Coralie Mccarty Beyers

On Friday, February 17, our beloved mother passed peacefully into the arms of her deceased loved ones after succumbing to the effects of old age. She is preceded in death by her husband (John Marion Beyers), father (Homer Ward McCarty), mother (Ardis Young McCarty), brother (Kent McCarty), and sister (Nancy M. Sumsion). She is survived by her adoring children, Ardis (Charles M. Richards III), Lousje (C. Keith Rooker), Susan (Barbisan), Nancy (Benjamin L. Brown), 11 grandchildren, their spouses, and 13 great-grandchildren.

Mom was born in Ogden, Utah. She grew up in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado, but she looked forward to summer visits with her relatives in Salt Lake and Provo, and her love for the Utah mountains was indelibly etched on her heart at an early age. She attended Brigham Young University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Utah where she completed her BA and MA in English and Philosophy. She also pursued doctoral work in American Studies. She met Dad, an immigrant from the Netherlands, when they were both students at the University of Utah. They were married June 30, 1949. Dad became a faculty member at Utah State University in the Language and Philosophy Departments in 1957. Mom joined the English Department faculty at Utah State University in 1965 teaching Composition, American Literature, many Honors Program classes including Black Literature, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and interdisciplinary courses in technology and human values. She contributed papers to the Western American Literature Association and the American Popular Culture Association. She edited and published the book Man Meets Grizzly (Houghton Mifflin, 1980), which is her maternal grandfather’s collection of bear experiences encountered during the settling of the American Western frontier, including the tale of “Old Ephraim.” She was asked to contribute two selections to the Utah writers’ centennial anthology Great and Peculiar Beauty. She retired from Utah State in 1988 and spent much of her time since researching and editing her paternal grandfather’s book Chasing Common Sense: A Boy’s Life on the Last Frontier (slated for publication by the University of Utah Press). She was also a gifted poet and artist.

Mom’s life was marked by a deep love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a lifetime dedicated to service both within the LDS Church and more broadly in her community, a passion for teaching, love of nature, and love for her family. These hallmarks are her heritage.

Mom loved attending the Holy Temple, served in Relief Society both as a teacher and as Relief Society President in the Logan 7th Ward (called at the age of 80), and always reached out to minister to those in need in any way she could. Though Dad didn’t join the LDS Church in his mortal life, he made it known at the end of his life that he would like to have his temple work completed. He and Mom were sealed in the Logan Temple after his death.

Mom served on the Ethics Board of Sunshine Terrace Foundation in Logan and worked with staff to provide programs, activities, support and assistance to residents there, particularly the daycare center. During her residency at Brookdale Assisted Living Center in Salt Lake City, she organized a poetry group, and spent many hours reading poetry, literature, and scriptures to other residents.

Mom’s teaching career was predicated on a personal interest in each of her students. She was renowned for always being available to them and maintained contact with many of them after they had graduated. She relished the open and vigorous discussions of a myriad of topics in her classrooms, and consistently encouraged tolerance, respect, and understanding of differing views.

Mom and Dad loved living in Logan. They felt it was the idyllic place to raise a family, appreciated the beauty of the surrounding valley, and cherished the connections they made in their community. Mom lived in her home there for 57 wonderful years. She loved nature and being out of doors. She delighted in drives around Cache Valley to see the pelicans and Sandhill cranes, reaping the harvest of the family’s vegetable and fruit garden in Hyde Park, and picnics in her own backyard. She and Dad established a tradition of spending summers in the Yellowstone and Teton National Parks, and the surrounding areas. She was an avid fisherman and hiker. She observed and could identify every species of birds and wildflowers along the trail. She reveled in spotting bears, moose, and wolves, and thoroughly enjoyed calling to the elk with her special elk bugle.

Though Mom achieved many marvelous things in her life, she did say her greatest accomplishment was her four daughters. She taught them to love others, to be tolerant, to be kind, to serve, to teach, to live lives of integrity and purpose, and encouraged them to do the same in their families.

The family is deeply grateful and appreciative for the tender loving care of the staff at Brighton Hospice Care, Brookdale Assisted Living, and particularly the staff in the Memory Care Unit at Brookdale.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 25, at the Stewart Park LDS Chapel, 565 East 100 South, Logan, Utah, at 11:00 a.m. A viewing will be held on Friday, February 24, from 6:00 – 8:00 pm at Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center, and at the church from 9:30 – 10:30 am prior to the service. Interment will be at the Logan Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to the Nature Conservancy, Catholic Communities Services Refugee Resettlement Program, or LDS Humanitarian Aid. Condolences may be shared online at www.allenmortuaries.com