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Note: 1920 census Bicknell, Wayne, UT: Gepkie E. Hackett aged 24 is a widow with three children: Ora aged 3, Fern aged 2, and George Cortez aged 5 months.
1930 census Lyman, Wayne, UT: Jesse E. Taylor aged 43, farmer, bp UT, both parents UT; Iva aged 17; Clay aged 15, Harold aged 13, Eugene aged 6, Ireta aged 4, and step-son Cortez Hackett aged 10. Jesse is living next door to his brother William and his family.
Salt Lake Telegram, Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday, Jul 4, 1941, pg 12:
"Army Summons 59 Selectees --- Names of 59 draftees who will be called up for army duty next Wednesday and Thursday had been certified for induction Friday by the six Salt Lake City boards. The men will report to the Ness building induction station at 8 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, in the first week of the thirteenth draft call....The intermountain trainees will be sent to the Fort Douglas reception center for interviews and classification. Following are the Salt Lake City men called up: .... Board No. 14 --- George Cortez Hackett, Delta...."
Note: Dad is living in Delta at the time: Delta is the largest city in Millard County, Utah, United States. Delta is located at the north eastern end of Millard County along the Sevier River and is surrounded by farm land. [Carolyn Hackett Dowd]
[Letter to Pvt. Cortez Hackett at 373 School Squadron, Moffit Field, CA, from Geo M. Hunt, Bicknell, Utah, Feb. 6, 1942: Dear Cortez -- Glad to hear from you and to learn that you are doing well. We are all well at present. Have had no winter as yet. It is almost like spring. The sheep are doing fine. We are all trying to produce more that you fellows may have plenty to wear and to eat. Go after them, boy, it will be up to you youngest fellows to use the ... and supplies while we help make them. Inclosed is reference, glad to be able to send it to you. Yours respt. Geo M. Hunt.
[Letter from "Former Bishop of Bicknell, Utah, dated February 5, 1942, on behalf of G. C. Hacket] "To whom it may concern: This is to certify that I am well acquainted with G. C. Hacket of Lyman, Utah. He was born and reared at Lyman, Utah. He was in my employ for about two years. I found him willing, trustworthy and alert. He is apt in acquiring knowledge and skill and if given proper direction should be of valued service to our nation in our hour of peril. Signed Geo M. Hunt.
The Chico Enterprise, Chico, CA, Monday, March 20, 1944, p. 7: "Cpl. George Hackett, of Fresno, spent the weekend with his wife and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Coon, west of Durham."
The Chico Record, Chico, CA, Sunday, June 17, 1945, p. 3: "Cpl. George A. [sic] Hackett and Mrs. Hackett and small daughter, of Petaluma, are visiting at the home of the latter's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Coon."
Address: Cpl George C. Hackett 39678, 1503 rd B.U.A.T.C. Sqd 17, Hamilton Field, California (July 20, 1945)
The Chico Record, Chico, CA, Saturday, November 17, 1945, p. 5: "Cpl. George C. Hackett, who has been stationed at Hamilton Field, received his discharge from March Field recently. Cpl. Hackett and wife (the former Adele Coon) and baby daughter visited with the former's sisters in Los Angeles before coming to Durham to make their home."
The Richfield Reaper, Richfield, Utah, Thursday, Jul 25, 1946, pg 6: "Mr. and Mrs. Cortez Hackett and family of Oceanside, Calif., have been guests the past week of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Taylor. The Taylors and their kinfolks, branches of the Allen and Wm. Taylor families, have set August 10, 11 and 12 as the date for a family reunion in the Loa Tabernacle."
Chico Enterprise, 1955: "None Hurt in Crash on Durham-Dayton Road --- A minor intersection collision on the Durham-Dayton Road and Burdick Avenue, was investigated yesterday morning by highway patrolmen. Nobody was injured but patrolmen said one of the drivers would be cited for failure to yield the right of way.
"Involved in the accident were George C. Hackett, 36, of Route 3, Box 97, eastbound on Burdick, and Clarence C. Temple [sic, Fimple], 70 of Durham, who was going south on the Durham-Dayton Road.
"Patrolmen said Temple would be cited.
The following letter was sent to Cpl. George C. [Cortez, 'Tez'] Hackett, 396784, 1503rd B.U. A.T.C., Sqd. 17, Hamilton Field, [Marin County], CA by Mrs. W. W. Taylor, 525 Isabella Ct., Salt Lake City, UT dated July 19, 1945:
To "Mr. and Mrs. Cortez Hackett.
"Dear Children:
"Received your most kind and welcome tellees you sent to Ireta. Was glad to receive them. I was thinking you had almost forgotten me. We are all well here now and it's getting quite warm, not much rain. Gardens are good and abundance of fruit will soon be ready for market. I don't know how they will take care of the fruit as scarse as sugar is. The way this war looks like we will have to feed most of the Germans. O' if this awful war would soon come to an end, we could plan for our own country. It seems hard to think of loosing [sic] so many of our boys in this awful war, to think you are fortinate [sic] that you did not have to go over sea. I guess you would not have that lovely wife and baby you have now. I am glad you have such a nice little apartment, it will be nice for him to come home to when his days work is done. Ireta and Gepkie are well. Gepkie and husband are here, he on a furlow [sic]. I haven't seen him, those that know him think he's a fine felow [sic]. I am glad of that. Received a letter from Eva. They are well. Warren works on a farm. They have two fine children, they liked to stay with us, about the way you did. It was always home to you when you came. I don't know of any news that would interest you. Kiss wife and baby for me. This letter is an answer to both of your letters. Write soon and often. ---- Your loving Grandmother, Mrs. W. W. Taylor.
PIECING TOGETHER MY FATHER'S LIFE by Carolyn Hackett Dowd.
George's childhood memories were filled with loneliness and abuse. Fatherless five months before his birth, George would lose his mother at the age of eight. During those first eight years, however, Grandma Hackett marries again, a man by the name of Jesse Taylor, providing George and his two sisters with three new siblings and five step-siblings. To hear dad talk, he always felt the outsider. For years he talked of his step-father's abuse.
In the 1930 census George is ten and still living with his step-father, but at some time he goes to live with his mother's brother, Uncle Jacob White, a sheepherder. There he was made to live outdoors tending the sheep, again feeling himself an outsider, always viewing himself a burden. In that household, it was his cousin Katie who was his favorite, for she was the only one who would stand up for him in the White household. When things seemed to be overwhelming, George would go to Grandma and Grandpa Taylor, for whom he was very fond. His half sister Ireta did not stay with her father Jesse, but went to live with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. They would most likely have taken George in also, but they were overburdened at the time and there was no room. Both of his sisters, Ora and Fern, had gone to live with their dad's sister, Aunt Aletta, but Aletta would have nothing to do with George. Many years later, Aunt Aletta would write to George asking his forgiveness for her behavior towards him as a child, but by this time George had packed the anger too long and refused to acknowledge her plea. [See Aunt Letta's letter to George below.]
Just prior to enlisting in the Army (1941), he lived in Salt Lake City with Elmer Taylor (his step-father's brother). Upon enlistment, George was in the Army only a week, stationed at Fort Douglass, when he was discharged and sent to the Air Corp. Because of "flat feet" he did not see combat, but served as military police at home. From Utah he was sent to Moffett Field in San Jose, CA. At one time he was in Fresno, and later on, Shreveport, Louisiana. Mother says she remembers the men being shipped by cattle car to Louisiana.
But it was while he was stationed at the Chico Air Base that he met mother, Adele Coon. It was at a Durham dance. He and others serving in uniform would frequent the Durham dances. I remember him telling us kids how he met mother. His story is that he asked Grandma to dance first, then told her that he was going to marry her daughter. Their courtship was not a long one. He was once again reassigned, this time to Spokane, Washington to the Galena Air Service Command Depot. Mother, escorted by her mother to Spokane, was married on June 18, 1943. She worked at the Air Force Base clerking at the laundry until October of that year when she had a miscarriage. She was not very far along, but after the miscarriage infection set in and she was bedridden for several months. Late the next year Dad was sent to Hamilton Air Force Base at Novato, CA. but by that time I had been born. Dad was soon discharged and we settled back in Durham on property gift deeded to mother by her parents.
Roman Stacken, who was in the service with Dad in Spokane, remained a close friend throughout the years. He and his wife Grace lived next door to them in Spokane and later visited them in Durham. There is a picture of Roman holding me as an infant at Grandmother's. Both are still alive today (2010), live in Minnesota, and correspond each Christmas with mother.
George worked for Al Fenn, a large rice grower nearby and stayed with him for quite a few years, until he suffered an accident that caused him back problems the rest of his life.
While working for Fenn, George also farmed twenty-five acres of almonds. This continued after his back injury, and after living a few years with this back pain, he took a job with a construction company working as a laborer in underground work. George was never without pain, and found relief in the bottle. (The above notes by daughter, Carolyn Hackett Dowd.)
CHICO ENTERPRISE-RECORD, Friday, July 26, 1985: "George Hackett Sr. Private graveside services for George Cortez Hackett Sr., 65, will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday in Dayton Cemetery. He died Wednesday in his Chico residence. Hackett was born Aug. 31, 1919, to George and Gepkie Hackett in Lyman, Utah, where he was reared and educated. In 1941, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Chico in 1942. He met Adele Coon and they were married June 18, 1943. He worked for Baldwin Construction for quite a few years and then raised almonds for 30 years in Durham. Survivors include his wife Adele of Chico; four daughters, Carolyn Dowd of Guerneville in Sonoma County; and Marilyn Loofbourrow, Lynn Denning, and Deborah Hamilton, all of Durham; two sons, George C. Jr. of Oroville and Randy of Durham; four sisters, Ora Hunt of Las Vegas, NV; Fern Beckman of St. Claira, Utah; Ireta Sterling of Stockton and Gepkie Woolsey of Taylorsville, Utah; three brothers, Harold Taylor of Delta, Utah, Gene Taylor of Grantsville, Utah, and Clay Jackson of Pagson, Utah; and 15 grandchildren. Bishop Richard Rollins of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will officiate at the service. Contributions may be made to the Dayton Service Group or the Enloe hospice program in care of Brusie Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements." See cemetery source.
Letter to George Cortez Hackett from his Aunt Letta sent to him Jan 29, 1974, from Richfield, UT:
"Dear Cortez, With all my love and hope you will soon be well again. Would love to see you. I know your grandpa would be so happy to know you bear his name and use it, also your father's name. You can be proud of your heritage, too bad you didn't get to know them. After your mother had had two girls, I heard your father say "We will keep trying until we get a son."
"I am so sorry there was a misunderstanding between us, as I loved your father and mother so much, but I wasn't too well myself and left with a family and a mortgaged home, was almost too much for me, but some how the Lord blessed us through out trials. It is now ten years in April since I've been able to walk without crutches and a wheel chair.
"Fern has been very concerned about you, she is a wonderful person.
"Hope you can get well and come and see me. Hope your family is well.
"Lots of love, Aunt Letta."
Note: Friends of George & Adele: Roman & Grace Stacken, 1011 Feltl Ct. Apt. 215, Hopkins, MN 55343-3906. Roman died Aug. 31, 2011. I believe Roman was in the Air Corp with dad during WWII.
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