Emmett was born in Price, Utah, on April 22, 1907, to Zoe
Ellen and Leo Leonard. He was the second of nine children. They lived in
Peerless, Utah, a coal mining town and the children were bused to school in
Price, Utah, about 25 miles away.
I was born in Orangeville, Utah, August 12, 1908 to Annie
and John Irving Jewkes. l was the second of five children. My father and mother moved
to Wattis, Utah, a mining town where Dad worked in the coal mines mining coal.
I finished high school in Wattis. The family then moved back to Orangeville and
I stayed there and worked in an ice cream and candy store and also went to
beauty school.
During that time Emmett's parents moved back to Price while
he remained in the mining camps and worked in the coal mines. Leo, Emmett's
father, had a ten-piece orchestra. Emmett and his brothers, Lee and Clair all
played in it. Emmett played the saxophone. They were called "The Night
Hawks." They played for dances all over Utah and other states for 10 - 15
years. That's where I first met Emmett, I was sixteen and he was seventeen. They
were playing for a dance in Helper, Utah. My friends and I were there having a
good time. The music was great. I looked up and saw Emmett and thought he was a
tall, good-Iooking guy, so I winked at him. When the dance was over he came
over to talk to me and to my surprise he was short, but still good—looking. (I
was never going to marry a short guy.)
We went together for a while, but on one date we had to go
to a dance and he called and cancelled saying he had to work. It just happened
that Birdie, Emmett's sister, came and asked if I was going to the dance. I
said, "No." She insisted, saying. “If you get a date, you take me.
And if I get one, I'll take you."
Birdie got a date and he had a friend, which made it nice
for me. Surprise, there at the dance was Emmett dancing with a new girlfriend. Well,
that was enough of that two-timing guy, I thought. Needless to say, we started
going together again two months later and on October 27, 1927, we got married
in Orangeville, Utah.
