Laurie Jo Greer Rhoton died at 5:00 am on March 22, 2024, in Farmington, Utah, of complications related to breast cancer.
Born July 18, 1937, in St. Johns, Arizona, she grew up on a ranch among her five brothers, her father’s cattle, sweet corn, horses, the kittens she carried around, and her mother’s quilting-bee friends. At eight, she read The Blue Fairy Book over and over during a stay in the hospital, and thereafter read every book in the house—there was no library in town. She read her way to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where she studied homemaking and lived for six weeks in the Home Management or Practice House, where her efforts to live on a limited budget once involved the serving of frozen frog legs. One Sunday in her junior year, invited to have supper at the bishop’s house, she hurriedly borrowed a roommate’s cashmere sweater. Bert Rhoton, who had also been invited to supper, liked to say her ability to make salad dressing from scratch was the reason he fell in love . . . but that sweater sure helped. They were married in the Mesa, Arizona temple on June 12, 1958, and moved into a cabin in Flagstaff where they lived—thank goodness for those weeks in the Practice House!--on a tiny household budget. Except for the time when they had only enough money for marshmallows OR licorice, they agreed on just about everything for the next 44 years, especially long drives with each other, the importance of a good sewing machine, tacos for dinner, a large library, and El Pato sauce.
Together they moved wherever the Air Force sent Bert. Jo gave birth to a son, Elmo Vincent, in Utah, in 1963, and a daughter, Laura Lee, in Arizona, in 1967, taking both of them by herself to join Bert in Iceland in 1968. (Laura helped by crying most of the way.) Bert’s last station was at Hill Air Force Base in Clearfield, Utah, so Jo’s garden for the next 40 years was in West Point, where she grew tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, peppers, and currants, and met the many wonderful people who were so good to her when Bert was gone. She loved to sew, to make new quilts, to try old and new recipes, and to reflect on her experiences in the photo albums that were her calling cards. The sound of a sewing machine and a pair of shears cutting through cloth will always bring her back to us and remind us that we are happiest in a state of busy expectation.
Laurie Jo is survived by her son Vince Rhoton and daughter-in-law Jacki Beard Rhoton of Layton, her daughter Laura and son-in-law Tom McNeal of Coronado, California, and six grandchildren: Adeline Crandall (Seth) of Syracuse, Jackson Rhoton (Jenna) of Roy, Corinne Biddulph (Brad) of Mountain Green, Zane Rhoton (Breanna) of Pacifica, CA, Sam McNeal (Santa Monica, CA), and Henry McNeal (San Diego, CA). Jo is also survived by four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by Bert, her brothers, and her parents.
Funeral Services will be held Saturday March 30, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. at Lindquist’s Layton Mortuary, 1867 No. Fairfield Rd. Friends may visit with family from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. prior to services at the mortuary.
The family wishes to thank the caring staff of Legacy House in Farmington, the friends who made her welcome there and gave her their love during the hardest time of her life, and the good people of West Point who fixed her computer, shoveled snow for her, and traded garden vegetables all those years. If you ever played Casino with Jo, bring a ten of diamonds and a two of spades to remember her. She holds all the aces now (as she usually did in life) and we are so happy that Bert, whose car has been idling at the curb for 22 years now, can lean over and open the door for her.
