Linda Lee Sumsion

Linda Sumsion loved you. You know this because you were her favorite student from all the many years she taught elementary school. Or she paid special attention to you in her church assignments. Or she sent you a beautifully handwritten letter. Or decorated a cake personalized to you. Or pulled your face close to hers for a photo. Or looked inside you and found more goodness and value than you knew you possessed.

Her grandmother, Ella Bohman, put it this way: “I have often been blue and discouraged and wondered what good I was and what life was worth, but today I was real proud that I was alive and that I had lived long enough to have a granddaughter as wonderful as Linda.” You understand that.

Linda Ann Lee was born at home in Monroe, Utah, at the end of the Depression. She survived a near-fatal car accident at age five. For many years, her parents, Lou Ella Bohman Lee and Ernest H Lee, owned and operated Monroe Drug. There, Ernie dispensed the meds, but the real draw was Linda, who flipped burgers and mixed shakes. “Everyone loved Linda at the store,” wrote her mom. “She always had personality and people just naturally took to her. They looked after and loved her.”

She didn’t seek popularity but it always found her. She was Miss Monroe; yearbook editor; Most Likely to Succeed. She had three younger siblings, and her sister Kathy says that when their mother was ill (and she frequently was), “Linda was our mom.”

She graduated from South Sevier High School in 1957, spent three years at BYU, then transferred to Utah State, where she earned a degree in Elementary Education in 1962. During her senior year, she worked the counter at Aggie Ice Cream. One day, one of the flavors hadn’t turned out right and had the appearance of purple-gray sludge. No one would touch it. Linda tasted it, liked it, and named it Persian Lilac. It quickly sold out.

Isn’t that her in a nutshell? Where others saw mud, Linda saw lilacs.

One of her customers was a recently returned missionary, George Allen Sumsion (the George is silent), from Moroni, Utah. He ordered eggnog ice cream, one of her favorite flavors. Naturally, they fell in love.

Linda and Allen were married in the Logan Temple on August 10th, 1962. If you’re doing the math, yes, they just celebrated the 60th anniversary of their profoundly loving marriage. (They spent their anniversary at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, with Linda comforting her doctors and nurses and saying how fortunate she was.)

From Logan they moved to Salt Lake, then Bountiful. They stayed in Utah so when they had children, they could enjoy having their grandparents nearby. Those lucky kids turned out to be Laura, Matt, Mike, Amy, and Chris. Linda perfected the concept of motherhood and claimed (against the evidence) that her children were her greatest achievements.

Linda was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She enjoyed being Ward and Stake Relief Society President, Young Women advisor and a writer of the Young "Linda is my rock. I know if she comes all will go well." Women manuals, and (with Allen) a cherished friend to the residents of Legacy House. She had an enviably close relationship with her Heavenly Father. She had frequent communications with Him, during which, presumably, He asked her for advice.

Linda left us, extraordinarily peacefully and after countless final visits from loved ones, on August 30th, at the too-young age of 83.

Linda’s parents and brother Richard have also moved on. Left here to face her bewildering absence are her beloved husband; her siblings Tom, Craig, and Kathy; her children Laura & Michael Barila, Matt & Tracie Sumsion, Mike & Becky Sumsion, Amy Poulson, and Chris & Ashley Sumsion; 16 grandchildren and their significant others; 3.5 great-grandchildren; hundreds of others whose lives she brightened; and you, her very favorite person.

At birthday gatherings, Linda asked all attendees to offer tributes to the guest of honor. You are invited to attend our tribute to her. It will be held at the Bountiful 31st Ward chapel (585 E. Center) on Friday, September 9th, at 11:00 AM, with a viewing from 9:30 to 10:30 AM. A viewing will also be held on Thursday, September 8th, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the Bountiful Russon Mortuary (295 N. Main). The service will be also be shown on this page and on the Russon Brothers Mortuary Facebook page.

In lieu of flowers, please write a note to one of your family members, bake cookies or a cake for a neighbor, or lend a helping hand to someone who needs it.

“Linda is my rock,” wrote her mother. “I know if she comes all will go well.”