Georgia Garff Owens (79) died peacefully at home on December 13, 2022, surrounded by family after a brief illness. She was spirited and joyful. She never met a person who wasn’t a potential friend, a life circumstance that wasn’t potentially fun, or a recipe that wasn’t potentially incorrect. She was a devoted disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Georgia was born on September 25, 1943, in Salt Lake City to Mark Brimhall Garff and Gertrude Ryberg Garff, and their life would never be the same. She was a 1962 Highland High School graduate where she illuminated the drama classes and dismayed the neighborhood by driving around in her powerful red Jeep convertible filled with friends.
She blazed a trail to the University of Utah where, having a flair for the dramatic, she graduated with a BA majoring in theater. She pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma and formed lifelong friendships.
Upon graduation, she was a broadcast journalist at KSL, having her own short television program. In the fall the 1968, she moved to California to work for the San Francisco NBC television affiliate, reporting live on many of the major stories and events of the day.
While there she met the love of her life, David R. Owens, an attorney working in San Francisco, who says he saw her on television before they met in person. His life was changed forever. They married on March 15, 1969 in the Oakland California Temple. After a couple of years in San Francisco where Georgia took a cable car to work and David walked to the law firm, they moved to Walnut Creek, California, where they raised their six children in an area they loved. In November of 2011 they moved to Salt Lake.
She loved being at the family cabin close to Hebgen Lake, Montana, picking wildflowers with grandchildren, making delicious English Toffee- a favorite of family and friends- giving thoughtful and unexpected gifts, and delivering unsolicited advice. Her wit was razor sharp and her warm generosity was felt by all with whom she came in contact.
Despite her accomplished career, she considered her greatest success to be a dedicated wife and mother. She will be missed by all, but the light she ignited in every one she met will never be extinguished.
She is survived by her husband David; her children David (Anne), Margaret Hill (Chris), Mark, Richard (Becki); Wendy Leatham (Bron), Samuel (Gina), twenty-one grandchildren and one in-law grandson; also a brother Bill Garff (Karen) and sisters Charlotte Jacobsen (Ted) and Laura Lewis (Bob) and sister-in-law Judy Tidwell (Jeff). She was predeceased by her parents, her brother Mark R. Garff and nephews Ben Jacobsen and Daniel Garff.
Visitation will be at Wasatch Lawn 3401 Highland Drive, Millcreek, Utah on December 22, 2022 from 6-8pm and again on December 23 from 9-10:30 preceding the funeral at 11:00 am at the Crestview Ward 2795 E Crestview Drive, Salt Lake City.
The funeral will be live streamed here https://zoom.us/j/94812767628
