Mildred Harris (born 1906) was the oldest child of Ole Van and Annie May Perry Harris, a pair of school teachers who taught in many elementary schools in the Intermountain West. She attended school in Salt Lake City, Utah, and worked as a multiplex operator for Western Union. She studied dance in Utah and Chicago, and eventually moved to New York City, where she danced in a Schubert Revival of "Babes in Toyland" before returning to Salt Lake City. She married Forest Theodore Cooper in 1939 and had a child, Daryl Evan Cooper. She later married Joseph Edvin Olson.
The Mildred Harris Olson biography on Ole Van Harris and Annie May Perry Harris (1986) consist of a 25-page typescript entitled "History of Ole Van Harris and Wife, Annie May Perry Harris." This typewritten biography was compiled from correspondence. It also includes information on later family members.
This manuscript details the history of the family from 1852 through 1973. Topics covered include a journey across the plains from Nauvoo to Salt Lake City, the Dixie Mission, carpentry, home chores, polygamy, Brigham Young Academy, teaching, ranching, life as a traveling salesman, dog sled racing, getting through the Depression, working on government programs in the Roosevelt Era, and everyday family activities. This folder also contains a letter from Muriel Erickson discussing the provenance of this biographical sketch.
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Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.
Gift of Muriel Erickson, a sister of Mildred Harris Olson, in 1986.
Processed by Karen Carver in 2008.