Ancestral Histories

Zalia Huntsman Emmett

Zalia Huntsman was born March 31, 1909 to Elmer Ames Huntsman and Augusta Ann Norton. Her parents were farmers from Shelly, Idaho. The Huntsmans never had a lot of money, but always were able to feed their family because of their farm.

When Zalia was about 20 months old she was diagnosed with polio. The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was visiting Shelly after Zalia was diagnosed. He was able to give Zalia a blessing. In that blessing he blessed her that she would be healed. She did recover from polio.

More than anything else Zalia loved music. She was an astounding pianist. She taught herself how to play and by age ten she was playing for the ward. She continued to play the piano and organ for church until the end of her life.

The piano was one of Zalia’s many talents. She loved to swim. She was a superb cook. At the age of 12 she cooked for the farm crew that worked on her parents farm. Zalia also learned to sew and was extremely talented. She was only 4’10” and couldn’t find clothes that fit her very well, so she learned to make clothing for herself. Zalia was a social young woman. She loved parties, this carried into her adulthood and she was a gracious host.

In 1934 her childhood home burnt down and she moved to Portland, Oregon where her older sister lived. At the time she had two suitors, but couldn’t decide whom to marry. Once she moved to Portland she met Thomas Young Emmett. Zalia had asked Thomas if she could play the pipe organ that was in the chapel because she had only ever played on a reed organ. Thomas and Zalia began dating almost immediately.  They were married two years later in 1935 at the Portland Central Branch Chapel. They were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake City temple approximately a year later. They had to save up for the trip to Salt Lake to be sealed. They honeymooned in Seaside, Oregon.

Thomas held a number of callings in the Church. At age 27 he became a bishop after they had been married for only two years. He continued to serve as bishop for 14 years, he served in the stake presidency for three years before becoming the stake president for seven years. He then served as a regional representative for over six years. During his service for the church many general authorities visited the Portland area.  While visiting the general authorities would stay at the Emmett home. Zalia was always a gracious host. She would cook and entertain.

Throughout her life Zalia struggled with horrible migraines. She would have to sit in a dark room for days at a time to help temper the migraines. However, she never let her migraines get in the way of her duties. She would always have dinner prepared for her family as well as any guests.

Zalia and Thomas had four children, Kathleen (Kathy), Susan, John and David. Zalia loved her children dearly. She would allow them to have many friends over. She cooked three meals a day and transported her children everywhere until her oldest, Kathy, was 16 and took over the transportation.

Zalia suffered minor strokes throughout the last few years of her life. After her first stroke the doctors told her that she would only live for three more months, she lived for three and a half more years. She finally passed away November 13, 1985 at 75 years old.

At her funeral they played recording of Zalia playing the organ. Many people didn’t realize this until the funeral was almost over.

She left a legacy of being an extremely talented, loving and supported wife and mother. Her children look up to her and try to be someone she would be proud of.

Nancy Cornilles Haupt

Nancy Cornilles was born to Fred and Kathleen Cornilles in Portland, Oregon on October 15, 1958.  She grew up in Portland, Oregon and moved to Tigard, Oregon when she was ten years old.

As a child Nancy enjoyed playing with dolls and then Barbie’s. Nancy loved sewing and clothing throughout her life. She believed that she loved playing with baby dolls and Barbie’s because of her love of clothing. She even had homemade clothes for her Barbie’s that she passed on to her daughters.

Nancy grew up near Alpenrose Dairy in Portland. During the summers Nancy and her siblings would go to through the forest that separated her house and the dairy and would play all day at the dairy. Alpenrose had an old time town set up for visitors to tour. Every day they would give out five wooden tokens so that kids could go on rides and would also receive a piece of licorice and a drink with the token.

Nancy’s mother did not have a car so they kids had to make it to the bus stop on time or they would have to run to school. At the bus stop there was a taller mailbox that Nancy would stand under when it rained. Nancy’s sister would always take the umbrella and make Nancy stand under the mailbox. The girls devised a plan to run to school if they did miss the bus. They would run to one light pole and then walk the next, then run and walk. Nancy didn’t like running so once they got about two blocks away from school Nancy would find friends to walk the rest of the way with while Karen ran the rest of the way.  

When Nancy was 10 her family moved from Portland to Tigard. Her father built a pool at their house. Her family spent almost every day in the summer swimming in the pool. The would have parties with their friends that centered around the pool. However, since the Cornilles children had already swam all day they weren’t always in the mood to swim once their friends got to their house.

In elementary school Nancy only wore dresses. In the sixth grade they were allowed to wear jeans only on Fridays. It wasn’t until Nancy was in seventh grade that the schools allowed them to wear jeans any time.

Nancy took sewing and cooking classes in junior high. She really enjoyed sewing, but didn’t enjoy her teacher. On a couple of different occasions the teacher wouldn’t measure things correctly and then the clothes Nancy made wouldn’t fit. Once Nancy was making a one-piece jumpsuit and her teacher fitted it wrong so she couldn’t sit in the jumpsuit.

As a teenager Nancy would attend stake dances with her sisters and close friends almost every Saturday night. She grew up with a lot of the same kids in her age group. These same kids would go to the dances, seminary and mutual all together.

Seminary was held for a few years at the Cornilles’ home. In the morning Karen would get up and unlock the door for the seminary teacher. Then the kids would get ready and go down to the basement for seminary. The older kids would all drive to high school after seminary and the jr. high kids would stay and watch cartoons until it was time to go to school.

When Nancy was in high school she was on the gymnastics team. She didn’t get to have private lessons because her parents couldn’t afford it. She joined the dance team her junior and senior year because that was the only years you could be on the team. She also took a tailoring class in high school where she made a coat.

Nancy lived close to both of her grandparents. Every Christmas eve was spent with her father’s family. Her grandma, Virginia Cornilles, would make pajamas or crochet slippers for all the grandchildren. One year Nancy’s grandparents gave her a 2 foot doll and then her grandma would make dresses for the doll. The Cornilles would then spend Christmas afternoon and evening with Kathleen’s parents. The children would dress up and Nancy’s grandma, Zalia, would use the nice china for Christmas dinner.

Nancy’s parents sent her to college to marry a good Mormon boy. She got into BYU but on probation so she had to go the summer right after she graduated.  She really enjoyed college and even surprised her parents by how well she did.

After her first year of college Nancy went home to take care of her mom and siblings. Her parents had just separated after finding out that her dad had an affair. That summer her mom had fallen off a horse and broke her hip. Her parents officially divorced in September and both remarried in December. Her mother remarried Max Wright and they were married for 25 years. Her dad married the woman he had the affair with, they had the marriage annulled six weeks later.

While at her second year at BYU she met David Haupt. They dated for six weeks before getting engaged, four months later they were married in the Manti, Utah temple on November 2 1978. While they were dating and newlyweds they did a lot of fun things. David had a motorcycle and they went on lots of rides. David’s Uncle Jim took them on airplane rides and they played a lot of co-ed sports.

Their first son, David Isaac, was born August 22, 1979. David was still finishing up his schooling when Isaac was born. After he graduated from BYU he went to work with his dad as an electrician. David traded electrical work for a lot of things. There was a program where they would collect his hours and give him “coupons” that he could “spend” on different things that other people had made or were selling (it was a trade for other services). David got a lot of household items through this, and they were even able to buy their first house through this program.

The economy wasn’t doing very well at the time. They were living in Utah but David was working in Wyoming. Every day he would get up early and leave for work, he wouldn’t get back home until late at night and they rarely saw each other.

Nancy and David had three more sons, Brandon Levi was born October 17, 1981, Robert Adam was born July 7, 1983 and Daniel Reuben was born January 27, 1987.

Nancy and David needed a bigger house for their growing family. They went to an auction to see different houses. David sent Nancy to go and look at a couple of different houses. There were two houses that they were interested in. One was in Salt Lake City in a school district that taught English and Spanish, David really wanted to get that house so that the kids could speak Spanish (David had served his mission in Argentina and knew Spanish). Nancy on the other hand wanted a house in Wet Jordan. She hadn’t been able to go inside the house but she had looked through the windows and was very impressed.

When they went to the auction David was doing the bidding. David kept bidding on the Salt Lake City house, but Nancy really didn’t want it so she took the paddle and started bidding herself. They had agreed not to spend over $50,000. As the bidding got underway the West Jordan house and gotten up to their budget Nancy asked if they could go $52,000 and David blinked which Nancy took as approval and placed a bid at $52,000 and won the house.

They weren’t able to get in for another week until it closed, but they had renters coming to move into their current house. Nancy snuck into the West Jordan house to clean it before they were allowed to move in. While she was there a realtor knocked on the door and when she told him she owned the house he offered to buy the it from her for $75,000 on the spot but she said no. David was astounded that she said no. He said that they $25,000 and gotten a new house, but Nancy really wanted the West Jordan house. Nancy and David were $1000 short for all of the closing costs on the house so they asked Nancy’s Grandpa Emmett to loan them the money. They were able to repay Grandpa at the end of the month, and he said that no one had ever paid him back before. 

They had three more children, Rebekah born May 20, 1990, Matthew Jordan born February 28, 1992 and Hannah born on March 8, 1994.

In 1994 they moved to Newberg, Oregon. David went up first to try and find a house and a job; he took Adam and Levi with him. They stayed at Nancy’s mom’s house while they were looking. Nancy stayed in Utah with the rest of the kids and came up in August.

They found a house in Newberg and moved in August 22, Isaac’s birthday. They currently still live in that house. Most of the kids grew up in that house.

Nancy’s mother and stepfather, Max, bought a house in Lincoln City, along the Oregon coast. The Haupt family spent a lot of time at the beach house, and went on many vacations to it.

Nancy enjoyed a plethora of hobbies. Nancy learned to sew in school and continued to sew for the rest of her life. She made her children clothes and Halloween costumes. She also used her sewing skills to decorate her house. She always made pillows for the couches and drapes for the windows. Sewing helped Nancy to decorate and she expanded her skills to reupholstering couches and much more.

Nancy grew up playing the piano, and while Nancy and David were living in Midvale he bought her a piano. Nancy didn’t play for many people, but she enjoyed playing for herself and her family. When her mother moved to Utah Nancy inherited her grandmother’s organ and became the ward organist. It was challenging for Nancy but she did a great job playing for the church.

Nancy was very involved in the LDS church. She served faithfully in many callings. She spent a lot her time in the primary as a chorister or as a relief society enrichment meeting coordinator. David served in the young men’s organization especially dealing with the Scouts.

David and Nancy began biking while they lived in Oregon. They had, had a tandem bike for a few years, but they never really rode it. After living in Orgeon for a few years they met some friends who were into biking and they joined them on many couple rides. Biking was fun for them because they could talk about the kids and what was going on with their lives without getting frustrated. Biking on a tandem made them work together.

Nancy and David have also tried to go to the temple at least once a month for a date.