LaVerne Lancaster

LaVerne Margaret Nielsen Lancaster

1919 ~ 2020

LaVerne was born on November 5, 1919 in Cleveland, Idaho to Albert and Vera Nielsen. She worked on the farm with her family during the depression years and learned to let nothing go to waste. They raised crops and pigs and sheep. She loved to play basketball in high school and dance with the “fellers.” All of these skills served her well in life. Although she was never wealthy, she always made due with what she had and stretched a dollar to meet her family's needs. She loved the Utah Jazz and kept stats on all of the games.

After high school, she moved to Salt Lake City and worked in the LDS Mission Home.  At a dance, she met the love of her life Albert “Pete” Lancaster and they were married on June 29, 1941. Pete served in the Army Air Corps in India during the war. After the war, they were reunited and started their own family with three daughters, Lynda, Susan, and Becky.

She served faithfully in the LDS Church as Primary President in the Huntsville Ward, Ogden Stake Relief Society Presidency, Compassionate Service Leader in Grandview Acres Ward and loved to attend the temple. Pete died in 1975 and left LaVerne a widow at 56. She made lifelong friends where they lived in Riverdale, Huntsville, and Ogden, UT.

LaVerne was preceded in death by her parents, Albert Nielsen and Vera Charlotte Panter and her siblings, Wilda (Freeman) Rasmussen, Phyllis (George LaFaun) Johnson, Earl, Mary Faye, Thelma, Albert Keith (Betty Lou), and Charles William (Neva) and her daughter, Susan (Shaun) Shaw. She is survived by her sister, Norma (Roe) Bennett; her daughters, Lynda (Leon) Stanger and Becky Casey; and seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, September 16, 2020 at 11 a.m. at Lindquist’s Memorial Gardens of the Wasatch, 1718 Combe Rd. Friends may visit with family on Wednesday from 10 to 11 a.m. at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd.

The family is deeply grateful to the staff at Country Care and hospice workers.