Laree Anderson

Our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and friend, LaRee Turner Anderson, passed away March 7, 2015, at the age of 91 of natural causes. LaRee was born May 15, 1923, in Bluffdale, Utah, the daughter of Samuel Clyde Turner and Birdie Jones Turner. She was the oldest of four children and loved her family and her childhood home. She considered it a great blessing to grow up in Bluffdale, surrounded by numerous loving grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. At an early age, LaRee learned to play the piano and developed a love for music. She performed the lead role in the school operetta, led out as drum majorette, and achieved academic success. She graduated from Jordan High School with advanced secretarial skills, and attended the University of Utah.

After working in the business world for several years, LaRee was called to serve as an LDS missionary in the North Central States Mission, where she developed lifelong friendships with other sister missionaries. It was there in Minnesota that she met a fellow missionary, Reed Warren Anderson, who was finishing his mission just before serving in the Navy during the end of World War II. They corresponded through letters and became engaged when he came home on leave. They were married on June 20, 1946, in the Salt Lake Temple by Elder Harold B. Lee. LaRee was a devoted wife to Reed, supporting him in his career as well as his time-consuming Church callings. Together they served another mission on Temple Square and were ordinance workers for many years in the Jordan River Temple. Reed passed away in 2002 after they had enjoyed 56 years of marriage.

LaRee was a very loving and nurturing mother and grandmother who sacrificed willingly and endlessly for her children's education and happiness, and she taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ by precept and example. Each child learned to appreciate fine music, play the piano or the violin, enjoy good literature and art, and value beauty and refinement in the home and the world. Every holiday and birthday was a special occasion, and together with Reed, they established strong family traditions and a rich family heritage of faith, love, and service to God and their fellow man. Giving service in the Church brought LaRee great joy, and she was a very influential leader and teacher in her stake and ward callings. She sang with, directed, and accompanied congregations and choirs; led and taught children, youth, and adults; gave lifelong compassionate service; and was a particularly gifted teacher of the gospel from her youth well into her 80s. Her love, teachings, and enduring example of faithfulness live on through her posterity.

LaRee is survived by her children: Brent (Maureen), Draper; Marsha (Vernon) Dunn, Bluffdale; Jolene (Paul) Hobson, Burley, Idaho; Renae (Brad) McKell, Draper; and Mark (Annette), Bluffdale; 23 grandchildren; and 33 great-grandchildren. She is also survived by her brothers and sister: Norman (Barbara) Turner; William (LaWanna) Turner; and Karen (Garry) Crump. She is preceded in death by her husband, parents, and three grandchildren, Emily, Greg, and Reed.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 14, 2015, at the LDS chapel on 14400 So. Redwood Road, Bluffdale, Utah. Friends and family may call Friday evening, March 13, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Goff Mortuary, 8090 So. State Street, Midvale, Utah, and prior to the services Saturday at the church building from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Interment will be in the Bluffdale Cemetery.