Barbara Ann

• Gender	Female
  Notes	brief history written by Vernal’s wife Barbara Ann to his grandchildren. Grandpa was born the same year I was; in 1939. He was just six months older than I am. He was born on January 31, in St. Anthony, Fremont, Idaho. His mom and dad were not active in the church when he was growing up. He told me that it was a Primary teacher that got him going to church. He was baptized on May 28, 1950. He was eleven years old. He played on the football team in St. Anthony when he was in High School. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Navy and served for four years. I don’t know all the places he served, but I do know that he spent some time on Midway Island and served on the ship USS Kearsarge, which was an aircraft carrier. He would refuel the aircraft and do other things with them. While he was on Midway Island, he and his buddies did a lot of snorkeling and diving. He made some kind of clear plastic case for his camera and he would take it underwater and took many pictures of fish, coral, etc. Most of those pictures are slides. I have them here if you are ever interested in seeing them. Not too long after we were married, he was showing them to me one evening. After an hour or so, I just couldn’t stay awake any longer and went to sleep, so I never have seen all of them. After receiving an honorable discharge from the military, he went home for about a year and then was called on an LDS mission to Eastern Canada. He enjoyed his mission and was an effective missionary. I returned from my mission before he did. I was serving in the Western States, and one of my companions, Betty, was from St. Anthony and was good friends with Vernal. I was living with Betty in Idaho Falls when Vernal returned home. Betty introduced us and we started dating in October and were married on January 27, 1966 in the Idaho Falls Temple. We lived in Idaho Falls for s short time and then moved to Rexburg, as Vernal was going to school at Ricks. He had studied electronics in the Navy and continued with that in school. After he graduated from Ricks, we moved to Salt Lake. He had received a scholarship to BYU and we had planned he would go there, but by then we had Tracy and Curtis, so he went to work as an electronics technician. Vernal did not like the “big city”, and found an electronics job listed in the newspaper for a job in Riverton, Wyoming. Neither of us even knew where it was, but it was a small town and located in the mountains, so he went for an interview. When he was offered the job, I really didn’t want to go. I liked being closer to my family. However, we decided to give it a try and found our home for the next 35 plus years. We both learned to love it there, and made many friends. Vernal served in many different positions in the church. He worked with the scouts (including your Dad, Curtis and Paul) and loved taking them on camping trips and 50 mile hikes. He was ordained a seventy and worked in the missionary program and later was made a high priest, when he was called into the bishopric. Eventually he was called to be Bishop of the Riverton 1st Ward. He was released about eight months before we went on a business trip to Hawaii. After the business part was over, everyone went home except us. We flew to the island of Kauai where we had a couple of wonderful days. The afternoon of April 28, 1982, we were driving back to our condo and Vernal wanted to go for a swim in the ocean. I just stayed in the car to read. It was at that time that he was caught in a rip tide (undertow) and drowned. Vernal always enjoyed being out in nature. He loved hunting and was very successful at it. We always had deer, antelope or elk in our freezer. He would always butcher. make deer burger, and many times he would cook it. He was a good cook and liked to make up his own recipes. He was a wonderful husband and father. Even though I wasn’t much of an outdoor person, he taught me to fish and we would take all the kids with us. He would help them fish, so they would leave me alone and let me fish. I learned to really enjoy it. He got his pilot license about four months before we went to Hawaii and he loved flying. We all had an opportunity to fly with him. That was a little scary for me because I didn’t like flying very much, but the kids loved it.
  Person ID	I38641	Moon Anderson Family History & Genealogy
  Last Modified	17 Feb 2018

  
  

  Family	Vernal Blaine Moon,   b. 31 Jan 1939, St. Anthony, Fremont, ID ,   d. 28 Apr 1982, Polehale Beach, Mana, Kauai, Hawaii
  Married	27 Jan 1966	Idaho Falls, LDS Temple, Bonneville, ID
  Last Modified	17 Feb 2018
  Family ID	F13027	Group Sheet