Lee R. Christensen's photos Taken from his book "You Knew Me As Buddy".

Lt. Lee R. Christensen















Howitzer Section, Mt. Pleasant Battery World War II





Howitzer Section, Mt. Pleasant Battery Utah National Guard, 1935


Enlisted Club Dance 1941

Lee's Memory of A.E. Jones

Like all of my activities then and now I started clarinet playing with great enthusiasm.  Reached quickly a very modest plateau which I maintained through eighth gradne and then dropped off freshman year high school.  I was never better than last chair clarinet section and in 6th had 4th graders ahead of me.



I played away from the band in public twice.  First in a 5th grade class program I played a solo, "There's an Old Spinning Wheel."  When it could have been Phil Squires , a duet before his mother's social club.  Why me?  When it could have been Phil Squires.  Even Wayne is wondering that today.  I was so bad at keeping time that Wayne put his foot on mine to tap the beat.  Again, there was no encore.  But as I remember, we finished together.



By eighth grade, Junior High I was an accomplished faker.  Or maybe Paul Webgb, the band leader, didn't care.  I wasn't ruining the performance for the rest of the band.  Then, even today as I write this I'm starting to squirm in my chair.  A.E. Jones, the district Superintenant , a former music teacher visited the band practice.  He immediately notice the lack of so much as a twang from the faker in the clarinet section.  The rest of the band hour was devoted to the musical education of Lee Christensen.  Paul Webb's contract was not renewed and the rumor around town was that the faker in the clarinet section was responsible.  A.E.'s son, Kenneth was one of the 4th graders ahead of me in the section.



I was never much of a performer.  As a sophomore seven of us danced as Snow White's dwarfs in  Margaret Nielson's dance revue.  We were so out of step, everyone thought it burlesque.  Newel, Billy Beck and Lyn Poulsen were three of the hoffers.  Because I wore glasses, I was Dumbo of the group. 



And then in an all male senior year, one act play, performed but once at assembly I forgot my lines.  Because I couldn't hear the prompter, I pulled the script from my pocket; looked up the forgotten line and read it.  Haberbosch still remembered forty years later when he saw me at our 40th (Class Reunion at Wasatch).  Told me he gave up directing after that.



Years earlier after one of my on-stage performances, A.E. Jones corrected my presentation.  This was at an Armistice Day Assembly, probably  eighth grade, where L.R. Christensen Jr. dressed as a WW1 soldier was telling the audience how the war started.  I kept confusing Serbia with Siberia.  After my presentation A.E. took me aside and explained the difference.  I doubt that I wrote the script so we must have had a confused teacher.  A.E. probably wondered why with about eighty teachers in the District he had to be the one to straighten out the Christensen kid.



I don't know what happened to A.E. and his family after they left Mt. Pleasant.  He was at one time president of Carbon Junior College.  He died in San Luis Obispo, California so may have been affiliated with Cal-Poly the university there.  He was an outstanding educator, but good as he was he couldn't make a clarinet player out of me.  L.R.

Mt. Pleasant's Btry A 204th FA Bn

Here are two photos of a howitzer section from Mt. Pleasant's Btry A 204th FA Bn taken on or motoring to the Yakima Firing Center March/April 1942.

North Sanpete service men are: 1st photo: DelRay Sorenson left of truck, front left John Seeley, Leo Truscott behind John, Clay Bagley sitting on tailgate and Lee Christensen hand on hip>. 2nd photo: John center front,, Lee to the right and Leo scratching a woodtick bite. Clay is 2nd from left, back row;. Both Clay and DelRay from Moroni.

Lee R. Christensen Adds Further Information About Lieut. Dick Ericksen

And our Friend Lee  R. Christensen adds:

  Dick Ericksen was one of three Mt Pleasant boys who learned to fly in 1938/39 and the three may be the first locals who learned to flyt;. The three, Dick, Leon Holman and Don Nielson , all 1938 high school grads took flying lessons thru Snow College sponsored by the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 which may also have paid for the Mt Pleasant airport completed 1938.

Both Dick and Don went on to become military pilots flying for the Army Air Corp . Leon was heard to say "Had I been born to fly I would have had feathers:" and was not known to have flown other than as a passenger ever again.

Dick was well known as a "flyer" around Mt Pleasant years before he took flying lessons;. In the 1930s both grocery stores, Erickson's and Johanson's, delivered their groceries to your kitchen door. Dick was the driver for Ericksons and probably started at age 14 or earlier;. State street was un paved and mostly ungraded until summer of 1938 and was the rub a dub champion of the streets universe;. Dick was well known for driving it at high speeds hoping to just brush the tops of the washboard ridges;. No one did it better than Dick;. But good as he was he frequently broke every egg in his delivery.

Lee and Beth Reminisce -

Our Friend, Lee R. Christensen Introduces Himself (letter to Dorothy Jacobs Buchanan)

Bill K. Peterson Story by Lee

A couple of weeks ago, we posted W. K. Peterson's obituary.  Our friend Lee R. Christensen had written a piece in his own book, "They Knew Me as Buddy and Other Tales" about Bill K. We would like to share with all of you now.

As you know Bill K. was the town marshall in our day. One of his routines was to patrol downtown area during the night. His duty station when not roaming the street was in the garage back of the post office - - First West and Main. One night he was surprised by some would-be robbers (he was probably snoozing), ordered to open one of the business houses; tied up and made to watch while they stripped the place bare.



I don't know that they were ever caught. L'Amour would have had a posse catching them as they galloped down Salt Creek Canyon with Bill K. out front waving a white hat. I don't remember any bank holdups so either there was no money in them or Bill K's reputation as a lawman was well known at least during daylight hours.

Hamilton Grade school 5th grade, 1932 - 1933






Front row lf to rt: marland zabriskie, shrol erickson, billy hansen, buddy christensen, arthur oldham, que barton, newel nelson, phil squires, allen olsen, rex christensen, blain shelly

2nd row lf to rt: alice johnson, jane brittan, miriam candland, carol anderson, geraldine staker, lavon draper, mareen tidwell, florence peterson, barbara beckstrom, lavon carmbon, unk, mary hafen, mayre mckay, betty jensen

Back row lt to rt: andra sorenson, mary kathrine christensen, elaine sorenson, beth lund, alma johansen, evelyn jensen, fern olson, hilda roberts, charles rutishauser, kenneth johnson, wayne peterson, boyd johansen, lon simmons, cataract olson Marsden Allred, teacher

Recreational activity sponsored by the Lions Club summer 1929. Instructors, not pictured, were Vernal Christensen and Dee Keusseff Picture taken by Arthur Childs on steps of Johns Gym, Wasatch Academy First row lf to rt: rex matson, buddy christensen, robert christensen, gordon brunger, unk, ray freston, phil squires, dale christensen, leon holman, dewey fillis, allen olsen, shirly madsen 2nd row lf to rt: jake johnson, bob rasmussen, unk, r w christensen, ferd nelson, bry christensen, unk, unk 3rd row lf to rt: unk, doyle draper, don anderson, bry jacobs (white shirt), fred rasmussen, rex syndergarrd, arron jones, emil lund, joe matson 4th row lf to rt: jean brunger, ruth christensen (blurred), leone larsen, beth lund, unk, leslie candland, unk, beth hansen, unk, unk Top row lf to rt: Dr Holman, unk, unk, unk camille holman, miriam candland, unk, unk, Coach Brunger holding tommie brunger, LR Christensen, Joseph Matson,
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LEE R. CHRISTENSEN COLLECTION

North Sanpete Junior High 1936-37

FACULTY - 1936-37

Front Row L to R: Verl Johanson (Principal), unk, Merlin Christensen

Second Row L to R: Marsden Allred, unk, unk, Pauline Peterson, Reese Anderson, Max Blaine.

Hamilton Elementary 1941




HAMILTON GRADE SCHOOL BAND 1933-34: Marsden Allred, teacher

Front Row L to R: Gordon Brunger, Edwin Seeley, Unk, Unk, Croft Larsen, Perry Peel, Unk Frank Neilson, Unk, Unk.

Second Row L to R: Robert Fowles, Don Johansen, Kenneth Jones, Keith Anderson, Buddy Christensen, Phil Squires, Boyd Seely, Unk, Wayne Peterson, Marsden Allred.

Third Row L to R: Unk, Micky Nelson, Unk, Beth Lund, Unk, Unk, Unk, Rex Christensen, Shrol Erickson, Wayne Burnside.





HAMILTON ELEMENTARY FIFTH GRADE Year ???