Maurine Barlow Stahle

All her life, Maurine Barlow Stahle was easy to love, probably because she loved others so easily. Born to Reuel LaMar and Dora Hess Barlow on September 28, 1928 in Salt Lake City, Utah, she was raised in love and dignity in a quaint home in Bountiful where she embraced the pioneer values of her parents.
She learned to sew and cook from her mother who often treated her and her brother LaMar to pies and cakes. She gained appreciation for the beauty of nature and how to raise flowers from her father.
Growing up, she was aware of a Dean Stahle, who rode the same bus each morning to Davis High School. But for some reason, though they attended the same ward, their paths never crossed until they met in a ward play. Maurine played the part of Eunice Carter. Her role called for her to fall in love in the first act with Rodney Van Orten, played by Dean.
By the third act Eunice jilted him. But for Maurine, that’s where the love took root. From there, their courtship blossomed.
She was a devoted letter writer while Dean served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France. In return, she hung on his every letter. They married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 18, 1950. Her love for him knew no bounds. Her eyes gleamed when she saw him. Her desire was to be the queen of his life and their home.
Maurine was a natural mother and loved the family life that came with giving birth to seven children. She seemed to spin gold out of the straw wages Dean made at the family newspaper. Through it all, she never complained about bearing the burden of family matters while Dean worked late hours. She stretched the family budget by making dresses for her five girls and shirts for her two boys. She sometimes winced that a heaping cart of food cost $80 at the grocery store.
She stood for dignity, absolute kindness, hard work, a willingness to sacrifice for a greater cause, and gratitude for the privilege to live as an eternal family.
Soft-spoken and gentle in her mannerisms, she reared her children with love and devotion. She was a physically strong woman with a grip that could crush rocks. She was equally emotionally and spiritually strong, fiercely determined to make her home happy and safe.
She sat beside each child as they learned the basics on the piano. She had sack lunches with bologna sandwiches ready each morning as her children left for school. She carried the younger ones in her arms on family hikes in the mountains. The rust on the family car didn’t ding her sense of self-worth.
She played with wood blocks and toy cars on the floor with her great-grandchildren, then hugged them with a squeeze so tight they thought they’d break in half.
She showed her inner strength while serving a senior mission with her husband in French-speaking Ivory Coast. Learning a foreign language required constant devotion and study. Before she returned home 18 months later, she could say a prayer and converse in French. But more than anything she said, love was her legacy.
She stood for dignity, absolute kindness, hard work, a willingness to sacrifice for a greater cause, and gratitude for the privilege to live as an eternal family.
She was regal in her deportment and gentle in her mannerisms. Her smile seemed to start deep in her soul. Her radiant countenance that was evident as a young mother grew brighter as a great-grandmother.
Her words were few but her example was thunderous. With her, every day was heaven. After four lonely years following her husband’s death, when she lamented the inability to run and play and sing as she once did, she quietly drew her last breath on December 2, 2020-a fitting peace for a woman of peace.
She lived her 92 years within the confines of three short city blocks but her influence extends over generations and around the world.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, a brother, LaMar H. Barlow and two great-granddaughters.
She is survived by her seven children, Francine Haskett (Jim), Rebecca Jamieson (Ken), Shaun (Becky), Lesa Christensen, (Don), Noel (Becky), Colette Duncan (Keith), Sara Ann Burgess (Scott), 20 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Private family services were held at Russon Mortuary.