Never Give Up

Clarence Olauson was born April 2, 1914 in Oslo, Norway. He came to the U. S. when he was 7 years old. He married Margaret Childs a younger sister of my mother. Margaret was always my favorite Aunt. (Robert Larsen was always my favorite Uncle. Did the fact that Margaret looked like Mom and Robert looked like Dad have anything to do with these choices?)

Clarence and Margaret were married a few days short of 70 years. Margaret died about five years ago. Clarence died September 4th. The funeral was September 13th at the Larkin Mortuary in Sandy, Utah.

Members of the family gathered for the viewing at 1:00PM. My first cousins who were present where Jeannette Olauson Christen and her husband Duane; Ron Olauson and his wife Marsha; Marilyn Childs Owens (Elsie’s daughter) and her husband Bill. In addition my cousin Doug Olauson’s wife, Margaret (another Margaret) was there coming from Denmark where Doug is serving as Mission President.

I reminded Margaret that one of her missionaries, Elder Brandon Robinson, was the Grandson of Elena’s sister. She said, “Oh, he was one of our favorite missionaries. He just glowed!” This was the same phase that Ron and Laurene described him as he got of the plane last Saturday.

In addition to these first cousins, there were numerous cousins once removed, or twice removed. In particular, there was David Perry, Jeannette’s son by here first marriage who my siblings probably remember as a small baby. He is now a six foot three grandfather.

There were also a group of “Thunnels” This is the last name of my mother’s mother. One woman said that Margaret had been raised by her family, whom we knew as Uncle Issac. When Margaret was born, my Mother’s mother died in childbirth and my Grandfather Childs could not raise a newborn baby and Issac’s family did the bulk of raising her.

I ask this distant cousin, Melba Thunell (I forget her married name), “Didn’t your Dad serve as Mission President in Sweden at one time? She said yes. I said “And now, Doug Olauson is serving as Mission President of the Danish Mission.” I did not add that Howard Childs, Doug Olauson and Richard Carmack had all also gone to Sweden on a mission.

One other Thunell distant cousin by marriage who was present, Ken Hardy, had taught me my first statistics class in the psychology department FIFTY YEARS AGO.


For the first time in decades I TOOK PICTURES of these cousins. I will e-mail these pictures to my siblings and anyone else who requests them.

Jeannette gave the family prayer in the viewing room and then we all moved into the small chapel in the mortuary.

Duane Christen conducted and Marilyn Owens gave the opening prayer. Jennifer, daughter of Ron, Clarence’s oldest son, sang a beautiful song accompanied by her mother, Judith.

When I was a Freshman at BYU Margaret and Clarence befriended me very much, but so did Ron and Judith. Ron was a drama major and introduced me to some good plays. Somewhere along the line, he and Judith where divorced but Elena and I were able to see their daughter, Jennifer, perform Shakespeare at BYU years later. It was good to see them both again.

Richard Olauson, a grandson spoke briefly (Doug’s son.)

Then Ron spoke. He was very emotional. He finally had to ask Jeannette (his sister) to come and stand by to give him emotional support. He told many stories about his Dad; how supportive a father he was. But the major thrust was HOW DEVOTED CLEARENCE WAS TO HIS WIFE. Jeannette echoed this sentiment.

Then we were surprised to get to hear Doug speak via computer from Denmark. Doug said essentially the same things as Ron and added his strong testimony that life goes on beyond the grave and that Jesus is the author of the resurrection.

This was followed by a beautiful solo by Doug’s daughter-in-law, Corey –“Because I Have Been Given Much”

The final speaker was Jeannette’s son that I mentioned before, David Perry. He gave a short talk about the faith that brought Clarence and others to the Salt Lake Valley. David has served as a Bishop and was the proper one to give such a talk. It was mercifully short.

The funeral closed with Doug’s daughter-in-law singing again. This time singing, “God be with You until We Meet Again”

The benediction was by one of Jeannette’s and Duane’s daughters, Shelly Stadling.

I was one of the pallbearers who helped with the casket. This was a first time experience for me.

As we pallbearers were waiting by the hearse, I asked if anyone knew the score of the BYU—UCLA game and someone told me that at half time BYU was ahead 42-0. I was delighted.

A few minutes later, David Perry dedicated the grave.

We were invited to McGrath’s for a lunch/dinner. Quite a few of us did attend where I took some pictures which I will forward via e-mail eventually.

One of the distant cousins and spouse sat across the table from us. I finally figured the relationship – step cousin once removed. Anyway, this couple has a son on a mission in Bolivia, or rather they did. That very day their son had been moved from Bolivia to Brazil because of an uprising in Bolivia. I said but Brazil speaks a different language. The father said, “Yes, we do not know where his permanent location will be.”

It was a very good day. Clarence was a good man. Elena commented how the two of them were always cheerful. When they attended some of my children’s wedding breakfasts and we asked everyone to make a brief comment, Margaret would always cry with her comment. She had a soft heart. I was glad to know both of them and I their children.

My father’s siblings and spouses have long since passed on. Elena’s parents’ siblings and spouses are all gone. But some of my mother’s siblings and/or spouses are still with us.

My uncle Gordon Dee and his wife live St. George, Utah.

My mother’s half sister’s Muriel’s husband Frank Rydalch still lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Finally, my mother’s half brother, Lynn’s wife, Lois lives here in Orem. I need to make sure I do not ignore these people before it is too late.

It sounds like a very nice funeral. I'm glad you're getting to touch bases with so many relations.

I'm always amazed at how *much* Margaret looked like Grandma.

Thanks for sharing!