Life History of Ralph Keith Mills
November 26, 1954 - August 27, 1981
By Byron Gerrit Mills
Ralph Keith Mills was born on November 26, 1954 to Ralph Swingewood Mills and Catherine Kranendonk, in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. He was the seventh of eight children; Frances Lorrine, Byron Gerrit, Lloyd Dwaine, Darrel Eugene, Norman Dean, Arlene Diane, Ralph Keith, and Brent Lee Mills.
Keith, as he was called, was blessed on December 5, 1954 by his father Ralph Swingewood Mills, in the 22nd Ward of the Salt Lake Stake, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He was baptized by Lloyd Dwaine Mills November 28, 1962. Primary graduation was November 27, 1966. Keith was ordained a deacon December 4, 1966, a Teacher on December 1, 1968, and a priest on November 27, 1970. He was ordained to all of these offices by Ralph Swingewood Mills.
Keith started school at Washington Elementary School in September of 1960. He also started in Primary at the same time. A short time later Keith learned to ride a bicycle and began to learn about mechanics by fixing up the old bicycle. Our father began teaching all of the children as many skills as he could at a young age.
When Frances and David Larson were engaged, Keith asked David, "If you marry Frances, could you stand to live with her?"
When Keith entered Horace Mann Jr. High School he began giving teachers a hard time. He was interested in Karate, although he never learned much about it. One day Keith did a flying drop kick to a door. Bruno Stubbs, a teacher, was about to come through the door from the other side. As the door was kicked, Mr. Stubbs was knocked on his back. Keith ran around the hall, and came in the same door he just kicked, and was never caught.
In a high school chemistry class, there were several problems that did not have an easy answer. Keith was constantly presenting these to the teacher, especially when he knew the teacher did not have the answer. Most of these problems came from a college course that Byron took. He was bored with the simplicity of the class.
ROTC at West High School provided a challenge. Keith joined the Rifle Team. By using a spot in his vision from a cataract, he was able to shoot the rifle very accurately. All of the school records were broken with constant scores of 198 out of 200. No one else could hit the target with that rifle. The sergeant never found out his secret and was even more amazed at how the sights were set. No one else was allowed to touch that rifle because it was a competition winner.
Edwin Moth-Iverson was one of Keith's best friends. He was brilliant. Keith decided to play a trick, and made up a story that he was an under cover FBI agent. There was a secret computer in the basement. To help the story a police band radio was used that Keith got for Christmas, along with some hand cuffs, tear gas, and a few other items. At the same time, father and Byron were riding motorcycle escort for funerals. The red lights and sirens on the motorcycles helped the story. As an extra, Keith learned lock smithing and how to pick locks, which helped him earn extra money, and added a spy angle to the story. Edwin was fooled for over five years.
The tear gas came packaged in a pocket pen gun in cartridges. One day, it was set off in the house. The family had to go outside for a while for air to clear. Our eyes burned most of the day. Keith was in trouble with dad for the tear gas.
Keith yelled "Help!' Frances went to the bedroom to see what he wanted. He was standing with his finger over the aquarium. Keith had shot a BB Gun into the fish tank and was holding in the water.
Keith developed a love for animals and had a lot of pets. One was an Andaconda constrictor, (Boa Constrictor family). The snake was about 8 feet long. Frances was visiting from Montana when the snake was loose in the house for some exercise. She stepped on the rubber ball of a loud bicycle horn. Then she jumped and screamed and thought the snake honked at her.
The pets included a dog, snake. hamsters, mice, raccoon, alligator, and monkeys. There were more. Of all the pets, the monkeys were the most interesting.
Two monkeys were sent to Keith by the uncle of one of his friends from South America. One was a squirrel monkey named Miss Pratt in honor of a teacher that Keith had a hard time with. The other monkey was named Peepers, after another teacher. Peepers was a name given to Mr. Ronald Childs by Byron because he resembled a teacher comedian on a TV show. The Mills kids kept the name alive until the teacher quit because of so many Mills Kids. He quit when Brent came along, not knowing Brent was the last one.
The monkeys escaped and later returned. They brought another monkey back with them. This monkey was named Charlie, and became the most loved of all pets. He was a ring tail monkey. Keith liked to take him for rides on the bicycle. He would sit on Keith's shoulder, hug his head, and have a good time. There were nearly several traffic accidents from people looking at Charlie.
Another pet was the alligator. He was only 6 inches long but was already getting mean. Uncle Bill (William is Mom's brother) came to the house and was looking at the pets. The alligator opened his mouth and ran after Bill. He looked so vicious that Bill laughed and called him a mean little $#@!.
One spring the trees were infested with the larvae of the cottling moth. They would spin a web that totally covered the tree, and then eat all the leaves from the tree. Several trees died. The county came and sprayed the trees to kill the larvae. Charlie was outside at the time. He was poisoned. Keith never completely got over loosing Charlie.
When Keith was sixteen, he bought a Pontiac GTO, and rebuilt it into a very fast car. He bought it for an auto mechanics class in High School. He was not allowed to take the class. Because of this disappointment, and being mentally ahead of many of his teachers, he quit school. Most classes were boring, and too simple for him. Several years later he finished and received his diploma.
When the car was finished, the grill was full of lights. It had the nick name of 'The Christmas Tree' by the city police. The car was so fast that the police couldn't catch it. The car was one of the three most wanted because it was so fast. As a result, Keith was being stopped by the police all the time for any silly reason. One day Keith was being chased by the police. He outran them and visited Lloyd for several hours until the police gave up looking for the car.
In the late summer of 1973, Keith was working on his car. He was siphoning some gas out of the tank when he swallowed the gas. He came in the house choking and collapsed on the kitchen floor. Keith told us that his spirit left his body and he watched us working on him. No one came to meet him and he was sent back into his body. He was never afraid of death after that time. Keith never totally recovered from the accident. Gasoline fumes made him sick and he lost interest in mechanics. He would still help others, but mostly tell them what to do.
Keith went to work for Stover Bedding where mother and Norman were employed. His next job was at Woolf's, a sport clothing store. His first position was in sales. He was transferred to purchasing. Computers were just coming into use for inventory control and sales forecasting. Keith was given the computer to operate. The owner began to treat Keith bad so he quit his job without notice. This left the store in a mess because all records were in the computer. Sales and orders were fouled up because no one knew how to operate the computer. The owner begged, offered raises, etc. for Keith to come back to work, but he would not go. He had a good laugh over the computer being shut down.
He went to work for Pyke Manufacturing next. It was Siutiti, Byron's wife, that found this job for Keith. While on this job he met Linda. They were both bashful. Some of his friends dared him to take Linda out on a date. They dared Linda to go out with him. Keith took Linda on that date in November 1974, and by March 1975 they were engaged.
During the courtship, Keith lost his drivers license and Linda had to drive the car for their dates. Linda hated to drive a hot rod, and Keith hated to let any one drive his car. It was even worse for a girl to drive it. Linda's father, Roland Hanson, was our former mail man for many years. This was a surprise to both Linda and Keith.
On June 5, 1975 Keith was ordained an Elder by R. Hulbert Keddington. He received his Temple Endowment on June 19, 1975 in the Salt Lake Temple and was married to Linda Deon Hanson on June 20, 1975. The marriage was performed by Seth L. Blood in the Salt Lake Temple. At the wedding reception, one of Linda's bridesmaids, Kristy Littlewood, impressed Norman and he took her on a date. They married a short time later. This was the second time a family member met their mate as a result of another family member. The first time was when Byron wanted to introduce Frances to Don Larson, who was a former missionary companion, and he was not home. She met David, his brother, and they were married.
Shortly after Keith and Linda were married, they lost their jobs at Pyke Manufacturing. He went to work for Salts Ornamental Iron, but the fumes bothered him. The doctor made Keith quit his job. The owner liked Keith so much , he helped Keith get a job at Sperry Univac.
While Keith was on this job he had to work an occasional night shift. One night he had to climb into a computer cabinet to do some electrical tests. The cabinet was mis-wired and had a hot chassis. Keith received an electrical shock that could have been fatal. It burned the shirt off his back. He felt his guardian angel saved him for some reason, even though he felt he would die at a young age.
A neighbor in Keith's apartment complex had a favorite radio station that was always played too loud. It was not Keith's choice of music. He had an FM microphone he tuned to the frequency of the radio station. When the radio was played too loud, the microphone was turned on and placed by the wall closest to the radio. It would jam the reception. The repair man would come over and the microphone was turned off. The repair man found the radio working. This kept on happening until she gave up listening to the station. Keith's mischief won again.
September 21, 1977 Holly Deon Mills was born to Keith and Linda. Keith was a good father to Holly and took her with him whenever he could. Holly loved to come to Grandma's house and raid the cookie jar.
Keith lost his job at Sperry Univac and while he was looking for a better job went into security work. What he learned while fooling Edwin Moth-Iverson helped in getting promotions. He was assigned to Salt Lake International Airport. One day an airline executive refused to show his ID. badge. They were in a restricted area. He walked past Keith and was promptly on the ground and in hand cuffs. The executive almost lost his job and was demoted.
Working at the airport had many interesting times. The number of emergency landings is amazing. One time a plane from San Diego blew out it's tires on take off. The decision was to fly to Salt Lake and land with empty fuel tanks. The plane's approach was as slow as it could fly, and land on the dirt before the runway began. The landing was successful.
While working security, money was low pay. Trying to help out, Byron gave Keith some corn from the garden. What they didn't know was that Siutiti planted some pop corn next to the sweet corn. Keith and Linda ate the toughest corn they ever had.
Byron was employed at American Laser and trying to get a better job at Beehive International. He told Keith about it and Keith got the job. He was soon promoted to Assistant Supervisor of the shipping department.
In late July or early August, Keith had a discussion with mother, and told her that he was not going to live much longer. Every since fathers death, he hinted he was in communication, and would be the next one in the family to go.
On August 10, 1981, Keith was on his way to work. A horse was on the road, black, and it was still dark. He hit the horse and was injured. One week later on August 17, 1981 Ralph Keith Mills died in Salt Lake City, Utah.