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Eunice Irene Seely Loosli 1915 ~ 2007
Eunice Irene Seely Loosli was born on Monday November 22, 1915, to Stuart Randolph Seely and Millie Nielsen in St. Anthony, Idaho. The youngest of nine children, Eunice was both coddled and teased as the baby of the family. Her folks moved to Chester, Idaho, to raise sheep - and because she always loved animals, young Eunice fondly developed several unfortunate attachments to the adorable livestock. Though Eunice grew up on a farm, she was quite a society girl: when her family wintered in town, she liked to visit with her many friends, attend parties and dances, and watch any 10-cent movie that wasn't a western. She also discovered early many of the enduring loves of her life: friendship, flowers, sewing, and the color pink. After graduating high school, Eunice joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: on July 20, 1936, she was baptized in City Creek at Mt. Pleasant, Utah.
On October 6, 1938 - after waiting two years for him to serve his mission - Eunice married Donald Lamar Loosli of Ashton, Idaho, in the Salt Lake City Temple. The Looslis lived on a farm in Ashton and raised their three boys: Stuart Lamar, Dimond Scott, and Richard Todd. During World War II, the family temporarily moved to Los Angeles where her husband assisted in the war effort. The family worked the farm until 1949, when they bought a home in Idaho Falls. She was famous for how well she kept her farmhands fed. One of the most memorable chapters in Eunice's life began in 1956, when she and her family set sail for Auckland to serve an LDS labor mission to help build the New Zealand Temple. Here Eunice put her love of sewing to work: for three and half years she sewed and stitched her way through various callings, and was ultimately called to supervise the sewing of all the Temple clothing. She loved that land and considered it a blessing to serve in New Zealand, and she especially enjoyed teaching the Maori sisters to sew. More than 40 years after leaving, Eunice and her family were delighted to return to their beloved New Zealand for a mission reunion to visit old friends. As many who knew her have said, Eunice was the epitome of a homemaker. She cherished her family and friends and keeping in touch with them was a chief pleasure. She also loved beauty: she always kept a wondrous house and garden and when her skilled hands weren't pushing a broom or putting flowers in the dirt, they were putting needle to cloth or paint to canvas. Later in life, Eunice fell in love with the desert and she and her husband began to split their time between Idaho and Arizona. The most beautiful thing to her was the desert in its short-lived pink blossom: it was a landscape to which she returned often in her paintings. Eunice passed away in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday January 15, 2007, after a short struggle with cancer. She is survived by her devoted husband of 69 years, three sons, 14 grandchildren, and 40 great-grandchildren. A reception for remembrance will be held 7-8:30 p.m. Friday January 19, 2007, at 141 2nd Ave, Salt Lake City, Utah. The funeral service will take place at 12 noon Saturday January 20, 2007, at the Ashton First Ward, 1313 N 3600 E, Ashton, Idaho. A family visitation will be held one hour prior to the funeral service. The interment will be at the Pineview Cemetery, Ashton, Idaho. In lieu of flowers the family asks for a donation to the Perpetual Education Fund or a charity of your choice.
Published in The Deseret News, (Salt Lake City, UT) - January 17, 2007
[Granddaughter of SGS # 2337 - Eunice Irene; Stuart Randolph; Justus Wellington (# 2337); Justus Azel (# 836); Justus William; Joseph; John; Benjamin; Nathaniel, Robert]
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