Dawn Hansen Reeve, age 85, died November 11, 2014, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 12, 1929, the third of five children, to Joseph Vear Hansen and Sena Utah Ruth Clawson Hansen.
She graduated from Stewart School, East High School, and at age 20, the University of Utah. She did postgraduate work at Utah State University.
On March 20, 1959, she married Reed Lyman Reeve in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They had two children.
She was a life-long educator. She taught second grade at Oquirrh School and home economics at Roosevelt Junior High School.
Even after she retired from full-time teaching, she remained active in education, serving as president of the Douglas School Parent-Teacher Association. She used to joke that she did it just to have something to put in her obituary, but she was deeply committed to public education and neighborhood schools.
She was an active member of the LDS Church, holding numerous teaching and leadership positions in the Primary, Mutual, Sunday School, and Relief Society. She said she taught everything but the Elders' Quorum. She taught Gospel Doctrine every week for nine years. She was a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
She served as a stake missionary. In 1972, she and her husband were given less than three weeks' notice to pack up their possessions and move to England, where they led the England Birmingham Mission for three years.
She was a voracious reader and scriptorian. She invented a challenging game that helped players learn the scriptures.
She was talented and creative. She wrote and directed many plays and roadshows and sang with her sisters in a trio around the valley.
She was an inventive and inspired cook, famous for her taffy, cinnamon apples, chocolates, rolls, pot roast, and Yorkshire Pudding.
She loved flowers, the Church, books, popcorn, chapstick, eating the middles out of watermelons, and her family. She was a wonderful and much-loved mother.
Survived by her children, Mark Douglas (Shellie) Reeve of Valencia, California, and Rosemary Reeve of Salt Lake City, Utah; her grandchildren, Alexandra (Travis) Mar; Benjamin Reeve, and Meredith Reeve; her great-grandson, Christian Mar; and her brother, James V. (Ann) Hansen.
Preceded in death by her parents and husband; and her sisters: Carol Ruth Hansen (Steuart) Walther; Betty Jo Hansen (Ben) Armstrong; and Bonnie Hansen (Dean) Stephens.
Viewing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on November 14, 2014, at Larkin Mortuary, 260 East South Temple. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday November 15, 2014, at the Salt Lake Central Stake 11th Ward, 951 East 100 South, where friends may call from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. prior to the service. Interment at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 1342 East 500 South, Salt Lake City, Utah.
The family would like to thank the staff at Canyon Creek and the Residence of CareSource hospice for their compassionate care during the last months of Mom's life.
