Darlene Marie Morley

Darlene Marie Morley, age 83, passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones on September 27, 2025, after a hard-fought battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. Darlene was born February 19, 1942, in Hanna, Wyoming, to Henry Richard and Ruth Thornton Burton. She was born in the car on the way to the hospital, during one of the coldest winters on record in Wyoming. She was wrapped in her grandmother’s fur coat to keep her warm. Her daughter Judy still has that fur coat.

When she was a small child, her father worked in the mines in Wyoming. While Dar was young, her mother was in an automobile accident and was in the hospital for 5 years. During that time, Darlene’s aunt cared for her and her brother Darrell and her sister Donna. Dar remembered that as children, they went to the hospital to see their mother and helped their aunt exercise their mother’s legs to work the muscles. Eventually, her mother regained the ability to walk again.

The family moved to Salt Lake City where Darlene grew up in a home on Scott Avenue. The home she grew up in was actually the first bar in the Salt Lake area, and there was a “house of ill repute” upstairs! Her parents bought the building and turned it into a beautiful home, which was enjoyed by three generations of family members until it was sold.

Dar attended Granite High School where she graduated early. She rode her horse Sugar to school and then shooed her home, and then Sugar came back at the end of the day to pick Darlene up when school was over.

Darlene met the love of her life, Russell LeRoy Morley, “dragging” State Street when she was 16 and he was 18. They were married on September 29, 1961. They spent the first couple of years of their marriage in the Military and lived in Washington during her first pregnancy in 1963. Dar said those years were pretty “lean” and they ate pancakes every day except for once a month when Russ got paid and they went out for a burger. Even though they had some lean times, Darlene and Russ loved the United States of America, and she was always very proud of Russell’s service to his country.

When Russ finished his Military service, they moved to Salt Lake City, in the Millcreek area, to the house Dar called home for the rest of her life. They had four children. Judy Marie, Mitchell LeRoy, Richard McKay, and Kevin Quinn Morley. They loved doing things together with their children.

Darlene worked at First Security Bank for 17 years, starting out as a payroll clerk. When First Security was purchased by Wells Fargo, she moved into the Loans Department and that is where she worked until she retired at the age of 62.

She was an outdoors woman, and loved camping and hunting trips with her husband, children, and extended family. She loved working in her yard and tending her flowers, making her yard a beautiful place to be. She passed this love of the outdoors on to her children, who also love working outside and creating beautiful spaces for themselves and their families to enjoy.

She loved crocheting and made numerous baby blankets for friends and family members. She also loved creating beautiful ceramic dolls with her daughter Judy and proudly displayed them in her home. She was the driver for her sons, grandsons, and nephews on hunting trips and spent lots of time in the truck crocheting after she dropped them off on one side of the mountain and waited to pick them up on the other side.

Dar and Russ had a wonderful, close-knit friend group who they hung out with regularly through the years, playing cards and going out together to do things they enjoyed. After Russ passed away in 2007, Dar spent a lot of time with her girlfriend group, going to lunch and enjoying plays at the Hale Center Theatre.

Darlene said that August 7, 2021, was one of the best days of her life. This was the day she was able to attend the Jordan River Utah Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to be sealed to Russ.

Dar was many things to many people. She was a daughter, sister, cousin, wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. She was loved by many and will be missed. She is survived by her children Judy, Mitchell (Eileen), Richard (Tammy), and Kevin, her grandchildren Tyson, McKay (Sierra), Ester, Mitchell Jr. (Tammi), and Aidan Morley, her step-grandchildren Nick (Brooke), Chris (Sarah), Jason (Nikki) and Victoria Maneotis, her great-grandchildren Kaitlynn Wells-Morley and Harper Rose Morley, her step-great-grandchildren Kaydence, McCoy, Greyson, Andi, Sofia, and Callie Maneotis, and Gabriel and Amelia Morillo, and many nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews that she loved very much. She also leaves behind many wonderful extended family members, friends and neighbors who will miss her dearly.

The family would like to give special thanks to Solstice Hospice for their wonderful care of Darlene for the last 10 days of her life. Her nurses Sofia and John, her CNA Lily, her Social Worker Kathy, and the Solstice Chaplain, Deanne, took exceptionally tender care of her and also of her family. They will be forever remembered and appreciated.

Services for Darlene will be held Monday, October 6, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. at the Grandview Ward Chapel, 2930 S 2000 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84109. There will be a morning viewing from 9:45-10:45 a.m. prior to the service. She will be interred at the Bountiful City Cemetery, 2224 S 200 W, Bountiful, UT 84010, where she will be near her husband, parents, and grandparents.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in honor of Darlene to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America at

https://alzfdn.org/?p=49645