Carol Owens

Carol Diane Jensen Owens, 88, was reunited with her beloved husband Seldon and son David on Thursday, May 26, 2016. She lived a wonderful and fulfilling life before succumbing to kidney failure. She has left us behind with many happy memories yet sad hearts.

Carol was born in Salt Lake City on December 18, 1927, to Albert and Erma Lucile Cheshire Jensen, the fourth child in a family of two boys and five girls, the oldest of which died in the 1918 flu epidemic. Her early years were spent with her family residing in the home of Grandma Ella Silver Rogers Cheshire in Salt Lake. She graduated from West High in 1945.

After high school she worked for Beneficial Life Insurance Company, and in the fall of 1949 she moved into her first apartment on F Street in Salt Lake, next door to two brothers from Idaho: William Seldon Owens, a pre-med student at the University of Utah, and his brother Lyle.  That first Sunday Seldon greeted her with an invitation to join them for church, but he was going early for choir and hoped she would join them there. She did, and they married on August 31, 1950, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

Their union was blessed with 13 children: Rick, Jon (Carol), Diane (Keith Peterson), Jim (Debra), Fred (Trudy), Mari (Rafael Tronco), Gary (Shelley), Christine (Scott Worthington), Cathe (Duane Runyan), David (died Aug. 1973), Becci (Stuart Taylor), Debbie (Glenn Hillam), and Andrew (Bethany). Carol happily chronicled birth dates for their 64 beloved grandchildren and 72 great grandchildren.

Carol and Seldon always welcomed all of these family members and innumerable relations, friends, and even strangers to spend a night or a decade in their beloved home and to enjoy their personal back yard park.

Carol spent much of her life loving and caring for her family, teaching them to love reading, gardening, cooking, construction and demolition (not necessarily in the order initially intended), laundry, mending, and finding a solution to whatever problem they faced. She also loved to do jigsaw puzzles and play Scrabble and other games with her family. Most of all she set a great example of love and service to God and others.

Carol served in many Church callings including decades of ward directories, bulletins, and newsletters. She was an integral part of active family organizations that held annual family reunions and stayed connected through monthly or quarterly family newsletters. Carol was the publisher of these newsletters for more than 50 years, the last one sent out just over a month before her death.

She and Seldon were never happier than the year they served in the office of the Manchester, New Hampshire, Mission in 1991 and 1992.  After Seldon's death during their mission, Carol settled their affairs and returned to complete her mission in 1993.

Her legacy of service and devotion to God, family, and friends will live on for many generations to come.  She lived in her beautiful large home for more than 44 years, and she loved her neighbors and friends in the Sunset Heights Stake. Her final few years were spent happily with her new ward friends in her “perfect little house” in the Park 3rd Ward.

She is also loved and survived by her brother James Albert Jensen of Sacramento, CA, sister Lois Calegory of Salt Lake City, her in-laws, Marva Moats, Nita Owens, Jewel and Lorene Lawrence, Evelyn Owens, and Karen and Doug Anderson, as well as numerous cousins, family, and friends.

The family appreciates the assistance received from the Intermountain Homecare and Hospice team during the final week of Carol’s life.

Funeral services will be Saturday, June 4, 2016, 11:00, at the LDS Church at 114 South 400 West, Orem, Utah.

There will be a viewing on Friday evening, June 3, at the Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary, 495 South State Street in Orem, 5:00 for extended family and 6:00-8:00 for friends and neighbors. Another viewing on Saturday, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. at the church, will precede the funeral. Interment at the Orem City Cemetery will follow the service.