Henry Albert Loy

BIOGRAPHICAL INFO:

A biography on Henry Albert Loy was compiled, and provided to the author [Gerald E. Collins], by his granddaughter Kaye Lynn Loy Robinson as follows:

"Henry was born February 8, 1896 at Palmyra, Utah, a small community just west of Spanish Fork, Utah. He was the son of Matilda Olsen and John Jacob Loy. He attended school in Palmyra and Central High in Spanish Fork. He loved all types of sports, especially baseball. He was an excellent ice skater and a very good marksman, bringing home ducks and geese.

Henry's half-brother, the Christopherson boys, were fishermen, their father learning the trade in Norway before immigrating to Utah. In 1912 Henry went into business with Wilber Barney and Sylvester Barney to form a commercial fishing business. He would fish in the winter and farm in the summer. It wasn't long before he bought out his partners and fished alone. This fishing business provided not only a living for his family, but also the opportunity to build a strong work ethic in his sons Bill and Leiand. His grandson, Bill Loy, continues to fish for his livelihood. Henry told of one particular day when he was out on the lake and the ice wasn't very thick. He remembered falling into the water 12 times and was able to get back out on the ice each time, but was almost frozen by the time he made it to shore. When the depression hit, many people were going without food. Henry gave a lot of his fish away to those who were hungry. At his funeral one of his nephews told this story:

During the depression Henry used to trade fish for produce. The peddlers would come to get fish to trade, and they would trade Henry produce for them. He would take all that produce and put it out on the corner and let people take what they wanted from it.

Henry was a very generous and honest man, and well loved in parts of Utah County.

In 1919 Henry met a young woman by the name of Della Brown, daughter of William Crosby Brown & Ada Amelia Johnson. Henry and one of his friends were taking out Delia and her step sister Florence on a date. Henry was supposed to take Florence and his friend take Delia, but the fellows decided to switch dates. It was love at first sight. Delia was attending the University in Salt Lake City. (She received a certificate to teach Domestic Science and later taught at the Brigham Young Academy.) They were married on June 23, 1920 in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They made their home in Provo, where they resided for the remainder of their lives, except for a year long stay in Pocatello, Idaho. Henry and Delia raised five children: Geraldine, Virginia, Bill, Leland, and Pauline.

Henry's grandchildren remember him as a very special man. He would take them out for ice cream cones and buy the giant-sized cones, or come for a visit with a suitcase filled full of all that the Hostess store had to offer enough Twinkies and Ding Dongs to fill half the freezer. One granddaughter recalls visiting him at his home in Provo and going out to help him work in his 3/4 acres garden:

Grandpa taught us how to move the irrigation pipes to water the rows of crops. He would let us help him pick the vegetables. One day we piled his old station wagon full of vegetables and we got to go with him on his "deliveries". He stopped at the homes of people around his community, little old widows, and others that needed his love and attention, leaving potatoes, carrots, big red tomatoes and happy hearts. We went into a little corner diner and he took in an armful of produce and wouldn't accept any money for it. Dad says Grandpa raised that garden just to give it away. The aroma of fresh picked tomatoes instantly brings Grandpa back to me, as well as the question in my heart, "How am I doing at living the way he showed me?"

In the later years of his life Henry spent several years caring for Delia as she slowly slipped from life in a fight against breast cancer. She passed on to her Heavenly Home December 13, 1965. Henry kept himself busy with things like gardening, politics, church work and inventing. He was always active campaigning for the man he felt was the best, regardless of the party, he was chairman of the Utah Boat Harbor committee, to get the harbor made. He lived life abundantly until the day of his death, June 14, 1974, when he died of a heart attack at the age of 78."Page: 145-46