Jean Marie Layton Hulshoff

Jean grew up in Rose Park. When she was six years old, she had the opportunity to be on the old Romper Room program on KSL television. Her family often took trips to Vancouver and British Columbia, and she enjoyed wandering the forests as they camped up there. She also hated liver and onions.

She went to elementary school during the days when little girls wore dresses to school and was a good student. She earned many Primary awards on her green felt sash, then moved on to MIA and earned several awards there, including a Bee. She attended Northwest Junior High, then West High School, graduating in 1971. She then went to Utah State to study special education.

While a high school sophomore, she met Jerry Hulshoff through her sister. Her friends thought that was pretty awesome that a senior guy was flirting with her. Several years later, when he returned from active duty in Alaska, they began dating. They married on November 1, 1974 in the Salt Lake LDS temple.

Jean enjoyed traveling, and visited eleven states. She also enjoyed camping, sewing, crochet, cross-stitching, and other creative pursuits. She would often go all out for holidays, leaving little sewn Valentine bears by the breakfast dishes as a surprise for Valentine’s day, sewing Halloween costumes every year, and teaching her daughters various holiday crafts. She provided her daughters with handmade dresses for church and Easter, often matching them with similar dresses for herself. In her early motherhood years, she made library visits a priority, and her children often completed the summer reading programs. Christmas was a special time, and she raised the fun and suspense by having the children be fully dressed and fed breakfast before allowing them to go for the presents.

She worked for several manufacturing places early in her marriage, including the driver’s license sticker print shop and the First Security bank credit card shop. She then made a career working as a greeting card associate for American Greetings, straightening and ordering thousands of cards in many locations around Salt Lake City for almost two decades.

She enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, either through walks around the neighborhood or attempting to “sell” them at yard sales. She taught them to bang pans on the porch for New Year’s, create many kinds of crafts during camping trips, and bake cookies. She had several collections, including fascinating salt and pepper shakers that no one was allowed to touch. She also enjoyed doing puzzles and playing board games.

She was an avid rerun-watcher, particularly The Waltons, Mash, and family sitcoms. She played the piano quite well, and did a lot of Art-Tex fabric painting back in the eighties. She inspired all of her children to be creative, and they appreciated the time she took to teach them.

She is survived by her husband of 43 years, her children Denise (Alex) Harvey, Rebecca (Travis) Mathews, Debra (Ronald) Ruiz-Pellecer, Robert (Brittney) Hulshoff, and David Hulshoff, 14 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild. She is also survived by her siblings, Lloyd N (Peggy) Layton, Barbara (Doug) Payne, and Stanley (Rebecca) Layton. She is preceded in death by her parents, Lloyd and Carrie Layton, stepfather Fred Jewkes, and best friend of 30 years, Sandra Nelson.

Graveside services will be held Thursday, April 20, 2017 at Valley View Mortuary in West Valley City, UT, at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the American Cancer Society or the Jon Huntsman Cancer Center.