The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1964, Blaðsíða 44

42
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 1964
24, 1847. Not only does she preside
but she takes an active part on every
committee—concerts, parades, rodeos,
pioneer luncheons and every activity
in drese groups receives her personal
attention, for she realizes that people
remember things longer if they can
be seen. She does the research for the
historical section of the parade and
has planned many of the floats. These
parades have received national recogn-
ition. Last year she furnished the sub-
ject material for the children’s parade
which was pictured in Life Magazine.
She also furnished historical material
for the pageants and other programs.
Another important project has been
the keeping of records of 80,000 pion-
eers who came to Utah from 1847 to
May 10, 1869 when the railroads of
the east and west joined at Promon-
tory point. Six thousand pioneers died
while crossing the plains. These with
the records of those who completed
the trek are recorded in a Master Index
file. Each year the remaining few or-
iginal pioneers are honored at a lun-
cheon on the 24th of July.
During Utah’s Centennial year.
Mrs. Carter served on the Art and
History sections. As a member of the
Arts Committee she had charge of a
state-wide contest which was held first
in the towns; then in the counties and
then in the final choosing of a Queen
to reign over the Days of ’47 celebra-
tions. It was she who presented the
Queen to President David O. McKay,
President of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints and to the chair-
man of the Centennial celebration.
With a firm belief that the Queen
must represent the ideals and culture
of early Utah, each year she has care-
fully chosen ithe Queen’s Committee
charging them with the responsibility
of putting over a contest in which any
girl selected by the judges would be
truly representative of her pioneer
heritage. To Mrs. Carter belongs much
of the credit for putting these events
upon a high cultural level.
As a member of the History Com-
mittee she was appointed to write and
compile the bibliography of Utah writ-
ings and history of which 50,000 copies
were published and sent throughout
the United States. This she also did
without remuneration but for this edu-
cational service she received a special
award from ithe Centennial Commis-
sion. She was active on the Utah Cen-
tennial Exposition Committee and re-
ceived an award for meritorious ser-
vice.
in 1941 Mrs. Carter was elected
president of the Daughters of Utah
Pioneers. She has successfully led this
organization to greater heights until
it has become known as the most
powerful woman’s history-gathering
organization in America. Throughout
the years she has visited every county
and many of the camps all over the
United States which comprise the
organization. She knows her work weE
tor she has been camp captain, chait
man of the lesson work, vice-president
of Salt Lake County and vice-president
of the Central Company of Daughters
of Utah Pioneers. Through her efforts
thousands of pioneer histories have
been read, filed and published. She
has instituted within the organization
folklore conferences which have been
held in connection with the national
conventions of the Daughters of Utah
Pioneers. Pioneer singing and dancing
groups have been organized under her
leadership. She has been instrumental
in having many of the camps and
counties either build relic halls or
renovate old landmarks to be used for
this purpose. But probably her great-
est achievement is the erection of the
Pioneer Memorial Museum located at