Loren and Anna Merrill Family: March 2013

Congratulations to Sonya and Winston Chapman!

We have new cousins...... Ella and Parker!

Ella and Caroline are best buds!!

Nephi Valentine Lawlor 1922 - 2013

Nephi Valentine Lawlor passed away Saturday, January 26, 2013

at his home in Mesa, Arizona. He was born 14th of February 1922

in Zahl, Williams Co., North Dakota. Nephi V. was an active,

lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was raised in Picture Butte, Alberta, Canada where he

graduated from Picture Butte High School in 1940.

After high school he served an honorable LDS mission to the

North Central States. After returning home, he met and

married the love of his life, Elsie Copley Lawlor. They both

worked for Boeing aircraft building bombers during WWII.

After short stays in Seattle, WA. and Fountain Green, UT.,

Nephi and Elsie moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1948, where

they made a happy home and raised their ten children.

Nephi V. served faithfully in the Church as ward and stake

financial clerk. He provided and supported for his family

by working as an electrician. He also used these talents

and knowledge to help neighbors, family and friends.

Nephi V. is survived by his wife, Elsie C. Lawlor and 9 of

his 10 children. Nephi C. (Carol Lee), Milton (Vicki),

Sharlene Merrill (Gary), Vonetta Williams, (deceased) (Ted),

Lamarr (Launa), Muriel Bingham (Kirk) Stanley (Lori),

Linda Mackey (Richard), Vayla Price (Lee) and

Elaine Adair (Kendall).

Nephi V. is a true family man. He leaves behind a great

posterity, 78 grandchildren and 184 great-grandchildren.

The legacy of love, faith and honor is his and will last

through the eternities.

Viewing Friday, February 1, 2013 at Solomon Ward Building

977 E. Broadway 6-8 PM

Services, Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 10 AM

viewing at 9AM 977 E. Broadway.

Arrangements by Allen Funeral Home www.AllenFuneralHome.net

Life History of Nephi Valentine Lawlor (to retirement)

Nephi Valentine Lawlor, in his own words, “was born of goodly parents, Joseph Edward Lawlor, and Clara Ethel Palmer, on February 14, 1922 at Zahl, Williams County, North Dakota, on the plains of northwestern N.D., about 1 year after my parents were baptized members of the L.D.S. Church. They thought so much of the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon, that they named me after him.”
Nephi is the eighth of nine children. Sadly, 4 of the children died in infancy. The five sons had such a love for each other and respect for their parents. While born in the United States, he was raised in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada on a farm, where he learned to do chores, such as feeding the chickens, gathering eggs, planting, weeding, irrigating and harvesting the garden.
He attended high school in Picture Butte, Canada, a little town north of Lethbridge. He wrote that his best subjects were geography, physics, algebra and chemistry.
When Dad was 14, the family moved into a new house built by his father next door to the LDS churchhouse. Perhaps his love of popcorn was established at this time. He wrote, “Many Sunday nights our nephews would come and play with Reed and me. (Reed was his younger brother.) We would always make popcorn and listen to the radio and phonograph. We always played games with them.”
The importance of the Temple to the Lawlor family was demonstrated early on, as Dad notes his remembrance of traveling to the Cardston Temple to be sealed as a family on December 14, 1932. He was 10 years old. This was a distance of about 50 miles. How blest we are to have a Temple just a few minutes away.
Nephi was an electrician. Maybe he gained a love this profession in his youth. In 1939, he notes that the family moved to a farm north of the old farm. It was raw prairie. They built a small house and Nephi wired it for light. They did not have electricity to this property, so the lights ran by battery and a windcharger.
He was a faithful priesthood holder all his life, from passing or blessing the sacrament as a Deacon, Teacher and Priest in his youth, to his service as an Elder, Seventy and High Priest.
Nephi Valentine Lawlor served an honorable mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the North Central States Mission from 1942-1944.
Shortly after returning from his mission, he met his eternal companion, Elsie Josephine Copley in Vancouver, Canada. She became the love of his life. During the time he courted her, he returned to the U.S. with the intent of being inducted into the U.S. Navy. It was a time when WWII was raging and he, like most young men at that time, wanted to serve his country. About this experience, he wrote, “But after testing they said I was 4F and they would not take me. I was quite disappointed.” Nephi had double pneumonia when he was 12. This illness continued to have an effect on him throughout his life.
He was still able to help in the war effort as he got a job working at the Boeing Airplane factory in Seattle, installing wings on the B-29 bombers.
Nephi and Elsie were married in the Cardston Temple on April 11, 1945. They traveled several hundred miles, each way, in a 1939 Ford sedan. This must have been quite an experience! You, see, Nephi’s parents and Elsie’s parents traveled with them, in the same vehicle. Again, this demonstrated the importance of the Temple and its eternal blessings that both Nephi and Elsie shared.
When the war ended, he lost his job at Boeing and worked several odd jobs during the next few years to support his family.
This new Lawlor family began to grow with the birth of their first child, Nephi Copley on February 11, 1946. Both Nephi and Elsie wanted their children to be U.S citizens, so they moved to Fountain Green, Utah, where Elsie’s older sister, Beatrice and her husband Gayle, lived. Two more children were born in Fountain Green, Milton Gayle and Valena Sharlene, before they moved again, this time to Mesa, Arizona. At that time, 1948, Mesa had a population of about 12,000 people.
After other odd jobs, Nephi became a full-time electrician, working for Grant Huffaker, a good member of the church. Nephi wrote, “They were adding refrigeration to the Temple and needed an electrician with a Temple recommend….This turned out to be a wonderful blessing and a long friendship, as Grant Haffaker is a great person. I worked for him many years, wiring homes, schools, gas stations, stores, banks, etc. When other changes were made on the Temple, I had the job of installing some large, beautiful chandeliers in the Celestial room.”
Being an electrician was a great blessing, because Dad taught his sons many things about the trade at home and by taking them with him on jobs. Each of us has been able
to use those skills in our own lives. One son, Stanley, followed in his footsteps and is a successful electrical contractor.
Over the next 14 years, seven more children were added to the family, all born in Mesa: Vonetta Leone, Lamarr Judson, Muriel Elsie, Stanley Clarence, Linda Mae, Vayla Jean and Elaine Marie. Nephi and Elsie moved into a new home in 1952, the day before Lamarr was born. It was three bedrooms and one bath. The 4 boys shared one bedroom and the 6 girls shared the other. To this day, I don’t how we managed that, but we didn’t know any better and it worked out fine. We had a roof over our heads, food on the table and loving parents who cared for us.
Nephi worked as electrician until he retired in June of 1986, thus enjoying over 26 years as a retired senior citizen. His last job was working on the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant with some 600 other electricians.
Nephi and Elsie have a rich posterity, including 78 grandchildren and 184 great-grandchildren, the latest being born on the day he died.
Nephi was not a man of many words. But the respect of his family speaks volumes for the character of this humble man who taught so many things by precept, but mostly by example. I dare say, each of his children has always tried to live in a manner so as not to bring any type of shame or dishonor to him.
Dad fulfilled all of Church callings with faithfulness. He lived the commandments, never yielding to the evil temptations of the world around him.
He took his family of 12 people on vacation every summer, many times back to Canada. This was no small challenge. We remember with fondness the responses of people while driving slowly through towns, how the occupants of the other cars would attempt to count the number of children in our station wagon with 3 bench seats. We would write the number “10” on a sheet of paper and put it in the side window, and then have a good laugh.
Each of us has our own special memories. Many times, Dad would come home from Priesthood Meeting and read the lesson to Mom while she was preparing the Sunday dinner. This was back when Priesthood and Sunday School were held in the morning and we would go back in the afternoon for Sacrament Meeting.
Dad loved sports, particularly hockey and basketball. He would listen to the games on the radio. He didn’t personally participate, but I remember him taking us to the Tri-Stake center to watch the games between the different wards.
A special memory that Nephi and I share is of an old Dodge truck (I think it was a 1939) that Dad was allowed to drive to and from work. As 16 and 17 year olds with new driver’s licenses, he would let us drive as far as Mesa High School (the old campus) in this cool old truck with stick shift on the floor. We thought we were in 7th heaven!
Mom always packed Dad’s lunch. He had this marvelous metal lunch box. As young children, we would anxiously await his return from work to see if he had eaten all his lunch. Sometimes he would leave half a sandwich or maybe a cookie. Even after being in his lunchbox all day, in the hot temperatures, it was special to us because it was from Dad.
The humble pride he had for his posterity was always evident when children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were visiting or at other family gatherings. His big smile never left his face as he watched them interact together.
There are so many more examples that speak to his faith and character. He loved his wife, Elsie, so much. To more than one of his children, his parting comments were, “Take care of Mama.” Here was a man who endured to the end of his mortal existence and now is rejoicing with loved ones on the other side. I’m sure he has or will hear the words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
It may well be said of Nephi and Elsie, like Nephi of old: “And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” This is the way it was in our home.
Nephi Valentine Lawlor was a great man and will be greatly missed by his family.
Vayla will share her thoughts and memories about his life since retirement.
Dad, we miss you, but we know you are in a better place.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.