Joseph Sharp Rawlins

Two days ago there was obituary notice in the paper. Don Cromar had died. I knew Don and his family when we lived in Denver, Colorado. That was 63 years ago. I have rather fond memories of that family. I think they moved from Salt Lake to Denver and were in the Denver first Ward. The members of the family that were my age were Kay and his brothers Don and Dale, who I think were twins, and their sister Carlie. They were all close to my age. The only one of the family than I had seen since we left Denver in 1949 was Carlie. She married J. Paul Jensen who also was in the same ward in Denver. Paul and Carlie moved to Lander while I was on my mission to Germany. When my father was released as the branch president in Lander, Paul succeeded him in that position.

Paul was a veterinarian and worked for one of the veterinarians there in Lander. Carlie had her first baby in Lander. On my way back home from my mission we stopped in Lander before going on to Salt Lake to report and then I took the Volkswagen bus that I had purchased for Ralph Lowe to Ogden and dropped it off. We were only in Lander for a short time. Carlie was insistent that we get dates for the high school dance. There were three of us traveling together and so she arranged dates for all three of us to go to the high school dance.

I decided to go to the viewing and see if I could see any of those people that I knew 63 years prior. Alice said, ‘Wasn't your great-great grandfather Rawlins buried in the cemetery in Murray?’ I thought he was buried in Draper, but I went to my database and found that Joseph Sharp Rawlins was buried in the Murray Cemetery along with his wife Mary Ellen Frost Rawlins. We decided it would be a good thing to see if we could find a gravestone for Joseph Sharp Rawlins since the church where the viewing was being held was on the same street just further down south. I felt it a good opportunity since I had never been to that cemetery before.

I did find and speak to the family members assembled. I did not stay for the funeral, but went straight to the cemetery. I inquired at the office as to the location of the gravesite. The lady there took me about 75 feet from the office and there was a large marker. I had previously looked on “Find A Grave” to see if they had a photograph of the grave marker. There was no photograph there. I now have a photograph which will I will try to upload onto the “Find A Grave” website. I include the photograph here as well.