After an extraordinary life, our loving and angelic Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother, Phyllis Pettit Whitchurch left this mortal life on Monday, 15 December. Also known by some as Grandma Ice Cream, she was born on 22 February 1922 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Jesse Ray and Phyllis Clayton Pettit. She lived in Salt Lake City until age 10 when she moved to Los Angeles, California. She graduated with honors from UCLA and met her devoted husband Walter while he was serving in the military during World War II. They were married in Los Angeles in 1944 and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple six months later. They moved to Salt Lake City in 1949. After a few years, she returned to school and certified first as a secondary teacher and then as an elementary teacher. She retired from teaching while at Bryant Junior High School.
She served in many LDS Church positions including service with her husband on an 18 month mission in the California Arcadia Mission from 1986 to 1988. She was also a long time member of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
She is the mother of nine children, seven sons and two daughters: Robert (Marjorie), John, Alan (deceased) (Mary), Carolyn Jorgensen (Bruce), David, (Tina), James (Fran), Ray (Julie), Ann Hunt, and Thomas (Rebecca). She has 44 grandchildren and 97 great grandchildren. Her family and many friends will miss her sense of humor, thoughtfulness, caring and angelic presence.
A viewing will be held on Friday, 19 December 2014 at the Larkin Mortuary (3rd East and South Temple) from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, 20 December 2014 from 9:45 ‚ 10:45 a.m. at the University Ward.
Funeral Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, 20 December 2014 at the University Ward (160 S. University St.) Salt Lake City.
