Mary Lucille Reid Ellis

Mary Lucille Reid Ellis, age 91, passed away Sunday, November 5, 2023 at home with her family gathered around her. She was born in La Jara, Colorado in 1932 to James and Julia Estelle Reid, and raised on a small farm with her eight siblings. Her life on the farm in the cold San Luis Valley was tough but for Lucille it was filled with happy memories—plucking chicken feathers to prepare for Sunday dinner, sitting around the coal stove singing and telling stories for entertainment, and heating a brick on that stove and wrapping it in a wet towel to put in the bedsheets to keep warm at night in the shared bed with her four sisters.

When she was nine, her parents moved the family to Salt Lake, before finally settling in Centerville. Living in Utah was the first time Lucille experienced the joys of indoor plumbing. She went to South Davis Jr. High (now Bountiful Jr.), where she saw a handsome boy walking up the stairs in a football uniform and knew he’d be her future husband. She then went to Davis High where she was a member of the Pro Schola pep club, president of the Masque & Gavel speech club, was the Centerville queen in the Cantaloupe Days Parade, and directed the school play as a senior.

After graduating, Lucille married Rawney Glade Ellis in the Salt Lake Temple on October 18, 1950. Together they had 10 children to whom Lucille dedicated her life, raising them in a nurturing manner:  Reid and Chris (deceased), Brad and Calene, Bart and Ana, Jay and Charlotte, Rick and Tina, Brian and Kathy, Linda Harding, Michael and Leslie, Diane and Robert Keller, and Angela and Matt George.

She spent her children’s early years engaged in the kind of endless meal preparation and cleaning you would expect after having six boys in a row, but she still managed to attend countless baseball and football games, and—once the girls came—dance competitions, gymnastics meets, and whatever else the children were into at the moment.

Lucille had 29 grandchildren whom she loved very much and 48 great grandchildren (with several more on the way) whom she enjoyed interacting with. Her kind and loving nature made Grandma Ellis and Gramma Gramma a favorite of all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

She was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and over the years held many callings, including in the Stake Primary Presidency and Relief Society Presidency. She especially liked callings or activities where she could play the piano. She had a beautiful voice and enjoyed singing in the church choir. She also sang for many years with the Sweet Adelines, traveling across the country and into Europe with the group. She enjoyed being a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and helping to preserve pioneer history in the meetings and activities, and particularly on the trips to Church history sites.

Lucille’s family would like to thank Nurse Debbie and the angels at Applegate HomeCare & Hospice for the loving care they provided to Lucille over the past one-and-a-half years.

Funeral services for Lucille will be on Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 12:00 pm at the Stone Creek Ward Chapel, 1476 North 300 West, Bountiful. Viewings will be on Friday, November 10, 2023 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the church and 10:00 am to 11:30 am prior to the service.

She will be laid to rest following the service at Memorial Lakeview Mortuary & Cemetery, 1640 East Lakeview Drive, Bountiful. Please share your memories at www.memorialutah.com.