Doris Marie McDuffee Autobiography
My name is Doris Marie McDuffee Leu. I was born July 20, 1932 in Kankakee, Illinois in my grandparents home at 192 S Greenwood Ave. Grandmother was the attending nurse and both sets of grandparents were in and out of the room so much that my mother in her nervousness said she was ready to forget about the whole thing. At 6 months I moved with my parents to Decatur Illinois where the depression quickly wiped out my father’s business. We moved to Peru, Indiana, Sioux Fails, South Dakota and Mitchell South Dakota and then to Carol, Iowa in rapid succession as my father became a traveling salesman for Goodyear Co. I met many friends in my travels tho I was a shy and quiet, but spoiled child.
I never had any brothers and sisters tho my mother said she miscarried a boy before having me. I was a lonely child and my mother tried to make up for it by creating all kinds of activities for me. She became my scout leader from 7–16 as I advanced through Girl Scouts. Mom created the Brownie flag and we were inseparable through Brownies to Senior Girl Scouts, When we moved to Norfolk Nebraska, Mom became the commissioner of Scouts. We had such fun times at camp and hikes and doing all the activities she thought up. We knitted afghans for the soldiers in the war and carried messages around town on our bikes when the town flooded. Mom started a neighborhood cooking club and we loved fixing cookies for the boys on our street. (We filled them with exlax and cayenne once!) Many of the girls from our troop are still my friends now.
As I grew up I discovered I had a talent for singing. I took lessons from Lulu Nordeen an opera singer in town. I learned many Italian opera songs and did learn to control my range. I sang for Eastern Star and Jobs Daughters (to which I belonged). In High School, Alice Dawson was the choir director who put together a triple trio. I was fortunate to be chosen and we sang together for 5 years through HS and then my first year in Jr college. It was the most fun as we sang all over Nebraska at different schools. A wonderful experience and one which gave me many good friends for years. I entered teachers college at Norfolk Jr College my senior year in high school. And completed 2 years of college in one. Then I transferred to University of Nebraska in Lincoln There I became affiliated with Alpha Xi Delta sorority and lived at the chapter house at 1619 R St. It was so much fun being a sorority girl and having dates with fraternity guys. I had worked before clerking at the Fair Store in Norfolk but the summer of my first University year I went to work at Yellowstone Park with some of my sorority sisters at Fishing Bridge, where we cleaned cabins in the day and sang with the band at night. It was so much fun even tho we did get into trouble hitchhiking to Jackson Hole , Wyoming and chasing bears at midnight with flashlites. (stupid)
Then it was on to teaching school in Irwin Iowa. It was a little town so the school was a consolidated high school and elementary school. I taught all day kindergarten and loved it. The children were darling and had wonderful parents. I would sing after school in my room and the older kids would come down to my room and sing with me. Fun! I roomed with another teacher where we had to share the room and (the bed!!) in a lady’s home. We could have breakfast there with lunch in the lunch room at school and supper was lunch room left overs. Our faculty put on a play for the school and I played the 14 yr old lovesick girl and had to play up to the principal. Oh my! Everybody loved it.
All this time I was writing to Vern, my love from high school. He had joined the navy after graduation and then the Korean war broke out and we were separated an extra year. He had joined for 3 but ended up with a 4 year commitment. It was hard, Of course our puppy love grew and we found real love was tough when separated by the ocean and tons of miles. In the mean time I was dating in college as was he when on shore leave . But we knew there was much more to this love as time went on. When he was discharged m Oct 1952, we realized how much in love we were. He went to work in Omaha for the railroad. Finally in December we were married on the 28th. We spent our honeymoon in Kansas City and visited some buddies from the navy. I had to travel by train on weekends or he had to drive over to get me and that was really hard. But in the spring Vern was given a double promotion if be would move to Las Vegas. So we packed our ironing board and TV and drove out first to Salt Lake for 3 week training, (which really was about land a half weeks) before the guy he was to replace was retiring. So we dashed on over to Vegas, with no money, no furniture, no housing and Just hoped all would go well. It sure did,, as we stayed in motels and tried to find apartments. There were none! Finally we found one new housing tract going in. With mom and dad’s help for the down payment we bought a little 3 bedroom concrete block house. We had nothing to put in it, but oh, we were so lucky. We found a wonderful jewish fellow who owned a furniture store on main street. Sol was his name and we made an agreement to pay for a houseful of furniture with only a handshake. What a blessing that was. We had all the furniture we needed, beds, couch, kitchen table and chairs, dressers etc. We had a house with washer and drier, dishwasher, fridge and stove. Wow! It was a start of a new life, in a new town, and starting a family on our own. We were and still are so very blessed.
Now many many years later, 53 to be exact, we are still in Las Vegas and have lived in 3 homes. We have 5 children, 4 living and a wonderful posterity. We lived in our first home for 10 years during which all 5 children were born. We lost our first, Michael, at 5 weeks from crib death. A devastating experience, but one we have come to realize was all in God’s plan. Michael was foreordained to come to earth to gain a body and to lead us to the true church of Jesus Christ. He accomplished that, it was all that he needed to do for he was perfect. How grateful I am for my understanding now of God’s plan for us. We then had Debra, then Kevin, Cynthia and lastly Jaymes. What a wonderful family we have!! And so blessed! We were meant to find the church, I believe as through out our life we have been exposed to Mormonism. First in our history books in Nebr, then by meeting the girls from North Dakota who were LDS. Then an old boyfriend met us here in Vegas telling us of his new religion. Then our neighbors behind us who were members of the church and befriended us. Then when we moved we were right next door to inactive members who were such good friends and took our children to Primary. Then 2 men who worked for Vern at the Test site fellowshipped us without us knowing it. We finally were invited to a cottage meeting at the Taylor’s. From there the missionaries called on us and we began the discussions. It took no time for us to realize what we had been missing in our lives and found the answers to Michael’s death. To know we would see him again and could be an eternal family. What a joy!!! It has been 39 years since we were baptized and we couldn’t be happier. We have served a mission to Kaua’i and served for 3 different times at the temple, and 2 missions at the History Center and are now serving a church service calling, (4 years already) at the State Prison in Indian Springs and we love it. We are truly blessed.!!! It is interesting to find that Jay married one of the Taylor girls, who when dating didn’t realize the family was the one where we first really learned about the church. How small our world is and how wonderfully our lives intertwine in. the church.
I will be eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for his continued love for us and for never giving up on me as I have made so many mistakes in my early life and even now sometimes forget who I am, that I am a child of God and need to act accordingly. We are so blessed to have a prophet who leads us and gains direction for us from the Lord, I have a testimony that I know that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, our Savior, and if we but strive to do what is right and be an example of Christs teachings and love our Father with all our being, we will attain His kingdom with our family and exaltation. This is my prayer always.
And now, we have been married 54 yr and going. We still love one another and are so blessed We were released from our stake calling as missionaries to the prison at High Desert last Sunday. Already I have been called to teach the 2nd lesson in RS and love it. We shall miss those guys up there, but it was time for us to move on. We shall certainly keep in touch with many of them and especially as they get out. It has been such an adventure we would not have wanted to miss.
Source: Vernon Leu