Jana Marie Scalzo

Jana “the Gazelle” Scalzo was a mother who loved us unconditionally, a grandmother that spoiled them all so sweetly, a first time great grandma (but we called her GiGi) and a sister that would have done anything for her brothers, who meant the world to her. She was a true friend to all those she met and if you were lucky enough to meet her, your life would have changed for the better. Jana was stolen from this world by the evil hands of Covid on Sunday, November the 21st at the tender age of 68.

She was born to Stephen Linnin and Janice Bennett in Wichita Falls, Texas on April 24th, 1953. Jana was then blessed with two younger brothers, Christopher and Stevens Linnin, with whom she quickly took on a motherly role. When she was a young girl her parents divorced and her mother remarried a good man named Melvin Cardwell. With this union came Jana’s third younger brother, Andrew Cardwell, whom she loved dearly. Jana attended college in the early 70’s at Chapman University in Southern California. In those early college semesters she was introduced to the love of her life Timothy Scalzo and after a very short courtship the two were married at the Chapel of the Bells in Las Vegas, Nevada. By 1976 they had their first child, a little girl named Amy, and two years later they welcomed their second, a boy they named Kelly.

Jana was an award winning baker, a published poet, a lifelong seamstress, a spiritual blogger and an avid Amazon shopper. Her family was her entire world and she especially cherished the relationship she gained with her son-in-law Aaron McNeely. Jana tried to spend as much time as possible with her five grandchildren, Hannah, Chloe, Jadon, Emma and Joshua McNeely and got to spoil them daily with candy and love. She was recently blessed with her first great grandchild Samuel Cannon, who filled her final months with an abundance of joy. She had a strong dedication to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where her spirituality and relationship with her Heavenly Father flourished. She loved her community and always looked forward to teaching her primary kids on Sundays.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, December 1st at 2:00 pm with a viewing between 12:30 & 1:30 pm at the Hess Farms Ward building in Kaysville. The address is 1650 S 500 E, Kaysville, UT 84037. If you feel compelled and would like to honor our mother, she would have appreciated a donation going to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Missionary Fund. For information on how to do so, please contact Aaron Andrus, Bishop of the Hess Farms Ward at aandrus@gmail.com. She loved her interactions with the youths of the church and would want nothing more than to see them go on to help others throughout the world.