I lived across the street from Anna, her Mother. I remember Kay and Rex very well. My sister, Elaine rented Anna’s garage. My condolences go out to her family
Linda Niederhauser
In Loving Memory
1919•2026
Kathryn Salm Sohm
An autobiography of Kathryn Salm was videoed by Darryl Sohm (son) at Roanoke, Virginia, November 11th, 2014. The video information was paraphrased with additional information added by Diane Sohm Andersen and Karma Sohm McBride, with editing also by Kathryn Salm Sohm at age 95 years old.
Kathryn Salm was born in Magna, Salt Lake County, Utah on 18 November 1919. Growing up in Magna and Eureka, (Magna and Eureka are two different towns. Walter and Anna lived in Eureka for a short time and then settled in Magna.)
Kathryn had three dresses which she kept in a trunk and would rotate, one for Sunday best, and two for school. Her father made $40 per month. The family first lived in a rented home on North Spencer Street. Kathryn, at about 6 years old, remembers her father digging with his shovel, for the basement of their frame home on South Spencer, on a property costing $2,000 dollars. A detail told by Kathryn is watching her father beginning digging the basement with a hand shovel, from the middle of the property piling up the dirt outward and continuing to dig inside the property to the outside until the basement earth was all pushed out to the right size for the basement. She was raised in this small home built by her father Walter Salm.
The home had two bedrooms, a front room, dining room, kitchen and porch. The family raised chickens, they had 500 chickens which they sold for fryers and sold the eggs. One day, at about 4:30 am the chickens were making a noise, so Walter went out to see what the commotion was all about, he awakened the family for them to see the Aurora Borealis. This was very unusual for these lights to be seen this far south. Kathryn was maybe about 10 years old. It was beautiful. Kathryn could remember the waves of brilliant colors across the sky. To this day it was a memory she would never forget and would treasure.
While growing up, Kathryn was very satisfied with a paper and pencil to do her artwork, while her sister Shirley, was the more outgoing social person. Kathryn developed her loud voice when she was a child, calling for Shirley to come home for dinner. This skill helped her later in life while raising her own children, calling kids to come home who were always scattered throughout the neighborhood in Gilmer Drive. Kathryn and Shirley did take piano lessons and played piano duets together.
They had several cars while Kathryn was growing up, was first a Model A Ford, Walter was always under the car fixing it, mother would watch him work on the car. It would only go about 35 mph. The family made a trip to California and back and all the other cars passed them by. When Kathryn was about 14 years or 15 years old, they drove to the San Diego World's Fair. At age 17 years old, the family went to Santa Cruz, California to visit Uncle Alma then traveled up the California coast. Kathryn remembers her fascination with the small little plants on the rocks that would close up around her finger.
The second car the family owned was an Essex, and Kathryn remembers it was a very "bad" car; it never was in good working condition.
Kathryn attended and graduated from Cypress high School in Magna, Utah. She played the clarinet and marched with the band at school games. She was proud to say she also graduated from the Church Seminary program. A memorable event for her was when her seminary class bused in to American Fork Canyon for breakfast and hiked up back of the Timpanogas Mountain and watched the sun come up. It was a precarious hike on the shale mountain peak. She was not in shape for this hike, and it took her two weeks to recover.
The forests on the Oquirrh Mountains where full of trees and beauty, however, Kathryn watched the forest disappear, destroyed by the Kennecott Copper Smelter killing the pines. "I saw them drop one at a time" she said. Kit Carson said these mountains were the most beautiful in the entire west. There were pines and wildflowers between the two mill areas and Tooele. The Smelter was where there was a furnace getting the ore from the rock. Walter worked at flotation at the Mills on the Roll Floor where huge rollers crushed the rock. There had to be plenty of water to cool the hot rollers. It was hot, grueling work. Walter died of a heart attack at his desk at work writing out daily reports. He was a foreman loved by those he worked with. He was 66 years old.
Kathryn attended BYU where she met Rex her second year. Rex was a freshman and Kathryn was a sophomore; they attended dances for 25 cents and ice cream cones were a nickel. Rex would walk her home. They didn’t correspond with each other during Rex’s mission. Kathryn attended two years as a Junior and Senior at the University of Utah and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a double major, Art and Textiles.
Kathryn worked for a short time in the arms plant during the war making 50 caliber bullets to do her part in the war effort. Not for a long time because it was boring, monotonous and bad characters worked in the plant.
After Rex’s mission he joined the Army Air Corp where he kept in touch with Kathryn. He wrote beautifully scripted letters and drew pictures on the outside of the envelopes. Everyone remembers a picture of an airplane he would draw on the envelope on the "airmail" letters. After Graduating from the University of Utah in 1942, while attending the University of Utah, Kathryn’s dress designs were featured in the “Mademoiselle” magazine and she received offers to move to New York to work in design, but the War interfered with her plans and marriage was a determining factor not to pursue her art or dress designing career. She worked for Auerbachs in Salt Lake City, Utah, with window design and interior design, dressing mannequins and elaborate window décor with props.
During the war, while Kathryn was working for Auerbachs, Rex was in the Army Air Corp. While on leave from the Army, before they were married, Rex invited Kathryn to Idaho to visit his family in Burley, Idaho for about four or five days, and Shirley (Kathryn’s sister) also went to Burley. Rex was stationed in San Francisco being trained for meteorology and was then sent to Colorado, working with weapons and training turret gunners for the Army Air Corp. Rex noted that about 80% of the gunners couldn't get out of the planes when they were shot down. Rex wanted to be a pilot and although he passed all of his exams to become a pilot, he was disqualified to be a pilot because of his eye color blindness (distinguishing between green & gray colors) Rex was next reassigned to Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, for six months where he invited Kathryn later to watch him receive his lieutenant bars as an Army officer. While stationed in Connecticut, Kathryn and Rex visited New York City where they had a frightening experience in the subways (reference short story by Kathryn), Rex’s life was preserved by a quick-thinking passenger. Rex had a camera around his neck which was caught in the rubber closure doors of the subway train, a passenger on the outside quickly popped the camera through the rubber closure as the subway started to speed away, and this saved his life. Visiting the art gallery (Guggenheim) was a highlight of the trip. While Kathryn was in New York, Rex wanted to give her a ring, but Kathryn was unsure about getting the ring because she didn’t know if she really loved him, even though she felt that Rex was a fine person of good character, she didn’t accept a ring at that time. Later when she returned home to Salt Lake City and giving it some thought since she was about 24 years old, she felt that it was the right thing to accept a ring and get married, so she called Rex and said she was ready to accept the ring. Rex was a good man. Rex and his parents traveled down from Idaho and Kathryn & Rex were married in the Salt Lake City Temple, September 15, 1944. Their sealing was performed by then Apostle Elder Harold B. Lee.
After getting married, they left for Lake Charles Air Force Station in Louisiana where Rex was stationed. Kathryn had asthma from about September through August of the next year. During this time, following advice from the base doctor, Kathryn moved back to Salt Lake where she felt she could feel better and recover. Rex was reassigned to Seymour Johnson Air Base, southeast of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where Kathryn then traveled to be with him, however, with the Pinion Pine growing in the area it caused asthma, if she was to stay, she would have to live on codeine, so Kathryn decided to leave for Salt Lake. She traveled to Washington DC first to visit with Shirley who was working there, and then they both traveled back to Salt Lake City. While in Washington, DC, Kathryn visited all of the museums, went to restaurants and visited with Shirley her sister. At one restaurant, she remembers seeing General Patton. She had some time to go to the National Art Gallery and savored the time that she spent there. She also met Brother Widstoe in the Melon Art Gallery.
Rex was waiting for his reassignment orders while at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base but never received orders to go overseas. When he reported with his group, they told him his papers were not there, they seemed to be lost. He reported each morning for several days after his group left for Europe. There was still a conflict going on in the Pacific with the Japanese. Paperwork was misplaced. Rex reported as ordered every day expecting to be deployed but never was. This was a miracle that he was never sent overseas considering the high percentage loss of gunners in the B-17 aircraft. Rex was released from the service in North Carolina about February and traveled back to Salt Lake City where they lived a short time in an apartment on 5th East and 3rd South from a landlord named Vic Cummings (Owner of Cummings Chocolates).
They lived with Kathryn's mother in Holladay until they moved to California in September. After returning to Salt Lake City following the very difficult asthma attacks, she received a special blessing from Harold B. Lee. She was given very specific instructions about her health. She studied food and nutrition and continued to do this throughout her life. She used this knowledge to provide healthy meals for her family, always including a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains. She prepared delicious, nutritious meals.
Rex & Kathryn later moved to Berkley California, where they lived in an Apartment on a very, very steep hill, and Linda was born in November 1947. Grandma Zella (Rex's mother) came to help Kathryn for a week after Linda's birth, which was a very difficult one. Rex and Kathryn were in Berkley, California for about four years while attending school and working and raising a family. The second year at school in Berkley, Rex worked at the Ford Motor company scrapping paint off the ceiling baffles at the paint shop and continued to attend school at the same time. Karma was born in May 1949 while Rex and Kathryn were in Berkley, California. Roy Sohm (Rex’s father) came down to visit once with a load of honey to unload at Hayward, California. After school in Berkeley, they purchased a car and traveled back to Salt Lake City. Rex transferred from the Berkley Ford Motor Company to Salt Lake City and continued work for Ford Motor in the engineering department, and then for George Cannon Young Architectural firm.
Rex, Kaye, Linda & Karma lived in Sugar house in Anna Hamnett Salm’s apartment (Triplex) for 7 years. The family referred to this place as the "beetle house" Darryl & Diane Sohm were born in Salt Lake City while Rex & Kathryn family was living in Sugarhouse. Rex designed and built a new home for Anna Hamnett Salm, next to the Triplex apartment building, which was located on Ramona Avenue, in Sugar House, Utah. Walter, Kathryn's father, had passed away Aug 22, 1952. Rex and Kathryn purchased four properties which everyone referred to as “Big Hill”, in Salt Lake City, where Rex sold three lots and designed the homes for the new owners. Rex next built the family home on one of the lots located on 1170 Gilmer Drive and moved into it in 1954 when Diane was 6 months old. Kathryn raised the family in this home.
The family’s LDS church was “The Garden Park Ward” which had prominent church leaders such as Richard L. Evans, Hugh B. Brown, Joseph Fielding Smith, Sterling W. Sill and Russell Nelson, living in the neighborhood. The Garden Park Ward was part of the Bonneville Stake, which also had prominent church leaders such as Spencer W. Kimball, Joseph Wirthlin, and Neal Maxwell, just to name a few.
In 1957 Kathryn and Rex, with their friends Clive and Kathy Kimball, traveled on a vacation to Mexico City, visiting the Temple of the Sun, as well as traveling to Mazatlán and other small towns, along the way.
The family would visit Yellowstone, Wyoming, on vacation which was a favorite camping place. Once while in Yellowstone, and camping in Rex’s modified trailer tent, bears visited during the morning, Kathryn tells of the noise of the bears coming down the campsite and going through the garbage cans, making all kinds of racket (noise). Kathryn decided to wake up the family to listen to the bears the next night. As the bears approached making all of the noise, the bears came near the tent where the family was sleeping, and scratched the side of the tent, everyone was awake and watched the zipper at the bottom as the bear poked its nose into the tent through the zipper. Rex turned on the flashlight and the family, seeing the nose of the bear, started yelling to scare the bear away. As the bear retreated, it cleared off the camp stoves from the tables and finished off the cake that was left on the table.
While camping in Yellowstone, Karma and Linda went to the camp bathroom, upon entering the bathroom door, they saw a bear in the bathroom, so the girls came running back to camp scared to death. Kathryn said they didn’t go into the bathroom because they were afraid there would be bears there. When she asked them why bears would go into the bathroom, they said "wash their hands and go-go".
Kathryn and the family enjoyed traveling and was a great camper and cook. Kathryn would plan all of the meals and cook for the family. For quite a few years, this meant cooking all of the family meals on the small campsite fire pit. Always concerned about good nutrition, these were not typical scant campground meals. There would always be salads, vegetables and fruit along with main dishes. The family would take the home-made camper, which Rex constructed, for summer vacations. Granite Creek, Wyoming, (Granite Hot Springs) along the Hoback River was the family favorite camping location and the family would travel there one or two times a summer, usually between the months of June to August. Summer vacations included travel to California in 1964, visiting the New York World’s fair in 1965, multiple trips to Southern Utah and Zions, Mesa Verde, Colorado, and Idaho on multiple occasions.
Kathryn and Rex always made the family holidays fun. Thanksgiving was a Sunday best dress up occasion, and the dinner table was formally set, and table decorations were beautiful and our turkey dinner had all of the trimmings. Kathryn spent hours preparing for this dinner. It was a family day. For Christmas, the family had two real trees when the kids were younger, one for the family to decorate and one was a designer tree which Kathryn would decorate. The tree was a work of art. Christmas was the best holiday of the year for the family. The stockings were a special treat; the kids probably spent more time playing with the candy and toys in the Christmas stockings then they did playing with the toys they received. The Sohm kids didn’t get very many toys or candy for the entire year except Easter and Halloween, so it was always special looking forward to Christmas.
For the Sohm family, the Gilmer Drive neighborhood was ideal, which had a lot of kids to play with. The Sohms lived next door to Shirley and Vernie Swenson, who were cousins, Shirley being Kathryn’s younger sister. Kathryn, Rex and the family had great memories living in the Gilmer Drive Home.
While living in Salt Lake City and raising a family, Kathryn worked for Castleton’s, & ZCMI department stores designing window and floor displays. Kathryn also taught textiles at the LDS business college. Kathryn was a volunteer guide at the Beehive house for a time.
The family always had some kind of pet animal around the house, cats, dogs, turtles, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, and even a goat whose name was Alababa, which was Linda’s High School graduation present. Kathryn enjoyed the children taking responsibility for the pets. She loved Twinky, the black and white family cat of 13 years that traveled to Nauvoo with the family and was buried at the old oak "trading" tree along the road to the ferry landing where the pioneers left Nauvoo to go West. Twinky became old and very sick and one day sat on Kathryn's lap and looked up at her face to face, meowing and meowing, as if to say, thank you, goodbye. That was her last day on earth.
Most of the kids attended Douglas Grade school, located on 13th East, Roosevelt Junior High School on 8th South and East High School located at 9th South and 13th East. For a short 3 1/2 years, Darryl and Diane attended Nauvoo Colusa High School, in Illinois. During the 3 1/2 years in Nauvoo, Kathryn also taught Art in the local school district, teaching at Nauvoo Grade school, the Nauvoo Colusa High School, and traveling to the Colusa grade school. She taught all ages of children in the area, even a special education class of children on Friday's. She caused quite a commotion as most all kids liked to take her classes, and her classrooms were unique since artwork was plastered on all of the available walls, windows and ceilings. The artwork even spilled out into the halls in which the principle allowed a presentation case for some of the outstanding art pieces. Kathryn allowed the kids to play music while doing their artwork, so her classes were more of a fun class then work, although Kathryn had a lot of assignments that had to be met, she made it fun but challenging.
Upon return from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, Kathryn and Rex continued to live in the Gilmer Drive family home. She had many church callings that she fulfilled with love and care. For example, she was the Stake Junior Sunday School coordinator and spent many hours preparing lesson plans and lesson illustrations to give monthly packets for each ward to use. She belonged to a ‘world’ study group for ten years. The women in the group would meet each month for lunch. A country would be chosen for the year and each women take turns presenting details about that country…history, people, governments, etc., each month. She would often present art and art history and textiles of the people that were so critical to their cultures. She loved learning about people and cultures. She would read and share many amazing things that she would learn on many subjects with her family. She spent some time painting, mostly with oils. She produced many beautiful works of art. She loved the ‘masters’ of art that she had studied in school and at the museums and thought her work was ‘too amateurish’, but all of her family loves her work. If she were sitting down, at home, in the car, at church, anywhere…she almost always could be found sketching beautiful scenes with flowers, birds, butterflies and hummingbirds. She loved to create beautiful, interesting and colorful compositions. She loved playing the piano. She would practice beautiful music and the family enjoyed listening to her play. Through the years she also accompanied Rex when he was asked to sing at various functions.
The four Sohm children married and moved away to other states, such as Hawaii, Colorado, Virginia, Texas, Kansas and California. The Diane Andersen family remained in the Salt Lake area. Kathryn & Rex sold the beloved Gilmer Drive family home in Salt Lake City and moved to Santa Clara next to Saint George, Utah. during their older years, where Rex died. Santa Clara was also a pioneer heritage family area where the pioneer Keller Family resided, so this area was reminiscent of the family history. Walter Salm, Kathryn’s father, was born in Santa Clara. After Rex’s death, Kathryn moved to Roanoke, Virginia, living with her daughter Linda, and also close to the Karma & Dane McBride family, who cared for her up into her 90's.
Kathryn wrote her children stories, painted some beautiful flowers and animal pictures and wrote her fiction and life experience stories all while in her 80's and early 90's. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and raised where the church was small and struggling when only a few temples where build in her early years, now there are over 140 temples. She remained faithful and full of testimony to the truthfulness of the gospel. She worked on family extraction work and kept family history alive for her children mostly through telling family history stories. She enjoyed her college years learning and enjoying lifetime friendships. Kathryn experienced the changes in her lifetime of finally having running water in her home and going out to the outhouse, using catalog paper for toilet tissue. Her first experience with a radio was a neighbors that she listened to, the size of a crackly wounding box. As the radio was refined, the family purchased one in their home which was on legs and more like a piece of furniture. She experienced the development of the black and white TV with tubes and saw the development of new LED HD TVs. She and Rex were one of the first to try out the first microwave ovens, which did not work well at first. She traveled mostly across the country by car but also by train and plane. During her lifetime, there was time of great war and time of peace. There was opportunity for all good things to eat and fabrics that improved comfort, wear and better lifestyle. The color fast changed and improved. Kathryn enjoyed interior decorating with beautiful European, Chinese and American finely crafted items. She had an appreciation for the beauties of the earth and the cultures of the people of the earth. She continued to learn and wanted to learn all that she could. She had a special fascination with learning about Egypt, ancient history, Dead Sea Scrolls, hummingbirds, and butterflies.
She loved the intricacies of flowers. She thrilled at the magnificent grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, Glacier National Parks, waterfalls, streams and rivers. She was observant and appreciative of the Lord’s creations. Kathryn was multitalented with a variety of interests and skills. She enjoyed sewing, cooking and collecting recipes, playing the piano and organ. She loved music and loved art and teaching art. She was of a proud pioneer heritage. She loved her family and extended family and often talked about her cousins, aunts, uncle’s grandmothers and grandfathers. She loved her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She faithfully lived and loved the gospel of Jesus Christ. Kathryn was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, teacher and loved the Lord and expressed a firm testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
Kathryn was a great mother and the Sohm kids were raised in an ideal home.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 30, 2026, at 11:30 am at Larkin Sunset Gardens (1950 E. 10600 S., Sandy, UT). A visitation will be held prior to the services from 10:00 – 11:00 am. Interment will be at Larkin Sunset Gardens Cemetery under the direction of Southern Utah Mortuary. To view the livestream of the service and share online condolences, please visit www.mortuary.org.
I lived across the street from Anna, her Mother. I remember Kay and Rex very well. My sister, Elaine rented Anna’s garage. My condolences go out to her family
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