckily, Melvin was not hurt too badly, but he was really a muddy mess and soaked to the skin.

'When Melvin was about sixteen years old, about the month of August, he and the other three youngest children of the family all came down with typhoid fever. Melvin was the sickest of them all. He couldn’t hear nor talk at first, but after several weeks, he started to get better.

Melvin liked to trap wild animals and he was fairly successful at it. He would catch coyotes and wildcats mostly; then skin them and stretch the hides to cure them and then sell them. He was able to make a little spending money this way. When he was recuperating from the typhoid fever he could hardly wait to get well enough to run his trap line again.

About the summer of 1927, the Elmer Gardner family moved from the town of Snowflake, back to Woodruff. They had a daughter, Morjorie, who caught the eye of Melvin. They both fell for each other right away and later decided to get married. They didn't think they were too young, even if older and wiser heads did. Morjorie was 17 and a half years old and Melvin lacked two months of being twenty years old. Morjorie’s brother, Melvin, was back from his mission and he and his girl, Inez Hatch, were also planning on being married, so the young people figured they might as well plan a double wedding. Melvin was just old-fashioned enough that he found Brother Gardner alone one evening and asked for his daughter's hand, and consent was given. They decided to travel to Utah and be married in the St. George Temple. It was quite a trip up there and took two days to go. They had one truck to carry the jars for canning, the camping supplies, etc. and two cars. Upon arrival in Hurricane, Utah, a house was rented for a week or two and everyone pitched in to can a lot of peaches. They were plentiful and cheap that year, and by picking up the windfalls, they got them cheaper yet. After days of canning, they got all the jars filled and that job done, then the big day came for going to the next town to be married. The Turleys had not been able to go with them as planned, but the Gardners were traveling with them on this trip. The marriage took place Aug. 29, 1933 in the St. George Temple.

For the first two weeks after their marriage, Melvin went to Holbrook and worked in a cleaning establishment. He had worked there for a short time before marriage. They took their meals with the manager and his wife and rented a hotel room for sleeping. The wages they made hardly covered the expenses. Then, when Melvin got a form of lead poisoning on his arms from working in the cleaning fluid so much, they had to quit and move back to Woodruff. Melvin was taken into the Turley Brothers organization and he went back to work for his dad.

On June 4, 1934, their son, Terry Melvin Turley, was born. Times were tough and the young people had no money.

The Turley Brothers were still working in a sort of United Order and Melvin was away part of the time on various jobs that his dad contracted for. Groceries were bought wholesale with what little cash was brought in. and divided among the families. There were five families to feed besides keeping one son, Marion, on a mission.

It was during October that Melvin and his brother George were working out near the Petrified Forest on road construction. with a team of horses. Melvin caught a bad cold and it turned into pneumonia and he had to come home. After a day and night in the tent, he had to be moved into a warmer place, so his brother Floyd let us put him into their little front bedroom. A doctor was called up from Holbrook and he pronounced it pneumonia. He left us some salve to use as a poultice, but it did no good whatsoever. That was long before penicillin was discovered and found to be a cure for pneumonia. They say that pneumonia terminates or gets better either in 3, 6, or 9 days. Well, Melvin fought for his life with all his might and lasted 10 or 11 days, but due to his weakened condition from the typhoid fever, he just was not able to survive this last bad illness. He died in the evening of Nov. 7, 1934 which was his birthday, being just 21 years and a few hours old. He was buried on November 9 in the Woodruff cemetery.