Lou Jean Saunders Wiggins

Bessie Lou Jean Saunders Wiggins, age 85, returned home to our Father in Heaven and her husband, Lorin, on December 12, 2015. She died in the LDS Hospital, Salt Lake City, Utah, as a result of pneumonia and complications from lung and heart failure.

Lou Jean was born in Ogden, Utah, on July 14, 1930, to Edward Thomas Saunders and Marcia Ann Slater. She was raised in Ogden in a happy home of 12 children. After LDS ward boundaries were changed, she met her lifelong sweetheart, Lorin Dee Wiggins. Just prior to graduating from Ogden High School, she accepted an engagement ring from him before he left to serve in the Spanish American Mission. She waited for him nearly 3 years. Upon his return, they were married and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple by President David O. McKay on February 28, 1951. They celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary the day before Lorin’s death.

Lorin was drafted into the Army in 1951 and Lou Jean was soon able to join him for his 2 years of service. Their first child, Linda Lee, was born in Baltimore, Maryland. After Counter Intelligence Corps training, they were assigned to the Panama Canal Zone, where they spent their off-duty time doing missionary work with the San Blas Indians.

After Panama, they returned to Utah and lived in Salt Lake City for the remainder of their lives. Because Lou Jean and Lorin always worked closely together in everything, Lou Jean joined the Salt Lake Exchangettes, the women’s auxiliary of the community service club, the Exchange Club of Salt Lake City. She served as President and was awarded Exchangette of the Year. Their service together in multiple community organizations and on national boards, including Lorin’s regular service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an official photographer, provided them many travel opportunities, which contributed greatly to their accomplishment of visiting all 50 states.

Lou Jean was active in the LDS Church and served in many positions, including as an ordinance worker for more than 16 years in the Salt Lake Temple. She loved family history and genealogy work, and completed a two-year course at the BYU Salt Lake Extension. She wrote two large books about her Saunders and Slater family lines. Lou Jean, along with Lorin and their two youngest children, spent one month in England doing genealogical research. She was able to compile thousands of names for ordinance work in the temples of the Lord. This trip also led to an interest in the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. She joined the DUP and eventually became Secretary to the National Daughters of Utah Pioneers, serving in this position for 8 years. During this time, the DUP became an international society. She resigned from this position to serve a full-time mission for the LDS Church with Lorin in the Arizona Tempe Mission. She served as the mission secretary while Lorin was the office and car fleet manager. Ten months into their mission, Lorin died. With special permission from the First Presidency, Lou Jean was able to return without her companion to complete her final nine months as mission secretary. After her mission, she was invited to serve again on the IDUP Board, this time to compile and write lessons for the lesson committee. She served in this capacity for 12 years. She tried to visit every community she was assigned to write about, to get first-hand information. It is at this time when she was also called to serve as a temple ordinance worker.

Lou Jean, like Lorin, was devoted to her family, and they were her greatest love: her children, including one foster son, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She cherished her husband, parents, siblings and multitudes of friends. She was guided by the Holy Ghost and by ancestors beyond the veil in all her work. Numberless people, both alive and dead, look to her as a “Savior on Mount Zion” for her nurturing, and for her tireless work in the salvation of countless souls. Surely it can be said that she is an Elect Lady!

She is survived by her 5 children: Linda Lee Ripplinger (Randy), Kent Edward Wiggins (Cherie), Janice Hansen (Ross), Ted Eugene Wiggins (Sue), Ilene Garner (Todd), as well as a foster son, Alvin Lewis (Rosita, deceased), 21 grandchildren, 2 foster grandchildren 41 great-grandchildren (with at least 2 more on the way), 2 sisters and 2 brothers: Marva May Elggren, Ilene Smith, Glen E. Saunders and Darrell J. Saunders. Preceded in death by her husband, Lorin Dee Wiggins, her parents, Edward Thomas Saunders and Marcia Ann Slater, and 7 siblings, Edward, Anna, Lawrence, Marvin, Leland, Carl, Marcia, a grandson, Jonathan Ripplinger, and twin great-granddaughters, Kate and Riley O’Farrell.

Funeral services will be held Monday, December 21, 2015, 11:00 a.m., at the Millcreek Canyon Ward, 3510 South 3610 East, Salt Lake City, Utah. Friends and family may visit at the church on Sunday, the 20th, from 5-7:00 p.m., and again on Monday from 10-10:45 a.m. prior to the service. Interment in the Ogden City Cemetery. Condolences may be shared at Valley View Funeral Home, 4335 W 4100 S, WVC, UT 84120, www.valleyviewfh.com.