Merry was born in Albany, CA, across the bay from San Francisco, a fair number of years ago.  Her father, Thomas Woodrow Huntamer was there for his work.  Soon though, the family returned to the Huntamer hometown of Lacey, WA, where Merry's father began working at the Huntamer Water Company as well as for the North Thurston School District.  He also served as a volunteer firefighter and eventually becoming mayor of Lacey for one term.  

The family arrived back in Lacey on Merry's third birthday -- around when the photo to the right was taken.  She grew up in the Huntamer homestead in Lacey among her many cousins.  

When they weren't climbing fruit and nut trees out in the open fields that existed at the time, they delivered water cards for the family business for three cents a card.  Most of those trees are long gone as the city grew and took over the fields.  Here she is at 13 years old.

During her teenage years, Merry recalls wonderful family camping trips to Yellowstone Park, various spots in Utah, and the huge mountains in British Columbia.  One particularly fond memory was a time when she and her father had an intimate and bonding early morning walk together on one of the trips.  She also has fond memories of going to LDS Girls' Camp, four years of early-morning religious instruction in pre-school seminary, and temple trips to Idaho Falls, Salt Lake City, and Oakland, CA.

During High School, Merry studied the flute.  She has wonderful memories of playing in a flute trio.  There were times when they got out of school to play for the Lion's Club, the WA State Library, and at retirement homes in the area.  She also enjoyed playing the flute at two summer camps at WA State Univ.  One memory of schooling in the old North Thurston High School (now torn down to make room for the present one) was the irony of learning the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States in French!  

At 18, she enrolled in the Cougar Marching Band at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  She remembers the sore, aching muscles from hours of drilling.  But it was worth it when they represented BYU at football games in Tempe, Arizona; Laramie, Wyoming; and San Diego, California. 

It was during the California trip that the band marched down the main street of Disneyland filling the street from side to side and up on the sidewalks.  Although BYU lost the game to San Diego State, the Marching Band easily won the "battle of the bands."  They also spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. 

It was during her first year at BYU that we "met" (so to speak).  I was sitting in the bleachers with a crowd of several hundred missionaries, preparing to travel to Paris, France, for two years and she was sitting across the field among the band members.  During a lull in the action, the announcer told the band to wave to the missionaries and then had the missionaries wave back to the band.  We all joined in the fun, never dreaming that, three years later, Merry and I would meet in person, marry, and raise our four sons.

Merry had our first child by emergency C-section.  He was in frank breach position and it was very dangerous.  At that time, the maxim was "one C-section, all C-sections" and our second son was also born by C-section.   However, a third pregnancy, also a son, miscarried at 4½ months and was born normally.  It was a very emotional experience.  We weren't sure if we wanted to see the dead fetus but finally decided that we would take a look.  Even though it was so early in the pregnancy, he was perfectly formed -- even including tiny fingernails.  We named him Michael Gary Ellis.  

The doctor told us forcefully that we could have no more children since the risk of having another spontaneous miscarriage was too high.  After sitting with that decision for some time, and not feeling right about it, we pinned the doctor down on just how high the risk was.  "Oh, I would say 10 to 15 percent," he said.  We had two more children after that!           

On to Godfrey Ellis mini-biography
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