Verla Ridges

Our dear mother and grandmother, Verla Nelson Ridges, passed away peacefully Tuesday, February 15, 2005, at the age of 91, at Lakeview Hospital, Bountiful, Utah. She was born on November 13, 1913, in Ogden, Utah, to Maynard E. Nelson and Martha Ellen Phillips Nelson. Throughout her life, Verla enjoyed doing genealogical research. She was personally acquainted with two of her pioneer ancestors who had come across the plains to Utah in 1852 and 1856. She spent her childhood on a farm in Clearfield, Utah, where she learned many of the good principles that guided her life. In 1926, her family moved to Sparks, Nevada. She played the violin in the high school orchestra there, and she was the Valedictorian at her high school commencement. She attended the University of Nevada in Reno. In Sparks, she met John Milton Ridges. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 20, 1937, by David O. McKay. They lived in the Power District by Caselton, Nevada, then in Caselton, Nevada near Pioche, and in Panaca, Nevada, where Verla was a charter member of the Pioche Camp of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. In 1951, the family relocated to an unincorporated county area just south of Bountiful, Utah, and they later moved to North Salt Lake. During all these years, Verla always willingly accepted callings for activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many teaching, directing, training, and organizing positions, including a special appointment to introduce the Family Home Evening Manual and the Teacher Development programs in her stake. Many have benefited from her teaching abilities. For 24 years she served as a recorder of Patriarchal Blessings given by her husband. Verla had a very deep, enduring appreciation for red rock country and desert landscapes and loved to camp out with family members; with them, she has been a participant in the activities of the Moab Jeep Safari for several years. In 1993, she was awarded a ribbon for being, at that time, the oldest person to ride in a jeep over the entire ?Pioneer Hole-in-the-Rock Trail.? Chris Ridges, a grandson, was the driver of the jeep. Throughout all of these many activities, and above all else, Verla was our Mother. We love her very much, and our lives have been made better because of her strength and her unconditional love for us.

She tried always to show us by example how to meet life with wisdom, knowledge, humor, optimism, and good common sense. She was always available to each of us and was there at the crossroads in our lives. Each descendant?s spouse knows that he or she is fully accepted as a family member, and each one knows of her unconditional love for him or her individually. Verla was preceded in death by her husband John in 1993, her parents, her two sisters, Audrey Dibble and Faye Blood, her brother-in-law Charles Dibble, and by three grandchildren. She is survived by her eight children, three sons-in-law, and four daughters-in-law: Edward Janice, David Janette, Stephen, Elna Steven Manning, Janet Bryant Wadsworth, Laurel Winston Erickson, Lance Laurie, and Rand Marla, and by 42 grandchildren, 25 grandchildren spouses, and 39 great grandchildren, and by one brother-in-law, Paul Blood. She always had a special place in her heart for her many nieces and nephews. Verla has an enduring testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement of our Savior. She now has gone forward to an eternity of New Beginnings. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, February 18, 2005, at the Orchard 3rd Ward Chapel, 261 East Center Street, North Salt Lake, with a viewing at 10:00 a.m. at the same location. A viewing will also be held on Thursday, February 17, 2005, from 6:30-8:00 p.m., at the Russon Brothers Funeral Home, 295 North Main, Bountiful, Utah. Interment will be in the Lakeview Memorial Estates Cemetery in Bountiful, Utah.