Pt 20-B: Ma, Pa, Me, and Polygamy On-The-Down-Low

My parents Esther LeBaron-McDonald and Floyd Otto Spencer 

“To describe my mother would be

to write about a hurricane in its perfect power.”

Maya Angelou 

I left off with “My Memoir: Esther LeBaron McDonald de Spencer — And Polygamy On The Down-Low — Part 20-A.” Let’s now backtrack a few blogs — go back to before I was married to Bill.

I had barely graduated from eighth grade in Hurricane, Utah, in June of 1960, when my parents pulled us up, locks, stocks, shocks, ‘n’ barrels, to move to the desolate Rocky Mountain desert enclave — Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico — “to gather with the ‘Saints’ ‘high on the Rocky Mountaintop’ to escape the calamities soon to hit the US.” In other words, they believed the Chicken-Little tales that the sky was falling fast! Armageddon was imminent.

I got no opportunity for further formal education beyond the eighth grade. Nor was I allowed to read, let alone have contact with the outside world in any way, shape, or form. That precluded TV and radio, of course.

In other words, I was cut off from all outside influences. High Tech and other computer technology hadn’t been invented yet, as far as I knew — cut off from “the world,” I would’ve been the last to know.

All that being what it was, had my parents and Uncle Ervil had the integrity to leave things in my own nubile life to take their natural course, I would at least never have been thrown into a marriage where I was deeply in love with a man who (unbeknownst to me and my family) didn’t even believe in Mormonism anymore — let alone polygamy — let alone did he want another wife … let alone would he care about her — let alone did he tell my parents or anyone else what he really valued or believed! Chameleons never do. They do what makes them look and feel best under the circumstances.

Yes, the idol of the LeBaron cult and colony, Bill/William Preston Tucker, the man I was pawned off onto, lacked integrity. In plain English, he was two-faced. Known for being a good diplomat, he couldn’t stand confrontation. That means he couldn’t say “No!” So, with social pressure put upon him by my Uncle Ervil, Bill’s best buddy, and by my parents — Bill went ahead and married me, the lesser of two evils — as far as he could see.

Only other bisexuals in the clan, and Uncle Joel, the clan’s prophet, knew the real “Bill”… The real deal … the bisexual Bill — the gay guy who wanted more time for his boyfriends — not more wives. Two was quite enough to keep his wives from knowing where he was and what he was doing at all times.

I mean, having more than one wife was his perfect Plyg ploy for passing as normal/ straight while hiding his male sexual sprees he regularly carried on behind our backs; i.e., “on the down-low.”

(Continued June 11, 2018: “My Memoir: Esther LeBaron McDonald de Spencer — And Polygamy On The Down-Low — Part 20-C