The following is taken from Barbara Jeanne Marsh Kew Noack's own life history.
I was born in the early morning of August 29, 1935. I am sure it must have been a very hot day because it is always hot in Phoenix in the month of August. I was the first and only child of the marriage of Robert Campbell Marsh and Louise Amelia Wolf.
When I was about four or five years old, I put some kittens that my mother was taking care of into a garbage can so they would be safe, and I put the lid on. Much to my mother's horror, she looked in there several hours later and they were all dead. Another time, when my mother and I were going on a bus trip, during the afternoon I went walking through a vacant lot. I stepped on a red ant hole and ants crawled all over my feet and legs. I was so frightened I just stood there and screamed, and my mother came out and grabbed me and put my legs in a tub of water which was under the evaporative cooler. By that night, my feel and legs were so swollen I couldn't get my shoes on, so I had to get on a bus (on which we were traveling to California) with just my socks.
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| Thanksgiving at San Juan Capistrano with her mother, Louise Amelia Wolf. |
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| Thanksgiving with her father, Robert Campbell Marsh. |
Some of my favorite foods when I was growing up were Vienna sausages, deviled ham, (Suzzy now knows why these were deemed a real treat when we ate them as kids) deviled eggs, tuna fish, bologna, and many fruits. (Barbara ate fruit with salt on it, which Suzzy thought was awful. She ate some watermelon at Girl Scout Camp and put salt on it...and loved it, so ate it that way from then on. She also liked salt on most fruit.) I was made to clean my plate because I was told that poor kids in China didn't have enough to eat - I would have been happy to send them mine! Two things I absolutely detested were liver and spinach. (Suzzy was so glad she hated those, since she NEVER fed us liver or cooked spinach.)
Sometimes when we traveled on the train, Grandma (Suzzy's Nano) and I would get a roomette. This roomette had bunk beds built in - which you pulled down from the wall at night - and a bathroom. It would be so much fun sleeping at night with the train going. I would get so used to sleeping with the constant motions that when we would arrive at our destination, I would have trouble seeping in a quiet bed. We saw so much beautiful scenery out the windows of the train.
My traveling has been pretty much limited to the western part of the United States. I lived in California for a few of my younger years and it was at that time that our country was engaged in World War II. We would have drills - at least weekly - where we would have to practice what we would do if the Japanese bombed us, so in class some of us would climb into cupboards - I didn't like that because it gave me claustrophobia) and some of us would crawl under out wooden tables where we worked in class. Everyone in the United States was asked to save any tin foil for war purposes. I don't know what they used it for. We would save it and form a ball and just keep adding to it. There was a gum - Beaman's Pepsin Chewing Gum - that was wrapped in white paper along with tin foil which we would carefully peel off and add to the ball. (Suzzy remembers that there was always a foil drawer in the kitchen where we would put the foil used from wrapping potatoes to bake and we used it over and over again. Things experienced in trying times are rarely forgotten.)
Things were rationed during the war and I remember standing in line with my parents to get sugar and cigarettes and we were allowed only one pair of shoes per year. I despised shoes I had to wear because my mother made me wear ugly brown leather high tops so I wouldn't get weak ankles. I don't remember ever having really pretty shoes as a child.
Some of the games we played when I was young were "hide and seek", tag, dodge ball, kick the can, hopscotch, jacks, marbles, paper dolls and regular baby dolls and dolls. When we didn't have money to buy regular paper dolls, we would cut pictures out of the Sears catalog and use them for dolls.
When I was in fifth grade, and again in the seventh and eighth grades at Madison School in Phoenix. I was so proud when I graduated because my mother had graduated from this school also. It was one of the best schools in Phoenix at that time. After graduation, I attended North Phoenix High School for one year and then moved to West Phoenix High School. I learned to play the cello and was in the school orchestra all of my four years. I liked playing the cello but I didn't like bringing it home to practice because I always traveled on the bus and when I would get on, the bus driver would tease me and ask if I would be "paying for two". In my senior year, I was chosen for the All-State Orchestra and went to the University of Arizona at Tucson for that orchestra.
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| Barbara with her younger half brother, John Dwight Hart, Jr. |
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| Barbara's Sixteen Year Portrait |
I never had too many boyfriends in school because I was so shy. I went to many of the school dances but never really went steady with anyone. I met Allan (William Allan Kew) on my first day at work at the Industrial Commission. He filed x-rays in the same department where I was a file clerk. We were friendly with each other, but each assumed the other had a girlfriend or boyfriend, so nothing ensued until one day when Allan asked me if I would be interested in going out on a blind date. I said I would. On the day were were to go out, Allan had to confess to me that he was the "blind date" and wondered if that was okay with me. Of course, I said it was and he too me out for dinner at Woody's Macayo Restaurant.
During our early courtship, we both declared that each of us didn't want to get seriously involved with anyone because we had both had a previous romance with someone else and we just wanted to have a good time. So, with that fact stated to each other, I think we both fell in love on our first date, but just wouldn't admit it. We were engaged the next year, on June 14, 1956 and were married exactly one year later on the same date. We had to wat a long time to get married because Allan's mother and sister insisted the his mother had to be on Social Security first because she needed to be supported. His mother and sister were never happy about Allan getting married, though I don't think it had anything to do with me. They just wanted him to stay with them forever.
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| Barbara escorted down the aisle by her stepfather, John Dwight Hart. |
Our first home was a tiny apartment at 315 East Palm Lane in Phoenix. It had formerly been a garage and was made into two apartments. It had a Murphy bed and when we put the bed down, one could hardly walk in the room. One day, when I was in the bathroom curling my hair, I looked under the bed and saw the wore on the clock "moving". As I kept looking at the cord, I soon discovered that the moving cord what actually a snake! I screamed and Allan flew out of bed and...threw it outside.
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| Barbara and Allan on their first wedding anniversary...in the clothing they wore when they were married. |
Our first house was located at 4130 W. Tuckey Lane in Phoenix. It was a two bedroom house which we eventually convetred into a three-bedroom by enclosing the carport. Allan was always busily adding paneling or installing louvered doors, covering a patio, adding a carport, building shelves and tiling rooms. (And Barbara could sew ANYTHING. She new how to make real drapes as well as curtains. She made matching clothing for them and for the kids...and eventually for the grandkids as well. )
After not being able to have any more children, we decided to adopt. We had a long struggle through many, many interviews before we were approved for adoption. When we got the phone call to say there was a baby boy waiting for us, I cannot tell you the excitement the three of us felt - although when the caseworker asked Suzanne if she wanted a baby brother or sister, she said "NO". Scott Allan Kew was born May 20, 1964 and his big sister was anxious to feed him and his daddy was very anxious go give him his first bath.
When we had outgrown that house, we bought our present home at 6701 N. 41st Dr. in Phoenix. It was only a few blocks from our previous home. It was a beautiful four-bedroom home and was nice and roomy.
I was brought up to attend Sunday school and church. I was baptized into the Baptist church When I met Allan he was a Congregationalist and I was so happy to fall in love with a Christian man that I started going to his church. We were married in the North Congregational Church and attended this church for several years. All of our children were baptized as babies. We then stated going to the First Baptist Church. We were looking for a church that our children could get a good foundation and with which we could all be happy. This church seemed to be what we were looking for until we noticed that many of the young people wanted to change everything to their modern way of thinking and many things in the church were changed. We then began to really search for a church for our whole family and thus were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints I was baptized and confirmed by our friend, Eldon B. Hamblin, M.D. He and his wife, Theone, became the dearest of friends to us as well as being our doctor. I had man long talks with Dr. Hamblin and he helped me to overcome many obstacles that were place before me.
One very special inspiring moment came to me when we attended the re dedication of the Arizona Temple. When I came home that evening, I wrote the following testimonial:
"Today at the dedication of the Arizona Temple, I felt like I was in the presence of God and His son, Jesus Christ. There was such a spirituality and closeness I felt to the more than three thousand people present in the room I was in . When I saw our beloved prophet, President Spencer W. Kimball, I knew that he was truly a man chosen by God. He has a sweetness and loving quality that only a true man of God could have.
"When the choir sang, 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' I was very emotional because that song was sung at my baptism and sit has has a very special meaning for me. ...
"When our prophet started giving the dedicatory prayer, I could hardly take my eyes off his sweet face...I was led to tears because truly our Heavenly Father was in our presence and it must have been felt by those present..."
"I hope the memory of the beautiful day will stay with me forever, and in times of strife I can look back on this day and remember knowing that the presence of our Heavenly Father was truly there and that I truly believe that Jesus is the Living Christ and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has truly been restored upon this earth."
Our family worked hard to become worthy to go to the temple and be sealed. The Lord blessed them with experiences that helped them overcome weaknesses and the our family was sealed in the Mesa Arizona Temple on November 4, 1975.
After years of illness, dear Allan died in September of 1977. After his death, I more or less stayed home with my children plus working as a medical transcriptionist. After a few years I went to a singles square dance and I met the man who was to become my second husband - Arnold Edward Noack. We were married in Las Vegas, Nevada in December of 1981. We did a lot of square dancing and round dancing and traveled quite a bit. He was from Buffalo New York and so we took a trip there and I had never before that time traveled any further eastward of Colorado. We square danced at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. having arrived there on a subway. It was very exciting just thinking of dancing there. We took another subway nd a bus and visited the Washington D.C. temple. We had a good - but short - life together. He died on February 27, 1986.
I did continue to go to singles square dances and became acquainted with Edward Attilio Prato. We went to a lot of dances and then he became ill and I was his caretaker for about 12 years until he died December 10, 2004. He was a great Italian chef and cooked lots of meals for me when he felt better and he came up with a recipe for beans that my grandchildren loved - especially Nathan - and consequently they were called "Ed's Beans". He wrote out a recipe so I could make them when Doran went on his mission, never realizing that this would be the last and only time he would write out the recipe as he died a few months later. He wanted Nathan to have that recipe, and though Suzzy might have sneaked information to other family members, the framed recipe is now in his family's possession.
After Ed's death, I could again become active in the Church and started going on a regular basis, and after several months I became worthy to go to the temple again. So, as part of the celebration of my 70th birthday, Sharynn flew down from Utah and joined Suzanne and Scott for a birthday dinner celebration and then a few days later Suzanne and Sharynn and I went to the temple together.
Suzzy remembers her mom's sewing skills. She made everything for her to wear. Back then, clothing for chubby girls was very drab and dowdy and she made bright and fashionable clothing for her. She would also fix sewing projects. Suzzy remembers that there was one time that she had an outfit under construction and was having a tough time fixing a mistake, so she went to bed. She woke up the next morning with the completed outfit hanging in the doorway of her room. Suzzy loved it when her mom made spaghetti and loved the chicken and dumplings she made once. Salads were her mom's specialty and they ate them all the time. She also remembers sitting with her mom on the couch late at night and digging out the chocolate chips out of the container of chocolate chip ice cream. Mom would also make late night runs to Jack in the Box for tacos and burritos. She did not like her mom's meatloaf or the pan fried hamburgers (popular then) or her cooked carrots. She made awesome turkey and stuffing at Thanksgiving, just like her Nano taught her, and made a Waldorf Salad with homemade mayonnaise. She was always in attendance at every chorus and band concert, every softball game, every play performance.
She now enjoys sewing, creating Christmas ornaments, and genealogy, and spends hours a week compiling and preparing names for temple work. She loves families together forever and that is her goal.
To complete this portion of her life, I close with her own words...
"I would like to stress to my descendants two qualities I have found very rewarding in my life. These are love and service. I feel that love comes from not having to love because someone is related or belongs to you, but loving because you really feel that love towards someone. To further explain - I have give birth to one child, whom I love very much, and I have been the mother of two children whom we adopted as very young babies and whom I love just as much. You see, giving birth to a baby does not automatically make someone a mother; but loving a baby the way I loved all of my babies - that is what starts to make a mother.
Another very important part of my life has been to try and give service to others. I used to love to surprise my mother by doing little things around the house, and I would feel so good inside because it would make her so happy....I don't believe one has to be recognized or thanked for every little thing one does. I always had a happy heart when doing service and it gave me a good feeling to know I was helping someone out. We know that our Heavenly Father is watching over us and He knows what we are doing, and if we know this then that is really all the appreciation we need."
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