Norma Larson

The funeral service will be live-streamed here.

Mary Norma Larson, 102, of Neola, Utah, passed away July 15, 2024. 

 She was born April 15, 1922 in her grandmother’s house in Neola, Utah, to Sarah Emily (Whiting) and William Herbert Crozier. The oldest of five children, Norma, helped her parents a lot. Her father was working away from home for months at a time in Colorado, so she cut firewood, herded and milked cows, rounded up sheep (her most despised animal), hauled water, planted and weeded the garden, cooked and cleaned, and took care of her younger siblings: Billie, Francis, Dale, and Carol. Her sister Billie was her best friend. They rode their little bay mare, Gypsy, to school in dresses – even during the winter. They did everything together including marrying their sweethearts on the same day. Norma married John Ephraim Larson on Christmas day 1943 at her parents’ home in Neola, Utah.

 John was in the service, so Norma joined him in Tallahassee, Florida, for a time where their first daughter, Joyce, was born. They moved back to Utah and lived in Murray where their daughter, Diane, and son, Val, were born. They were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple on Oct. 16, 1951. They traded their house in Murray for one in Neola and moved back before sons, Brent and Delbert, were born.

 John started logging and ran a sawmill that was eventually moved three miles north of the Neola store. He worked there everyday well into his nineties with his sons by his side, and Norma worked right along with him raising kids and grandkids; growing vegetables, raspberries and flowers; baking bread and making meals; answering the phone for the mill; and serving God and her neighbors. She also spent years caring for her invalid mother and her father so they could stay in their home.

 As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she served in many different callings including: Relief Society President three different times for a total of nearly ten years; missionary in Whiterocks, Utah Mission; member of the Regional Welfare Board; Sunday School, Primary and Relief Society teacher; and as a temple ordinance worker, first in the Provo, Utah Temple (driving out and back every Saturday for nearly two years) and then in the Vernal, Utah, Temple for five and a half more years. She spent countless hours sewing items for the humanitarian center, making meals for people in need and being a listening ear as a visiting teacher to many sisters in her ward.

 Norma was a talented seamstress, quilter, crocheter, baker, gardener, poet, genealogist, and writer and collecter of family history. When her family had grown, she took up oil painting. She painted many scenes of the mountains, flowers, and cedar trees surrounding her home. 

 In her latter years, she lived in Parkside Manor and the Villa in Roosevelt where she received excellent care from the loving staff at both places and was loved by all who knew her there.

 Norma is survived by her children, Diane Neilson; Val (Elaine) Larson; Brent (Marla) Larson, all of Neola; Delbert (Peggy) Larson; Upalco, Utah; sister, Carol Skordas, Salt Lake City; two sisters-in-law, Eva Deane Crozier of Neola & Roberta Crozier of Riverside, California; 13 grandchildren; 34 great-grandchildren and 17 great-great grandchildren. 

 She was preceded in death by her her husband, John E. Larson; parents; her daughter, Joyce Woods; grandsons, John Woods, Alan Woods, & Wayne Larson; sister, Billie Keele; brothers, Dale & Francis Crozier; and son-in-law, Donald Woods.

 Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at the Neola Chapel. A viewing will be held that morning from 9:30 - 10:45 a.m. at the church.

 Burial in the Neola Cemetery.

 A luncheon will be provided for family at the Neola Church following the burial. Thank you to the Neola 2nd Ward Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for providing the meal.