Utah Historical Quarterly Editor Holly George: World War 1 and Spanish Flu (Season 1, Ep. 14 - Part 2)

**Brad Westwood** (0:00)
My next question to you is, relates to the last paragraph of your introduction of the Utah Historical Quarterly Summer 2018 Special Issue. And that special issue, which is all about World War I, which of course we just finished the 100th anniversary in 2018 The title of that special issue was Remembering the Great War 1918-2018. And in it, in this introduction, you wrote, the sorrow of the influenza pandemic traveled with my father's family for much of the mid 20th century. My great grandmother Gladys Craighead Buck was an expecting mother during the winter of 1918
Then in January 1919, at 18 years old, and only three days after giving birth to her first child, who was Glenn Buck, she died in Smithfield, Cache County, Utah from influenza and pneumonia. Her death at a great physical distance from the battlefield of World War I was yet one of the millions of tragedies of war that affected lives across the globe and ushered in a new phase of modernity. Tell us about Gladys, tell us, open up this family story.
I really hope that our listeners can understand through this personal family account, the effect and the impact of influenza that happened in 1918 across the world.

**Holly George** (1:40)
Thank you so much for asking me about Gladys. I'll tell you, she's very close to my heart, very close to my heart.
What I know about her is from a few family stories, not many, and not firsthand actually, and then what I've been able to find in records here and there. I want folks to understand that I'm trying to be a good historian, but there's still more work to do on my sweetheart Gladys. I call her my sweetheart, my girl or something because I love her, I love Gladys. So I'm color-sense, I have a bias.
Gladys was born to quite a family with a Latter-day St. Pedigree. Her parents were Thomas Craighead and Elmira Covey. She was born in Smithfield, and I think as far as I can tell, she was a happy, lovely, lively, popular young woman.
And grew up in Smithfield, she married Charles Buck, who was also from kind of an established Latter-day St. farming family there in Cache County. He was about 10 years older than her. They married in 1918, February 1918, and everyone was very happy for them. My mother has found some wonderful photos of them gathered around tables with friends, and she is just beautiful. She's just beautiful and young and happy. And so they marry in February 1918, Gladys and Charles. And then, of course, the war is going on and the influenza outbreak, you know, comes in three waves, and the third wave is that winter of 1918-1919. And Gladys was expecting little baby boy, Glenn Buff, my grandfather. And just what you read from the death certificate we talked about before the camera started rolling here is very poignant. It's extremely poignant. You see the physician started attending her on January 10, 1919
Little Charles Glenn Buff is born on January 13 Okay, so she's sick enough on the 10th for a physician to come in. On the 13th, the baby boy is born. And then on January 15, Gladys dies of influenza. That's sort of the cause of death. And then the complicating factors are pneumonia following childbirth. So just the fact that they are extremely poignant. She's 18 years old and a couple of months, so almost a child herself.
And she's buried on January 18 I was able to find an obituary for her, or rather, not an obituary, but it's actually the Logan Republican Newspaper and it's News of the Week from Smithfield, and I'll read this. So Mrs. Gladys Buck was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Craighead. She gave birth to a baby boy Tuesdays before her death and the child is still living. The community sympathized deeply with the family and the young husband who was less than a year ago married to his young bride. Mrs. Buck was a very popular and highly respected young woman and her loss is felt deeply in many places. So that's very poignant. And what kind of got me the other day as I was looking all this up is this is one week in a little farming town in Cache County, Utah. And around my sweetie Gladys' notice, there are funeral services for other folks, other young people too.
So right below the paragraph about Gladys is, Death for the second time in two months visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gillens Gogs, claiming their beautiful 18-year-old daughter, Mary E. Another paragraph, influenza claimed another of our townspeople in the person of Ivan Hanson. Ivan was born in the city 32 years ago and was well known and respected. So again and again, that's one week in Smithfield, Utah.