The life and times of Melba Arthena Larson ans Oliver Lealand Laub or Wee Wobb's Kids and Mel's Brats by Cleo Laub Jackson 6/21/95

retyped and posted with added titles: by Kimberly Thurston a work still in progress

One Car Accident

This home in Las Vegas is also where the years of smoking cigarettes and working in the dust on the heavy equipment jobs caught up with Dad.

Working at the Nevada Atomic Test Site didn't help his lungs either. He would drive his Bulldozer into the area of Ground Zero after Atom bobs were exploded above ground. He wore a radiation meter on his coveralls. When it reached a high contamination reading he would be sent home for a few weeks until his radiation meter read cool again.

After one of dad's first experiences of participating in an above ground nuclear test explosion, he wrote home to Mom and said how sick most of the men were who had taken part. Most of the men Had returned to the dormitories violently ill with vomiting. Elvin had just come out of the Navy and Dad had got him a job at Mercury with him. Daddy said how glad he was Elvin's job required him to be inside that day so he was not sick too.

Many of these men later in life developed a variety of Cancers that ended their lives. We all suspect these above ground test caused the diseases that caused their ends on this Earth to be pain ridden. Of course the government denies any wrong doing.

By age fifty eight Dad was always sick with pneumonia symptoms. it was finally diagnosed as Emphysema. With this dreaded lung disease he experienced failing health and the depression that comes with it.

In 1967 at age 60, Dad was killed in a one car roll over accident. That was probably the first time Mom and the small kids weren't in the car with him when he was traveling to Utah. He was on his way to see a cousin friend of his youth.

There were no speed limits on the Nevada highways. Dad passed a car as he was traveling over the Mormon Mesa near Glendale, Nevada. His speed was estimated at over 100 miles per hour as he passed, became airborne and lost control of his car.  The car rolled several times and Dad was killed instantly as he was ejected from the vehicle.

Dad had 6 strong sons who carried him to his final resting place. The L.D.S. Chapel in Las Vegas was packed with many friends as well as family.  Many people loved him and did not know the turmoil his soul had been going through as his health worsened in the last year of his life. God took him speedily so his suffering would be at an end.

We buried him in St. George where all his parents and grand parents are buried.

Jeffery had just come out of the service from serving in Viet Nam. Emma Lea, Kenny, Rosemarie, and Tammy were still in school.

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