Don, Bruce and Jean all went to Berkeley High School, and all three took the drama class from Florence Schwimley. She had everyone dress modestly, and wouldn’t allow swearing, even if the script called for it. She would instead make substitutions, so instead of the “D” word, she would have them say “Confound it!” She was there so long, and was so well loved, that they named the “Little Theater” there after her.
Jean’s senior play was “The Desk Set”, back in 1957, when computers were just becoming a reality. One of Jean’s parts was to bring in the IBM punch cards to the smart lady who answered everyone’s questions (kind of like “Siri”). Don had Mrs. Schwimley, too, and apparently he was one of the students that she favored, because one time all of the students got an assignment, but he didn’t get one. When he asked, “Where’s my assignment?” she said, “Say ‘Thank you, Mrs. Schwimley.’”
Jean graduated from high school in January of 1958 because she started in the half-year.
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| Jean Merrill, graduate of Berkeley High School, January 1958. |
Jean in Guatemala
Sometime in 1958, Jean went with Malcolm and Thelma down to Guatemala.
There they spent time with Dr. Carlos Perez and his wife Lilly, and their three children. (Linette and I got to visit that couple and their daughter Maria when we went to Guatemala in 2011).
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| Dr. Carlos Perez, Jean and Thelma Merrill, Lilly Perez, and their 3 children (Carlitos, Maria and Carmen). |
They also visited Antigua, the original ("antique") capital of Guatemala. The capital was moved to Guatemala City when earthquakes kept knocking over the buildings, but there are still some beautiful colonial buildings there, some of them partially in ruins, like this one.
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| Jean Merrill in Antigua, Guatemala, 1958. |
They also visited Lake Atitlán (which Thelma once made of painting of. That painting hangs in our [Randy & Linette's] house).
Jean at Cal
Jean had applied to BYU and was planning to attend there, and even had a roommate lined up. But in the meantime, she attended University of California Berkeley that spring term and summer term so she could finish a whole year’s worth of German. She also sang in the choir there. But her parents received a brochure indicating that the San Francisco Symphony was going to be playing Handel’s Messiah that December, and the chorus was going to be “Cal’s” university chorus, so Jean thought, “Well, I’d better stay and do this!” So she stayed at Cal after all. (She was already a Cal football fan anyway). |
| University of California, Berkeley football game |
In addition, Jean was in the A Capella choir, and was lucky enough to be the alto chosen to be in the quartet that went to the Music Educator’s Conference in Pasadena.
At Cal, Jean belonged to the Yacht Club, and they learned to sail little Lido 14 sloops, down in the Berkeley harbor. One time she was invited to go on a yacht that someone in the group’s family owned, and the yacht was named the “Thelma,” which she thought was cool. The waves were a bit choppy on the way home, and that was the only time that she felt a little bit seasick. At one point she bonked her head as she started to go up a ladder, and started to fall backwards. A guy grabbed her by the life jacket, which saved her from falling overboard into the water.
Jean also started attending the institute at the same time (January 1958), and that is where she met her future husband, Robert Wilson, who was Bruce’s good friend. At first, she was just “Bruce’s little sister.” But later in fall of 1959, there were three times in a row where Bob thought he would ask someone on a date, and Bruce asked the girl instead. So finally he decided, “Well, I guess I’ll show him—I’ll just date his sister, and we’ll see what he does about that!” They went to the harvest ball and had a really good time.
Jean was dating a guy named Vic Nielsen at that time. Bob asked him if he was going home to Virginia for Christmas, and when he said yes, Bob said, “Good.” About 10 seconds later, Vic looked at him and said, “You dirty rat!” and they laughed. Sure enough, Bob and Jean started dating, and the next summer, in 1960, they both went on a great Colorado River trip with Bruce and others.
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| Colorado River Trip, 1960 |
Bob said that you could fake things on a date, but that when you're camping for several days, the real you comes out. As an example, here's both Jean and Bob waking up on the Colorado River trip.
And if you can handle that, you can handle anything! The river trip was a wonderful time, and they always spoke fondly of the memories from that.
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| Water fight on the Colorado River Trip, 1960. |
Jean and Bob went to Yosemite National Park in the summer of 1960 as well, along with Bob's parents, Collie Bryan ("C.B.") and Gladys (Gray) Wilson, and Bob's sister Anita.
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| Jean Merrill, with Anita, Bob, C.B. and Gladys Wilson. Yosemite National Park, 1960. |
When Jean's son Joe was a teenager, he saw the picture below of his parents, and said, "Woah, Mom! I see! I see!"
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| Jean and Bob, Yosemite National Park, 1960. |
According to Bruce, Bob was at Malcolm & Thelma’s house in Berkeley one time with Thelma and Jean, and Malcolm drove down the driveway. Thelma stopped what she was doing and jumped up and ran to the door to give Malcolm a big kiss, and Bob thought he’d like to get in on that kind of training.
Bob was in the bishopric of the University Ward in Berkeley during this time, and one day he was interviewed by a visiting Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Delbert Stapley. Elder Stapley said, "Brother Wilson, how do you feel about the work?" He said that he loved it, but felt inadequate, because he had been a member of the church for less than four years, but that he really loved it.
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| Apostle Delbert Stapley |
When Bob told Jean what Elder Stapley had said, Jean said, "Well, that shouldn't be a big problem." That is what we call "A Positive Sign."
Somewhere around this time, Bob was standing outside of the Oakland Third Ward building, which is located on "temple hill" (where the Oakland Temple would soon be built), and Irene Ranker, the relief society president, came walking by on the way to her car. As Bob tells, it,
Then a strange thing happened: Irene deviated a good 30 feet from her line of travel and headed straight for me. As she got within speaking distance she said to me, emphatically, "Bob Wilson, if you don't marry that Jeannie Merrill you're just stupid, just stupid!" And then, without another word, she turned and walked away to her car.Bob said that this was an unneeded but welcome reinforcement of his own intentions. So on Sunday morning, December 18, 1960, Bob took Jean to a place by the Brazilian Room at Tilden Park where they had had a magical picnic once, and he asked if she would marry him. Jean answered, “Yes, I would be honored.”
Malcolm and Thelma had some guests over that afternoon, so Jean went in and told her mom in the kitchen, “Bob proposed to me, and I said yes!” and they did an elbow swing around the kitchen.
Here they are at Christmas time celebrating their engagement.
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| Bob and Jean's engagement celebration, December 23, 1960. |
The following year (1961) they received their endowments at the Los Angeles Temple, since it was the closest one to the Bay Area at the time. (The Oakland Temple wasn't dedicated until 1964).
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| Bob Wilson and Jean Merrill, at the Los Angeles Temple, |
Then they traveled to Utah to be married in the Logan Temple, where Malcolm's grandfather, Marriner Wood Merrill, had been the first mission president. The temple was actually closed at that time, but the temple president opened it just for their sealing, which was very nice of him.
On the way to Logan, the wedding party stopped for a picnic.
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| Wedding party en route to Logan, September 1961. |
Here are Jean and Bob getting their marriage license just before their wedding.
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| Jean Merrill and Bob Wilson, pretending to check into the hotel. September 4, 1961. |
And here they are coming out of the Logan temple, after being sealed.
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| Jean and Bob Wilson, just married. |
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| Bob and Jean Wilson at the Logan Temple, September 5, 1961. |
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| Jean and Bob on their wedding day, at the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan, Utah. September 5, 1961. |
While Jean and Bob were starting their honeymoon in Logan, the rest of the family (Malcolm and Thelma Merrill; C.B. and Gladys Wilson; Anita, Bruce, etc.) went down to Lake Tahoe for a few days.
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| The group at Lake Tahoe |
After a nice day together, Bob mentioned that his parents came 3,000 miles to see them and that the whole family was having fun down at Lake Tahoe, and they both thought it sounded like fun to go join them. They arrived at the Hardy's Cabin at 10:30pm, and when they knocked on the door, they heard Anita say, "I told you they'd be here!" Bob and Jean have always joked about the "family honeymoon", but they had a delightful time with everyone, and the two dads battled to see who could pay for each thing, so it worked out great for the new couple.
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| The "Family Honeymoon" at Lake Tahoe, September 1961. |
Here's the group looking down from the balcony.
I believe it was Malcolm who captured this unique perspective on the same shot.
They had a reception at UC Berkeley, with Kay Merrill and Anita as two of the bride's maids.
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| Parents of the bride and groom: Malcolm and Thelma Merrill and Gladys and Collie Wilson. |
And so, Jean "graduated" to married life.
Speaking of graduations, Jean graduated from UC Berkeley the next year in June, 1962.
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| Jean Merrill Wison, graduating from UC Berkeley, June 1962. |
So with all of that, Jean was well positioned to become one of the greatest moms the world has ever known! In the next episode, we see her education put to use as she brings six children into the world and builds a home full of love, fun and music.
