Carolyn Jensen Parker

Carolyn Jensen Parker of Tremonton passed away early Sunday morning, August 13, 2023 in Layton.

Carolyn was born on her grandfather’s birthday, June 6, 1933, at the family home on the Iowa String Road southwest of Tremonton. She grew up on a sheep, beet, and grain farm. She and her three siblings were privileged to be raised by loving parents who taught them how to work and also to appreciate their Danish heritage.

Carolyn was a senior at Bear River High School when she met her future husband, Don Parker, at a regional student body officers’ meeting. She would always claim that this meeting was part of a heavenly plan. Nearly three years later on June 12, 1953, Don and Carolyn were sealed in the Logan Temple. After they had both graduated from Brigham Young University with honors, the young couple moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Don would attend graduate school and Carolyn taught English in a suburban junior high. When their first son joined the family, she left the classroom and from then until their younger son graduated from high school, she delighted in being a full-time, at home mother to their three children. The family left New England, moved to Palo Alto, California for seven years, and then moved 400 miles down the freeway to Calabasas.

Carolyn found great joy in being a wife and mother. Back in that day new adventures writing and directing roadshows and leaving home in the dark to teach early morning seminary awaited her. When the three children were all pursuing their own education, she returned to teach junior high English for 10 more years. She preferred to be with children who still had lights in their eyes. As grandchildren were growing up, fun-filled summer reunions in places like Aspen Grove, California beaches, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina brought cousins from different states together.

After Don’s retirement and their move to Ogden, some of Carolyn’s favorite things were reading with children, following BYU football and basketball, and not-to-be-missed daily phone calls with her sister Sydna.

Carolyn was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The gift of faith and trust in Heavenly Father and our Savior gave her serenity and hope. Together she and Don served almost three years at the Church archives in Salt Lake. After Don’s passing she served in Orlando, Florida, and at the Employment Services in Ogden. She was an ordinance worker in the Los Angeles Temple, and in her years alone she found the temple to be a house of faith, a house of learning for her.

Survivors include two children: David (Sheila) Parker, and Jonathan (Katherine) Parker; her brother Karl Jensen, sister and brother-in-law Synda and Robert Keating, 12 grandchildren; 11 great grandchildren, and an aunt, Cloe T. Anderson.

Preceding her in death were her beloved eternal companion Don, infant son Timothy, daughter Jennifer (Scott) Sitton, grandson Mitchell Parker, brother Reed C. Jensen, and special uncle Wilford S. Jensen.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, August 19, 2023 at 1 P.M. with a visitation held prior from 11:30 A.M.-12: 30 P.M. All services will be held at Rogers & Taylor Funeral Home (111 N 100 E. Tremonton). Interment will follow the funeral service at the Bear River City Cemetery. The service will be livestreamed and may be accessed below.

DISCLAIMER: WE DO NOT PAN THE CROWD AND THE CAMERA IS FIXED UPON THE PULPIT. WE WILL TRY AND LIVESTREAM THE FUNERAL SERVICE. IF WE ARE UNABLE TO DO SO, DUE TO THE INTERNET SERVICE AT THE CHURCH, A RECORDING WILL BE UPLOADED WITHIN 24-48 HOURS AFTER THE SERVICE.