Jeri Lynne Butterworth Egan passed away quietly Dec 9th, 2019 after a battle with cancer. She was born August 14th, 1943 to Marvin G Butterworth and Ruth Schmidt. She was preceded in death by her parents, her sweetheart and eternal companion Dwane, sister Diane Gunderson brother Paul Butterworth and granddaughter Emma Nicole Egan. She is survived by her 4 children, Melissa Meyers (William), Jeffery Egan (Monica), Steve Egan (Laurie) and Emily Peterson, 11 grandchildren Kate(Gerald), Chris(Amy), Justin(Ambree), Alex, Allison, Ashley, Michael, Shannon, Brynn, Gabriel, Zoe and 7 great grandchildren MaKenzie, Elise, Trever, Natalie, Levi, Hannah, Steven.
Services will be held Dec 14th at the Skyview Ward (1361 East 4000 South, Millcreek, UT) Public Viewing from 10:00 – 11:15 am, funeral services at 11:30 followed by an open house. Interment Dec 16th at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park. In Lieu of flowers please consider a donation in her behalf to your favorite charity.
Jeri was the 2nd of 3 children with older sister and dear friend Diane and her younger brother Paul. She was an adventurous spirit in you her youth and somewhat mischievous, including an attempt at burning down a field. She attended both Libby Edward and William Penn Elementary and enjoyed being a cheerleader at Evergreen Junior High. She graduated from Olympus High School in 1961, where she met her sweetheart Dwane (though he almost blew that as he was very late to their first date and being late was not something that she tolerated) but he made amends and after high school and his LDS mission, they were married Oct 3rd, 1963 in the Salt Lake Temple.
Jeri worked at the telephone company for many years where she met what would eventually come to be known in our family as her “Biker Gang”. What started out as a bridge group turned into lifelong friendships over more than 50 years, they shared a meal, played cards, ate treats and laughed harder and louder than should be legally allowed. Evenings of cards eventually turned into road trips where all of the moose in Idaho would have to be put on notice of their arrival or risk an encounter with their car.
She was active in the community and church. She served as the PTA President at William Penn Elementary, Church callings included Gospel Doctrine Teacher, Relief Society Teacher, and Young Women’s President (to mention a few) as well as service missionary assignments at the Church History Museum (where she would bring random strangers home to dinner because they happened to be from the same state where her son was serving a mission), Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and the Conference Center.
She was employed for a number of years for Associated Foods auditing pricing in stores and as a Clayton Middle School Secretary for 13 years. But work was not limited to employment. Jeri knew how to work and was of the opinion that there was only one way to do it. Hard and well. Her version of Memorial and Labor day had an emphasis “labor”. We often would spend the day pruning, trimming, raking, digging, hauling, you get the picture. You couldn’t rush it, it had to be done right or not at all and not at all was not an option. However, work was always followed with Coke, good food and a smile (mostly out of our hope that mom would consider the day’s offering complete).
Jeri was passionate about nearly everything, she was a passionate Ute fan and loved to attend Gymnastic meets, basketball, football, and Rugby games and was known to yell at the officials or boo judges. Even in the end she was even upset that the Utes lost in the Pac-12 championship game.
Her passions included hosting, where the house had to be “just right” and the food perfect. She always made sure you had the “good ice” and the drink of your choice. She was often found at or planning social gatherings. This passion included family and friends from every era of her life. She spent hundreds of hours planning high school reunions. However, her favorite social times were with her family which is part of the reason she lived across the street from her sister.
She loved to garden and good tomato ripe off the vine. She inherited her dad’s pride in having a well groomed her yard with lots of flowers (did we mention that work thing?). Other passions include shopping, and reading a good book- especially in a good bubble bath.
Jeri also loved to travel- especially with the gals from the biker gang. She visited many places New England, Georgia, Oregon, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Yellowstone, Brasil, Chile & Denmark. Travel however was not limited to exotic places, sometimes it was just a road trip in the valley to visit cemetaries with dad, Mont and Diane. (don’t ask us...It is just what they did.) Some of her few regrets were trips she never got to make. However, she fulfilled a final wish by spending a week at a warm beach with her immediate family in Cabo.
One of her favorite “dinners” was a cold Coke and popcorn; air popped or Movie Theater, never microwave. Her affinity to Coke is probably unparalleled . To the point that while on a trip to Park City with her family and the hotel fire alarm went off she grabbed her freshly poured Coke and ran out of the building only to realise afterwards that she had left her purse behind.
She honored traditions. Thanksgiving wasn't complete without cranberry salad (that only her sister and she ate) and popcorn kernels to give thanks. Christmas wasn't Christmas without hot wassil and breadsticks for breakfast.
Her favorite way to spend Sunday evening was dinner with her family. Which usually included roast, corn, potatoes and gravy mixed with cottage cheese (don’t judge, just try it).
Of all that was important to Jeri, family and her testimony of the restored gospel were of the utmost importance. She attended hours of football games, debate tournaments, piano and dance recitals, band concerts, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, softball, and rugby games, theater productions, color guard and many others. She took each grandkid once a year on a special day. They spent time together doing an activity of their choice, shopping for a prize, and lunch. She spent 100’s of hours making a scrapbook of memories for each of her grandkids. This she did every year for every one of their birthdays. Labor to her was love. Lastly, she knew God and poured out her soul to Him, mostly on behalf of all of us sitting here today.
On Dec, 9th, 2019 Jeri returned to her heavenly Father. We are blessed by her legacy of labor, love, friendship and faith.
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