Our loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and sister, Vera LaVon Barney Gardner, passed away on February 3, 2022 at the age of 91. She was born August 26, 1930 in Sutherland, Utah to Charles Avon and Vera Johansen Barney. LaVon married Clair M. Gardner on August 30, 1956 in the Salt Lake City, Utah temple for time and all eternity. Together they raised a daughter, Melody Gae Sorensen and son Lance C. Gardner.
Growing up on a rural farm near Delta, Utah, taught her how to separate the cream from the milk and can almost everything that grew in the garden. However, she liked to say “I am a farm girl by birth, but a city girl by heart.” She loved to cook and had a library of cookbooks that were used regularly. No one ever went away from visiting her hungry. Every Christmas neighbor’s delighted to receive one of her annual bread tea rings.
Blessed with a love for art, painting and decorating, she was very proficient at drawing portraits. If you stood still long enough, she would capture your likeness on paper with the use of colored pencils. Many of her paintings hang on the walls of her home. Interior decorating was another talent. While working with her brother-in-law, Kevin Watts, she decorated model homes in the Three Fountains condominium project in Provo, Utah. This joy of decorating carried over into her home. With every change of the season, pillows, towels and flower arrangements were moved, replaced and relocated. Often times the rooms in her home looked different from one day to the next depending on her mood.
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LaVon was devoted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and loved to serve in many callings and capacities. Whenever a meal was needed or someone was ill or just because she was thinking of them, she would deliver something warm for them to eat.
She talked many times about her position at the Utah State Capitol. Working in the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel. There she developed good friendships that lasted throughout her life. Most recently she became a member of the International Society of the daughters of Utah Pioneers. LaVon as an avid reader and at one point in her life she belonged to two separate book clubs.
LaVon is preceded in death by her parents, husband, daughter and grandson and sisters and brother. She is survived by her son and Brother Gary Barney, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren. We offer a sincerest thanks to the many friends, family who would visit or call and check in on her.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday February 16 at 11 am at the Cottonwood 2nd Ward located at 2028 East 5165 South, Holladay, Utah. Family and friends may call from 6 pm to 7 pm Tuesday, February 15 at the Ward house. Interment will be at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park 3401 South Highland Drive, Millcreek, Utah
