Mary Ellen Hooper

And since growing and learning throughout Eternity is the essence of Life Eternal, grow she did.

Mary came to earth in a place we know as Clymers, Cass County, Indiana, into the home of Harry Luke and Mary Elizabeth Taylor Knickerbocker. She was the fifth child born to this union, two of whom preceded her birth by passing on through the veil to their own future growth. There were three more children who joined them on the journey through Eternity before their mother passed through the veil.

Later her Father married again and another sister was added to her family here on earth.

One of Mother’s fond memories of her Mother, whom she barely got to know before she passed on, is watching her bare her testimony. Although she was not able to remember exactly what her Mother said, she remembered her going forward and standing and baring her testimony. This example inspired her to do as her Mother had done and she records that later in her life as a young mother she overcame being timid and would bare her testimony. She also learned a love for music and art from her Mother.

She learned to play the piano, sing and paint. We have many of her paintings throughout our family as remembrances of her art work.

Mother’s writings tell us she always sought good women to look up to, thereby having a good example to follow. She thought this was perhaps a result of losing her Mother at the early age of 10 years old.

Of the many women she looked up to probably ‘Auntie’ was most important to her. ‘Auntie’ as Mother affectionately called her, was the wife of Bishop Edward Green of Kanesville, Utah. You see her parents came to Utah to be among other members of the Church. In Indiana, their families and friends were against them joining the Church and were not making life easy at all. Her Father had inherited a farm which came with a large debt and add to that his wife was sick with leukemia. The family had moved to Utah where they could go to the Temple and be sealed. After her Mother passed away and the Children’s Aid Society stepped in to help her Father with his children, they were separated and placed in different homes. Grandma Green as we learned to call her was Mother’s favorite. Many times throughout my life I would hear Mother say, “This is how Grandma Green taught me to cook, to sew, to garden, or to clean house.” She learned manners and how to be a lady. She lived with Grandma Green from the time she was eleven and a half until she was nineteen, becoming a member of their family, so much so that she named her daughter Gwen after Gwendolyn Maureen Green, and to me she gave the middle name Dean after one of the boys. For many years when we visited Utah a favorite stop was at Grandma Green’s.

While at the Green’s she attended school in Hooper, Utah. Guess who was there? Yes, her future Eternal Companion Milton Child Hooper. When the lady from the Children’s Aid Society saw the look in her eye she gathered her up and moved her to Willard, Utah. Now those of us who know Mother could have told Mrs. Griswald, “This won’t work!” You see Mother and ‘Auntie’ had talked and if it didn’t work out she could come home. Home to the only home she had known since her Mother had passed away. So later that summer when Mrs. Griswald came by, Mother had her bags packed. The family she was with were wonderful to her however, it wasn’t the same, so back to Kanesville she went and to the home of ‘Auntie’ Green.

On the 14 day of April, 1943, Mary Ellen Knickerbocker and Milton Child Hooper entered into the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Salt Lake Temple.

Soon the family started, Dennis Dean was born in January 1944, Gwendolyn Maureen in November 1946, Milton Chris in July 1949, and Connie Lynn in June 1954.

In late 1944, she watched her husband leave for the Pacific, and World War II came very close to home for her. When he returned they stayed in Hooper, Utah for awhile then moved to Adrian, Oregon, then to Nyssa, Oregon and back to Adrian. You see the people Dad worked for had several farms and they would move us around for work. Eventually we moved to New Plymouth, Idaho, where if you haven’t noticed the family keeps growing.

Five foot two with eyes of blue, she may not have been very large in stature however, she accomplished a lot!

On March 25, 2012 she again had her bags packed and was ready to go home. Home to those whom she had loved and been loved by. Leaving behind those whom she has loved and who love her, knowing that we will all be together again sealed by the promise of our Covenant with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Mary Ellen Knickerbocker Hooper, travels on through Eternity with her husband Milton Child Hooper remaining behind. Also here are two sisters, Beverly Jane Karchner, of Bellflower, CA. and JoAnn Doolittle, of Federal Way, WA., one brother William Irving Knickerbocker, of Tooele, UT. She leaves two children Dennis Dean Hooper and Connie Lynn Frates, both of New Plymouth, ID., as well as twenty-seven grand children, sixty-one great grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren. Two of Mary’s children and grandchildren preceded her in death, Milton Chris Hooper, Gwendolyn Maureen Grogan, Dean Shane Hooper and Mary Lynn Hooper.