I found that Steve had been dating Cheryl Startup when he was living with Marilyn and Chris before his mission. The Startup family had lived in Provo before moving to Pasadena, where they continued their Startup Catering Company and were very successful. This was a large family of 12 (11_ children and Cheryl was fifth from the youngest–the last two being twins. Cheryl’s mother was quite determined woman and she said that Steve and Cheryl should be engaged before he left…that all the Startup girls had waited for their missionaries and that he should give her a diamond.
Diamonds at that moment were beyond me, but Cheryl’s mother was adamant, so I gave my first engagement ring to Steve and he put it in a more modern setting and gave it to Cheryl. It wasn’t a large diamond, but was a good quality, and she was thrilled with it. Steve has given her several diamonds through the years of their married life, she still cherishes he first one because it had been mine.
Steve served a good mission and Cheryl was faithful to him for the first year, but she was young and finally began dating here at the Y. I would see her with fellows once in a while and she became embarrassed, so I finally told her that I knew it was hard at such a young age to be around all those fellows and not date and I didn’t want her to feel bad if I saw her with someone.
It was summer when Steve came home and he and Cheryl renewed their courtship. But, by now Cheryl’s mother had decided that Steve was not the boy for Cheryl and she didn’t want them to date. That Summer Cheryl went on a tour to the Orient with Janie Thompson and her group and had a wonderful time, but when it came time for them to leave Hawaii and fly home, Cheryl’s mother flew to Hawaii and went to the bus where the touring group were heading for the airport and she held up the bus for ages haranguing Janie. The bus finally left and Mrs. Startup had Cheryl stay with some aunt and then she sent a telegram in Cheryl’s name saying, “I don’t want to see you anymore and don’t contact me!” After a while with her aunt, Cheryl called Steve and asked why he hadn’t called her and he told her about the telegram.
That summer I was on Education Weeks, in the Bay area and Lind and Rich and the boys were living in my home while I was gone. One noon I went back to the motel where I was staying and the red light on my phone was blinking. I was to call home. I did not have any idea what might be happening. I got Linda and she said that Steve and Cheryl were in Provo and were going to the Logan Temple the next day to be married.
I was quite upset—not that they were getting married, but that they were doing it without somehow getting Cheryl’s Mother to feel better about it. I finally reached Steve and said I felt he should wait and make one more attempt to talk to Maurine (Cheryl’s mother) before they eloped to the Temple. He said that he had talked to his California bishop and also they talked to Elder Howard Hunter, who had been out Stake President in California when we left there and was a good personal friend. He also knew Mrs. Startup and gave them their recommends to go through. Steve said both had said they should go ahead and get married.
So, I told him that I would fly home and although I couldn’t be there in time to go to the Temple very early the next morning I would be there in time for a wedding breakfast. I called Merle Cloward. She and her husband were head of the food services at the Y, and she said for me not to worry, that by noon the next day she would have flowers on the table and an excellent meal in the President’s Room of the Wilkinson Center.
I flew into Salt Lake, and I don’t know who met me there, but I know my car wasn’t there, so someone most have. We picked up Mother and she got out a gaggle of the quilts she was forever making and had me pick out one I thought Steve and Cheryl would like and we rushed to Provo and the luncheon. Linda had invited several friends and relatives by then and we had a lovely time. Few of Cheryl’s family were there because their grandmother was being operated on that morning and all the family were at the hospital. So we asked all of them to come to a little open house at my home that evening. After the wedding breakfast, we dashed home and cleaned the house, dashed to the grocery store and got refreshment, dashed home and had a very nice time with Cheryl’s relatives and any of mine that were around.
Then they went on their honeymoon and then back to California. Steve Started working for the Startups in their Catering business and that’s how it all got started with Steve, THE MIGHTY CATERER.