Ruth Israelsen

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Ruth Israelsen, devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother peacefully left this life on January 20, 2025 at the age of 93. Lena Ruth was born June 27, 1931 to Robert and Mary Thalman in Lincoln, Utah. 

Ruth spent her childhood years in Young Ward. She was Valedictorian of Wellsville Jr. High and attended South Cache High, where she participated in the Forensic Club (Debating Class). If you call hoeing beets, picking cherries, beans, peas, and canning fun, then she had lots of fun growing up! She was surrounded by brothers and boy cousins and was thrilled when she got to welcome a sister to the family at the age of thirteen. 

While she was in High School she met Glen Israelsen, and this is what he later claimed, “She chased me and chased me until I finally caught her.” While waiting for him to serve his 2-and-a-half-year mission, Ruth worked at Utah Mortgage and Loan, where she perfected her shorthand and other business skills. Following Glen’s return, they were married June 19, 1953 in the Logan Temple. Ruth said of Glen, “Before our children were even born, I had given them the greatest gift they could seek or desire on this earth. A loving, dedicated father.”

The next years in Ruth’s life are summed up well with her own words. “As our children came one by one, we could truthfully say to those who saw us with our little family, ‘That all our troubles were little ones.’” Ten of them to be exact. Continuing with the theme of her childhood, she was again outnumbered by boys, with 7 sons and 3 daughters. Ruth said, “by the time we had ten children, I thought if I die now, they can just wrap me in diapers and put me in the ground.” One time she “gathered all the mending and had spent several days patching Levis and shirts only to find that none of them fit the kids anymore because [she] had procrastinated doing the mending for so long.” 

Ruth treasured each child entrusted to her care. She said, “We found love doesn’t divide. When each child came, to our delight, we found it multiplies.” Indeed Ruth and Glen took this belief to heart. Throughout their lives, they delightfully welcomed not only their 10 children and descendants, but multitudes of people from all over the world into their home as their own, from short stays up to stays of eight years.

In addition to raising her 10 children, Ruth later worked for Select Sires, and for a dermatologist. She was actively involved in teaching Primary, Relief Society, and Sunday School, and served a mission in Columbia, South Carolina with her husband Glen. She wrote each week of their mission to their family under the name “The Karolina Kids”. She was a member of the Friends of the North Logan Library Board and was one of those instrumental in bringing a library to North Logan. 

Ruth loved to garden, to write, to draw, to crochet, and to spend time with her children and grandchildren. She loved spending time at the family cabin in Franklin basin - enjoying her family, the hummingbirds, and the beautiful nature. She loved to sing and sang with the Choraliers for 18 years while raising her children. She claims this singing group helped her keep her sanity. She did endless work on her genealogy.

At one point in Ruth’s life she wrote, “When one comes face to face with the reality of death, it gives cause for reflection, and then after the fright and anxiety and fear of the unknown have passed, comes the appreciation ever-deepening of the glorious world. Everything comes into focus and things material fade into obscurity. Paramount is love of family and strong ties with friends and relatives. The innate goodness of people and their joys become yours.”

In Ruth’s presence, you felt your own innate goodness and the strength that comes from someone so remarkable treasuring each of your joys with you. Ruth did that for everyone. Her smile, her soft spoken voice, her gentle yet capable and efficient hands were always serving and uplifting others. 

Ruth wrote, “How could the sky have such a deep shade of blue or the mountain outline more sharply contrasted and the master painter brushes in a unique shaped cloud with trees of various kinds filling in the canvas? God lives and created this for us. Each evening brings a new adventure as I look to the west to see what color the sunset is tonight – blues, purples, blacks, reds, orange – each night a new picturesque scene...What a wonderful privilege to sojourn on this beautiful earthly home!” 

We who have known her wonder at the privilege of having sojourned with her and will look towards the west with wonder as she did and rejoice in our new adventures until we see her again.

Ruth was preceded in death by her husband Glen, son Robert, her parents, brothers Ernest and Bob, sisters Donna Mae and Mary Lou Kersey. Surviving siblings are Deloy, John & Gary Thalman.

Ruth and Glen’s beloved 10 children: Robert (deceased) (Jillene Israelsen Morrill), RuthAnn (Scott) Andersen, Daryl (Jeff) Thornton, Bert (Teresa), Neal (Kelly), Steven (Annette), Glenna Petersen, Owen (Laura), David (Michelle), Martin (AnnaLee): 51 grandchildren, 123 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren.

A special thanks to her caregivers: Melanie Hopper, Jessic Fronk, CNS Hospice Team, and Maple Springs of North Logan.

A viewing will be held at Allen Mortuary, 420 E 1800 N, North Logan on Friday, January 31st from 6-8 pm. Funeral services will be held Saturday, February 1st at 11 am at the Green Canyon Stake Center, 1850 N 400 E in North Logan with a viewing from 9:30 to 10:30 am prior to the services. Interment will be at the North Logan, Utah cemetery. 

Memories and condolences may be shared and expressed at www.allenmortuaries.com. 

*Disclaimer: If for some reason the livestream of the Funeral Service does not work we will record the service and upload the video and/or audio recording at a later date.*