Marie Stauffer Meikle

Marie Stauffer Meikle died early Wednesday, March 8, 2017, three weeks before her 95th birthday.

She was born March 29, 1922, in Mendon, Utah, the ninth child in a family that eventually included twelve children.

Her mother died when Marie was twelve. Her father was left to raise the four girls and two boys still at home.

She grew up working in her father’s small store in Mendon. She remembered the pot-bellied stove and cracker barrels, the long counter where people would place their orders, the old men who would sit in the store and talk, and all the people—married and single—who would come to the store after town dances to mingle and enjoy a soda.

In 1937, her father remarried. His new wife helped raise the kids, and gave birth to the twelfth child in the family.

In September 1943, Marie graduated from the Dee Hospital School of Nursing. She and three of her sisters served as registered nurses. During the War, Marie worked in San Francisco for about one and a half years, and then returned to Cache Valley to work in the hospital there.

In 1945, she went on a blind date to a dance in Hyrum with Don Meikle, who was home on a furlough from Italy where he was serving in the Army. He was wearing his uniform. Germany surrendered, Don was never called back to the front, and they married about one year later, on June 14, 1946, in the Logan Temple.

They built themselves a home in Smithfield and raised three boys. They raised their children in the gospel, in a home where their children felt safe and yet free to explore the world, on a farm where they learned to work, and in a community where they learned to be honorable citizens.

After the children were older, Marie went back to work at the Logan Hospital. She worked in surgery and then for many years in obstetrics, helping bring many babies into the world and caring for them in their first days of life.

“Grandma Meikle’s” home was a refuge for her grandchildren, where they could sleep over, enjoy hot homemade rolls with melting butter and honey, and perhaps follow Grandma hiking to a special “secret” place in Mack’s Park, or even climbing up to the top of the “First Pyramid” mountain east of Smithfield.

Marie was preceded in death by her husband Don Meikle, and by her oldest son D. Lynn Meikle. She is survived by her son Brent H. Meikle and wife RaDene, by her son Ted S. Meikle and wife Jill, and by Evelyn B. Meikle, wife of D. Lynn Meikle. She is also survived by 16 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren with two more on the way.

Services will be held at 1:00 p.m., Monday, March 13, 2017, at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center Street, Logan, Utah. A viewing will be held at the Mortuary beginning at 11:00 a.m. Burial will be in the Smithfield City Cemetery. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.allenmortuaries.net