Sandra Rose (Swensen) Riedeman

Sandra was born on July 30, 1942 at home in Magna, Utah to her mother Della Ardella Petersen Swensen, a homemaker, and Maxwell Swensen, a “boss” at Kennecott. She attended the old Webster Elementary School and loved to visit its location even after it was torn down. In middle school she attended Brockbank Junior High School and graduated from Cyprus High School in 1960. She married her high school sweetheart, Lawrence William Riedeman in October 1960 at a beautiful ceremony in Salt Lake City, who preceded her in death in 2003. Our Nana was a faithful lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints with a long and proud family history with the Church.

Nana was a vivacious and fun-loving person who adored spending time with her family in whatever way she could. She was an avid traveler and spent many wonderful vacations traveling around the world alone with her oldest grandson Ried causing them to see a mirror of the two in the classic Rosalind Russell film Auntie Mame. She was an equally avid fan of her grandson D’mitri’s sports and attended each of his baseball games every season from youth baseball through to his high school games. Nana was a dedicated fan of college sports and always cheered on the teams from schools her family attended.

She was active until she passed and would go with her best friends to exercise classes, lunches, brunches, dinners, and community events. Always the consummate lady she took pride in getting ready every day even if she was just going to sit on the porch in her favorite rocker-bench. Sandra was also a dedicated intellectual and technophile who had a 1000-day streak on her favorite Spanish language learning app, knew how to work her devices like an expert, and always read her grandson Ried’s publications from his PhD work and asked questions that would have them “gabbing” for hours. She was extremely excited for her grandson D’mitri’s upcoming marriage and she will be sorely missed at his wedding, but smiling down on the event nonetheless.

Sandra is survived by her daughters Carri (Darren) Mackay, Nikki Haywood, and Jacki (Tere) Riedeman-LaGiusa; her grandchildren Dr. Ried Mackay, D’mitri (Kayla) Haywood, Kassandra (Jacob) Riedeman-LaGiusa, Jered Riedeman-LaGiusa, and her fur-grandbaby Maisy (D’mitri and Kayla), as well as much-loved nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was preceded in death by the love of her life Lawrence “Da” Riedeman, her parents Maxwell and Della Swensen, her adored older sister Carol Monsen, many favorite aunts and uncles, and her cherished pets.

Services for our Nana will be held as an intimate gathering/viewing on Tuesday September 10, 2024, from 6:00pm – 8:00pm in the Valley View Viewing Rooms at the Valley View Funeral Home at 4335 West 4100 South, West Valley City, Utah 84120. She will be interred next to her husband on September 11, 2024 at 1:00pm in a quiet graveside service at the Valley View Memorial Park.

We will dearly miss her but know that we will all be together again, we love you, Nana!