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Show i - -V 1 I , : 1 , i v fi f. - . . I b L I I' ?ir". . 'r. .y . , ; M I I ; - ' t i 'TT s. Emma Walker chats with cusxom- woman Has chalked up an interesting p,;S in her S'aveway Market on Moab's list of accomplishments during her life-ain life-ain Street. The progressive business time in Moab. ickground Report ... Moab Business tkmm Prominent In Government Schools mnl Ranclilng Mrs Emma Walker, pro-ietor pro-ietor of Saveway Market, an outstanding example I ' the American Woman in e business worldl During r working career she has ckled business ventures ()at would challenge many ien. lrThe lifetime Moab resi-jnt resi-jnt has played prominent les in county government, hools, ranching and mer- landising, besides sand- I iching in more typically minine roles. She had an apt teacner j r hard work which has elledl success in her venires. ven-ires. Her father was the te John Peterson, prom-jent prom-jent early day rancher, jisiness promoter, church, yd civic worker. Valley Landmark IEimima grew up on a ranch East Moab, where she )w lives. The property was jDmesteaded by her grand-irents, grand-irents, the O. A. Warners. ;fore the turn of the cen-py. cen-py. It was Mr.. Warner iho built the manor-type me which still identifies ie property as a Valley ndmark. The Warner ranch took 1 most of t!he farm land of ic Eastern section of Moab alley. Mr. Peterson mar-cd mar-cd one of the Warner dau-iters, dau-iters, and later purchased ie ranch which has secv iur generations of the fam-y fam-y grow to adulthood. There were no idle mo-icnts mo-icnts on the Peterson 'njit ranch. Elmma and her 'rothers and sisters helped !ith the fruit picking -md acking at early ages. When mma reached high school ee, her father replaced the imily buggy with a "Du-int" "Du-int" car and she inherited ie job running taxi for the eterson packers. The car ad a sort of Whistle for a prn which echoed over the Italley. when sounded. Emma onked the shrill horn be-pre be-pre leaving the ranch, and ly the time she reached the Jwer valley, residents hired Js pickers would be wailing y their gates. q( Serves on School Board She attended elementary .lasses at Central School, ,'nd high school in the build-ng build-ng now serving as a library libr-ary which will be razed in . renovation project this ear. Years later she was o serve on the School !oard which built a new .igh school, now serving as '".rand County Junior High School; her name is on a 'laque inside the building. A fond part of Emma's Aouthful memories are e-.Jents e-.Jents in. Star Hall, on Center Cen-ter Street. In particular fhe recalls one school program pro-gram in which she and her Hassmates pumped "dash 1'hurns" to music. The bul-ier bul-ier making utensils are a parity today, aiid it is loubtful if one remains in 3ie valley. 4 In Star Hall Emma learned learn-ed to dance, and when her father, as LDS Bishop, started start-ed a silent movie program in the community hall, she pumped the player piano for background music. Opens Beauty Shop Emma completed her last year of high school in conjunction con-junction with classes at U-tah U-tah State University, at Logan, Lo-gan, then took a beauy course. She opened one of Moab's first beauty salons, the "Emma Jean Shop", in the Main Street building where the Shutterbug Camera Cam-era Shop now does business and gave marcelles and manicures. But she didn't like the smell of burning hair, and' accepted a call to go to the Northwestern States on a mision for the LDS Church. When she returned re-turned she was employed for a year as Grand County Deputy Clerk-Recorder, under un-der Clerk-Recorder Howard Balsley. Emma then married mar-ried Orris (Peggy) Newell, and the couple opened a store on Moab's Main Street Mr. Newell died six months after their marriage, and Emma and her father operated oper-ated the store for the next 17 years. Those were the years when a $50 day was good, s'he recalls. In 1933 Emma Peterson j was elected to the Grand County School Board. She served for 8 years, the last three as Board president, j The District operated then ' with budgets in the $2U-$30 ; thousand dollar bracket; during her last year on the Board the budget reached $55,000 and they "thought it was terrible." New School Built The District built a new high school during her reign on the Board, one of the mbst m(odern in the State. "People now wonder w'hy the gymnasium was ever put upstairs," she notes, and explains that in those days there were few students and all gym work was conducted after school hours. Now to work all students stu-dents into sports the gym must be in constant use, and the noise conflicts with classes. The building will be renovated this spring, and a separate gymnasium constructed. In 1937 Emma married the late Dr. E. H. Walker, and moved to Sego where he was company doctor for the Chesterfield Coal Co. Scgo, now one of Utah's ghost towns, was an active mining center then. At one time there were 200 miners and their families living there. When the Walkers moved after five years the mining personnel had dwindled dwin-dled to 40, and the mines eventually closed altogether The Walkers' daughter, , Janie, was born during their residency at Sego; in 194(5 when she was two years old, ; Dr. Walker died, and Emma i am! Janie moved into the family home at Moab. Manages Farm Mr. Peterson was aging and had retired by this time; Emma took over management man-agement of the 67-acre family fam-ily farm. The ranch had disintegrated and she had to start from scratch, replanting re-planting orchards and purchasing pur-chasing equipment. With the assistance of her brother, bro-ther, Frank, the ranch was restored to a profitable operation. op-eration. Emma drove tractors, trac-tors, irrigated the fields by lantern at night, and wi4h shrewd managership managed man-aged to get duel crops of beans and wheat off some of the land! each year. Keeping Keep-ing deer herds out of the corn patches r was jus:t one of the trials she conquored. Ancient Roses The Peterson home had been a valley showplace in its time, and Emma began restoring her mother's flower flow-er gardens. It is now innovated inno-vated to its original glory. Some of the ancient looses in the gardens are so rare they are almost exfinct,, such as the "John Hopper", and "Seven Sisters." The gardens today are a work of art. Emma has lost count of the roses, but one cr-. cr-. cular planting area in the j entrance garden contains over 200 choice rose plants. I She has also restored and modernized the house. The I exterior bricks were paint-' paint-' ed white, and the inierior J of the home looks like a page in a decorator maga-; maga-; zine. She added a glass sun-poiteh, sun-poiteh, and from early j spring to late fall the windows win-dows frame the spectacular spectacu-lar blooming gardens. Perhaps Per-haps the most special part of the home is the priceless antique furniture and wall hangings used by four generations gen-erations of her farnily. ' ! Boom Begins In '1 $53 Mrs. Walker entered en-tered the merchandising business again, in partnership partner-ship " with Mrs. Gen Pone. A year later they found themselves swamped with customers as Moab became the center for the World's first uranium boom. They were hectic years for the two women merchants; mer-chants; theirs, Millers Coop, and one other small store, were the only grocery outlets out-lets in Moab. They opened 7 days a week, and struggled to keep merchandise on the shelves. They were target for many transients who failed in go-for-broke prospecting pros-pecting ventures, but never theless, those were money-making money-making days. But they breathed a sigh of relief when William MeCormick moved from Dove Creek to open another big store in Moab and after three years Mrs. Walker bought Mrs. Pope's interest in the business. bus-iness. Land Sold She has operated the store alone since, and is one of the most proficient butchers in town. She began as a novice "just got a hind quarter of beef and began to cut." The Moab boom made another an-other change in Mrs. Walker's Wal-ker's life. She sold a portion por-tion of her ranch to the Hecla Mining Company for a private subdivision of homes for their workers. It was the first subdivision in Moab Valley, but is is still not a part of the city. It remains a private enterprise enter-prise with its own. water and sewer system, and Moab Mo-ab City has grown around it The remainder of her ranch Mrs. Walker has leased to Harlan Trimble to operate, although she retained the living quarters and yards. Carries on Tradition Mrs. Walker's daughter, Janie, carries on the family tradition of success in the business world. She graduated gradu-ated frcm Utah State University Uni-versity last year with a degree de-gree in fashion design. She now resides in Hong Kong, China, as a designer for import im-port Industries, of Seattle. |