Myrna Shurtliff Conger

Myrna Shurtliff Conger was born April 15th 1937 in Overton, Nevada, the second child of her parents Edna Simkins Shurtliff and Lester Noble Shurtliff. Born nine years after her older sister Roma, she was tiny and active and seemed to have a zest for life right from the start. She was what some might call of “good stock,” with four ancestors on board the Mayflower. Her husband Gordon used to tease her that she was a “blue blood” and he was riding her coat tails. Myrna’s earliest memories were of sitting on her dad’s lap on a tractor as he worked the fields on their farm in the small town of Overton, a latter-day saint farming community in Southern Nevada. That farm and the beautiful Moapa Valley surrounding it was her world, and to Myrna it was full of wonders and adventure. Her dad grew field crops, but when the second world war began and the war economy took over, he came up with the idea of selling starter plants by mail order for victory gardens. The new business took off, helped by Lester’s innovations such as an assembly line conveyor belt to process and pack the vegetables for shipment, and soon they were sending their boxes all over the country. He and Edna started their own print shop to print the catalogs, order forms, and labels, which required Lester to drive all the way to San Bernardino to buy the typeset printer, which may have been the first one in southern Nevada. Soon they were taking other printing jobs from all over the area on the side. Myrna said she always thought her dad could build or fix anything—and she was probably right. Edna had her hands full running the office end of things, especially once Myrna’s younger sister Josephine was born. Myrna, not one for playing happily at her mother’s feet while she worked, was often sent out to spend the day on the farm with Lester, and she has many fond memories of their time together working the fields or changing the water for their watering turn. Myrna loved spending the day out at work on the farm with her dad.

Myrna and her little sister Jo would play for hours with paper dolls, dressing up their kittens like babies, and finding adventures on the farm. They both dreamed of having a horse, and begged their parents for one constantly until one day their dream came true with a beautiful horse named Prince. Myrna found new freedom riding Prince across the wide open desert spaces. Her family grew with the addition of Lou Long, Lester’s nephew, after Lester’s sister died. Lou immediately became one of the family, and was a beloved big brother to Myrna.

As Myrna grew up she had a very busy social calendar. Years later when Gordon started to date her, he quickly found that he needed to ask her out weeks in advance. She loved dances, parties, her horse and her cats, and her valley, and swore she would never leave. After graduating from Moapa Valley High School, she attended Brigham Young University in Provo, excited for the new adventures (and boys) it would hold. At BYU she joined the Cougarettes marching team, and was active in the Gleaners, as well as drama productions and various event planning committees, one of which is where she met her future sweetheart. When they met at a planning meeting for prom, she had picked up a very wet scared little kitten and tucked it inside her coat on the way to the meeting. Gordon had fair warning then and there what life with Myrna would be like—a severe asthmatic married to an ardent animal lover. Myrna wasn't interested in him at first—she was determined not to marry a “city boy.” But with patience (and advanced planning to get on her dating calendar) he finally won her over.

Myrna and Gordon graduated together in 1959, and were married in the Saint George temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Gordon drove their little car loaded up with Myrna and all of her belongings out of the valley, she cried most of the way to Seattle. But she dug in to their new life there, where Gordon attended law school at the University of Washington and Myrna taught elementary school. She stopped teaching with the birth of their first child, Cindy, and two years later another daughter, Alyson, was born. With two little girls and a husband who was starting out as a new associate in a law firm, and then was called to be a very young bishop, Myrna faced her challenges with determination and a positive attitude. Their third child Brad came along, and a few years later they were ready for a bigger house and a move to the suburbs in Bellevue. Their family became complete with the birth of David. Family times were filled with camping and backpacking trips, sailing in the San Juan Islands, road trips by car and motorhome all over the west, and a river trip through the Grand Canyon.

Through all these busy years, Myrna’s life was always full of service both in the church and the community. She was always involved in PTA, and later volunteered for Youth Eastside Services. As a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she devoted many hours of service in many callings. After a brief stint in Relief Society, she was called to the Young Women's organization and never really left, except for a very brief break, for almost two decades. Her love for the young women she taught and served was individual, and genuine, and the young women knew it. Many were strengthened and empowered, and their lives shaped, by Myrna’s influence. Ever loving and beloved by the youth, she then served as a seminary teacher, where she taught each of her students to know and love Jesus Christ through the scriptures. When she and Gordon were called as Seattle Temple president and matron, she carried that same ability to minister to the “one” to her calling as matron. She led the sisters who worked there in a campaign to make “yes” the answer to every need and question, and to help every temple worker and patron feel a sense of warm compassionate love every time they visited the temple. Her energy and genuine interest in each person she met made her the perfect public affairs director in her next calling—also with Gordon—as co-directors of the Church's Greater Seattle Area Public Affairs Council. While there she formed life-long friendships with leaders of other churches and service organizations, creating lasting ties between them and the Church that ushered in a new era of teamwork in meeting the needs of their community together. The Red Cross Heroes award, BYU Alumni Community Service Award, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Family Values Award recognized her and Gordon for their many contributions, but to Myrna the people she met and worked with and the experiences she had were her greatest rewards.

Through all of these years Myrna was, above all, a wonderful partner to her husband Gordon, and a wonderful mother and teacher to her children. Although she was involved in many other things, they weren’t rivals in importance, and her children always knew it. With all the awards and accolades she earned in church and community service, when asked what she was most proud of she immediately answered that it was her four children. Those four have now grown to 12 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. Her legacy blesses the lives of all of her posterity, who strive to follow her example of making all who knew her feel cared about, and interesting, and important. The memory of how she made them feel will live on in all those who associated with her—her children, grandchildren, family, and friends. Myrna will ever be remembered for how she made us all feel loved.