JOYCE FLAVEL


Lew Thomas, Joyce Flavel Thomas and daughter "Larry" Thomas

Joyce Flavel Thomas Dean- born 17 Aug. 1890
                          died 15 Apr. 1967
Fred Dean----------------- born 9 Noy. 1695
                           died 23 May 1964

Lew Thomas and Joyce Flavel Married 28 Sept. 1911

     When she was single, Joyce worked at the Sugar Factory in 
Spanish Fork, Utah.  Her job was to control the heat gauges, and she
became very efficient at doing this.  She married Lew Thomas and had
two little girls, Lore and Mary Margaret (later known as Marguerite
and then as Madge.  Part of her life. Lora went by the name of Larry.)
After about 7 years of marriage and in 1918 Uncle Lew became very ill
and passed away. This was during the terrible flu epidemic.  His
daughter Madge said that they were never really sure whether he died
of the flu or of blood poisoning.  He had cut his hand badly, and 
with not much medical assistance available in those days, they often
treated themselves. Someone poured turpentine into the cut to 
disinfect it.  Not many days later, he died.  We were always told 
that he died of the flu, but perhaps not. After his death, Aunt Joyce
moved with her two little girls into her parent's home.
     Grandma Rosetta did not have very good health, and at this time
Grandpa William had suffered a stroke, so Joyce tried to help her 
mother, plus care for her father, take care of her two little girls 
and still provide a living, which she did by working at the Spanish
Fork Hotel on the west side of Main Street, a few blocks south of
where her folk's home was at 64 East 6th North, Spanish Fork.  She
worked as a chamber maid, and the Chef there taught her how to cook 
and bake--especially to make pies, at which she became very 
proficient.  I remember what a good pie maker she was, and she taught me how to
make pie crust.
     Fred Dean had come over from England, and was working at Del 
Monte Cannery, and boarding and rooming at this hotel where Aunt 
Joyce worked, so they met, began dating and finally were married.  
They lived with Grandma for perhaps 2-3 years and then moved to Salt 
Lake City.
     Madge told me that her mother, Joyce, never really had a very happy life.  When she
was just a young girl, her appendix ruptured and the poison from it settled in her eyes 
and she always had very poor eyesight and because of this she wasn't able to get much of 
an education.  She dated a very well-to-do doctor and he wanted to marry her, but she felt
that he would be marrying so far beneath himself, to marry her, with not much of an
education, and that she would never fit into his circle of friends, so she refused to 
marry him.  Uncle Fred wasn't a member of the church, and in his later years apparently he
began drinking a lot, which made Aunt Joyce very unhappy.  Madge also told how her
mother was a real "pouter".  For days she would not talk to anyone--not even her
daughters.  They could never find out what had happened.  She and Lora vowed that they
would never cultivate this terrible trait!


Mary, Joyce, and John Flavel - taken in 1897


Mary and Joyce Flavel

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