Helen Janiel Swenson was born on March 9, 1930, in Malad, Oneida County, Idaho, in a midwife’s house next door to her grandparents Oscar and Isabel Swenson. She was the second child of Royal Oscar Swenson and Tressa Bailey Swenson, following her older brother Robert Dean. Her younger sister Twila and brothers Royal Jay and Doyle LeGrande followed.

The Swenson family lived on a 160-acre farm in Arbon Valley, about 40 miles from Malad, reached by dirt roads. Janiel traveled to school by horse. In fifth grade the family moved to Malad for the winter so the children could attend school in town, and from that point the family split their time between the farm and Malad. Janiel graduated from Malad High School and attended Idaho State College.

She met Don Phillips at a football game between the Downey Bulldogs and the Malad Dragons when she was a sophomore. They dated for two years before marrying on February 27, 1948, in Malad — in her grandmother Swenson’s living room, which Janiel cleaned herself before the ceremony. They honeymooned in Idaho Falls and liked it so much they decided to settle there. On June 16, 1953, they moved into the home on Avocet Drive in Ammon where they would live for more than sixty years.

Don and Janiel had three daughters: Kathy, Marilyn, and Joyce. Janiel was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout her life, serving in Primary and Mutual leadership. She was the ladies’ fashion division manager at Sears (in the Teton Mall area of Idaho Falls) for many years before retiring.

Her parents both died in 1974, within six months of each other. Both Janiel and Marilyn gave life sketches at their funerals.

Janiel’s personal story — written in her own voice — is one of the primary sources for the Swenson and Phillips family lines in this archive. Helen Janiel Swenson Phillips died on May 2, 2018, in Idaho Falls, and was buried in Ammon, Bonneville County, Idaho, beside her husband Don.