Ebba Rachel Hokanson was born May 20, 1901 in Hyrum, Utah. There is some confusion on the year she was born as the building which housed her birth records burned. However, two different LDS Church records, including birth records, record her birth year as 1901. Only one, the Hyrum Ward records of 1901 list it as 1900. She was also baptized in the LDS Church in 1909, presumably at the age of 8 yrs. old. This would put her birth year as 1901.
She was born to Pehr Hokanson and Mary Christina Jensen. Her father had been married previously to Anna Marie Ockerman and they had 7 sons. This marriage ended in divorce and Pehr married Mary. To this family came seven daughters, one son who died soon after birth, and one stillborn baby. Rachel was the youngest living girl in this family. About the age of two, their family moved to Salem Idaho. They went to Idaho to dry farm. While in Idaho they lived in several towns including Salem, Herbert, DuBoise, and Rexburg.
Rachel attended elementary school in Salem, Herbert, and Rexburg, and one year of high school at Ricks Academy. While in Rexburg, she worked at Lange Cafe and Bakery, a Laundry, the Sugar Factory Hotel, and spent a summer working on a homestead at DuBoise. She then went to Salt Lake City to help her married sister, Cora care for her family when Cora's third baby was born. Here she also obtained employment at ZCMI sewing in the factory and as a waitress in an Ice Cream Parlor. She remained in Salt Lake until she married Charles James Tuckfield. (See history of Charles for courtship and marriage information)
They moved to Lehi for the first year and a half. It was during this time that their first child, Fern Evonne Tuckfield was born. They moved back to Salt Lake City and between the years of 1922-1925 they lived in three different homes in Salt Lake. Their second child, Lysle Charles Tuckfield, was born in the Spring of 1925. In the Fall of 1925, Charles was transferred to Pocatello, Idaho. They remained in Pocatello for about a year. Here she had a beauty shop in her home. When they returned to Salt Lake in the Fall of 1925, she was able to stay home and be a housekeeper and mother until 1929. She then returned to the workforce and worked as a clerk and cashier in several places including: Walkers Dry Goods, JC Penneys, Sugar House, Liberty Park, State Fairgrounds, LDS Tithing Office, and the Paris Co. During this time she helped care for her ailing mother, whom she loved dearly. She then had her third child, Ralph Lee Tuckfield in 1934
Rachel always loved to travel. While she had a young family she traveled with either her husband or her family to fun places. She accompanied her husband to Los Angeles and Caldwell, Idaho. Her first trip to Yellowstone was with her husband and family. They also traveled as a family to Bryce Canyon. She and Charles went to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Then they took the three children to San Francisco. They took many short camping trips up American Fork Canyon.
Charles died unexpectedly in 1941. She then realized she would have to support her three children, so she returned to school. She went to comptometer school. This gave her skills to obtain employment at the Union Pacific Railroad Co. until she retired. She worked in several offices from Clearfield, to Salt Lake, and then the North Salt Lake office.
Rachel loved music as a girl and throughout her life. While a young girl, she participated in singing contests with her sister, Ada. She was in school plays, including Snow White when in the sixth grade. She took piano lessons, voice lessons, and music conductors lessons. She participated in and arranged Primary and MIA programs and plays. She composed a song which was used for the Jr. Seminary in the Columbus Ward and South Salt Lake Stake. In 1956, she arranged an Easter Cantata for the Bountiful 4th Ward Choir for Easter Sunday. She loved playing the piano and singing in all types of choirs and choruses and just singing with her family. Other talents she developed are those of crocheting, needlepoint or petty point, embroidery, quilting, and sewing. She created and gave away many afghans, throws, bedspreads, dresses, hats, baby clothes, doll clothes, and pictures with her talents. She also loved plants. She had plants and flowers both inside and outside her home.
As her children grew, she continued her traveling. After the death of her husband, she traveled with her children to Kentucky;l to Pomona, Calif; to San Diego and Coronado Beach; Tijuana, Mexico; and Chicago. Her son Lysle served an LDS mission in Sweden. At the end of the mission, Rachel traveled to Sweden and they explored Europe together. They visited Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, and England. From there they traveled by boat to New York where they met Ranny and Fern and Ralph and traveled across the country by automobile, stopping at sites along the way. Later in life she traveled to Seattle, Las Vegas, Miami, Cuba, Hawaii, Boston, New York, Nauvoo, and Victoria and Vancouver, Canada. One of her favorite trips was a Church History tour which included the pageant at Hill Cumorah.
Rachel was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She served in many callings including teaching, music, working with the relief society, chorister, literature teacher, Jr. Seminary, secretary to the Stake Mission president, and working in the primary with the children. She also served in the community during the depression. She was the president of a self-help group of ladies.
In her later years she suffered from breast cancer and later dementia. She joined her husband in the eternities on Feb. 5, 1986 and is buried next to her sweetheart in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
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