NEWDALE WOMAN HAS A ZEST FOR LIFE
Published in Rexburg, Standard journal in 2000. 
Gwen Sutton Robison of Newdale is not a typical senior. At 76, Gwen is the picture of health. She eats lots of fruits and vegetables and whole wheat bread, gets lot of exercise and is bursting at the seams with energy. She rides her bike to the Post Office, claiming it’s easier and a lot faster than getting in the car, to go just one mile. She loves to run and loves being outdoors working in the garden. When she’s inside she likes to play the piano, read and work on her computer. She hates shopping.
Her family is the most important thing in her life. She is devoted to them and has family get-togethers at her home about every three months. “When we are all together there are about 85 of us.” Gwen says. “It’s a lot of fun. Everybody brings a potluck dish. We all help out and just enjoy being together. Gwen has always been a busy lady. Her pet peeve is “people who waste time” Gwen took college classes at night for many years. “You are never too old to learn and grow.” She says. In 1994, Gwen’s children gave her a computer for Christmas. “At first I didn’t want it. I told them I would never use it. I had my typewriter and I like it just fine. “Gwen says. But curiosity got the best of her and soon she was working on her computer and liking it. Now she doesn’t know what she would do without it. She uses her computer daily, updating her journal, sending letters to her missionary grandsons and writing family histories. Now she says, “You can have the kitchen sink but you can’t have my computer.”
She has four computers in her home. There is a computer down stairs that is used primarily to play games by grandchildren and neighbor kids. Her husband Clair Robison uses his to record patriarchal blessings. Gwen wrote a book about her mother and is writing a journal about her family which is now in the fourth volume. All the journals are spiral bound. Each Sunday she writes a letter about what is going on in the family during the week and e-mails it to about 18 different people, including her six sons, married grandchildren, missionary grandsons and close friends. Her family motto is “Make every decision in the light of all eternity.” “We are going to be held accountable for what we do here”, Gwen says, “There is a lot to do.” “The greatest people are those who get up every morning and do the best they can regardless of their circumstances.”
Gwen was born in Rexburg in 1924, a daughter of Millie Lake and Thomas “Att” Atkinson, of Lyman. The family moved to California, then returned to Rexburg in 1935 pulling a four wheel trailer with everything they owned behind an old Dodge car. Gwen was 11 at the time and remembers vividly what a horrible trip it was. It is engraved on my soul. She attended grade school in Lyman and graduated from Madison High school in 1942. She married Jesse Sutton, of Archer, right out of high school and they moved to Portland to work in the shipyards for one year to save up enough money to put a down payment on a farm. They both worked full time as welders for Commercial Ironworks of Portland. The company sent them to school to learn to weld and Gwen was among one of the first woman welders for the company. Their welding jobs were on merchant ships and aircraft carriers. Gwen liked to weld on the stainless steel flight decks best of all. She got the chance to christen a merchant ship, the SS Victor C.Vaughn. Gwen and Jess both worked part time jobs. Jess worked in a cannery and Gwen worked in a laundry. It was the first time income tax was taken out of their wages. “We all thought we were special, to donate to the ward effort with our income taxes.” During that time Gwen and Jess lived on $5.00 a week in a trailer house back of a friend’s home. They ate a lot of vegetables that Gwen would pick up as discards from the neighborhood grocery. At that time gas was 10 cents a gallon. They saved the rest of their wages for a down payment on a farm. They achieved that goal in one year and bought a farm in Archer. They came home in March of 1944, in time to plant the crops.
They lived in Archer for 48 years and raised six sons, Steve, Lee, Garth, Tom, Randy and Kent. They raised potatoes and grain on the farm and were among the first to install a sprinkler system on the dry farm. The whole family helped out on the farm. Gwen moved sprinkler pipe right along with the boys. The boys are all grown now. Steve farms in Lyman, Lee and Garth live on the family farm in Archer. Tom is a physical therapist in Pocatello, Randy lives in Archer and is a certified public accountant. Kent farms in Archer. Jess died in 1980. She married Rex Jensen from Burton and lived there for two years before he died.
Gwen married Clair Robison of Newdale in 1993. She met him, when they were both serving on the Madison Memorial Hospital Board. Clair had a handicapped son, J. Wendell, who is 51 and Gwen had a foster daughter, Barbara Baty, who came to live with Gwen in 1989. “Clair and I were meant to be together, I had Barbara to care for and he had J.Wendell, We made a good family.” Says Gwen. Gwen has served as Relief Society President four times and she has served in stake Relief Society Presidencies twice. She served a mission in Arcadia, California in 1985.
Clair started to keep a journal, when he was in high school and kept it up except, during the time he was Bishop and in the Stake Presidency. Gwen filled in the missing years and compiled a hard bound book for him. “He read it over and over again,” Gwen says Gwen sys she loves living in Newdale, “There are good people here. There is no class distinction. It’s a wonderful place to live.
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