Gene and Dollie made their home in Malad for a time, then moved to Boise, Idaho where he worked for the railroad. Spring came and in April 1924, they moved back to Leona, Idaho to work at the mine. Nothing in her life had prepared Dollie for life in the forest with the barest of necessities and no friends and family to cater to her wishes. As a clincher, Dollie was pregnant. They moved back to Malad in time for Christmas. Dollie didn’t think it was a good time to have another baby, and tried to abort herself by taking a huge dose of castor oil. She was very sick, but did not lose the baby, and didn’t want to try again.
The Depression was still going strong, and there was very little work. They lived in the old Jones Home west of the telephone office on West, First North. They lived that winter by charging groceries at the Fred Jones Store. When spring came, Gene hitched a ride to Ely, Nevada where he got a job shearing sheep for Tommy Saine with the Adams and McGill Packing Company. He survived the back breaking work for 27 straight days, then came home. He sheared more sheep out a Black Pine and Bull Canyon west of Malad, but only made about $1.50 a day, which was hardly enough to feed his growing family. There had to be a way to make more money, and he asked Lute Daniels and Bee Jones to sign a note with him, and on 29 June 1925, he bought a Ford Truck. At this time there were very few trucks in Oneida County, and he was one of the first to haul grain to be dumped in the Malad elevators. The load came from the Tom Thorpe Ranch.
Four days later, on 4 July, Gene took the day off for the annual celebration. He took a water turn on the yard and as he was cleaning weeds out of the ditch, out came a quart of White Mule (moonshine liquor). What a treat! They had planned to watch the parade, but Dollie decided it was a good day to have her baby, however, she insisted on cooking a chicken dinner for them first. Dr. Garst and Mrs. Hablin (a midwife) were called, Gene administered the anesthesia and that afternoon, at four 0 clock, Dollie delivered a baby girl whom they later named Betty Gene.
With the baby safely delivered and Dollie recovering, Gene contracted to haul grain for Pat Harwood from his ranch west of Malad, to American Falls and Malad. Fall came and he hauled potatoes and during the winter hauled coal to the Holbrook School.
They made it through the winter. Dollie was now expecting another baby. Poor timing. Once again, she attempted an abortion. This time she was successful, and the five month old fetus was born dead. It would have been a son for Gene and Dollie.
There were no antibiotics for the blood poison and peritonitis which followed the birth, and on 5 April 1926, Margaret Lillian Thorpe Evans Dalton, died. She was buried in the Evans Plot in the Malad Cemetery.
Little Billie’s father came and took him to Logan, Utah where he was reared by his father, grandmother and some bachelor uncles.
Dollie’s aunts, Annie and Alice told Gene that Dollie had promised them that if she should die, they could raise Betty Gene. Gene knew of no such promise and would not agree to it. However, he searched in vain for a means of caring for his daughter. His mother was raising three children from two of his deceased brothers; his sisters had large families of their own; he had not the means nor the ability to raise her himself. The Aunts threatened to go to court to gain custody, and a lawyer felt they probably could win a court case. The only course open to guarantee Betty a good home seemed to be getting someone else to raise her. The lawyer suggested Henry and Kate Jones, who had approached him about adopting a child. Gene talked to them about raising Betty, but they felt they could not take the chance of losing her in later years, but would gladly adopt her. Gene asked that he be allowed to visit her and that she would be told that he was her real father. On 13 April 1926, the papers were signed, and Betty was assured a good home and two parents.
That summer was a sad one for Gene. He continued to haul grain and sometimes would take little Betty with him in the truck to get a load of grain.
In February 1927, Gene got a job with the Phoenix construction Company helping build the power line through the western part of Malad Valley. Then from July 1927, to September 1929, he worked for the Utah Power and Light Company in Tooele, Utah.
One night at a dance in Malad, he once again met Mary Ellen McKay, and the two began dating. Mary Ellen had been working at the telephone office for nearly ten years, and wanted to get her Ten Year Pin from the company, but they did not employ married women, so when she and Gene decided to get married , they went to Soda Springs, Idaho and were married on 12 October 1929 by W. L. Chester, and kept their marriage a secret for the next two months.