La Verne Estelle Boone was born in Chehalis, Washington on March 24, 1921, the first grandchild in the Martin and Margaret Boone branch of that family tree. Martin died some six or seven years previous, and Margaret had continued raising their eight children on the family ranch, on the cowlitz prarie, outside of Chehalis. Margaret was in attendance at the birth of her first grandchild to Harry Neal Boone, her third eldest son, and his wife, the former Gladys Winifred Roughton. The birth took place inthe apartment where they lived, and was attended by a midwife at 7:30 a.m. I'm told that Dad's seven brothers and sisters all arrived soon after to get a look at this latest red-headed addition to the Boone clan.
When I was a few months old the little family moved south to Hood River, Oregon where Dad purchased a filling station, since his greatest ambition was to be in business for himself. Unfortunately, that first winter it snowed so much that cars were useless for five months and five days. So much for the filling station business. Finances must have been very lean, since they couldn't afford to put a rug on the floor, so I never crawled. (I don't recall feeling deprived.) There was no such thing as welfare benefits, unemployment benefits, or whatever, in those "good old days", but all survived somehow.
When I was 16 months old, Jack Martin Boone arived to complete our family. With the addition of a boy, my Dad celebrated for days.
My first recollection was visits to the Boone ranch, where Jack was born, and my Uncle Dan and Aunt Pearl now lived. There was no electric lights and no running water, but no end of fun things for children. While the men would be milking cows, we could jump into the stacks of hay in the barn, feed the chickens, and gather eggs, watch baby chicks being hatched, or gather vegetables from the huge garden.
My next recollection was living in Winlock, and entering first grade there. Mother and Jack walked to school with me that first day, then Mother cried all the way home because her firstborn was starting school. (There was no kndergarten then) Jack cried also because he couldn't go to school too. They must have made quite a picture! A few years ago, when we visited up in Washington Walter and I drove into Winlock and I found the street that we lived on, but couldn't pick out the exact house.