Family History Friday: Grandpa Buzz

After taking a Thanksgiving Weekend break, I am back with another Family History Friday! I have been really looking forward to this post because it features Grandpa Buzz, someone I have always wished I knew a little better. It is easy to see that Grandpa is super duper amazing! He is a logger, a mechanical genius, a faithful priesthood holder, a wonderful father, and an awesome grandpa! However, he has always been a bit of a mystery to me. When I would visit as a child, he was the man in the mask, like some super hero that I knew and loved, but never had a chance to see his true identity. Now that he is feeling better and out socializing more, I up and move to Michigan. Bummer!
Talking with Grandpa on the phone and reading his personal history has been great, and like working on the rest of my family history posts, it makes me hungry to know even more. But this blog is about rejoicing in the baby steps and so here is one baby step back to the world of my wonderful Grandpa Buzz.

Note: I have tried to focus this post, like with my other to this point, on the early years of my grandparents. My main sources for this blog are: a) a personal history Grandpa wrote in 1987 that focuses mainly on his health history and b) a phone interview I conducted with grandpa. Anything from either of these sources will be indicated in italics.

LeVan "Buzz" Webb

Young Buzz in the winter

"I was born August 7, 1939, in Lakeside, Arizona. To start off with, I'd like to give you some of those things that happened in my youth, in the early days of my life. I am the first son and second child of five children, born at home in a home delivery, with the doctor coming there to make the delivery."

"I got the name Buzz because my sister couldn't say "brother" very well, she said "buzzer". Well I was Buzz ever since. It is alright, but can be a little confusing when someone at the work site is looking for LeVan and no one knows who they are taking about."

"When I was growing up my father and his brothers had their own logging business, had a farm, and a cattle operation. My Father logged all his life and I was beside him all the time. We started with logging horses – little log trucks – and made our own jammers to load the logs. "

Grannie and Papa (Buzz's Parents)

" My Dad was the first one up each morning and the last one to bed after he checked to make sure everything was okay for the night. I worked with him until he died at age 93."

"My Mother was always in the Relief Society. She was RS president several times and Counselor several times. She was RS president in the Southwest Indian Mission and traveled many miles from San Carlos, AZ to Gallup, NM. The mission took in the Apache, Navajo, Hopi and Zuni Reservations. Another thing she did was make cakes to sell in a restaurant in Show Low for $2.00. Sometimes I made the cakes because she didn’t have time."

"I knew the Church was true when I went to Primary. I had wonderful teachers who helped me learn the gospel through the lessons they taught and the songs we sang. Mother’s brothers were quite wild and called Black Sheep because they drank coffee, liquor and cussed. This example showed me I didn’t want to be like them. I took an institute class at college and studied different religions. We actually visited several different churches. By then my testimony of the Gospel was strengthened and I knew for sure the Church is true."

Buzz in the Garden

"The thing I remember being the hardest growing up was gardening. Each Webb Family had a garden. We all lived in a small area at sawmill sites. The garden was more rocks than plants. We either had to remove the rocks or plant around them. I was the one in charge of getting the garden to grow in the Karl Webb family garden."

"The thing I liked the most as a child was having a horse. I always had a good horse and rode on round-ups on the neighbors’ ranches and Ward and Stake ranches. We got to help get the cows in and then brand them. When I was 7 years old I rode my horse 8 miles down to the Nedly (sp?) ranch. Sister Nedly was one of my primary teachers and I went down to their ranch to help round up the cattle. I often went and helped with their ranch. There was a local weed that the cows would eat and go crazy so we would go around the land and hoe it out. In the 60's the Webbs had a farm and I helped drive the cows south to brand them."

Buzz working with a hammer

Grandpa Buzz was always had a mechanical mind and attributes this to belonging to a long line of inventors and tinkerers. One such person was his Grandpa JH Webb. 

"He had a shop and I used to be his arms and legs and I worked with him. He was an inventor and he was always making things. After he had a heart attack at age 60 he had a cot set up in the shop. We would work until he got tired and then he would sit down to rest a while. Then he was back up working"
"Grandpa JH Webb took me to several inter-tribal ceremonies. They were in Gallup and Santa Fe, NM and on different reservations. We got to see the different tribal dances. Grandpa liked to go because most of the Indians spoke Spanish and he would talk for hours until everyone got tired. He learned Spanish when he lived in the Colonies in Mexico when the polygamists had to flee to Mexico."

"Where I grew up they didn't have Junior High so we played elementary sports, softball, basketball, and had track meets. In High School, I played football when I was a senior, played basketball, one year of baseball."

Buzz on Graduation Day

"My Dad took me out of school quite often to help with the logging. One time when I came back to school after being gone they had given another boy my desk. I was devastated. It made me behind in my classes when I was gone so much and it was difficult to catch up. Some things I never really learned. I graduated from high school in 1957."

Grandpa- You are truly amazing! You are one of the hardest working men I know. You are just like your grandpa JH Webb resting on that cot in the shop and getting right back up to work again. I am so honored to be your granddaughter and to inherit your legacy of faith and determination.