William Richard Craner

   Ancestral File Number: 20G8-5G.

  General Notes:

Occupation: School Teacher

Wife #2---Bergetta "Birdie" Andrus Liechty
Married December 1977

Child of William and Grace Pond Craner

1- Carolyn - Md - Dan Mathew Palmer

WILLIAM RICHARD CRANER (1905 -2006)

William was born 20 August 1905 in Oakley, Cassia, Idaho. He was the tenth child and sixth son of George and Mary Caroline Adams Craner. In 1904 Bill's father along with his brother and brother-in-law Edward and David Harding went to Albion and filed on land in the new Burley project. George got 80 acres and David and Edward each got 40 acres. Between 1904 and 1907 a nice home was built in Burley. In 1911 George had a beautiful brick home built, not far from the other home. This house had a basement and an upstairs with three large bedrooms upstairs. In the house was built a "dumb waiter", an elevator from the basement to the kitchen. Sounds fun, but not very handy and was not used very much. If you had to go to the basement to load, you might as well bring the stuff with you when you came back.
Their home in Burley was a gathering place for all their friends and relatives. But this was nice as we got to visit with the best in the LDS Church, even President Heber J. Grant.
Bill started school when he was six years old and right off he hated it. He started in the basement of the Miller School. He was transferred to a white building about three blocks to the north. A couple of years later he transferred back to the Miller School.
When he started High School we were still in World War I. The boys were required to wear kaki uniforms with wrap leggings. Bill graduated from high school in May 1923. That fall he enrolled at the Albion State Normal School. He graduated in 1925 with a certificate which allowed him to teach the intermediate grades.
Bill applied for a position as teacher in the Burley schools and he was hired to teach the 5^th grade in the Miller building. He felt that two years of teaching 5^th grade was enough of this and so in 1927 he enrolled in the school of agriculture at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. He worked as a hasher for about a year where he became the cook's helper and worked in the kitchen.
During his last year of College he met a young lady from southern Idaho by the name of Grace Pond. She had attended Utah State Agricultural College for two years and had transferred to Idaho and entered the College of education. Bill graduated from the University in June 1930 and got a position at Sugar City, Idaho teaching vocational agriculture in high school. Grace graduated from the University in 1931 and on 18 June 1931 Bill and Grace were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.
In 1935 Bill applied and was accepted to teach vocational agriculture at Shelley, Idaho. In 1937 Mr. William Kerr (his boss) asked him to transfer to Moscow, Idaho, work for his Master's degree and also teach in the high school. He finished school in 1939 and started looking for a job. He ended up starting a new department in Salmon, Idaho. He had a new car and so the coach, Golden Welch, asked him to haul basketball players. He took Grace with him and it was a choice experience for them. But Grace hated Salmon and was happy when they got a chance to move.
They moved to Preston, Idaho in June of 1940. Bill and Grace had one child.

Name:Birth Date:Death Date:

1. Carolyn Craner7 Nov 1945

On 7 December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and we were at War. There was a call to produce food and more food to feed our soldiers. There was an opening in the Extension Service in Franklin County and some one suggested that Bill apply. He spent the next two years as agricultural agent for Franklin County, working with men, in the War effort. But somehow this was not for him and after two years he got a chance to go back to his old love, teaching the youth in vocational agriculture at Preston High School, and he stayed there until retiring in 1970.
He often took his students to the National FFA convention. He had boys place first 8 times; second 4 times and third 4 times over a 16 year period. He was the official judge of the crop exhibits at the Eastern Idaho State fair at Blackfoot for near 20 years. He served on many committees; such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, Civilian Defense, War Board and Farm Bureau. He was the president of the Idaho Vocational Education Association and was fortunate to be awarded an Honorary American Farmer degree. He was a charter member of the Preston Knife and Fork club, served five years on the board of directors and served one year as president. In 1969 he was listed in the book, Personalities of the West and Midwest.
Grace passed away 21 January 1977 in Logan, Utah. Bill married Bergetta "Birdie" Andrus Liechty 15 December 1977 in Ogden, Utah. Birdie died 24 February 1993 in Preston, Idaho. Bill celebrated his 100^th Birthday on 20 August 2005 with an open house. He passed away 8 April 2006 in Preston, Idaho.

Source: History written by William R Craner. Edited by Jeri Ann Fogg
¹

  LDS Information:

Baptism: 20 Aug 1913

Endowment: 18 Jun 1931, Salt Lake Temple

Sealed to Parents: BIC

He was sealed to his spouse Dns at Ogden Utah Temple. (Bergetta "Birdie" Andrus Liechty was born on 9 Jun 1909 in Thatcher, Franklin, Idaho, USA, died on 24 Feb 1993 in Preston, Franklin, Idaho, USA and was buried on 27 Feb 1993 in Providence, Cache, Utah, USA.)

He was sealed to his spouse on 18 Jun 1931 at Salt Lake Temple. (Grace Pond was born on 7 May 1909 in Thatcher, Franklin, Idaho, USA, died on 21 Jan 1977 in Logan, Cache, Utah, USA and was buried on 25 Jan 1977 in Lewiston, Cache, Utah, USA.)