Beverly June Crawford

Beverly June Crawford of Sandy, Utah passed away peacefully while living at Legacy House Assisted Living in South Jordan, Utah. She was born on August 6, 1934, in Chicago, Illinois to Don and Naomi Crawford. She graduated from Leyden High School in Franklin Park, Illinois in 1952.

She went on to receive her Bachelor of Education at the Pestalozzi Froebel Teachers College in Chicago in 1958 and was then certified to teach elementary school. She started her teaching career at the Sunnyside School in Illinois teaching 1st grade. After a few years, she moved to Washington State and taught 3rd grade at Pioneer School in Shelton, Washington. She then moved on to McKinley Elementary in Olympia, Washington where she taught 3rd and 4th grades from 1966-1979. In 1979 she moved to Sandy, Utah, and taught 2nd and 4th grade at Washington School in Salt Lake City for 9 years.

Beverly relates that in her early years, her family moved quite a bit and with those moves they changed churches as well, going from the Methodist church in Chicago, Illinois to the Evangelical Swedish Mission Covenant church and then eventually to the Baptist church. Beverly was even able to sing with the Billy Graham Choir in the 1950’s. In 1967 her baby brother, Rick, who had attended BYU in Provo, Utah and also BYU in Laie, Hawaii, and who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in his 3rd year of college joined her at their family home for the summer. Rick introduced her and his older brother Jim to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and urged them both to pray about joining the church for themselves. Jim joined the church in October of 1967. Beverly began alternately attending the LDS church and her own Baptist church for many months and finally agreed to allow the LDS missionaries to teach her. On the day when they were coming to her house, she changed her mind and decided to just hide and not answer the door, but when she saw the missionaries bowing their heads and praying together before coming to her door she knew she had to let them in. Beverly was baptized that December and relates that in just 17 months she became one of the seven members of her family who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Beverly held many callings in all the churches she was a member of, giving of her time, her energy, and her talents to many people. Some of her favorite memories were teaching the youth in both Cub Scouts callings and Primary organization callings - even being the Primary President for a while. She played the piano beautifully and often played for church meetings and gatherings. She had to sight-read music the old-fashioned way and often said she wished she had received her mother’s talent of playing by ear.

After Beverly retired from teaching, she volunteered and worked for many years for the Jordan River Temple, from October 1990 to December 2006. In her final months while living at Legacy she enjoyed how close she was in proximity to the temple and to seeing the beautiful flowers she remembered caring for.

She is preceded in death by her father Don Alfred Crawford (1975), her mother Naomi Moon Crawford (1995), her sister-in-law Linda Crawford (2002), her brother James Edward Crawford (2019), and her brother Richard Don Crawford (2021).

She leaves behind many people who loved her including her sister-in-law, Janet Crawford, and her sister-in-law Vickie Crawford. She had fifteen nephews and nieces from her two wonderful brothers that all loved their Aunt Beverly: Kimberly (Clark Larsen), Laura (Jeff Alexander), Paul Crawford (Rachel), Cori (Glen Page), Leslie Crawford (Greg Frigault), Lisa (Dan Blanchard), Melony (Derek Swanson), Linette Crawford, Amanda (Wesley Jones), Phillip Crawford (Colette Crawford), Kelly (Jeremy Miller), Larkin Crawford (Dennis Burrows), Christopher Crawford (Kelly), Robyn (Jeff Reynolds), Emily Crawford, and many, many grand nephews and nieces!

Beverly loved bagpipe music, genealogy, lighthouses, sewing, piano, puzzles, birds, gardening, hiking, the ocean shores in Washington State, scrapbooks, tai chi, and all things VANILLA- especially vanilla ice cream!

Our family wants to give special thanks to the wonderful people who cared for Beverly from Symbii Home Health and Hospice, Beverly loved you all! She also had many wonderful people who assisted her and became her good friends at Legacy House Assisted Living in South Jordan and Cedarwood at Sandy.

Funeral services will be held graveside on Monday, October 2nd, 2023 from 3:00-4:00 PM at Larkin Sunset Gardens, 1959 E. Dimple Dell Road in Sandy, Utah.