With grateful hearts, we celebrate the life of Laura Mae Culp Reilley, a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and faithful disciple of Jesus Christ. Laura found great joy in caring for others, creating a welcoming home, and serving the people she loved.
Laura grew up on the Monterey Bay Peninsula in California, a place that remained home in her heart throughout her life. She treasured memories of fishing with her father, exploring the mountains, picking fruit, and spending time with her family. Those early experiences helped shape her love of family, hard work, tradition, and the simple joys of life.
Laura married her high school sweetheart, Thomas Patrick “Pat” Reilley, in 1960. Together they shared nearly 66 years of marriage and built a life centered on faith and family. Faith became an important part of Laura’s life after she and Pat were married. Together they learned about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and Laura was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Exactly one year later, Laura and Pat were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple for eternity. She served faithfully in many Church callings, including Primary President, Young Women President, Primary teacher, Girls Camp Director, and Girls Camp cook. She believed that no act of service was too small if it blessed someone else.
They raised their four children in California, where Laura devoted herself to her family and later worked for the local school district. She took on several different job titles over the years and eventually retired from a job she especially enjoyed as an elementary school front office secretary. Becoming a grandmother was one of the great moments of Laura’s life. She loved being part of her grandchildren’s lives and treasured both special occasions and ordinary moments together. She was extraordinarily talented and creative, with gifts for sewing, decorating, flower arranging, cooking, baking, and entertaining. She had a special way of turning ordinary gatherings into memorable occasions.
Laura’s Christmas traditions were particularly beloved. Friends and neighbors looked forward to her beautifully decorated Christmas cookies, while her grandchildren treasured making elaborate gingerbread houses with Grandma. She also passed along family recipes and traditions, including the “best no-fail pie crust” she learned from her mother.
In 2000, Laura and Pat built a home in Garden City, Utah, expecting it to be their forever home. Their plans changed when they received a mission call to serve at the Conference Center on Temple Square. Together they welcomed visitors from around the world as tour guides and later served as Shift Supervisors. Their missionary service and the friends they made while serving there was a fond memory.
Laura had a wonderful sense of humor and never took herself too seriously. She loved telling stories about her younger years, and even as Alzheimer's dementia made life increasingly confusing, her familiar humor could still shine through. Those moments became precious memories for the people who cared for her.
During the final years of her life, Laura gradually lost many memories, but she never lost her love for her family. She often longed for home and spoke frequently of the people and places she had loved throughout her life. One name remained especially close to her heart: her sister Alice, whom she had lost as a child and missed for more than seventy years.
We find comfort in imagining Laura’s return to her heavenly home—her mind having been made whole, being reunited with her parents, and after a lifetime of missing Alice, perhaps that reunion was one of the sweetest welcomes Laura could have received.
Laura is survived by her beloved husband, Pat; her four children, Kathleen (Eric), Dan (Debbie), Karen (Mike), and Diana (Billy); 14 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; and many extended family members and dear friends whose lives were touched by her kindness and example. She was preceded in death by her parents, James and Hetta Culp, and her beloved sister, Alice.
Though we miss her deeply, we find peace in the knowledge that families are eternal through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will remember Laura not for the years when Alzheimer’s took pieces of her from us, but for the woman she was: a loving wife and mother, a devoted grandmother, a woman of faith, a talented homemaker, a servant to others, and someone who knew how to make life a little more beautiful.
We find comfort in knowing that she is finally home.
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