Claron Wilson Allred was born August 14, 1928, in Moab, Utah. His parents were Birten and Sarah Anna Johnson Allred. He died July 7, 1990, in the Payson, Utah, hospital of a massive heart attack.
When Claron was born, he weighed three pounds and three ounces. His mother carried him around on a pillow to protect him because he was so tiny. His father saved the milk from one special cow because his mother had none of her own to feed this 13th child.
Claron grew up in Moab. He liked to go bike riding and hiking with his cousins and friends in the hills around Moab. When he was 16 years old and exploring among the hills, he picked up a dynamite cap, probably left by miners. That night while preparing to take a bath, he emptied his pockets and out fell the cap. He thought he would do some experimenting to see if it worked. It did! The explosion blew off three fingers of his left hand down to the first joint. It blew metal fragments into his eyes blinding him in his right eye and injuring the left. After five operations on his eyes, he was able to see quite well out of his left eye with the aid of a heavy lense.
After this accident, his mother and father moved to Salt Lake City where better doctors were available for Claron's eye and his mother's health. Also, Fay, Clay and Frieda lived there. Claron finished his last year of high school at South High. He earned As in algebra, history and geography and made many friends.
After graduating from high school, Claron went to work at Auerbach‘s department store in Salt Lake City. His mother wrote that Claron was having periods of depression and would cry a lot. Then Claron's mother died after a heart attack in 1948. This was almost more than Claron could take. He had lost his best friend and protector.
Josephine and Paul invited Claron to come and live with them and go to school at Mesa Junior College in Grand Junction, Colorado, which he did. However, in his mental state, he didn't do well in college and came back to live with his father in Salt Lake City.
Claron's mental condition grew from bad to worse. His father didn't understand mental illness or know what to do. Claron's brothers and sisters suggested taking him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist recommended that he go to the State Hospital in Provo for treatment. Two other doctors recommended the same thing so Claron was admitted to the State Hospital.
After eleven years of being a patient at the hospital, Claron showed little improvement but he was given responsibility and quite a bit of freedom. He made friends and loved to go to the dances. He was moved to a rest home in Provo and then to the Colonial Manor in Nephi, Utah, where he lived for 12 years. The rest of his life was spent at the Todholm Care Center in Springville, Utah.
Claron's father died at age 77 in 1955. Claron's oldest brother, Wendell (Bill), died in 1976 at the age of 72 of heart trouble. Bertha Allred Oliver (55) died in 1969 of a stroke and Elna Allred Hector died in1985 at age 69. Although shrinking in number, the remaining brothers and sisters went to see Claron when they could. However, Mark and Frieda lived in Orem so they were able to pick him up often for Sunday dinner, holidays and had family parties on Claron's birthday. Claron loved to travel and went with Mark and Frieda to the Arches National Monument, Dead Horse Point, Island in the Sky, Flaming Gorge, Rocks Springs, Wyoming, Monticello, Blanding, National Bridges National Monument, Mesa Verde, but his favorite vacation was to Disneyland. Claron never went hunting or fishing, but he relished the venison, pheasant and fish Mark brought home and Frieda cooked when he came for his monthly visit.
Josephine and Bertha invited Claron to Colorado for vacations. Elna invited him to Heber City and went to see him when she could. All his brothers and sisters were good to write Claron and were generous on his birthday and Christmas. Jo and Paul provided him with spending money each month and had him up to visit occasionally. Fay invited Claron to Salt Lake for the 24th of July parades and gave him spending money. Each family member helped in their own way to make Claron's life a little brighter.
Claron liked to give as well as receive. He remembered his brother's and sister's birthdays and their spouses with cards and sent each a small gift for Christmas. He was grateful for his gifts and remembered to send "thank you" notes!
Despite being blind one eye, Claron was proud of the fact he had read both the Bible and Book of Mormon from cover to cover. The teachings of these great books were a source of great comfort to him during trying times. As late as July 6, the day before he died, he was telling some of the Bible stores to Frieda on the telephone: God speaking to Moses from the burning busy, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace, Christ speaking to Mary after he had been resurrected and many others.
Claron also liked to bare his testimony and tell about his great, great grandfather, James Allred, who was one of Joseph Smith's most trusted bodyguards. He was proud that James Allred brought his family across the plains then went back and helped others. Claron joked about paying his tithing saying it was his "fire insurance."
Claron took an art class at the Senior Citizens Center in Springville for four years. He painted many pictures for family and friends.
He loved Moab and had many nostagalic memories of that beautiful green valley surrounded by red hills and all the cousins and friends that lived there.
Claron had many friends in Nephi and at the Todholm in Springville and many of them are here today to say goodbye. We love you Claron and we'll all miss you. Thanks for the memories.
Given by his older sister, Frieda Allred Hirst, at the funeral of Claron Allred.