Mildred Crawley Ensign
1906-1992
M ildred Crawley was a very familiar and beloved face at Davis County High School during the early years of the school’s history. Mildred was the office secretary and she interacted with students and faculty when class changes were necessary, when class grades were given out, when curriculum changes were made, when class attendance was questioned, and when school activities were planned and scheduled. She also handled all of the principal’s correspondence, bookkeeping, and scheduling and was at the disposal of the school’s faculty when secretarial tasks were needed.
Mildred was a Kaysville native. She was born on the night of October 28, 1906. She often joked that she should have been named “East Wind” because on the night she was born Davis County experienced one of the most devastating east winds in its history. The midwife made it to the Crawley’s West Kaysville home just minutes before the family’s barn and haystack were blown into the lake, and in the minutes and hours after Mildred’s birth, the family feared that their house might be severely damaged as well.
Mildred was the daughter of Kaysville second-generation pioneers Fredrick Samuel and Sarah Ann Smith Crawley. She was the seventh of eight children. Her maternal grandfather was William B. Smith, who’s home at 312 West Center was a well-known gathering place for the early Kaysville pioneers.
As a young girl, Mildred attended the West Kaysville one-room schoolhouse on 200 North Street that was recently taken down to make room for a modern subdivision. She graduated from Davis County High School in 1925 and then attended LDS Business College in Salt Lake City where she mastered many secretarial skills.
On January 6, 1933, Mildred was hired by Davis High principal, Sam Morgan, to be the school’s sole office secretary. Her starting salary was $40 a month and she worked at this job for the next eleven years.
In November of 1944, Mildred married George Ensign the long-time Davis High School LDS Seminary principal. After her marriage, Mildred left her high school job and became a familiar face as a clerk at the Kaysville Post Office. She was at the Post Office in the 1950s when that service was in the old Sheffield Store building on Main Street. During this time, the second story of the building was removed and the Post Office space expanded to include 1,573 square feet with 395 post office boxes as opposed to the 160 that were part of the old facility. Mildred worked at the Post Office until her retirement.
In the civic arena, Mildred was for many years the president of the Utah Association of School Secretaries, a board member of the Davis County company of the DUP, a member of the Price Control and Rationing Board during WWII, and a Davis County census taker. She was also a frequent volunteer for Kaysville Civic Association activities and president of the Davis LDS Stake Y.W.M.I.A.
In retirement, Mildred and George were known for their wonderful vegetable, fruit, and flower garden at their 312 West Center residence. For many years they provided their friends and neighbors with fresh fruit and produce during the summer months.
Mildred Crawley Ensign passed away on September 26. 1992, at the age of eighty-six. She was buried next to her husband in the Altorest Memorial Park in Ogden, Utah.
Sources
- “Kaysville Ladies of Note – Mildred Crawley Ensign”, Our Kaysville Story Facebook post by Bill Sanders, January 24, 2022.
- Photos courtesy of: Davis High yearbooks.