Lois Nelson

12/27/1921-2/16/2023

She blessed us with her presence for over 101 years.

Lois Evelyn Troxel Nelson, our dear sweet mother, grandma, great-grandma and friend passed away peacefully on 2-16-2023.

Lois was born in Chinook, Montana on December 27th 1921. She was the third of 10 children.

When she was a young girl her father owned a dairy farm. Due to the cost of pasteurizing the milk, he made the decision to sell most of the cows and find his fortune in mining for gold. He would leave for months at a time. That left the family financially strapped. In addition, her mother left to help her own sister, Lois's oldest sister was married and her other older sibling was going to school. Lois opted to become the caregiver for herself and her siblings. Doing so she would have to skip school to take care of everyone.

She often said if it wasn't for the worms in the flour they wouldn't have had any protein at all. When her parents finally returned after a year, she doubled up on her schooling and graduated with, and at the top of her class. After high school she went to the Sacred Hearts Hospital School of Nursing taught by nuns. By the time she graduated WWII had begun and the nuns told all the nurses it was their duty to serve, so Lois and the rest of her class joined the army air force nurse corp. She was a II Lieutenant with the 101st airborne. It was there she met the love of her life, Lynn Nelson who was a Sergeant in the army air force. He was a very shy good-looking guy who had the girls swooning over him, but one look at Lois and he was smitten. They were married and two weeks later Lois was sent to France for a year stationed in Versailles. She was in Belgium on D-day and took care of hundreds of young men from that awful day. She never liked talking about it so there's not a lot that we know other than she loved all of France and hated war.

After the war they moved to Utah where Lynn was from and solemnized their marriage in the Salt Lake City temple. They bought a home in Rose Park where they had their first 2 sons, Steven and Brian, and with the family growing they moved to Holladay and had the twins, Janice and George. They stayed in Holladay for many years where she also received her BSA in psychology from the University of Utah. When she retired from being a psych nurse at Holy Cross Hospital, Lois learned to paint. Lynn retired soon after and the bug to be in warmer weather got to them so they moved to St George where she became an even more talented landscape artist with Lynn by her side. She sold many many paintings. She was really good. She loved the southern part of Utah the most and her paintings depict that. They did a lot of traveling together and visited places from Alaska to Hawaii.

When Lynn's health began to decline they moved back to the Salt Lake area. Here they stayed until their passing. Lynn and Lois were married 66 years when Lynn passed away in 2011. Though she missed her Lynnie, Lois always had a love of reading, painting and of life enjoying each day as it was. She would look out the window and say 'it looks like a nice day'. Even when it was crappy. She dearly loved her family and always had a smile with a positive loving attitude for everyone.

She will be greatly missed.

Lois is preceded in death by her husband Lynn, her parents Eva and George Troxel, all 9 siblings, Marie, Lucille, Alice, Jean, George, Betty, Mildred, Lee and Larry, grandson Jaron Hall, great granddaughter Blair Nelson and daughter-in-law Pamela Nelson. She is survived by sons Steven, Brian (Gayle), George (Maureen), daughter Janice (Grant), 12 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 1:00pm Tuesday Feb 28, 2023 at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary 3401 S. Highland Drive. A viewing will be held one hour prior to the funeral.

Internment will be at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary.

We would like to thank Bristol hospice and all of the caretakers at the Ridge Cottonwood for their care of mom in the last year and especially in her final days.

Arrangements under the care and direction of Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary. For more information, please call 801-466-8687.