Mary Lou, the youngest of five children, was born November 6, 1934, to Justin Chamberlain and Helen Mar Bunker Chamberlain in Kanab, Utah. Her family moved from Kanab to Salt Lake City on her 7th birthday in 1941. She attended Roosevelt Elementary, Granite Junior High, and Granite High School. Living in the Salt Lake Grant Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mary Lou’s first church calling as a teenager was Jr. Sunday School Chorister. Mary Lou met the love of her life, Patrick Von McAllister, when ward boundaries were realigned putting them both in the same ward. They participated in Mutual activities, such as road shows and sledding parties, and soon started dating.
At the age of 19, Mary Lou married Patrick in the Salt Lake Temple, on July 2, 1954. Mary Lou worked as a stenographer at New York Life Insurance Company from the time she graduated high school in 1953 until just before her first child was born in 1955. Mary Lou felt very blessed to be able to quit her job and devote her full time and energy to motherhood and homemaking. Together, Mary Lou and Pat raised their six sons and two daughters in the home they built on Lorraine Drive in Salt Lake City. Mary Lou and Pat also considered it a privilege to host two Indian Placement students, one of whom they supported, as they had each of their six sons, on a full-time mission. Mary Lou and Pat enjoyed 69 happy years of marriage before Pat passed away in December 2023. They look forward to spending eternity together. They are proud of their posterity (40 grandchildren and currently 65 great grandchildren) through whom they derive their greatest pleasure and satisfaction.
A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mary Lou served in many responsible positions such as ward and stake Relief Society President, Primary President, Young Women’s President (at the age of 75 – she went on all the camps and hikes!), Den mother, Ward Newspaper Editor, and her favorite of all, Gospel Doctrine Sunday School teacher. Known for her sweet and lovable disposition, her desire to do all people good, her dependability, generosity, and seemingly tireless energy, Mary Lou was a guiding light to all who knew her.
Mary Lou loved to sew, read, crochet, knit, camp, hike, garden, and take Institute classes. She graduated from the Salt Lake Institute of Religion at the University of Utah in 1989. In March 2000, Mary Lou & Pat were able to make a dream come true when they found and bought property in Hatch, Utah. They spent the next several summers building their Hatch Haven vacation home. This was a project Mary Lou enjoyed, and excelled at. Her children and grandchildren are still in awe when they visit to recall how Grandma was on top of a ladder on top of several stories of scaffolding to help finish the ceiling. In 2004 they sold their SLC home, in which they’d lived for 48 years, and moved to Hatch, Utah. Mary Lou loved her Hatch home and was very content to live in a tiny town. She loved having family come to visit and vacation often.
In 2014 Mary Lou and Pat moved to Spanish Fork to be closer to family and medical care. In 2022, due to Mary Lou’s deteriorating health, they moved in with their daughter, Susan, so she could take care of them.
Mary Lou is survived by seven of her children: Von (Jeannette), Doug (Mai), Bruce (Reva), Brad (Kristin), Susan (Ben Black), Calvin (Cindy), and Peggy (Martin Arterburn); Indian Placement children: Tom Henry Lansing Jr. and Leonard Begay.
Mary Lou was preceded in death by her husband, Patrick Von McAllister; her son, Allen; her grandsons: Scott, Samuel, and Nathan; her sisters: Helen Mar Pugh, and Reuvo Bagley, and her brothers J. Bevan Chamberlain, and S. Burt Chamberlain.
Funeral services will be held September 14, 2024, at 1:00 PM at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel 3400 South 1100 East, Millcreek, Utah 84106. A viewing will be held at the church building prior to the funeral from 11:30 – 12:45. The burial will be at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park, 3401 South Highland Drive, Millcreek, Utah.
