The Original Foy Cousins: Grandchildren of Tommy

Left to Right: Norman Foy, Inez Foy, Julia Foy, Joe Foy, Gloria  Foy, Lola Foy, Jean Foy

Thomas Bingham Foy, better known as Tommy, was married happily two times, once in his youth to Julliette (Julia) Burr and once in his golden years to Martha Wilcox Westwood. Many children called him Grandpa and looked forward to visiting with him as he traveled from Monticello to Bountiful, to California.

The Foys and Lesters on Vacation

 Tommy and Julia had six children: Edna May, Leslie Thomas, Elsie Viola, Maude Adele, Claude Harold and Fern Angeline. Their names reflected both the popular choices of those born in the Gay Nineties through the turn of the century and tribute given to ancestors. Julia died of tuberculosis, having lived to see only one grandchild. That first grandson, Loyse Melvin Bailey, had been born in 1910 to Edna and Jesse Bailey, so Julia would have been able to joy in those precious first months before her passing in 1912. Tommy, however, was blessed to enjoy all seventeen of his grandchildren.  The youngest, Sarah Ann Foy, was born in 1935 to Leslie and Florence Foy.

After Julia's death, Elsie married early and Leslie went on a mission to Holland, later being called into service during World War I. Edna and Elsie provided three more grandsons before the end of the war: Keith LaVere Bailey, Verle J. Bailey [Flieger], and Gerald Le Roy Tidwell. Both Edna and Elsie lived in southern Utah at this time so the little cousins were able to meet in Moab or Monticello.

Gloria Foy and Julia Foy

Gerald Tidwell far left, Loyse Bailey top center

Jack Lester and
Joe Foy

Keith Bailey

Leslie, Maude and Claude all married during the years 1921 and 1922 so a string of births made it possible for a number of cousins of near ages to play together. Jean Audrey Foy, Lola Gwyn Foy, Julia Mae Foy and Inez Tuttle Foy were added to Leslie's family during the twenties. Jack Foy Lester and Barbara Lee Lester joined the Maude and Harry Lester family during this same decade, while Claude and Vera Foy had born Claude Harold Foy, Jr., Joseph Palmer Foy and Gloria Foy at the same time. The depression years witnessed the additional births of Leslie Tuttle Foy and Sarah Ann Foy to Leslie's brood, Frank R. Lester and Norman Thomas Foy to Maude and Claude's families respectively.
 


From the Story of Thomas Bingham Foy written by Florence Foy:

The children and their families eventually moved throughout the west. For seven years Tommy spent the winters in California with his daughters and the summers in Monticello with his son Claude, stopping off in the spring and fall in Bountiful, Utah, to visit with Leslie's wife and children. It was a delight to Leslie's children and their cousins, uncles and aunts living nearby to listen to Grandpa Foy tell of his many experiences of early frontier days.

Picture taken April 18, 1948, at Bountiful, Utah.
Left: Sarah, Florence, Inez, Julia, Leslie T. Foy. Center: Tommy Foy. Right: Elsie, Fern, Harry, Maude

Front Row: Miriam and Frank. Clockwise from left: Easton and Elsie, 
Walt and Fern, Maude, Lola and Guy, Louise and Jack

Tommy finally grew tired of commuting from family to family, and wanted a home of his own. He married Martha Westwood, a widow from Moab, who he had known all his life. She had a home in Moab so they made their home there. The visits with Grandpa came less often, so the grandchildren valued them even more. As late as two years before Tommy's death he and three of his four daughters traveled to Bountiful, Utah, where they were able to visit with Leslie's family.

As the cousins grew and married, they tried to maintain strong family connections. Lola Foy married Guy Smith and moved to southern California where Edna, Elsie, Maude and Fern lived and had raised their children. Here Lola was able to meet at least one last time with her childhood playmates.

Be sure to take pictures at the next reunion and be sure to post them somewhere for posterity.

Tommy Foy, center,
with his grandchildren, Joe Foy and Jean Foy

   

Our Grandfather, Leslie Thomas Foy

Leslie Thomas Foy is a grandfather we grandchildren never knew in this life. We have heard stories of his youth in rugged southern Utah and his LDS Church mission to the Netherlands. We have heard of his subsequent tour of duty as part of a hospital evacuation unit in France and as part of the occupying army in Germany during and post World War I.

While his maternal Burr ancestry is documented, his paternal Foy ancestry beyond the first American immigrants is a long pursued and equally long evaded mystery. We wonder, though, did those leaves from the family tree drift down in the forests of France, the green hills of Ireland, or the mountain valleys of Germany?

Be an armchair traveler with us as we explore his Foy and Burr ancestry. Read the recollections of his short life on this earth as we share reminiscence of his children. Help us remember him and magnify his legacy.