Lewis Tippets biography by Wayne Tippets. August 23, 1992 as seen through the blind eyes of his brother while Wayne was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota.
Lou being the last of 13 kids in our family was the most spoiled one of the whole tribe, which is normal for not only the baby. He was raised up a good boy like boys of a large family are raised, very, very good. Well most of. He was born on August 29, 1933, which is his birthday, less than a week away, which he will turn 59 years old, just a …. Lou was only one when we moved down from Idaho and I knowing nothing of what happened in Idaho will start when I first recall Lou.
I remember he was the first one of the family to attend kindergarten and either I or Thad would walk him to school, which was 6 blocks away and sometimes he loved kindergarten so much he would beat us home if we stopped along the way for some reason. But more of the time he would stay until he had his orange or chocolate milk. Then he would sluff kindergarten. I do not blame him for he was probably smarter than was the teacher. So no sense in attending when you was more informed than was the teacher.
He learned how to ride a bike around this time. I have a picture of me running alongside him on his bike trying to keep him afloat. It seems like we could all do about the same in everything. We all went swimming together and learned how to swim about the same time up to Lorin Farr Park and Lou always did go help pick cherries with us and he did as good as anyone of us did. For he knows just like the rest of us did that we did not get any money unless we did earn it and so earn it he did.
Lou and Cluck (Clarence Bassett) and I always went to pick for H A MacFarland each year and Lou seemed to get the best ladder most of the time. He could spot new ones in the morning better than we could but a good ladder meant a lot more cherries picked if you did not need to worry about the ladder tipping over, although very seldom did we tip over for we was smarter than to put a ladder where it was not safe.
Lou seemed like he helped Ma more than did the rest of us, maybe he did not help anymore but he was around her more. I guess that is being the baby does that. Do not get me wrong, Ma did not treat any of us better than did any others, but I think Lou was more interested in his youth in inside toys and playing more than we was. He even asked Santa Claus to bring him a doll once and he kept it a long time until he must have been 4 or 6 years old. Then our niece, Nellie, got hold of it and put lipstick on it all over and could not get it off so he must have got rid of it. It was a cute doll, though.
He always had a bike to ride to school with like we all did, but I cannot recall him ever crashing and burning like I did a couple of times.
During the war, Ma wrote or helped Lou write an essay on why he was glad to be an American and won an expensive leather football, which he was proud of. Lou was always as smart as anyone in his class and I cannot remember Lou ever getting in trouble or in a fight in school. He may have done but I cannot remember him fighting except with me, and I was always tougher than was he.
Lou liked all animals and although I cannot recall us ever having a dog while in town, we had cats and Lou had a favorite yellow cat, a big one who used to catch rats and bring them around the house all the time, but it was a good cat, no trouble at all and he would carry it around all the time.
Right after we moved from 29th Street to 18th Street, Lou climbed up on the roof of the back room and got too close to the edge and fell off and broke his arm, which was historically the first broken bone in the family. I think he could swim as good as could I but that was pretty good for both of us. I do not think he played much softball, but then none of us did. Our sport and his was basketball. And Lou was good at it. I do not know why he did not make the school team for he was better than I was and I made it. He was on Mound Fort’s football team, though, and I didn’t even try out for it. I do not recall what position he played even. I think guard or tackle, on both defense and offence. I do not think he tried out in high school. He was bigger than was I at the same ages.
He worked part time with me down to the railroad. I think shoveling coal and sand, which was hard work, but the pay was good. Sixty-four cents an hour.
He, like the rest of us, broke a couple of windows in our house. I remember him throwing a rock through the front window and it left exactly the same shape a hole as was the rock. I do not know how he did that, but he did. It didn’t shatter the glass at all. It was that way for many years., I believe. Just a small hole about the size of my brain, maybe bigger.
I remember one time I just about did Lou dirt. We was both licking out the cake pan and I had a straight pin bent a little bit and for some reason I put it in the pan, which we was scraping and Lou got it in his mouth, but he felt it before it went down and Ma fished it out of his mouth. I felt very very bad and it could have been a very bad problem if he had swallowed it.
He was always active in church like we all was and always got our fast offerings down our street each month.
Lou and I used to get in fights once in a while. I never can recall hurting each other, just wrestling, I think. I never did get in a fight with him after he got bigger than was I. I am no dummy. John used to fight with him too as he did with me and Lou smacked him once and then no more fighting there. No sense in fighting if we are going to get beat up on.
When we got older, he worked for LaRue and Leroy out on the farm and driving truck one summer, and he must have done a good job for he seemed to get along okay with Leroy all the time. LaRue had asked me to drive it but I had to go to the hospital for another operation at that time so Lou got to.
Lou got so he could really shoot a gun straight and when he got old enough to shoot deer, he used to shoot at least half of the deer we got, regardless of how far they were away. But most of us were good shots. Until I lost my sight, I was not bad. But Lou was better, I think. I remember him shooting a big buck up to Lost Creek one year, clear down in the valley opposite where we was camped at and so we had to carry it clear up one side of the mountain and the four of us, Lou, me, Thad, and John each got hold of one leg and carried it uphill. Going down was not bad. I do not think I ever worked so hard getting a deer out in my life as did I then.
I do not think Lou ever did break any laws hunting at all, not that I can recall. Except shooting someone else’s deer and then giving it to them to tag, which is not breaking the law, just helping out.
Lou got interested in girls at an early age like did us too, and he found what he thought was the right one and married Sharon Poppleton, and she was 15 and he was two years older but it didn’t last only a couple of years and they got a divorce. She was a spoiled little brat, who at 15 would be. We used to stop to get him to go to Priesthood with us and she would raise a big rumpus each time and one time she even kicked a hole in the wall so he finally quit fighting it and quit going to church. Then when they started to having trouble, she started preaching temple marriage after he got interested in Jehovah Witnesses, or so I was told at the time. But it was too late and when their baby was born she went home to Mama and he stayed living at Pappy’s house. I do not think he had to get married, though. Makes no difference though, one way or the other.
He was going to college at the time and had his mind in being a doctor and he would have made it too if he could have had some support from her, but he gave it up just like his older brother Thad gave up his college. I cannot tell much about Sharon except what has already been said.
Lou has always been a hard worker and never walked away from hard work whether down to the railroad or anywhere, he did his job and did it well.
Lou studied the Jehovah Witnesses a while and he was down and out with his wife and fell right into what he thought was the right thing, which at that time and maybe still is okay, and he joined them and really got going in it, as he did everything. He was what I would consider the same as a stake president while he was 22 years old and did a good job, for I have talked to folks who knew Lou and they all loved him a lot. He is still very strong in the Witnesses and works on us whenever he can but to no avail. He cannot understand how we cannot see what is right and what is wrong, but that is the way we all are.
I am not sure of all the places Lou worked at. I know he worked at the railroad and for Hill Field, I think. Maybe not. I do not know who he worked for in Tooele but he did meet another gal. Her name was Allura something or other. It skips my memory what her last name was. She was from Evanston, a member of the Witnesses and a nice gal and we did go to their wedding. A nice wedding at Kingdom Hall, then somewhere else to eat and talk. It was crowded, I recall, at their wedding. We came in late all of us Tippets’ and a bunch of them got up and gave us their seats so we would not have to stand up. A good gesture.
To them was born three kids, two boys, Christopher, who was born about 1965 and then Cheery. They lived in Ogden a while then moved to Tooele and then to Redmond, Oregon, for the last about 20 years. He has been working for a saw mill type of place. They make finished doorframes and such, I think, and plywood, mainly.
She was stricken with MS about in 1980 and was bed ridden until she passed away while we was on this mission, but Lou took very excellent care of her, aided with his kids. She was never hardly left alone.
20 years ago we stopped in and seen them and was treated very good. We did not stay long and he gave Babbie’s mom a chunk of petrified rock, which he had found, and delighted her a lot.
Three years ago we went up to see him and he took a couple of days off work just so he could be with us and showed us a very good time while we was there. He took us up and seen some beautiful spots in the mountains and lake and everything. He treated us like kings and queens. Even Pappy Todd agreed with that.
Two years ago he, along with some of the rest of our family, went to Hawaii and it was a very special trip. Lou loved to snorkel and body surf and we hiked on top of Diamond Head and seen sights all over. He liked to be in the lead in going around the island and sometimes got us lost but each and every one of us got lost a couple of times. No more fun could have been had regardless of who or when or where we went. A good time.
He comes down to a convention every couple of years and I went to one of his meetings a few years ago and it was interesting, although he got upset because I would not go back again. But I went once and that was enough. There is no church on earth that believes more diligently in their religion than does Lou’s church. And we are proud of him for having this deep rooted belief in Jesus. And although we do not believe the same as he does, we honor the way he honors his church. And years ago we used to give him a bad time for joining that church, but Pappy told us, “Let him alone, for that church is not going to do Lou any harm at all, and will just do him good.” And he was right, as usual.
He tells me that if one of their members is smoking they give him 6 months to quit and if they do not, he is disfellowshipped right then and there but they do not see anything wrong with coffee and tea. But that is okay. He is very proud of his church and proud of the part he plays in it and its functions. He showed us a building that they had built in three days up in Redmond and showed us the rockwork he had done himself during that time.
Lou has always been able to fix his own cars and other items like that for he says repairmen are no smarter than is he and why should he pay them to do things that he can do and do better and cheaper. And he is not afraid of getting his hands a little bit dirty. And not afraid to try something new anytime. And does not sit around feeling sorry for himself. He just plows right on through it and does the job and does it good.
I used to, when we were kids, beat Lou in chess, but when he got smarter than I did, he could whip me all the time, especially after I lost my vision. Talking of losing my vision, I can never recall Lou making fun of my not seeing very good, never, never. And helped me out as much as he could, especially when we all was on dates and such. When we would go up in the mountains hunting and things, he would like to do the cooking. He says he knows he can cook good, but he was not sure about anyone else. So we let him.