Alvira Deseret Lindsay was born on 16 January 1868 in Paris, Bear Lake, Idaho to William Buckminster Lindsay and Sarah Henderson. She was the sixth of eight children. Her father made shoes for his children, but with so many it was often impossible to get around to all of them. Consequently, Alvira learned at an early age to do without many things in life. In fact, “Dessie” would often run through the snow bare footed and then climb on top of the shed to get warm in the sun. Her children recall that when “Dessie” recounted the hardships of the early days, she was never bitter, but always spoke of her half brothers and sisters and their mothers with love and respect.

Alvira did not get to attend school unless one of her brothers found it necessary to stay home from school. She was willing and anxious to learn and attended whenever the opportunity arose. Like all families at that time, they had to pay tuition for the boys to attend school. She was fun-loving, but also serious. Alvira took advantage of her limited learning to study the scriptures and teach them to others throughout her life.

While still a young girl, Alvira found it necessary to work hard to help support the family. Consequently, she found employment in a dairy. She found the days at the dairy long with little pay. She told her children of an amazing incident that happened while working at the dairy: One day she was bringing some butter from the dairy and a man, who was looking for another wife, stood waiting to ask her a question. It was impossible to hear his question above the noise of the machinery in the dairy, so she just gave him a nod, only to discover later that she had said yes to a proposal of marriage.

There had been a number of chances for marriage, but Alvira preferred to wait for the one and only. The young man who had proposed to her at the dairy was Frederick William Hurst, Jr., an artist and builder from Logan, Utah. He was in Paris, Idaho at the time to work on the tabernacle there. He passed the Lindsay home one day and saw a pretty little eighteen-year-old girl standing by the well with two huge buckets of water calling for her brothers to come help her. Frederick went to her rescue and helped her with the water buckets.

Frederick and Alvira kept company, fell in love, and were married a few months later (October 18, 1885) in the Logan Temple. The couple lived in Paris, Idaho until after their first two children, Merrill and Lillian, were born. Frederick then went to Salt Lake City to use his wonderful talents in working on the interior of the Salt Lake Temple. Alvira joined him in Salt Lake City, and they lived there until after the birth of their third child, Leona. They then returned to Paris, Idaho where my Frederick built a beautiful home, which they all lived in for many years.

Alvira’s youngest child, daughter named Laverda, was born in September of 1907. She was able to enjoy all of her children for three months, as Inez (Ninie) passed away at the age of fifteen. To say the least, that Christmas was a sad one for the Hurst family. A few years later, Alvira lost Clawson, who died at the age of eight. Then her mother, whom she had taken care of for several years, also passed away.