Florence Vera Chisholm

Vera was born March 30, 1917 in Salt Lake City. She grew up in the Salt Lake valley. When she was younger she attended Whittier
elementary school and she helped her mother with the wash and the garden. She was the youngest child, and her older sister
would walk with her to the corner drug store and buy her cherry candy bars and they would play on the swings and monkey bars
at the school. She was baptized in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. As she grew older she helped her mother and father in his restaurant
and bakery. Music was a large part of her childhood as her father directed the Salt Lake Post Office Band. During the depression
he lost the restaurant, but for a time would make donuts in their basement and Vera and her sister would sell them around the
neighborhood. In her last year of high school (South High) she contracted scarlett fever and had to be quarantined, she was
worried that she might not graduate, but it worked out.
After school she worked as a house keeper and nanny, as a cook at the LDS hospital for a short time, and at the ZCMI department store. She met Raymond when
his family moved into the ward and he started singing in the choir with her. They were married in1940 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They had two children. He died
young in 1947. After his passing, she raised chickens and sold eggs to make ends meet. She met James Ralph Hardman Sr. through a friend and they were married
July 5, 1952 in Salt Lake City. He was never a member of the church, but he insisted that his children attend with Vera. He worked for the railroad and then Kennecott
copper. He died in 1966. She decided to go back to school to study to become a clerk/typist and trained as a teacher’s aid in the Murray School District. She later got
a job as an elementary school librarian at a few schools in the district, a job which she enjoyed. She also had many friends who gave her opportunities to travel back
to church sites, Yellowstone and Disneyland.
In her later years she had a close friend named Oscar who she enjoyed spending time with. He helped her with her garden and yard work. He asked her to marry
him, but she said she never wanted to bury another husband, so they remained friends. Over the years she served in the Jr. Sunday School, ward and Stake Primary,
Relief Society and in name extraction. Vera enjoyed working in her garden raising vegetables and flowers, insisted on mowing her own yard and was considered an
excellent cook. She was a compassionate support to all in need and was a very giving person who enjoyed her family. She passed away in 1994 in Murray, Utah of
ovarian cancer.