Beatrice Bullen

Beatrice Ruth Duke Bullen, beloved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, and friend, passed away peacefully on November 9, 2014. She was 85 years old.
She was born, on September 9, 1929, to Otto and Beatrice Taylor Duke in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a girl, she moved, with her family, to Illinois, California, and Alaska, then settled back in Salt Lake City where she graduated from East High School and the University of Utah. She also studied, briefly, at La Sorbonne in Paris, France, where she learned to love the French language and culture. Armed with a degree in English, she began working as a newspaper editor for the Deseret News. In 1953, she fell in love with Bryant Bullen, and the two were married on November 16, 1953 in the Salt Lake Temple. She raised five children as well as two foster children. She loved to write short stories and poems and published a number of them. She played the piano and organ, and served as a Junior Sunday School and Primary pianist for many years. Her Church service included Relief Society and Primary presidencies and she was a Family Search indexer in her later years. She volunteered as a literacy advocate, teaching many adults how to read. Their gratitude, for this critical skill, was fondly expressed. When her children were in school, she returned to the University of Utah to earn a second degree in elementary education and librarian certificate and worked as an elementary school librarian, where she nurtured the love of reading, and the proper care of books, with her students. She also volunteered, for many years, as Candy Stripe Chairman and member of the Volunteer Auxiliary Board at Primary Children’s Hospital. She originated the “Book Cart” to take books to the hospital patients and their families. She personally gathered the books used in this project. In her spare time, she loved to work in her garden.
She is survived by children Tom (Diana) Bullen, Ted (Robin) Bullen, Diane (Dan) Larsen, Jill (Todd) Crosland, and Pam (Mark) Clawson, 23 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and brothers, James (Ruth) Duke and David (Hannah) Duke. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, brothers Keith and Melvin, and sister Barbara.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2014, at the Mt. Olympus Stake Center, 4176 S. Adonis Drive, Holladay at 11:00 AM. Friends may visit with the family on Friday evening, at the Stake Center, from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM, and also prior to the funeral service from 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM. Internment will be in the Logan City Cemetery. Funeral directors Russon Brothers Mortuary. Online guestbook at www.russonmortuary.com