PULSIPHER, Merlyn Verdell

The White Mountain Independent, Show Low, Arizona ~ 06/13/2006 Merlyn Verdell Pulsipher Funeral services will be held at the Downtown Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Tuesday, June 13 at 11 a.m. for Merlyn Verdell Pulsipher, 90, son of Dan and Elva Pulsipher. He was born Feb. 18, 1916. The family moved to St. Johns in 1924 where he attended school. He became a proficient cowboy and worked for many ranches in the Apache County area. He spent most of his cowboy years working for the Platt family, (H.J. Platt and his sons). He worked for George Cotton in Sanders where he drove a team of four mules pulling a scraper to build spreader dams as an erosion control; and for Hugh Richey building erosion control dams on the Navajo Reservation. They worked with tractors and scraper at first and then with a Caterpillar later. He was hired on the Arizona State Highway maintenance crew in St. Johns and worked there for 34 years and four months. During that period he and his brothers were in the farming and ranching business. They also did custom cutting, raking and baling of hay in the area around St. Johns (from Hunt to the North of St. Johns to Richfield South of Lyman Lake). They also did grain combining. They did these services for the farmers in the area from 1946 until 1974 when Merlyn decided to purchase a farm in Missouri where moved in 1977. He became acquainted with Grace Hatch of Woodruff and they were married in the Mesa Temple April 15, 1938. Merlyn and Grace had seven children; Marlene Peine of Weiser, Idaho; Elva Jean Stubbs of Virginia City, Virginia; Daniel R. Pulsipher of Seattle, Washington; Lavon Pulsipher of Concord, California; Vince Pulsipher of Stockton, Missouri; Nora Dozier of Stockton Missouri, and Vada Norman of El Paso, Texas. They also have 32 grandchildren and 43 great grandchildren. He is survived by his wife, Grace and all of his children plus two brothers; Kenneth R. Pulsipher and Eldon B. Pulsipher both of St. Johns. Merlyn has been an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint all of his life and has served in many callings in the Church. He has been Ward Clerk, High Priest Group Leader; Stake Missionary; Stake Mission Leader. He and Grace served a full time mission for the Church in West Virginia. Merlyn passed away at a rest home in Stockton, Missouri on June 4 wher he was recuperating after having a Congestive Heart failure attack about three weeks earlier. He will be interred at the St. Johns Westside Cemetery.