Keith Pace

Keith Pace was born to Harvey Alexander and Margaret Moffitt Pace in Mountain Home, Utah on June 28, 1926 the youngest of 6 children—2 brothers and 3 sisters. He grew up in and around Mountain Home where his family farmed and raised livestock. It was here while he was in high school that he first met Frankie Fullmer. Frankie was among a group of girls who were serving at an FFA banquet that Keith attended. He noticed one pretty girl and asked around to find out who she was. He later approached her and asked her for a date. She turned him down flat but he persisted and she finally relented and agreed to go out with him. They dated until Keith joined the Navy in 1944 and then continued their courtship while he served. After their marriage they began their married life together in Hawthorne, Nevada Keith was stationed and where they lived until Keith’s discharge.

World War 2 was still raging when Keith graduated from high school and joined the US Navy following in the footsteps of his older brothers who were already serving, Rex in the Marines and Byron in the Navy. He attended boot camp at Farragut, Idaho graduating on August 15, 1944. After completing training as a Gunner’s Mate he transferred to Camp Parks, CA located 25 miles east of San Francisco. In July 1945 a number of sailors were notified that they were being assigned to sea duty. They boarded busses at Camp Parks and were driven to Hunter’s Point Navy Shipyard in San Francisco. There the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was moored at the dock. Keith watched as the sailors ahead of him walked up the gang plank onto the deck. As Keith neared the gang plank it was announced that a sufficient number of sailors was onboard and no further personnel would be needed. Keith was among the disappointed group of 4 sailors who boarded the bus for the disheartening ride back to Camp Parks. As they watched their friends and fellow sailors board, they had no way to foresee the tragic fate that would befall that ill-fated vessel when it was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of almost all who were aboard. Shortly after his return to Camp Parks Keith was assigned to the Naval Weapons Depot in Hawthorne, Nevada where he would finish his military career.

It was while he was at Hawthorne that Keith took leave and returned to Utah to marry Frankie Fullmer in the Salt Lake Temple on April 10, 1946 in a joint wedding with his brother Byron and his sweetheart Dale. Following the wedding they returned to Hawthorne to begin their life together living there until Keith was discharged in August 1946. After his discharge Keith and Frankie returned to farming and ranching. Initially for a short time on the family farm in Mountain Home, Utah then in Mountain Green, Utah where Keith and his brothers Rex and Byron worked together. They all lived with their families in houses adjacent to one another on the ranch. Grandpa Pace would come from Salt Lake to work during the week then return home on the weekends. Over a period of time both Rex and Byron left the farm. Keith continued to farm raising crops of alfalfa and wheat as well as sheep, beef and dairy cattle. It was during the time in Mountain Green that four children joined the family. Alan in June 1947, Lloyd in November 1951, Bruce in February 1953, and Janet in June 1956. Much of the farming was on hillsides. On Keith’s birthday in June 1957 Grandpa Pace was injured when a tractor tipped over on him while working on one of the hillside fields. Grandpa died several days later. After that accident Frankie informed Keith that if he intended to raise boys on a farm it would have to be somewhere that didn’t include heavily sloping fields. In the winter of 1958 Keith was approached by a man who was looking for someone to manage and operate a 500 acre farm in Kanosh, Utah. In early spring of 1959 Keith and Frankie moved the family from Mountain Green to Kanosh. At the end of that first summer an adjacent 550 acre farm became available for purchase. Keith jumped at the chance to again be his own boss and purchased the property. It was here that his kids grew up and it is where they have most of their growing up memories. It is also where Steve joined the family in January 1961. There cattle and crops of alfalfa, wheat, and corn were raised. Keith started all of the boys driving tractors at a very young age on the farm. Keith would put them on a tractor before they could reach the pedals. He would start the tractor and show them how to steer. He would instruct them that if they needed to stop just turn the key off. He would then jump off and go about other tasks. A few years ago Lloyd decided to write a letter to his Dad and Mom for their birthdays. He told them how much they meant to him and mentioned the things they had taught him. In the letter to his Dad Lloyd mentioned how thankful he was that his Dad had taught him to work hard. A few months later his Dad mentioned the letter to Lloyd and specifically mentioned the part about working hard. He said, “Yes, and you boys never complained about working hard.” Lloyd says that was the first time he learned that complaining was an option. Lloyd wished he had known he had that option while still on the farm.

Keith was one of the hardest working men you would ever meet but making a living as a farmer was tough. Someone once said that if you want to make a million dollars as a farmer all you have to do is start with 5 million and farm until you have a million. In an attempt to get better prices for the alfalfa we grew Keith purchased a semi-truck and trailer and began to haul the hay raised on the farm to dairies in southern California. Thus began a new chapter in Keith’s life which ultimately resulted in his driving trucks until his retirement at the age of 82. And if his family hadn’t insisted he retire who knows how long he would have kept driving. The family has often wondered how many miles Keith drove in his lifetime. With the exception of Alaska and Hawaii Keith has driven a truck in every state in the union along with several Canadian Provinces. It was remarkable how Keith could remember the places he had been and the names and numbers of roads all over the country. You would be talking to him and mention someplace and he would give directions on how to get there with the road names or number and when to turn where. It was like he had an internal GPS with a history mode that could access whenever he needed to.

It was always fun to listen to Keith tell stories about his trucking experiences. As an owner/operator making a living driving trucks wasn’t much easier than farming. In trucking if you wanted to have a million dollars you started with 10 million and drove until you had a million.

Keith was a self-taught mechanic. On the farm if something broke Keith took it apart, welded it, bolted it, or used baling wire to hold it together. Keith could take a truck engine apart, fix whatever was wrong, and put it back together with minimal, if any, reference to a technical manual. It was always amazing to see Keith working on an engine—parts and pieces seemed to be strewn everywhere. You wondered how he would ever get everything back together again, but he always did and with no pieces left over. Keith seemed to know the engines in trucks better than the engineers who designed them. We have no idea how many engines Keith repaired or rebuilt in his lifetime. Whenever you saw Keith with a knot on his head or skinned knuckles, which was often, you knew something had just been fixed. Keith was such a good mechanic that a truck repair shop in Fresno, CA hired him to manage the shop. Keith could tell what was wrong with an engine just by listening to it and what it would take to fix it. Keith didn’t stay there very long because he thought the shop took too long and charged too much to do the work. It frustrated him to see how much time the mechanics spent drinking coffee when they should have been working on engines, so he left and went back to driving.

Keith was patient with his sons. He had to be raising four of them on a farm. The brothers were talking the other night and Alan was the only one who could remember their Dad having ever gotten really upset with him. And if you knew the whole story you would side with their Dad. Bruce tells of a time when he was with Dad hooking a baler to the tractor. Bruce didn’t get it hooked up properly and when he started to drive away the baler hitch dropped to the ground. Dad’s response was, “Well, I guess that’s one way to unhook a baler”. Cousin Vince came down and worked on the farm with us a couple of summers. One day Vince, Alan, and a friend of Alan’s were on a tractor driving up the road between the fields. Without going into detail Alan and Vince were fooling around and lost the key to the tractor. The three of them spent the next half hour harvesting about half an acre of alfalfa one stem at a time searching for the key. They ultimately came to the conclusion that they were not going to find the key so Alan and Vince went to tell Keith who was irrigating in another field. Keith was up at the top of the field. When he saw Alan and Vince coming he came walking down through the field towards them with a shovel over his shoulder. When they met Alan told his Dad what had happened. His Dad stood there for a moment and then slowly lowered the shovel from his shoulder. Alan and Vince probably feared he was going to use the shovel to bury them right there in the field. But his reaction was to tell them to go back and keep looking and he would be there in a little while to help. This incident probably gives us some insight why Alan is the only one that recalls Dad being really upset with him. Alan probably gave him more opportunities. This was typical of Keith. Patient and even tempered with his boys.

Keith worked hard all his life to provide for his family. The brothers were reminiscing about growing up on the farm. We didn’t have much extra but we always had food to eat, clothes to wear, and a home to live in and Frankie had as much to do with that as anyone. Frankie worked on the farm right along with the rest of the family while doing everything else necessary to keep our home going. We love and miss her and are so happy she and Keith are together again. After Keith retired he and Frankie lived in Sandy until Frankie passed away on August 12, 2017.

Our family wants to acknowledge Jo-an and express our appreciation to her for the role she played in being with Keith and helping him so much during the last few months of his life. She and Keith met at Solstice where they were both living. They married this past June. Keith would not have been able to remain as independent as he was without her love and support. She made him very happy.

Keith was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints his entire life and raised his family in the Church. During his many years driving truck it was difficult for Keith to attend church regularly but his faith never wavered. After he retired he was active in his ward and found great pleasure singing in his ward’s choir.

Keith passed away peacefully at the age of 92 at approximately 3:55 am on November 1, 2018 with his four sons and grandson Denton at his bedside. His death is attributed to his advanced age. He is survived by sons Alan (Kathleen) Pace of Vacaville, CA, Lloyd (Laura) Pace of Visalia, CA, Bruce (Patsy) Pace of Ephraim, UT, and Steve (Charlotte) Pace of Sandy, UT sisters-in-law Bette Bastian and Lois Fullmer, sister and brother-in-law Beth and Dennis Peterson and brothers-in-law Burnell Cordner, and Kenneth Maler. Frankie and Keith have fourteen grandchildren and 34 great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 71 years, his daughter Janet, parents Harvey Alexander and Margaret Moffitt Pace, Father and mother-in-law Floyd and Helen Ross Fullmer, brothers Rex and Byron, Sisters Pauline, Evelyn, and Aileen, Brothers-in-law Riley Preator, Lynn Murray, Ross Fullmer, John Fullmer, Ted Starley and Keith Bastian. Sisters-in-law Thelma Pace, Dale Pace, Jewel Maler, Bonnie Fullmer, Janice Starley, and Marilyn Cordner. Keith was the last of his generation of Paces.

Our family extend our thanks to all who have supported and loved Keith especially the Bishopric and members of Frankie’s and Keith’s former ward, the Presidency and members of the branch at Solstice, the staff and friends at Solstice, and those who have assisted us today during these services with a special hug to Chelsea (last name?) who was so loving and attentive to Keith during his final hours.

Services will be Saturday November 10, 2018. Viewing at 9:30 am with funeral services at 11:00 am at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Chapel, 275 E. 10600 S. Sandy, Utah.