AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
CHARIS GREENWOOD SOUTHWELL

July 1, 1966

My father was attending college in Logan, Utah when I was born, Feb. 18, 1941. I was descended from Mormon pioneers. All of my grandparents were born into the L.D.S. Church and their parents or grandparents had been converted, primarily in other lands, and had come to the Salt Lake Valley as pioneers.

We moved a great deal during my early childhood and then when I was five we moved to Midvale the town where my father had been raised. We lived there until I was eleven and I like to think of Midvale as my home town. Our family built a home on 7500 South which was known as Greenwood Avenue because it ran through what had been my Grandfather’s farm. (Greenwood was my maiden name.) As a result we lived in a neighborhood of uncles, aunts and cousins, and we did a lot of things together. I enjoyed these relationships very much.

While we lived in Midvale we had various family hobby-businesses. My mother taught a dancing school in our basement and had quite a large number of pupils including my sister Julie and myself. Dad raised registered Brittany Spaniels and he grew prize gladiolus.

This last project was a real family affair since we all helped to plant and harvest the bulbs. In the fall we packaged the mature bulbs and my brother Don and I sold them door to door. In the summer my mother cut buckets full of the beautiful blooms each morning. The local florist came by and took what he wanted and then I sold the rest at a stand on State Street. In the fall I entered a bouquet in the school flower show and won the Grand Sweepstakes.

Also the summer before I entered the fifth grade my mother was ill and confined to bed for a long time and I had a major responsibility in caring for my younger brothers and sisters and nursing my mother as well. It was hard for me but I certainly learned a lot that summer.

When I was eleven in 1952 my father was transferred by his company, United States Steel Co., to San Francisco, Calif. We settled in Los Altos about 45 miles from the city.

We all loved California and it was here that I held my first position in the church. At that age I had quite a tendency to criticize my elders, especially my teachers. Then just a few weeks after I graduated from Primary I was called to be the Primary Chorister. I had no idea how to lead music and my voice was sadly inadequate. I had been extremely critical of the last Primary Chorister, saying to myself or my friends what I would or would not do if it were me. Now, eating all my words I tried to learn on the job, and I learned more than just how to lead music. I must add that it did turn out to be a wonderful experience and I have always loved to work in the primary.

I have four brothers and two sisters all younger than myself. Moving from one city to another as we did drew us closer together and we always enjoyed spending our time together. In 1954 my father was again transferred, this time to Pittsburgh, Penna. Many people who had lived there assured us that we’d be back to California, but we went determined to like our new home. We rented a large, old two story house, with a fireplace in almost every room and, best of all, a big attic. It was a romantic, old-fashioned place, perfect for five imaginative children.

The Eastern way of life was a new experience for our family. We became deeply involved in the activity of the small L.D.S. branch and we made many wonderful friends. However we had a great deal of illness while we were there. My brother, Robert, who was about five suffered almost constantly from asthma. Then in the fall of 1955 I came down with what seemed to be a kind of Rheumatic Fever or Arthritis. On our doctor’s advice we moved to Arizona and then back to California, where I eventually became better.

I was ill and confined pretty much to bed during most of my first two high school years, but thanks to my tutors I was able to keep up in my school work and I entered Fremont Union High School as a junior in September of 1957. I’m grateful for the things I learned from the experience of being ill. During a very formative period of my life it guided my thinking toward spiritual things and I think it helped me to develop a good sense of the values of things. I also gained a great appreciation of things we commonly take for granted, for example the wonder of the human body and the great blessing of good health. I think it also helped me to develop a certain kind of patience and empathy that I hadn’t had before. My life will always be sweeter because of those troubles.

I was healed by the power of the priesthood and my life was preserved and in return I know I owe a great deal to the Lord.

I graduated from high school in June of 1959 and the following September I entered San Jose State College as a freshman.

During my senior year in high school I dated steadily with an L.D.S. boy who was in charge of the church meetings at the Moffett Field Navy Base and I helped him by leading the singing. As part of a missionary effort he invited the full-time missionaries to come and present a series of lessons to our group, which included one or two non-members. The Supervising Elder of these missionaries was Elder Southwell. He inspired us all with his teaching of the basic principles of the gospel. When he taught, he taught with the power of the spirit. I was very impressed with this young missionary. Then just before I began college in the fall, my boyfriend and I stopped seeing each other.

About this same time Elder Southwell was released from his mission and he gave a farewell talk in our ward sacrament meeting. I had learned so much from him that I felt I would like to thank him for the trouble he had taken to come to our meetings. Still I knew that he was very strict about girls and I was a little reluctant to go up and speak to him. My gratitude overcame my shyness however and I thanked him. I was glad I had because he seemed to sincerely appreciate it.

Many of my friends went back to BYU and in their letters I began to find bits here and there about “Elder” Bill Southwell, who was going to school there. I found my interest growing. Then one day I received a letter from him. He’d needed to get in touch with my old boyfriend and he had been given my address by one of my friends as the best place to reach him. Then before he wrote he heard that we were no longer going together and he decided to write to me anyway. This began an active correspondence which lasted the school year. Then in the spring he wrote and told me to come out to B.Y.U. to attend summer school. I had a feeling that something like this would happen and I agreed at once. I went to summer school and then returned to B.Y.U. the following fall. At the end of the next summer, Sept. 22, 1961, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

I had been told in my Patriarchal blessing to be careful in choosing my mate because he would be brought to me by the Lord. I know that this promise was fulfilled.

After we were married we attended school for one more year while Bill finished his B.S. We then went to California where he worked for NASA for a year. After this year we returned again to B.Y.U. where Bill started his graduate work and I continued work on my B.A. degree. I graduated in May of 1965.

We have enjoyed our years in school and we feel that we have been greatly blessed. Circumstances have been such that I haven’t had to work outside the home and we’ve always had all we’ve needed. Also we have made many wonderful and lasting friendships. We decided early in our courtship to talk over all our problems and to never keep even the smallest, most trifling secrets from each other. What a blessing this decision has been to our marriage. It has prevented barriers from building up as they do in many marriages and we have grown closer to each other as the years have passed. We find that we tend to do more things together than most couples we know, and we share our interests so that we enjoy each other’s work and achievements.

The only empty spot in our lives has been the absence of children in our home. But we know that if we live worthy of the blessings we’ve been given to this end, that sometime we’ll be privileged to have a family to raise.