Joy Rigby Brown

Joy Rigby Brown our beloved mother, sister, and friend passed away on June 24, 2024, at Legacy House of Park Lane in Farmington, Utah, where she had resided for the past year. She was surrounded by family members on both sides of the veil as she completed her mortal assignment and returned home with honor.

Joy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 14, 1945, to William C. and Doris Ruth Sessions Rigby, both deceased. She grew up in Farmington, Utah, where she graduated from Davis High School. She later graduated from BYU in Provo, Utah, with a degree in secondary education.

At BYU, she met and fell in love with Vaughn J. Brown. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in August 1966. After graduation from college, they lived in several locations in various states in support of Vaughn’s job, finally settling in West Valley City for the majority of their married years. In later years, she and Vaughn moved to Kaysville to be of greater support to her parents who lived nearby.

As a youth, Joy was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and although the prevailing medical wisdom at the time dictated that she confine herself to her bed, she said she thought that was the wrong way to proceed. Instead she made a conscious effort to remain active throughout her life. So, despite odds to the contrary, Joy lived a life full of accomplishment and service at Church, at home, and at work. Her unremitting pain was not something she dwelt upon herself or that she allowed others to define her by. Throughout her life she served in many capacities in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including leadership positions. She also ministered constantly to all who came within her sphere of influence. Most recently, before health prevented her, Joy served as Compassionate Service leader in her Kaysville Ward.

For many years, Joy worked as an English Teacher for the Granite School District; she was beloved by both her students and those she worked with and one year received the district’s Teacher of the Year Award. She possessed many talents and loved to help produce and direct school plays. She was a great and informed conversationalist; a dedicated and loving wife mother and grandmother; and a caring daughter, sister, and friend.

Together, despite health problems, Joy and Vaughn served as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: from home as local missionaries in the Salt Lake Inner City Mission and later in the Addiction Recovery Program in Kaysville and then as missionaries in the California Concord Mission, working in the Employment Center Office and at the Oakland Temple Visitor’s Center.

Joy is preceded in death by her husband, Vaughn J. Brown, who passed away in November 2021. She is survived by her daughter Mindy (Olivier) Brown Lamonica, West Point, Utah; and her son, Jeff (Hilary) Brown, Kaysville, Utah, as well as her grandchildren Noah, Lincoln, and London Brown of Kaysville.

A viewing for friends and family will be held on Friday, June 28, from 6-8 p.m. at Russon Mortuary, 1941 N. Main St. in Farmington, Utah. Funeral services will be held at the Kaysville East Stake Center, 201 S. 600 E., Kaysville, Utah, on Saturday, June 29, at 11:00 a.m. with a viewing prior to the services at 9:45-10:45 a.m. Interment will be in the Kaysville City Cemetery.

Funeral Services will be streamed live on the Russon Mortuary Live Facebook Page and on this obituary page below, where it will appear 10-15 minutes prior to the funeral service at 11 a.m.

The family wishes to thank the staff at the Legacy House of Park Lane and Symbii Hospice for their kind care of Joy this past year, and especially the past few months.