Jeannine Audrey Parrish

BLACKFOOT, IDAHO — Jeannine Pope Parrish passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Tuesday morning, February 18, 2020. She had just celebrated her 83rd birthday. She was born February 2, 1937, in Salt Lake City to Harold and Vermilla Beck Pope and lived most of her early life in Bountiful, Utah. She attended Bountiful High School and later Weber State College. She married Terrell Hart, of Bountiful, Utah, and they became the parents of three sons. In 1965 she married Joel Raul ‘RJ’ Parrish, of Centerville, Utah — also a single parent — and who had two sons. The newlyweds settled into a home in Kaysville, Utah where they began to blend their two families together. Their marriage was later solemnized in the Ogden Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Over the years — in addition to her household responsibilities and raising five boys — she worked full time as a rural carrier for the US Postal Service, school lunch program manager at Layton Elementary School, and a teacher’s aid at Monte Vista Elementary in Farmington, Utah. After her sons began leaving the nest, she earned a four-year degree in nursing from Weber State College, after which she joined Intermountain Health Care, where she worked until retirement at Ogden’s McKay-Dee Hospital as an operating room nurse, specializing in open heart surgical procedures. It was during this time that she and RJ became certified as emergency medical technicians and supervised emergency ambulance services in Davis County with their spare time.

Jeannine was a gifted pianist and singer — and into her late years served as ward organist in her LDS ward in Kaysville. She was also a skilled artist — both in illustration and painting. Many of her artistic touches could be seen as decorations in her Kaysville home, where she lived for more than 50 years. In 2016, she sold the home and moved to Blackfoot, Idaho, where she was cared for by her son, Brian, and daughter-in-law, Nancy.

She was preceded in death by her husband, RJ; her son, Joel Jr.; her parents, older sister, Lorraine, and younger sister Claudia. She is survived by four sons: Douglas (Kayelene) of Johannesburg, South Africa; Brian (Nancy) Hart of Blackfoot, Idaho; Chris (Monica) of Pleasant Grove, Utah; and Tracy (Cindy) of Herriman, Utah; 21 grandchildren; 30 great-grandchildren; and her younger brother Ronald (Sydna) Pope of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. 

Funeral services will be held Tuesday, February 25, beginning 11:00 a.m. at the LDS Kaysville Twelfth Ward chapel, 1039 East Crestwood Road, Kaysville, Utah. Friends wishing to pay respects may call on the family at Russon Mortuary, 1941 North Main, Farmington, Utah on Monday evening, February 24, from 6 until 8:00 p.m., and at the chapel on Tuesday morning from 9:30 until 10:30 a.m. — just prior to the services. Interment will follow the funeral in the Kaysville City Cemetery. 

In lieu of sending flowers, the family encourages donations to be made to a charitable organization of your choice on behalf of Jeannine.