Alice May Nielsen

After a courageous struggle with lymphoma, Alice May Albiston Nielsen peacefully slipped away in her home with two of her six children by her side.  Admired by all who knew her, Alice lived a life of personal integrity and commitment to her values, her faith, and her family and friends.  Quietly independent and frugal, her life well-lived is and will be an inspiration to those left behind.

Alice grew up in College Ward, Cache Valley, Utah, the daughter of James Woodruff Albiston and Mary Edith Olsen Albiston.   She graduated from South Cache High School in Logan.  At a high school dance, she met a handsome young man who had just returned from service in the US Air Force.  Clark and Alice were married in the Logan LDS Temple on August 3, 1949. 

She was always well-dressed and often sewed her own clothes.  Her first job was a seamstress at Mode O’ Day in Logan.  Her thriftiness and skill at sewing led to a near lifelong avocation of sewing for herself and others.  As a young mother she would buy a bolt of cloth and make matching shirts for her sons or dresses for her daughters.  From cowboy shirts to wedding dresses, she could sew just about anything.  Rarely would she allow anyone to pay her for her work, only those who she didn’t know personally who had heard of her abilities.

Alice also worked at Sperry (now L3 Communications), Hill Air Force Base, and Ogden-Weber Vocational Center.  Those jobs all involved working with intricate wiring, which required the knowledge and skill of soldering.  At HAFB, she diagnosed and repaired components of missile guidance systems.  At everything she did, Alice took pride in doing it well.  Her hands were delicate yet strong, and remain a symbol of her life, a reminder of working and serving others.

She lived her faith as she lived her life, quietly, preferring to serve within the confines of her shy and private personality.  She served as Relief Society President in the Roy 5th Ward, where she and her husband Clark lived for many years.  After retirement, they both volunteered for several years at the Ogden LDS Temple.  Following her move to Farmington, Alice served in the Fairway Ward library.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Clark L. Nielsen; a grandson, Garrett Nielsen; a granddaughter, Annie Hatch Brown; her five sisters and two of her brothers. She will be missed by her six children: Kay Nielsen and his wife Dorothy, Ruth Ann Iman, Dave Nielsen and his wife Kathryn, Gary Nielsen, Kathy Wardrop and her husband Brett, and Lori Nielsen.  Her brother Steve and his wife Karma will miss her, as well as her seventeen grandchildren and thirty-one great-grandchildren.

Friends and family are invited to a viewing from 7:00 to 9:00 PM Sunday at Russon Brothers Mortuary in Farmington. The funeral service will be held at the Fairways Ward chapel at 11:00 AM on Monday.  Another viewing will be held before the service, from 9:30 to 10:30.  The address is 980 West Shephard Church Drive, Farmington.  The interment will take place at the Roy City Cemetery, 5200 South 2300 West, Roy.

Our family expresses its thanks to Rocky Mountain Hospice, whose nurses and other staffers relieved Alice’s pain and made her last days more comfortable.