Joseph Stewart Bassett was the youngest of six children born to George Russell Bassett and Lauretta Stewart Bassett in Kane, on May 24, 1927. Joe’s dad died in 1937 of pneumonia. From 11 years old on, Joe was raised with his other five siblings by his widowed mother. Joe loved horses from day one and was always out and about bareback on any horse he could find. Rich Abbott and his brother, Tuff Abbott, took Joe under their wings and helped train him. Joe was a quick study because he loved horses and cattle. Many of the neighbors had cattle and would trail them north into the Dryhead country. Joe graduated from Lovell High School in 1945. He went into the military and was shipped overseas and involved in the Korean conflict briefly before returning to the states to serve out his enlistment, in part because an older brother had been killed in Europe during WWII. Joe married Iris Corlin Stringham in the Salt Lake City Temple on January 6, 1949. They would eventually have six children.
Joseph S. “Joe” Bassett
