Parade and rodeo kick off Pioneer Days

Carey is bracing for its annual Pioneer Days celebration Friday and Saturday.

The festivities will kick off with a rodeo Friday night, followed Saturday by a parade, talent show, brunch and, later that evening, more rodeo at the Carey Fairgrounds.

Pioneer Day commemorates the anniversary of the arrival in 1847 of Brigham Young and his Mormon followers in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It is observed by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with the largest celebration occurring in Salt Lake City. Many smaller communities, such as Carey, have their own festival to mark this historical date in the church’s history.

The church was founded by Joseph Smith, who taught that golden tablets containing the Book of Mormon were revealed to him at Palmyra, New York. In 1831, Smith established his headquarters at Kirkland, Ohio, then later moved his rapidly expanding following to western Missouri, where he hoped to make a permanent home.

The church found conflict with its non-Mormon Missouri neighbors over the Mormons’ alleged aloof and different ways. The intolerance and misunderstanding of the Mormons turned into violence, persecution and the eventual murder of Joseph Smith.

Church leaders chose Brigham Young to succeed Smith, and it was Young who led the remaining members of the church to Salt Lake City. Their arrival, after nine months of difficult travel, is what Pioneer Days celebrates.

This year the LDS church in Carey has selected Vern and Carol Jolley as grand marshals for the festival and parade.

It is not surprising that the church would select a couple like the Jolleys to represent the "better angels" of human nature, because the couple has given so much to the community and Blaine County.

Vern and Carol came to Carey in 1967. Their parents were residents of Burley, and Vern and Carol met in high school.

Vern served in the U.S. Army in 1960 and 1961 as a medic and records clerk. He was assigned to a mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) unit in Heidelburg, Germany. Had the Cold War heated up into a conflagration, he would have been responsible for tracking and documenting the fate of the soldiers in his section of the European Theater. The Jolley’s first of five children was born while they were stationed in Germany.

After his tour in the military, Vern attended Brigham Young University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. After completing his undergraduate, Vern, acting on a tip from a relative, applied for an opening at the Carey High School. He was accepted, and he moved his wife and burgeoning family to the Wood River Valley.

After three years of teaching in Carey, Vern applied for a fellowship at Penn State. He was accepted again and the Jolley’s moved to Pennsylvania, where Vern earned a Master’s Degree in msathematics. His thesis was on the repeating decimal. If you ask Vern how many places he can compute the value of Pi, you had better be ready to spend an afternoon for the answer.

Vern’s wife Carol has also contributed to the education of Blaine County’s youth.

She has taught at Carey High School, worked in the purchasing department of Blaine County Hospital, now Wood River Medical Center, and donated countless hours tutoring elementary school children to read.

Vern has also acted as coach for the Carey High School football team and was named the Forth District Coach of the Year in girls 4A track, for which he also received the State of Idaho Girls Track Outstanding Coach award. Along with all of the aforementioned responsibilities, he coached the Carey junior varsity basketball team for 22 years.