Marie Pope Weston 1919-2020

      Marie Pope Weston passed away on May 13, 2020, in Garden City, Utah, at the age of 100.  She was the daughter of Robert and Alice Teeples Pope.  She was born on September 4, 1919 in Garden City, Utah.  She was the youngest of eight children.  Alice Pope died when Marie was only eight years old so her Father raised her on his small farm.  She loved him very much and often said, “he was so good to me.”


     Marie married Benjamin Earley Weston on June 16, 1937, in the Salt Lake Temple.  She was the mother of three children: Dale B. Weston (Pamela Porter), both deceased, Carolyn W. Davidson (Ted E Davidson), and Anita Weston.


     Marie graduated from North Rich High School.  After Ben E. and Marie were married, they lived on a ranch in the Bear River Valley for two years where she cooked for 12 – 14 men three times a day.  Marie was a good cook and always set a delicious meal on the table for her family and for others who may be working or visiting at their ranches.  They moved to Laketown for a time and then settled on their own ranch at Pickleville in the Bear Lake Valley in 1941.  Marie loved this beautiful place and made it even nicer with her flower nd vegetable gardens, lovely handwork and quilts.

     Then came a move to Sage, Wyoming.  Marie helped make this ranch an outstanding place with her gardening, flowers, and quilting talents as well as adding lambs, pheasants, turkeys, geese, quail, peacocks,  and a passel of grandkids.  After Ben E died on May 13, 1986, Marie meticulously remodeled her great-grandparents’ house in Garden City and made it her home.  Because of her efforts, this place has become a showcase.  A painting of her home is on a puzzle and is known as the white house with all the flowers.

     Marie began a quilting group in Garden City that resulted in thousands of quilts being donated to the Church Welfare Program.  The state of Utah awarded the Silver Bowl Award to her for being an outstanding citizen of Rich County two different years. 

     As an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Marie served in the Mutual program teaching the young women and  was the director of the Junior Sunday School for a number of years.  She was the President of the Primary for many years and always taught the older boys’ class at the same time.  She was a councilor in the Relief Society for five years and enjoyed interacting with those who attended.  Marie was especially talented in working with young children of primary and Sunday School age.  She was a wonderful storyteller.  Children and adults were mesmerized with her flannelboard Bible stories.  Her grandchildren recall many, many stories that she told that contained a moral relating to a particular problem they brought to Grandma.  Marie was a genealogist.  She loved her family and her heritage.  She gathered many family pictures and histories.  She made a history of the homes in Garden City for the past 100 years and the families who lived in them.  She gathered current genealogy pictures and dates at every opportunity.  She readily shared any of her information.

     Marie was a pleasant, hard working, energetic, creative person who always made people and places better than they had been.  She will be missed.

     Marie was preceeded in death by her parents, four brothers and 3 sisters, her husband, her son and her daughter-in-law, and a great-granddaughter.  She is survived by her two daughters, her one granddaughter, June Marie Saxton, seven grandsons, Kevin and Lyn Weston, Weston, Robert, Glenn, Wayne and Michael Davidson, thirty nine great-grandchildren, and fourteen great-great-grandchildren.

     A family dedicatory meeting and burrial was held at the Garden City, Utah, Cemetery, with the assistance of the Schwab-Matthews Mortuary of Montpelier, Idaho.