God Be With You Till We Meet Again

LeGrand William Randall

June 18, 1929-November 6, 2009

It was shocking news to receive on Friday morning that Grandpa had passed away. He breathed his last breath of life lying peacefully in his bed, sound asleep. He never suffered. Just the way I would want to go. Growing up, Grandpa had a a funny sense of humor. I remember our car pulling up in front of Grandpa and Grandma's house and Grandpa running out to embrace all of us, introducing himself as Aunt Mary. His high pitched voice as he tried to convince us that he wasn't our Grandpa. He was our long lost Aunt Mary. Another funny thing I remember is a Christmas Card he sent me one year. On the inside it said Merry Christmas and then Grandpa's handwritten note that said nothing more than "Don't eat yellow snow. Love, Grandpa". That just makes me laugh! I also remember running in circles around Grandpa and Grandma's living room singing the new song Grandpa had just taught us, "Bum, Titty, Bum, Titty, Bum, Bum, Bum". Sung to the tune of some upbeat classical piece that I know I've heard before. Grandpa was also the one who taught me cheers like this: "Strawberry Shortcake, Banana Split. We think your team plays like... shift to the left, shift to the right. Stand up, sit down. Fight, Fight, Fight!". I remember sitting on Grandpa's lap as a young kid and him teaching me the alphabet, except he insisted that there were two P's. And he thought he was so funny. Yes, Grandpa had a naughty streak:0) There are countless stories I could share about his witty personality.

My Mom was named after my Grandpa. Sharon Le Randall. Her teacher at school used to take a red marker and add the extra "e" in Lee. What a dip. She never would listen to my Mom when she tried to explain that it really was just spelled Le. I am named after my Grandpa and my Mom. Tonya Le Tripp. I like that I am named after them and that my middle name is spelled just Le. When Eli was born my Grandpa sent us a card that said simply, "Good work! Nice name also!". The reason being that Eli was named after Grandpa's father, Charles Eli Randall. Now that Grandpa is gone I feel so attached to our name connections and am so glad that we decided to give our children family names.

 

Grandpa was huge into family history. He spent hours and hours gathering information and making family connections. He gathered as many pictures and stories as he could find so he could connect with our ancestors on a personal level. As a young girl I found myself fascinated with family history. I think it delighted Grandpa that I expressed interest and he made it a point to make copies of some of the information he had collected over the years and sent it to me with little hand written notes about how these people were connected to me personally. I still cherish it and look at these histories often. It still amazes me that on one line he has gotten back to the year 330 A.D. That is so amazing! A couple of years ago when we were in Utah I asked Grandpa if I could see all of the family history stuff he had. He gladly took me into his room downstairs and pulled out everything he had. I picked out some of my favorite photos ( Grandpa as a baby in his walker on the front porch. Grandma as a five year old on her first horse ride, etc). and we drove down to Kinko's together so I could make copies. I have had them displayed in my home since. Over the past couple of years I have received boxes of family history stuff from my Grandpa. I look at it a lot and have learned so many fascinating things about my ancestors. Like, just recently I was reading and found out that Randalls' Island in New York City was purchased by none other than my ancestor Jonathan Randall. Here's a small history...

It was purchased by Jonathan Randel (or Randal) in 1784, at which time it acquired its familiar name, if with different spelling. His heirs sold it to the city in 1835 for $60,000.

In the 19th century, Randall's Island became home to an orpan asylum, poor house, burial ground for the poor, idiot asylum, homeopathic hospital and rest home for Civil War veterans. It was also site of the New York House of Refuge, a reform school completed in 1854 for juvenile delinquents or juveniles adjudicated as vagrants.

Fascinating! 

Thanks Gramp's for making sure that I had this information in my possession. I am so glad that I got to see you in late July. It would have made me so sad to never have had the chance to tell you that I have found so many people in our family history that never had their temple work done. I could see the joy in your eyes as I explained to you all the work Matt and I had done to make sure that our family is connected for eternity. I'm sorry I never had the chance to get you the copies of the names you asked for. I guess you were anxious to go and meet them for yourself. I promise I will keep the work going. And one day we will all be reunited. What a crazy day that will be!!! I hope your reunion with your family was a joyful one. I know it must have been. I can't imagine! It's so weird for me to know that you are in Heaven. But I know that's where you are and that makes me happy for you. I am sad that we won't get to take you to dinner when we come to Utah in August. That was our tradition, and one that we will miss, but we will continue it with Grandma. I will miss you Grandpa. God be with you till we meet again.

With Love,

Tonya

Grandpa's Obituary

LeGRAND RANDALL

LeGrand William Randall 6/18/1929~11/6/20009 LeGrand William Randall passed away on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at the age of 80-years-old. LeGrand was born on June 18th, 1929, in Tooele, Utah, the oldest son of Charles Eli Randall and Jean Sophia Nelson. Le married Lois Jean Seright on June 6th, 1951, and was later sealed to his wife and children in the Salt Lake Temple. Together they had four children, Janet, Sharon, Charles, and Leslie. Le graduated from Utah State University, where he completed R.O.T.C. training. He entered the US Army as a 2nd Lieutenant and was stationed in Japan, while serving in the Korean War. When Le came home he began a career with the State of Utah, Job Service. He was a hard working employee and manager for several years, and retired in 1983. Le was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and enjoyed serving in many callings throughout his life. Le loved the temple and one of his most loved callings was doing extraction work for many years for the church. Le loved crossword puzzles, reading, writing poems, yard work and cheering for the Aggies. Survived by his wife, Jean; his children, Janet (Keith Sharp), Sharon (Greg Tripp), Charles (Christine), and Leslie (Curt Lund), 12 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren, and his brother Paul, Las Vegas Funeral services will be held at the Butler 8th Ward Chapel located at 2695 E. 7000 S. on Wednesday November 11th and 12:00 p.m., preceded by a viewing at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be at Mountain View Memorial Mortuary & Cemetery located at 3115 East 7800 South, Salt Lake City, Utah.