In honor of the occasion, we reprint here the life sketch that Ivard R Cleverly (1915-1988) wrote back in the early 1960s. He is the father that got this whole family of ours started. As far as I am aware, this is the only story of his life he ever wrote.
I was born in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, on April 7, 1915. My father built the house himself. He lived in it all of his life. It was a brick home.
I was born a twin. My twin brother [Irvin] was born eight minutes after I was. I had six brothers and six sisters. My mother and father had thirteen children. My father's name was Henry William Cleverly, and my mother's name was Olive Ellen Ritchie.
My father was born in England and came to this country when he was one year old. He came to Utah and lived on the same farm all his life. He married my mother when he was 28 years old.
My mother was 18 when she married my father. She came from Kansas when she was a small girl.
I belonged to the South Bountiful Ward. I went to the South Bountiful Grade School, to Bountiful Junior High, and to Davis High School in Kaysville, Davis County, Utah.
I was married December 17, 1934, to Dorothy Batt by the bishop of the South Bountiful Ward, Ezra T. Hatch. We were married at my father's house. I worked at my father's house. After I was married I worked at different jobs: farmed, peddled milk, poured cement. I was working in a grocery store in Bountiful when I quit and started to work for the railroad, my present job.
Dorothy and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 16, 1935.
I never did much in the Church. I went to seminary two years. I was elected M Men president of the South Davis Stake. I was made a seventy when I was 19 years old. I served as secretary of the seventies quorum in Bountiful from about 1939 to 1941. I served two stake missions (as a home missionary) in the Weiser Stake and the Nyssa Stake from 1948 to 1952.
We have lived in a lot of houses since we were married. The first house was that of Clint Mills. It was a farm, and we ran it and got our house to live in and $10 a month. We lived there a year, and then Clint got married, so we had to move.
We moved in with my father for three months, where our first child, Lyle Batt Cleverly, was born [in 1936].
Then we lived in Kaysville and worked for my sister and her husband. He was in the Army and was away from home running a CCC camp. We lived there a year, then moved to West Bountiful and lived in an apartment house where our second boy, William Gail Cleverly, was born [in 1937].
Then we moved to Woods Cross and lived in George Salter's home. Our third son, Jerry Batt Cleverly, was born [in 1938] while we lived at Salters'.
Then we moved from there to Pern Yerter's house and lived there a year. Then we moved to Bountiful and lived in a small white house. Then we moved to a house that the city of Bountiful owned. Kay and Gene were born while we lived there [Kay in 1941 and Gene in 1944].
Then we bought five acres of land at North Salt Lake and built us a house. That is where Ray was born [in 1945].
Then we moved to Oregon and lived in Malheur County, where Dean [in 1949], Dale [in 1952], and Jackie [1n 1956] were born.
Then [in the spring of 1959] we moved to Nampa, Canyon County, Idaho, where we are living now.
My main interests and talents are sports. I was a member of the Amateur Athletic Association. I played baseball, basketball, and football when I was in high school. I've been on M Men teams that went to all-Church tournaments and several interstake tournaments. I have coached M Men teams. I've watched my boys play ball.
My wife and I have traveled a lot but not in a big area. We used to take our boys camping in the mountains and stay a week at a time. In 1957, 1958, and 1959 we traveled all over the state of Oregon with baseball teams from Adrian High School and to St. Joseph, Oregon, with the football team. We've been to California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana, and Washington.
