Lögberg-Heimskringla - 18.06.2004, Side 16

16 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 18 June 2004
She keeps
the history
together
The lcelandic Association of Utah
was founded in 1897 and the board
meetings take place in Phyllis
Ashby’s home in Spanish Fork.
Steinþór Guðbjartsson visited her in
the “Club House.”
Steinþór Guðbjartsson
Spanish Fork, UT
Phyllis Ashby’s father
built the house and she has
lived there for a long time. “I
first moved in here when I was
two years old, and Icelandic
was always spoken in the
home,” she recalls. Her father
died soon after and her mother,
with three children, could not
keep the house, so they moved
in with Phyllis’s grandmother,
who lived on the same street.
Spanish Fork has been the
home of Phyllis all her life,
and all five of her children
lived there as well. Her grand-
mother Jarþrúður Runólfsdót-
tir emigrated from Iceland in
1886.
“I am sure she missed Ice-
land. She used to sit in her

Lögberg-Heimskringla
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For registration and sponsorship information please call:
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or e-mail logbergadmin@mts.net
PHOTO: STEINÞÓR GUÐBJARTSSON
Phyllis Ashby with her son David outside her house in Spanish Fork, the “Club House.”
chair by the window, read Ice-
landic books and sing Ice-
landic songs,” Phyllis says.
Her grandmother’s sister
moved from Iceland to Canada
and there was no connection,
but the ties were established a
few years ago. “When a group
went from here to Iceland
there was a group from Seattle
on the same plane. A woman
from Point Roberts said to
Bliss Anderson that she had
relatives in Utah and there was
my cousin. In short, we
became the best of friends.”
Most of the Icelanders
lived in the same area in the
southeast part of Spanish Fork,
and Phyllis says that the
atmosphere was very Ice-
landic. “I had Icelandic
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friends, and those who were
not Icelandic claimed they
were,” she says. “But Iceland
was far away and when I was a
chijd I thought it was off the
earth.”
Many people of Icelandic
descent in Utah work hard to
preserve the heritage and Phyl-
lis is one of them. She is 88
years old and has never been to
Iceland — yet Iceland is a big
part of her íife. “The Icelandic
•Association has the board
meetings here and they call my
home the Club House. I am
proud of it, and I am proud of
my Icelandic heritage.”
Phyllis has collected infor-
mation about every Icelander,
who settled in Utah from 1855
to 1914. “I thought that it was
important to keep all the infor-
mation together and people
were glad to give me things
they had,” she recalls, and
points to many books with let-
ters, articles from newspapers,
and pictures she has collected.
“The plan is to put all the
information on a CD and have
it ready for the big celebration
next year,” she says.
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