Louise Degn

Louise Degn Obituary

Reporter, Producer, Composer

Louise Degn, a pioneer in broadcast journalism, died peacefully May 8, 2015 surrounded by those she loved.  She was 68.   Louise was born May 25, 1946, in Logan, Utah, daughter of Iris Swapp and Bennie Degn.  She graduated from Ogden High School and Utah State University, served a LDS mission in Brisbane, Australia, and was most recently the ward choir director.

She received her master’s in journalism from Northwestern University where a professor advised her not to pursue broadcasting because “they don’t hire women and blacks.”  By the time she graduated, however, the federal government pressured broadcasters to expand their all-white, male newsrooms, and Louise was recruited by KSL, Channel 5.  In 1969, she was the only female broadcast news reporter on air in Utah.  She reported on the nascent women’s liberation movement, Coalville Tabernacle demolition, Teton Dam break, Howard Hughes will, Gary Gillmore execution, Rulon Allred assassination, and Mark Hofmann Mormon forgeries. As producer, she documented Utah stories and issues with the “Dimension Five,” “TalkAbout” and “Prime Time Access” crews.  In 1979 she produced the ground-breaking documentary “Mormon Women and Depression” which broke the silence on mental health issues in the LDS community. Requests for copies of the program and its transcript came from Mormon congregations across the country and overseas. Louise became a popular speaker on mental illness at church functions.

In 1990, in the midst of an economic downturn in broadcasting, Louise left KSL to join the University of Utah Department of Communication faculty.  Her students consistently placed among the Top Ten in the nationally prestigious Hearst student journalism contest. As a free-lancer, she co-produced the 1997 documentary on women suffrage, “Let the Women Vote!” which was distributed to PBS stations across the country.  She also was an occasional newscaster for KUER, public radio. Much of her broadcast work is archived at the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections (http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv16961).

Louise’s avocation was music.  She took composition lessons over the phone with Californian W. A Mathieu, played the Old Standards in rest homes, and conducted choirs. Her music is available without charge on YouTube and on her web site louisedegn.org.  Her career in journalism and music was chronicled in a The Salt Lake Tribune news story on Christmas Day, 2011 (http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=18697550&itype=storyID).

Special thanks to Dr. Ross Morgan and Kathy Bower for their medical expertise and to the Hearts for Hospice team for their gentle care the last months of her life.

She is survived by her brother, Ralph Degn (Mary Ann), of Wellsville and sister, Linda Fowers (Dwight) of St. George, and scores of nieces, nephews, and their children.  She thanks Marie, her BFF, for a good life and great times. 

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 at the Foothill 7th Ward, 2215 East Roosevelt Avenue (1460 South). A viewing will be held Tuesday, May 12 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the same address and prior to the services on Wednesday, May 13 from 9:30 to 10:30 am. Interment will be at the Washington Heights Memorial Park, 4500 Washington Blvd.,
Ogden. Online guestbook available at www.russonmortuary.com

Louise has requested that memorial contributions be made to either the Perpetual Education Fund of the LDS Church or to the Louise Degn Undergraduate Scholarship, Communication Department, University of Utah.