Tom and Dorothy Got Married

Dorothy Haws and Thomas Burgess Slade Wedding Picture

60 years ago today, 25 Jun 2013, my parents Tom Slade and Dorothy Haws were married in the Mesa Arizona Temple. Dorothy as 29 and Tom was 39. How they came to be married is an interesting story. It all starts back in the year 1900. As can be seen in the 1900 US Census Record shown below that Tom Slade's father Abram Burgess lived next door to Dorothy Haws mother Atella Wiltbank Haws.

Abram Slade was 24 and living with his parents and 8 siblings in Eagar. Abram's family lived in Eagar for only a few years and then left and moved back to Colorado. However, Abram's youngest sibling Ila Slade went back to Eagar, got married and stayed in Eagar.

 Tom Slade

In late 1952 or early 1953 Tom Slade was a World War II veteran who had been in a lot of violent combat in the south pacific and was dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). After he got a divorce from his second wife after only a year Tom decided "if I ever married again it would be to a mormon girl". Tom had grown up in the church but lost his way in his later teenage years, but that is another story. Tom was trying to get active in the church and this caused problems with his second wife. Tom was living in Winslow Arizona working for the Santa Fe railroad. At 39 years old Tom must have wondered if there would ever be anything else for him than the life of a bachelor.

Dorothy Haws

At the same time Dorothy Haws was a returned missionary working as a registered nurse at the White Mountain Communities hospital in Springerville. She was living at home with her parents helping her mother care for her father who was paralyzed from the neck down. Dorothy had attended the University of Utah to become a nurse and after working as a nurse for a few years then served a mission in Pennsylvania. Dorothy was active in the church and was serving in the M.I.A. At 29 years old Dorothy was wondering what was next in her life.

How They Met

What happened next I quote from Tom's personal history. "In February of 1953 my father [Abram] was visiting me at Winslow. I had just bought a new car and he talked me into going with him to Eagar Arizona where my aunt Ida Burgess lives. My Father was raised at Eagar and he longed to return so I drove him there and while there I met Dorothy Haws and liked her very much. I went to Eagar again two weeks later and by then I had decided that she was the one I wanted to marry. After a five month courtship we were married." My father, Tom, told the story of their courtship to me more than once but not often. He described driving from Winslow to Eagar and being careful to not get pulled over for speeding. Dorothy's father served as the justice of the peace in southern Apache County and Tom did not want to get hauled into court, which was held in the house Dorothy was living in with her parents, for speeding and have to face Dorothy's father.
I am really grateful that Ida Burgess stayed in Eagar so that my father was able to meet my mother. They were a great couple and the rest is history. I am sure that they are now continuing to serve others just as they did when they lived on this earth.

Tom and Dorothy with Mary, Sarah and Tommy in 1959