English, Unpublished edition: Jean V. Gordon Lauper Collection Lauper, Jean V. Gordon

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Jean V. Gordon Lauper Collection
 
Bookmark: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/435514
Physical Description
  • 15 boxes
  • Correspondence
Published
  • L. Tom Perry Special Collections
Language
  • English

Edition details

Title
  • Jean V. Gordon Lauper Collection
Creator
  • Lauper, Jean V. Gordon
Published
  • L. Tom Perry Special Collections
Physical Description
  • 15 boxes
  • Correspondence
Subjects
Notes
  • Jean Lauper, 1904-1977, spent her mature years in San Francisco. A lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she was married to Serge James Lauper (born 18 August 1901, Lehi, Utah), a bishop, stake president, and patriarch. She herself was particularly active in the music of the church, and as an enthusiastic promoter of projects and new ideas. She was the mother of four daughters, a creative hostess, and an inspiration to friends and observers. The Jean V. Gordon Lauper Papers consist primarily of her correspondence and journals, with some papers of other family members, such as her husband and children, also included. Jean Lauper, 1904-1977, spent her mature years in San Francisco. A lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she was married to Serge James Lauper (born 18 August 1901, Lehi, Utah), a bishop, stake president, and patriarch. She herself was particularly active in the music of the church, and as an enthusiastic promoter of projects and new ideas. She was the mother of four daughters, a creative hostess, and an inspiration to friends and observers.Her parents James Frater and Margaret Elizabeth Schutt Gordon met and married in Utah. They traveled north in 1899 to colonize in Canada where they expected better financial opportunities. The family then consisted of her parents and their two sons Kenneth and Fairfax. Traveling with them were Jean's maternal grandparents Eliza Brereton Vernon and Henry Schutt, and her aunt and uncle, Fannie Schutt and Robert J. Gordon, siblings of her parents, and their daughter Izy. The family settled in the small town of Stirling in southern Alberta.Another daughter Hortense, preceded Jean in the family, and Jean Vernon Gordon Lauper was born on April 6, 1904, the 2nd daughter and 4th child. Jean noted that her mother had often told her that she was particularly welcome because about 9 months earlier Margaret Gordon had been told, in a blessing, that the Lord wished her to again become a mother, and here was Jean, the "Child of Promise."She showed early talent and skill in two interests which later became important aspects of her life: music and sewing. The whole family was musical, and as she relates, her early memories were filled with music. "Dad down stairs, whistling and tap-dancing to get warm as the fire in the big black kitchen stove began to burn. Dad and Mama playing the violin and piano together, or singing duets as she played the piano. Mama playing lovely music as I was outside on the lawn, listening carefully to every note. My sister Hortense practicing, for she took lessons and was a talented pianist. She and my brother Fair playing duets on the piano." Her parents also provided music on the piano and violin for local dances.When Jean was five, she heard her mother rehearsing with a young violin player. After he left, Jean got out her father's violin, and improvised an alto harmony to the melody. Her mother was impressed and arranged for her to have lessons on the violin. She later studied singing, and eventually her major musical interest became choral conducting. Over much of her mature life she conducted choruses of women in the church or in the San Francisco PTA, church choirs at the ward and stake level, and groups of young people in musicals which she produced.Her music was a talent which she inherited from her family; her sewing was a skill which developed against family inclination. Her talent for design was evident as early as five or six when she produced a collection of doll hats. When she was ten or eleven, her mother bought a used sewing machine and urged her to use it. Her mother was a poor seamstress, and she was glad to relinquish that aspect of homemaking. Jean eventually took over the family sewing, becoming very adept. All her life she was inspired by fabric and visions of completed garments. She never felt challenged unless she was a yard short or had to cut around some imperfection, and she had an unerring eye for detail. Later, a talented designer told her she should have been a milliner because of her imagination and skill.Her parents had moved to Canada to colonize and farm. This proved unsuccessful, and they moved from Stirling to the larger town of Raymond, about seven miles away, where her father did some civil engineering. When she was thirteen, the family gave up on Canada and moved to Salt Lake City. They knew hard times there during the depression. Her brother Kenneth rode the rails looking for work. Jean's mother sustained herself with church work. Jean found a musical mentor in Stella Paul Bradford who coached her singing voice and encouraged her conducting. Much of her musical skill dated from this period.The family gradually gravitated to Los Angeles where Jean found a job in the china department of the May Company. She was later selected to go to St. Louis for six weeks of training in special sewing and pattern alterations so she could help customers with their sewing problems. In the May Company store, she demonstrated a simple McCall's pattern called the "45 Minute Dress." She made two a day, never exceeding thirty-five minutes, including cutting and finishing.At the May Company she met a young man demonstrating vacuum cleaners. He was Serge James Lauper, a returned missionary. He had also moved from Utah looking for better financial opportunities. After keeping serious company with Jean for more than a year, Serge was sent to Oregon to work. Although the two were not on good terms just then, they met to say goodbye. Jean's mother innocently asked whether they planned to marry before he left. Neither had anticipated such a plan, but they both agreed to marry with the plan that Jean join him later.Most church leaders were away at General Conference, but after many calls, Serge finally located Brother Sconberg, in Long Beach, about fifteen or twenty miles away. Jean and Serge went to the house of her sister Hortense and Blaine Steed and were married about 10 P.M. The date was October 6, 1929. The next day Serge left for Oregon.When Jean joined him four months later, they began the peripatetic life of a traveling sales couple. He had bought a new dark red Ford, and she soon did all the driving as he rested and prepared for calls.When a child was expected, it was time to settle down. In 1930, the company transferred Serge to Oakland, California, where their first two daughters were born. Although not one who adored babies in general, Jean immediately took to this new calling, quite overcome with the perfection of her first child. For her children she practiced her skills in sewing and music, outfitting them in original clothes, and encouraging musical practice and performance.In 1937, the family moved to San Francisco. They lived in a rental property on 25th Avenue until the fall of that year when a house was completed for them on 24th Avenue. This house looked much like the other houses on the street, but had custom features which reflected family life there: a book-lined study, an extra bedroom on the back, a downstairs bathroom. This house was the setting for more than fifty years of Lauper family life.Jean's life centered in that home. At the living room piano she worked over the music her choruses would sing. There she entertained company in her uniquely enthusiastic and creative way. In the study she made the endless encouraging telephone calls which kept her projects afloat and wrote letters to her family and friends. In the kitchen she cooked up the batches of brownies and fudge and the decorated cakes for which she was well-known. In the closets was the evidence of her creative and precise sewing. In her bedroom she sewed almost daily, completely cleaning up all evidence of scraps and threads after every use. She would lay out a cut fabric for a new dress for one of her daughters after the children had left for school. By the time school was out, the dress was often ready for a final fitting. Her stock of fabrics filled drawers and cupboards throughout the house. The house reflected her taste and activities.When Serge decided to go into business for himself, she signed up for typing and bookkeeping courses, soon becoming an adept business person as well. She worked beside him while he maintained this independent business before he was lured back to his earlier company with the promise of new benefits.Jean's mother Margaret Gordon had spent her widowhood on a mission for the church, traveling for the genealogy program. She later lived with her daughter Hortense and granddaughter Joyce Anderson. In 1961 she came to live with Jean and Serge. The years of her stay were demanding and difficult ones for Jean as she cared for her mother. When Margaret Gordon died in 1966 at the age of 100, Jean felt the need to continue her mother's work; she became an ardent genealogist. This interest preoccupied her during her later years as she devoted herself to research and travel.She had just returned from a visit to her daughter Bonnie's family on September 12, 1977, when she suffered a stroke. She died three days later on September 15 in San Francisco.She had never been a girl to cuddle other people's babies, and as she said, she preferred children to be "completely dry, very pretty and practically silent." But her first daughter awakened such fierce feelings of love and protection, that she realized she had been born to be a mother. From then on she devoted her major efforts to motherhood. She supported and encouraged her four daughters, signing them up for lessons of all kinds, producing enviable wardrobes, and seeing that there were no limits to their educational opportunities. She was a good friend to them, and after their marriages, a lively and indefatigable correspondent.Within the greater family and church context, these three major interests shaped her life: sewing, music, and genealogy. An enthusiast and creator of original ideas and projects, Jean involved many people in her legacy of musical and dramatic programs. She was insightful, imaginative, original, ambitious, and impatient with those who hesitated. Because few others caught her vision, she generally served as artistic director, producer, conductor, secretary, costumer, and in whatever other capacities were required.Her four daughters are Georgia, Claudia, Pauline, and Bonnie.I. Georgia Kathryn (b. 19 July 1931) married (19 December 1952) Crawford Marion Gates (b. 29 December 1921) and is the mother of four children:1. Stephen R. Gates (b. 8 October 1953) married Nancy Roseanne Bliss (b. 27 October 1957). a. Stephen R. Gates, II (b. 24 March 1995)2. Kathryn (Kathie) Gates (b. 10 November 1954) married Paul Reinhold Kern (b. 29 March 1955). a. Philip Reese (b. 14 March 1981). b. Karl Crawford (K.C.) (b. 11 March 1984). c. Peter Alfred (b. 28 November 1986). d. Erika Kathryn (b. 14 August 1990).3. Elizabeth (Liza) Gates (b. 29 August 1957) married Kirby Jon Dailey (b. 20 May 1959). a. Emily Rachel (b. 11 January 1983). b. Laura Elizabeth (b. 25 October 1984). c. Benjamin Ross (b. 25 October 1987). d. Robin Michelle (b. 17 January 1991).4. David Wendell Gates (b. 30 October 1958) married Carole Borgholthaus (b. 30 Aug. 1962). a. Janssen Christine (b. 14 September 1985). b. Merrick Danielle (b. 20 July 1987). c. Landen Camille Adair (b. 7 July 1989).II. Claudia Marian (b. 11 June 1934) married (19 August 1955) Richard Lyman Bushman (b. 20 June 1931) and is the mother of six children:1. Clarissa Bushman (b. 3 October 1956) married Charles Kampmann Ortel (b. 11 January 1956). a. William Charles Gormley II (b. 15 May 1988). b. Montana Emily Grace (b. 4 March 1993).2. Richard L. Bushman, Jr. (b. 13 February 1959) married Harriet Louise Petherick (b. 17 August 1953). a. Helena Claire (b. 12 May 1987). b. Richard-Raphael Lyman (b. 28 April 1989). c. Christopher Maximilian (b. 11 February 1991).3. Karl Edward Bushman (b. 26 November 1962) married Elizabeth Diane Spurgeon (b. 24 October 1962). a. Ted Spurgeon (b. 17 April 1990). b. Luke Edward (b. 12 May 1992). c. Nadia Pauline (b. 27 February 1994).4. Margaret Elizabeth Gordon Bushman (b. 17 March 1965) married Michael Francis LaBianca (b. 27 May 1964).5. Serge James Lauper Bushman (b. 1 May 1966) married Patricia Ann (Patty) Shelley (b. 8 November 1956). a. Peter Whiting (b. 2 October 1993). b. Shelley Jean (b. 15 March 1995).6. Martin Benjamin (Ben) Bushman (b. 21 June 1971) married Deborah Norton (b. 16 July 1971).III. Dixie Pauline (b. 24 August 1937) married (9 June 1959) Gilbert Alden Hutchings, Jr. (b. 15 February 1935) and is the mother of four children:1. Sloan Alden Hutchings (b. 27 January 1964) married Laura Kay Lee (b. 20 March 1968).2. Gregory Gordon (b. 31 May 1966).3. Emily Ann Hutchins (b. 14 April 1968).4. Brent Bradford (b. 9 February 1971).IV. Bonnie Jean (b. 12 September 1943) married (3 September 1965) Glade Patterson Goodliffe (b. 17 May 1941) and is the mother of seven children:1. Jay Michael (b. 27 July 1968).2. Stephanie (b. 5 May 1970).3. Amy Elizabeth (b. 11 April 1972).4. Natalie (b. 29 November 1973).5. Elizabeth (Betsy) (b. 18 August 1975).6. Holly Christina (b. 17 December 1978).7. Jeanette (b. 7 July 1981).Additional genealogical material can be found in the Lauper Family Directory, published annually from 1967 and is available in the Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City, Utah under numbers CCF 136531 and CCF 208224 as well as fiche number 6055284.As of October 1995, she had twenty-one grandchildren and twenty-two great-grandchildren. [Updated by Claudia L. Bushman, October 1995.]; The Jean V. Gordon Lauper Papers consist primarily of her correspondence and journals, with some papers of other family members, such as her husband and children, also included. Primary correspondents include the following: Family in the Bushmans, Gates, Goodliffes, Hutchings, Laupers and Izy Steele; and friends in Pearlina Alley, Margaret Fletcher, Rose McIntyre, Betty Russell, and Tom and Winifred Stevens. The collection is arranged in the following order: correspondence, journals and diaries, biographical files, church files, family history files, and miscellaneous.
  • MSS 1559
Terms of Use
  • Family use anytime. Open to scholarly research in 2000. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.Permission to publish material from the Jean V. Gordon Lauper Collection must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/​or the Special Collections Board of Curators.
Language
  • English
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