Watson Lafferty Sr.

Watson Lafferty Sr. was a chiropractor and the father of the Lafferty brothers. His home in Provo housed his practice, and its threatened seizure drew him into direct conflict with Dan Lafferty over taxes and government authority. After returning early from a church mission to save the property, he remained at odds with Dan; his death from untreated diabetes later became a warning sign to Brenda Lafferty that something was seriously wrong within the family.

Family and Chiropractic Practice

After the Lafferty parents sold their farm, they moved to a house in the old part of downtown Provo. Watson Lafferty Sr. ran his chiropractic practice from a basement office there. The home was therefore both a family residence and the base of his business, a connection that would make Dan’s refusal to pay property taxes a threat to more than a piece of real estate.

In 1981, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent Watson Lafferty Sr. and Claudine Lafferty on a two-year mission abroad. With their parents away, Dan and Mark Lafferty agreed to take over the chiropractic practice. The arrangement placed Dan in charge of his father’s business during a period when his own political and religious convictions were becoming increasingly bound up with resistance to government authority.

The Tax Dispute and Early Return

Dan stopped paying the property taxes on his father’s home and business. He treated the dispute as a test of who truly owned the property, while the county moved to take possession of the house and seize Watson Lafferty Sr.’s office equipment. Dan notified the assessor’s office that he intended to defend what he regarded as his constitutional rights.

Still abroad on his mission, Watson Lafferty Sr. learned that the property was at risk of being auctioned. He called Dan, accused him of influencing his brothers, and even suggested that Dan might be trying to influence his parents over the telephone. The conflict brought the family’s private disagreement into the open: Dan’s campaign had consequences for his father’s home and livelihood, not only for Dan himself.

Watson Lafferty Sr. cut short the mission and returned to Provo with Claudine Lafferty. His return saved the home from the auction, but it did not reconcile father and son. He remained angry with Dan, whose father’s displeasure saddened him but did not persuade him to abandon his campaign.

Illness and Death

In late 1983, after the couple had returned from their mission and were living in the family home again, Watson Lafferty Sr.’s diabetes worsened sharply. He refused insulin, and his sons continued to refuse medical treatment for him. Herbal and homeopathic remedies did not relieve the illness, and he died.

His death registered beyond the immediate loss. Betty Wright McEntire recalled that by then the family seemed evil to Brenda, who recognized the worsening situation as something deeply wrong. The account places Watson Lafferty Sr.’s illness within a wider breakdown in the family: the refusal of medical care became one more sign that the brothers’ convictions were displacing ordinary judgments about responsibility and protection.

Significance in the Family Story

Watson Lafferty Sr. appears in the family story at the intersection of household, business, and religious duty. His chiropractic office was housed in the family home; his mission abroad left Dan responsible for the practice; and Dan’s tax resistance put both the home and the business equipment in jeopardy. Watson Lafferty Sr.’s decision to return interrupted that immediate threat, while leaving the underlying conflict between father and son unresolved.

His final illness brings that conflict into sharper relief. The family could mobilize to defend property from government seizure, yet the account describes Watson Lafferty Sr. dying after his diabetes went untreated and alternative remedies failed. His death consequently stands not only as a biographical endpoint, but also as a moment that helped Brenda recognize the danger in the family’s growing extremism.