Vonna Vawdrey

"On a beautiful Indian summer day, November, 1930, the stork swooped down and left a small bundle for Mama and Papa Enniss.  This bundle contained their second child which was a baby girl."  (from Vonna's childhood biography).  Vonna Enniss Vawdrey just as quietly returned "home" to her beloved children, Steven J. and Kaylyn, and her husband, Harold, on October 20, 2017.    Vonna grew up in Draper, Utah on a family farm which was lovingly tended by her father, Elmer Mar Enniss and mother, Mae Osborne Enniss.  On the farm she learned to work hard and to play hard.  She graduated from Jordan High School in 1949 and married Harold Smith Vawdrey on September 9th of that year in the Salt Lake Temple, just four months after graduation.  She and Harold travelled through the western states as they built Vawdrey Ditch Lining Company, using the slip form the family invented for lining concrete ditches.  Harold supervised the work, Vonna was the company cook.  Those cooking skills served her well.  She loved a family party or reunion, and happily kept cooking large meals for hungry people.  Always artistic and interested in painting, in 1964 she began to get serious about her art interests and her talent blossomed.  She helped to found (and became a charter member of) The Intermountain Society of Artists, and showed and sold her work through ISA.  She was also a member of The Great Basin Artist group.  She travelled widely with these organizations and her work has been shown all over the Western States, in several European countries, and can now be found in homes and businesses as far away as Australia, New Zealand and Japan.  Vonna loved traveling, meeting people, her very special dogs, and sharing her talents with her family and friends. She was always happy to give an art lesson, cook a meal, or offer help and consolation to the sick: she loved nursing and natural healing, and unselfishly shared what she knew. In later years, when she and Harold grew tired of living in the snow, they moved from Draper to St. George, Utah. They enjoyed the sun and the many friendships they developed there.  Vonna was active in the LDS church all her life, serving in many callings, and quietly sharing her devotion to God. She especially loved indexing and genealogy in her older years.  She was preceded in death by two children, Steven J. and Kaylyn Vawdrey, and by her husband Harold.  She is survived by children: Karla (Karl) Kelly, Jazan (David) Cracroft, Paula (Mark) Stevens, and Keven (Chris) Vawdrey; nine grandchildren, and numerous great-grandchildren, both human and animal. A private family memorial service will be held in Sandy, Utah through Goff Mortuary. The family wishes to thank everyone at Riverway Assisted Living in South Jordan (and all the friends and family members who visited her there) for their help and support through these last difficult months. In place of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Primary Children's Medical Center.