Eleanor Lyman

Eleanor Lyman was born 30 Nov 1904; she was the second child of Edward Leo Lyman Jr. and Agnes Eleanor Anderson. The oldest child did not live long and there were several years when Eleanor was the only child before another child lived. She was born in Oak City, Millard County, Utah.




This picture of Eleanor was taken when she was about 20 years old. She attended BYU for one year before she married Evan Justin Skidmore in the Salt Lake Temple on 25 August 1926.
Evan and Eleanor were the parents of 11 children. She is shown here with the oldest seven of them. This picture would have been taken in the early 1940's.

Eleanor and Evan raised their children on a farm outside of Delta in the community called Sutherland. Their home was originally two bedrooms. I don't think all of the children ever lived at home at the same time. The oldest were grown and gone before the younger ones were born.


Eleanor had many interests. One of her interests was geology and Native American artifacts. She is shown in Amasa Canyon in this picture. She was born in the age of horse and carriage and before she died men walked on the moon. She was a trusting soul and would believe anything. I imagine her so because of the unimaginable change she had really seen through her lifetime. She was always willing to buy a new vacuum from the salesman who really needed just one more sale and to take any kind of treatment for the arthritis she felt in her hip. She was always trying new diets - for her health. She was an early user of a juicer - long before juice bars she was mixing her concoctions of things that would for sure be good for you.

I first learned about Charles Dickens at her home. There weren't many books, but there were a few.

She grew a beautiful garden in that desert land. I remember lots of petunias and geraniums, plants suited to a dry climate. She had such a large lush green lawn. The fence rails were festooned with finds from her rock hunting trips. There were two tall shady trees to the west of the house strung with an extra large, extra strong hammock. I doubt Eleanor or Evan ever were in that hammock but it was a favorite spot for their many grandchildren.

One of the other things she provided for grandchildren was a big bag of dried apples at Christmas time. She would spend many hours in the fall peeling apples for the dehydrator.

Eleanor Lyman Skidmore passed away21 Nov 1985.