My version of our courtship story...from my journal, December 23rd, 1974 regarding events of the weekend of October 24-27  and following of that same year:

"The Cougar Band, of which I am a member, traveled to Tuscon tp play for halftime activities in the Arizona-BYU game.We stayed the first evening in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The key event the second day was that one Jeanne Young, a young lady whose maturity and strength spiritually had impressed me deeply in the two months she had ridden in our car pool...(she) transferred from bus 2 to our bus.  She had given me a box (bag) of chocolate chip cookies the previous day to thank me for rides to band (though I had not known initially it was from her)...I was delighted by this turn of events, though inwardly so.  She sat initially  toward the rear of the bus, and I didn't get much opportunity to speak with her; but later in the day, as the result of some shuffling (I fully believe this shuffle was planned and carried out by Jeanne's ingenuity and guile) we "chanced" to sit next to each other...and spent the rest of the ride sharing innermost feelings about everything from families to Christmas.  That evening we ate dinner together, oblivious, I fear, to the presence of two other band members at our table.  The seeds were sown.

The next day was filled with excitement and rehearsals as we prepared for the big game.  So busy were we that Jeanne and I saw very little of each other (I found out later that she thought I was upset with her).  Fortunately as we filed into our seats for the game we ran into each other and decided to sit together...our band performed superbly as the football team completely outclassed an Arizona team who was predicted to win the WAC championship.  The score: 37-13.

After the game, Jeanne invited me to an Institute dinner that her cousin (Lillian) was taking her to.  At this time I finally realized there might be a chance for me in her life.  I couldn't believe it.

The rest of the trip was one of those affairs where everything seems like a dream - and you're walking 2-3 feet above the ground.  We rode home together on the bus, shared our meals, and managed to fall in love despite the harassment of a Cougar Band "kangaroo kourt".  The next week was pitted with highs and lows, of fears and affirmations; but the key seemed to be the feeling we shared as we sat at the foot of the Christus Statue in the Salt Lake City LDS Visitors' Center that the direction we had been moving in was sanctioned by the Lord.  Consequently, with some deep prayer and after a little prodding in a Marion G. Romney address we heard the next (Sunday) evening, I asked Jeanne to marry me - and she sealed her fate by saying "yes"!  

"We've got everything to do here, and nothing to do it with but our hands.  Never waste a lick, and make every lick work twice for you if you can.  No man lives long enough to get done all he wants to do, but if he works slipshod and has got to do it over, then he wastes his life."
-Attributed to and quoted at the funeral services for William Stradling, my great great grandfather on your great grandmother's side. 

Introducing.....

Our family history blog.  Each week, Steve and I will share something we have discovered during the week from our family history. We will have three categories:  Lambson/Montague/Jackman, Young/Fraedrich, and Steve and Jeanne Stories.  Steve will be the contributor for the Lambson/Montague/Jackman category, Jeanne for the Young/Fraedrich, and we will trade off on the Steve/Jeanne Stories, so we will identify each week who is contributing. We may not address all three each week, however.

Steve and Jeanne Stories

Jeanne, Steve, Iola Lambson

This photo was taken at our wedding reception in La Habra, California - one week after we were married on January 31, 1975.  I thought I would share the portion of the letter I wrote to my parents which first informed them of a person named Steve Lambson.  (my comments in parenthesis)

October 30, 1974

Dear Dad, Mom, and Juli

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  It is dark and stormy today but still no snow down here.  It was good to talk to you yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't write but last week was so HECTIC!  I spent every spare minute on my English paper so I could finish it by Wednesday because Darlene (dorm-mate) offered to type it while I was in Tucson (BYU Cougar Band trip).  The trip was fantastic.  It was good to get away for awhile and I also met a guy. He's in band, so I knew him before but we never got together until the trip.  His name is Steve Lambson; he's "tall, dark, and handsome", funny, spiritual, smart, and we really like each other.  He's 21, a R.M from the midwest mission, and he lives in Orem.  We don't know how serious we are about each other because it happened so fast, and maybe nothing will become of it but we realize that time is important (whatever THAT means!).  Anyway, I spent most of the trip with him....

Six sentences is all I wrote about him.  Now, this letter was written on a Wednesday.  My parents likely received it on Saturday, November 2nd.  Steve and I fasted about each other on Sunday, November 3rd and he proposed THAT NIGHT!!!  And, we called my folks on Monday, November 4th to tell them about our engagement!  WHAT WERE WE THINKING?????  But, it sure made sense to us at the time.  And, look how far we have come....

Lambson/Montague/Jackman Stories

Gertrude and daughters Erma, Vera, and Iola

This is an account of a vison my grandmother, Gertrude (Jackman) Montague had concerning her baby brother Shirley.  It is taken from the history of Daniel Wells Jackman, my great-grandfather. 

Daniel Wells Jackman – “We were surprised by the Choir on the evening of the first of February, 1904.  It was a very pleasant affair and we all enjoyed it very much.  I had been assisting them to learn hymns and tunes and they seemed to appreciate my labors.  They made my dear wife acquainted with what they wished to do, and she had a chance to prepare for it.  I knew she was preparing for a surprise, but I thought it was to be on Gertrude, as it was her eleventh birthday.  But when the crowd came in, instead of her schoolmates, I faced the members of the choir.  We all enjoyed ourselves…even to our sweet little 21-month old Shirley.  When the crowd was leaving, he stood in the middle of the floor and shook hands with almost all the people and said “Good Night”, receiving a warm kiss from quite a number.  But Oh! How soon scenes and conditions change.  On the 23^rd of February, our sweet baby Shirley was taken with a fever and a cough, which continued…until the 2^nd of March, when it seemed to please God, Our Heavenly Father, to take him home again.  He died at 11:15 a.m. without a struggle…and we are left in great sorrow.  But we have reason to rejoice…The night before he died, my wife’s sister-in-law, William Marble’s wife, dreamed she saw, or in fact almost thinks she did see my wife’s mother, and talked with her.  Among other things she said she did not have time to stop as she was just here on an errand.  That errand proved to be to accompany our dear baby home.  On the 3^rd of March, my sister-in-law and two of my wife’s sisters-in-law and a sister, Esther Gray, had prepared some lovely clothing for the baby, dressed him and placed him in his little coffin neatly trimmed, and …all of the family went into the room to look at him.  Of course we were all overcome and weeping bitterly at having to be called upon to view him in that condition when Lo! Gertrude received a vision in which she saw her Grandmother Jackman  standing there a little way from the floor with our dear baby in her arms and holding one of his hands in her own. She looked at my wife, then at the baby, smiled, and disappeared.  We feel greatly blesses to know that heavenly beings should be permitted to come and visit us on this occasion and make known to us our baby was all right.”