Martha was born on February 22, 1914, in a little mining town called Kenilworth, Carbon, Utah. Her parents were Edward Nelson Morgan and Martha Jane Patterson, called Jen. Martha was the third child in the family. Edward Evan and Viola were older, then Darle, James, Jean, and Irene were younger. Martha's father did many things, including farming, garage work, vulcanizing, mining, traveling salesman, and a shoe repairman. While farming, they lost 60 acres of wheat to hail so Martha's parents bought pigs and fattened them in the wheat fields. James died when Martha was ten years old. He had been two, but was such a sweet child and they missed him.
Edward had many jobs, and he'd take the kids with him if he was able, so he could spend time alone with them. One time when Martha was with him, he rented a large truck to help move a family. They were going down a mountain road when the front wheel fell off the truck. They had a good laugh when they saw it running down the road ahead of them.
One spring day when Edward was away, Jen was ill. She told Vi and Martha to plant the garden and gave them the seeds to plant. They dd it as fast as they could so they could go play. When the garden came up, it was like a lawn. Everything was so thick, and they hadn't put markers up, so they didn't know where anything was planted. It was a total disaster.
In the spring they bought crepe paper and made lots of paper flowers to put on the graves. They made roses and sweet peas. None of them liked that job. Jen even said she hoped no one would ever put paper flowers on her grave. They didn't like cutting and sewing rag rugs, either. They would tear up all of their old clothes into 2" strips, them sew them together and the neighbor would make rugs out of them. When they got tired of doing that, Jen would take out her false teeth and make faces so they'd laugh and be happy again. Sometimes Jen would give the kids an egg to take to the store to buy candy. When Martha was about 13, they rode a school bus to a small town called Spring Glen to school. One day a few of them decided to sluff school. They walked across a hill to get to the town of Price. When they arrived in Price a truant officer was waiting to take them back to school. They were all expelled for a week. After returning to school a teacher asked Martha what her parents said about her sluffing school. Martha told the teacher that Jen wasn't mad since she'd done worse things than that when she was young. Evan was called on a mission to England, and in order to support him Edward went to work in the mines.
Martha married Howard Childs on February 15th, 1933 in the Manti Temple. When Martha had her first child, LeRoy, she had a hard labor and was required to stay in bed for three weeks. During this time Jean, aged 14, got very sick with appendicitis. Edward and Jen took Jean to the hospital, but the hospital wouldn't take her in without the money in advance. Edward didn't have that much money, so they had to take Jean home. It was a Friday night and the banks were closed. Edward raised the money by Monday morning, but by then Jean's appendix had ruptured and she died. Martha wasn't told because the doctor thought it would make her sicker. Martha was at her parents' place, but because there weren't mortuaries to keep the body in, Jean's body was kept at home until the funeral. The doctor moved Martha to Howard's parents' place, still without Martha knowing why.
Jen was killed in a car accident on July 19, 1936. After her death, Edward was very lonely. He spent a lot of time in Manti doing temple work. On June 10, 1942 Edward married Harriet Irenda Sorensen. They had two children, Ora and Lynn.
Martha and Howard moved with their family to Dillon, Montana, to ranch. In 1961 Martha thought she could help out with finances so she went to work in the school cafeteria. She started out as a dishwasher and worked her way up until she was the manager of the program. She did all the shopping, creating menus, and cooking. She worked there for 10 1/2 years. On January 2, 1973 Martha was on the way to work and had a car accident. She drove her car off the end of an unfinished freeway. She didn't think she was hurt so she started walking. She walked for two miles before finding anyone to help her. The men working on the road were reluctant to help her, and it took a long time to convince them to get her to a hospital or a doctor. The doctors weren't sure if she would live or in which order to try to fix her. The first operation was on her jaw, knees, and the broken bones in her elbow. The next operation was for internal bleeding. The doctors found that all the lining in her stomach had been torn to shreds. Martha was in the hospital for two to three weeks. After she got out of the hospital she had her jaws wired shut for many months. The cuts and scars had changed her lips and chin, and she was very self-conscious. An artificial elbow was put in her arm, but it was terribly painful ad she couldn't get it to work. Martha went to several doctors but they all said that she was allergic to the artificial elbow and that it had to come out. Martha finally agreed, and they removed the elbow entirely. Her right arm became 2" shorter than the left, and with limited use. It had to be picked up to be raised and didn't turn properly. The fingers were stiff and didn't bend easily, but Martha never complained. She always wore long sleeves to cover the elbow. All of her clothes have the right sleeve 2" shorter.
After Howard died, Martha moved to a condo near the River Jordan temple and worked as a receptionist for several years. Then she moved to live with her daughter Jean in Bigfork, Montana, where she died in 2004.
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