Elisabeth Ballou

ELISABETH BECKETT BALLOU
Sep 17 1928 – Nov 11 2014
Our beloved wife and mother, Liz, passed peacefully thru the veil on Nov 11, 2014, at the Emeritus Assisted Living Center in Salt Lake City after enduring the challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease for the last 12 years or more.
She was born in Fall River, Mass, on Sep 17, 1928 to Alexander Wallace Beckett and Elisabeth Thompson. After attending several schools in the Boston area, she graduated from Newton High School in 1946, then attended the Pierce Secretarial School of Boston. This led to employment for five years as a secretary with the Mass Bonding and Insurance Company of Boston. During this time she met and married Donald K. Ballou, also of Newton, Mass, on Jun 17, 1950, in the chapel of the Andover-Newton Theological Seminary. During their honeymoon, the Korean War commenced. Don was in the Air Force Reserve. One year later he was called back to active duty, and she went to live with his parents. In the spring of 1952, she was able to join him in Sumpter, SC, where he was serving at Shaw Air Force Base. When he was released in Sep, 1952, they returned to the Boston area where Don obtained a BSME degree from Tufts College, and Liz gave birth to their first child.
After his graduation, they moved to Conn, had two more children, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly thereafter her sister, Eleanor, and later her mother, Elisabeth, also joined the Church. Liz worked in Primary, YWMIA, and Relief Society, but her activity was somewhat hampered by allergies, asthma, and migraine headaches. In 1966, the whole family, including her mother, drove to Utah and were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. In 1978, due to years of severe family health problems, Don obtained a transfer in his work from New England to South Florida. Three years after his retirement in 1987, they were called to serve Family History Missions, first in London and then in Salt Lake City. Near the end of their second mission, Liz began to show symptoms which were eventually diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease. She has been confined due to this problem since Nov, 2008.
She was preceded in death by her parents and is survived by her husband, Don, three daughters, Stephanie Bare, Catherine Grandgent, and Christine Stockelman, two grandchildren, Thomas Grandgent and Suzanne Sammann, and two great grandchildren, Lily and Lochlan Gehring.
The family would like to express deep gratitude to the staff of Emeritus Assisted Living Center, Hospice, and to many others who provided loving care to Elisabeth during her long years of need.
Funeral services will be held at 11 am on Saturday, 22 Nov, at the Deseret Mortuary, 36E 700S in Salt Lake City. Interment after will be for family only in Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 South Highland Drive, Salt Lake City.
This obituary may be found online at www.deseretmortuary.com