Geneva Ann Showalter

Our mom, Geneva Ann Showalter, was born January 1, 1936 and passed away Tuesday, April 2, 2024, due to complications after a serious fall. She was able to be in her home the last few days of her life surrounded by her children singing the songs she loved, sharing memories, laughing, and rejoicing in her life and legacy. She passed away peacefully knowing that her family loved her and is now in the arms of Rodney Showalter, her husband, who preceded her in death on December 23, 2021, as well as a her ancestors whom she dearly loved.

Mom had a zest for life from her early years. Her beloved childhood home was 128 1^st Ave in Salt Lake City, just up the road from the Salt Lake City Temple. Mom was the eldest of three sisters: Geneva, Marvel, and Lucy Snow. Her mother Rebecca Snow married Waldo Mabbutt in 1935, and while the three girls were very young, their father left the family and Rebecca had to return to work. This left mom, who was in 1^st grade, in charge caring for Marvel and Lucy (ages 3 years and 18 months) while her mother worked full-time teaching school. Mom, being so young had many challenges convincing her little sisters to follow grandma’s instructions while she was at work, but did the best she could. Because the girls were so young, she, Marvel and Lucy got into a world of trouble playing in the house and neighborhood. One of her favorite activities was for her and her sisters to walk up 1^st Avenue to the graveyard where Brigham Young is buried and squeeze through the bars surrounding his grave and play dolls atop his large flat headstone. Another favorite activity was for her sisters to go to ZCMI department store where they would run up and down the escalators. She loved to sing and would walk up and down the avenues singing at the top of her lungs. Salt Lake City was her playground. As a teenager Mom worked at Saltair, and graduated from West High School in 1954.

Mom attended the University of Utah where she met P. Douglas Holt, and they married in 1956. They bonded over their love of singing and music and soon started their family together. During Doug’s three year deployment in the Navy to Taiwan, their first son Ken was born. They went on to have six additional children together, raising them in Twin Falls, Idaho, Salt Lake City, and Bountiful, Utah. Bountiful was her home for 59 years where she was an integral part of the community. She was actively involved in her children’s education and served as president of the PTA and enriched her community through her involvement in theatrical and music productions.

The family’s love for music and performance was—and is—expansive. Over her lifetime mom sang in quartets, trios, and soloed often whenever she had the opportunity to use her beautiful voice. She sang at events ranging from a ship full of sailors crossing an ocean, talent nights, university events, church events, to singing the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, in the Utah Chorale. She was also a composer of children’s songs which her children all know by heart. But what she loved the most musically was to hear her children sing. On numerous occasions, she volunteered to have her family sing at events. We felt like the “Von Trapp family singers,” dressed in costumes with choreography to boot. She burst her buttons when her daughter Becky later made it into a Broadway musical in New York City. Mom extended her musical talents into theatrical productions as well. With her ability to compose music she volunteered at Hannah Holbrook Elementary School to do an assembly all about the woman who founded the school. She wrote songs for the production and directed it. She also produced many creative “old time” roadshows at church. After her divorce in 1979, her skills in music and drama became most useful when she went back to school and earned her bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Spanish.

In 1976 mom volunteered to have Salva and Andres, two teen boys from Spain, stay in our home for the summer. She became fast friends with them and their friendship has continued to this day. She was so impressed by the two wonderful young men that she was inspired to learn Spanish. She began taping pieces of paper on items in her home in Spanish so she could start learning the language, and her enthusiasm led her to get a minor in Spanish at the University of Utah. Her love of the Spanish language, culture, and people led her to a job teaching Spanish, speech, and drama for nineteen years, two at Centerville and seventeen at Millcreek Jr. High School. She used her amazing singing and acting skills to have children up on their feet, using all their modalities to get their newly learned language and drama skills into their brains all the while having a blast while learning. This is how mom loved to teach, and she was named teacher of the year several times. She expected a lot from her students and in return they loved her.

Mom had a deep sense of things that were full of beauty: art, flowers, music, theater, and a good General Conference talk. She loved gardening and instilled that love into her children. Her yard was the jewel of the neighborhood with all her beautiful flowers. While her kids were small, she would cut open a cantaloupe and exclaim “Look how beautiful the seeds are all lined up and the amazing color!” She would often call on the phone so excited to share something beautiful she had heard or seen, wanting to share the experience with others. Mom would sometimes seek out a friend to go on an adventure with her. One of those adventures was to walk all of the streets of Bountiful, which she and her friend accomplished over a two-year span. Beauty and adventure were hallmarks of her life.

Mom also had a love of dogs. Her favorite childhood dog Cracker was a favorite topic of hers as well has her beloved Teddy Bear, and her daughter Becky’s dog Luna, who loved to dig a spot in her flowerbed in which to sleep. Mom thought it was funny and let her do it.

Mom had a wonderful sense of humor, albeit a little colorful at times. Always the teacher, when she was recently getting ready for an MRI, the technician said he was going to lay her down for the scan. She said, “It's ‘lie you down,’ not ‘lay you down’ because I’m not a chicken. Chickens ‘lay’ eggs.” To this, the technician said, “Thank goodness there are no chickens running around in here.” At another doctor’s visit the attending physician asked her if she had any questions. She paused and said, “Yes. Do you have an inn-y or an out-y?” Geneva had a flair for the dramatic and loved to make things funny, as she thought was funny in her mind. For Halloween she would dress up like a witch, with costume, full makeup, and a blacked-out tooth—the works. She would cackle when children would come to her door and give them several pieces of candy telling them that she wanted to fatten them up so they would be good and ready for her to eat. The children would stare with confused and worried looks on their faces as they left the house. Another time she convinced Becky to let her spread rubber cement under her armpits for a skit hoping that when Becky lifted her arm for the dramatic effect of excessive sweat that the script called for, the rubber cement would stretch and get a laugh. All it did was give Becky sticky armpits for weeks. Geneva loved to laugh and share jokes with family and friends.

The pride and joy of mom’s life were her children, grand children and great grandchildren. All her children knew that mom loved them passionately, dearly, and deeply. She would get so excited when they would come to visit or when she called on the phone. She would give out a cry of joy and give you a big bear hug and always say, “I’m so glad you are here! I love you to pieces. You have no idea how much I love my family!”, and then cry. Not only did she express her love to her children, but also spoke often about how much she loved her Grandpa Snow, mother, great grandmother, husband, and other ancestors who had gone on before. She would talk about how excited she was to see them in person and be with them someday.

Mom had a deep love for her Savior Jesus Christ and her Father in Heaven. She loved the Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). She loved the wonderful people who established the church, partly because they were also her ancestors. She is a great-granddaughter of Apostle Erastus Snow, and she often expressed her admiration and gratitude for her pioneer ancestors and emulated the legacy they left her. She and Rodney served three church missions together: one in the Jamaica/Caribbean area as Public Affairs missionaries, one in Fresno, California, teaching English Connect—English language classes, and one as a tour guide in the church’s conference center.

Mom’s love of family motivated her to be a master collector of personal family memorabilia and family history. She spent years making beautiful Shutterfly books that not only illustrate her own life, but also topics like her beloved Grandpa Snow’s life, her dear friends in Spain, “Grandma and Grandpa Weekend” adventures with the grandchildren, and her tender testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These beautiful books are full of stories and facts documenting details and events in her life and those she loved. These books preserve our family stories and are such a gift for those of us who are left behind.

As people came to visit mom before she passed away, every person had a story to tell about her and how she had impacted their life for good. Some people said that she had literally saved them or that she had been exactly what they needed at a difficult time in their lives. Her missionary spirit had a significant impact on people she met. Mom was a force to be reckoned with, but her intentions were always motivated by love and a desire to make things better. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

We love you, Mama!

Love,

The kids

The family would like to extend their heart-felt thanks and gratitude to Ashley Bloomfield and Moss Card for the loving care, attention, and friendship they showed mom over the last year of her life. We love you so much!

She is survived by her seven children, Ken Holt and wife Barbara (Schneiter) Holt, Kathy Holt (Freeman) and husband Scott, Tracy Holt (Callister) and husband Wayne, Colleen Holt (Kartchner) and husband Gene, Curtis Holt and wife Kim (Holbrook), Rebecca Holt (Gilmore) and husband Don and Ann Holt. She is also survived by her twenty-four grandchildren, 32 great-grandchildren, thirty step grandchildren, thirty-five step great grandchildren, and her two sisters, Marvel S. Johnson, and Lucy K. Hansen.

A viewing will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Thursday, April 11th, 2024, at Russon Mortuary, 295 N. Main St. Bountiful, Utah.
 
Her funeral will be held at 12:00 p.m. Friday, April 12th, 2024, at the Dry Creek Ward, 720 East 550 North, Bountiful, Utah, with a viewing beforehand from 10:30-11:30 a.m.
 
Services will be streamed live on the Russon Mortuary & Crematory Facebook page and on this obituary page. The live stream will begin 10-15 minutes prior to services and will be posted below.