LaVell Meldrum 9 Bigelow
16167.3991 LaVell Meldrum 9 Bigelow, son of Parley Percival 8 ( Daniel 7, Nahum 6 , Simeon 5 , John 4 , Joshua 3, Joshua 2, John 1), and Margaret (MELDRUM) BIGELOW, was born 12 November 1917 at Provo, Utah co, UT. He married 05 December 1941 Avalon Christensen. LaVell died 18 June 2007 Provo, Utah co, UT
Children of LaVell and Avalon (Christensen) Bigelow:
16167.39911t William S., b _____ ; d _____ ; m
1979 Vickie Cook (b 22 Aug 1953 Aberdeen, MD; d 11 Feb 2008
Riverton,
Salt Lake co, UT (see obituary))
res Riverton
16167.39912 Joseph Alfonzo, (twin), b ______ ; d _____before 2007 ;
16167.39913 Andrew Curtis, (twin), b ______ ; d
_____before 2007 ;
16167.39914 Christopher M., b ______ ; d _______
; m Mitzie _____ ; res Bountiful, UT;
16167.39915 Robert D.,, b ______ ; d _______ ; m
Jill _____ ; res Pleasant Grove, UT
16167.39916 Michael L., b ______ ; d _______ ; m
Beth ______ ; res American Fork, UT
16167.39917 Mark E., b ______ ; d _______ ; m Jenny _____ ; res Provo;
Sources:
The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Volume II, page 198-199 child;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America; not listed;
correspondence with family descendants;
Note:
Parley Percival 8 Bigelow, born
26 November 1888, Wallsburg, Wasatch, UT; was the father of LaVell
9 Bigelow and grandfather of William 10
Bigelow
Name: William Bigelow
E-Mail: wistbi@gmail.com
Location: Riverton, Utah
Comments:
Came across the site while looking for Bigelow family history
information. I am the son of LaVell Bigelow, who was the son
of Percival Bigelow, who was the son of Daniel Bigelow
(Wallsburg, Utah).
From: http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/226357/13/
Thursday, June 21, 2007
LaVell Meldrum Bigelow
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North County Staff
Captain / Dr. LaVell Meldrum Bigelow, USN ret. /
PhD, 89, died on June 18, 2007. He was born on November 12, 1917,
in Provo, UT to Percival and Margaret Bigelow. He graduated from BYU
and subsequently earned his Masters and Doctorate Degrees. He served as
a Naval Aviator until 1965, when he entered the world of business and
education. He earned three Navy Crosses, the Navy's highest award, as
a dive-bomber pilot in the Pacific in WWII.
LaVell married Avalon Christensen in Norfolk, VA
two days prior to Pearl Harbor. Their marriage was later solemnized in
the Manti Temple. They were blessed with seven sons. His children
revere him for his hard work, integrity, respect for others and their
property, his desire for learning, love of God, and activity in the LDS
Church.
LaVell is preceded in death by his wife, Avalon,
and his twin sons Joseph Alfonzo and Andrew Curtis. He is survived by
his sisters, Afton Miller, Pl. Grove, and Ruth Wilsted, Northridge,
CA.; his brother Dr. Richard P. (Suzanne), SLC; five sons, Christopher
M. (Mitzie) Bountiful, Robert D. (Jill) Pl. Grove, Michael L. (Beth)
American Fork, William S. (Vickie) Riverton and Mark E. (Jenny) Provo;
and 33 grandchildren and 40 great- grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday,
June 23, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. in the North Field Stake Center Chapel, 105
West 1800 North, Pl. Grove. Friends may call on Friday at the Olpin
Family Mortuary, 494 South 300 East, Pl. Grove from 6-8 p.m. and one
hour prior to services on Saturday. Interment will be in the Arlington
National Cemetery, VA. Condolences may be sent to the family at
www.olpinfamilymortuary.
From Christopher's blog:
My grandfather, LaVell Bigelow, died last week at age 89, and I found
his funeral extremely moving, especially the parts about his World War
II heroism. However, as with so many other things these days,
considering his life and accomplishments has added to my mid-life
inferiority complex, contemplating how much more manly mojo he's
displayed than I've ever even come close to imagining. Anyway, here's a
nice write-up that the Salt Lake Tribune did (I took the liberty of
correcting some grammatical and factual errors):
Combat pilot was a 3-time Navy Cross winner
He took part in epic WWII events, including the Coral Sea battle and
the Japanese surrender
By Glen Warchol The Salt Lake Tribune 06/23/2007:
Lt. LaVell Bigelow nosed over his lumbering dive
bomber into a near-vertical bomb run on a Japanese aircraft carrier
14,000 feet below just as he noticed an enemy Zero fighter was
following him down.
Bigelow knew he would be a perfect target if he
held his Dauntless dive bomber in the steady arc required to accurately
place his 1,000-pound bomb through the Shoho's deck. His survival and
his rear-seat gunner's survival depended on him, instead, to simply
dump the bomb and concentrate on dodging the Zero's machine guns.
His granddaughter Angela Jacob, 23, remembers
Bigelow recounting the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea to her: "The Holy
Ghost came into my mind: 'You dummy!' He said. 'You have to get a hit
on that ship! Your country is depending on you. You have been promised
you will
not be harmed in this war. Hold a steady dive."
Bigelow, a longtime Utah County resident, who won
three Navy Crosses in World War II, died June 18th. He was 89. The
retired Captain would end his Pacific experience leading a squadron of
fighters over the battleship USS Missouri as the Japanese surrendered
on Sept. 2, 1945.
"That was kind of a fun thing," he told KUED
researchers making a documentary on the Pacific war. "We had a nice
parade formation of eighteen planes flying over the Missouri during the
signing of that peace treaty."
Bigelow would earn his first Navy Cross, the
highest medal awarded by the Navy short of the Congressional Medal of
Honor, that May morning diving on the Shoho. The 24-year-old Provo
native ignored the Zero on his tail and kept his bomb sight locked on
the ship below. As he dropped to less than 1,000 feet above the
carrier's deck,
he released the bomb and pulled out of his dive.
The Zero screamed past, inexplicably not having
fired a shot. "LaVell and his tail gunner didn't see any tracers going
by," Jacob said.
As the Dauntless climbed for altitude, the
tail gunner reported they had hit their target. After several more bomb
and torpedo hits, the Shoho became the first major Japanese warship
sunk
in the war.
Bigelow married Avalon Christensen in Norfolk, Va.,
December 5, 1941. Two days later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and
he was ordered to the Pacific. "Before he left for the war, he and
his wife knelt down and said a prayer that he would not be harmed,"
Jacob
said.
Her grandfather went on to win Navy Crosses for an
attack at Tulagi that sank a Japanese cruiser and for participating in
the sinking of the Yamato, the world's largest battleship.
Jacob, who is writing a family history of her
grandfather, has become fascinated by the exploits of World War II
naval aviators and the terrible casualties they suffered flying from
the heaving carrier decks. "How courageous. It's amazing that any of
them survived," she said.
Bigelow retired from the Navy in 1968 after having
served various roles all over the world, including as a test pilot in
the 1950s.
"I grew up near him all my life," said Jacob. "As a
child you just think he's your grandpa. But as I learned about World
War II and his role in those great battles, I started to think - this
is a special guy."
More details from the obit:
He was born on November 12, 1917, in Provo, UT to
Percival and Margaret Bigelow. He graduated from BYU and subsequently
earned his Masters and Doctorate Degrees. He served as a Naval Aviator
until 1965, when he entered the world of business and education. He
earned three Navy Crosses, the Navy's highest award, as a dive-bomber
pilot
in the Pacific in World War II.
LaVell married Avalon Christensen in Norfolk, VA
two days prior to Pearl Harbor. Their marriage was later solemnized in
the Manti Temple. They were blessed with seven sons. His children
revere him for his hard work, integrity, respect for others and their
property, his desire for learning, love of God, and activity in the LDS
Church.
Interment will be in the Arlington National Cemetery, VA
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
