Delpha J Huss

Delpha J. Huss, an amazing woman with a fiery, yet kind spirit, died on Sunday, February 16th at the age of 96. The firstborn child of Laurence B. Johns and Tasma E. Johns, Delpha was born in Ogden on June 14, 1928. Her first job was selling popcorn in the Ogden Theater and her love of popcorn (kettle corn in particular) would feature heavily in the family card and dominoes games she would dominate throughout her life, much to the joy (and chagrin) of her family members, who counted themselves lucky in the rare instances they could beat her. She married Val E. Huss on December 28th, 1951 and they raised their family in Ogden. Val was the love of her life and treated her like the queen she is. She often said she couldn’t point things out to him that she liked because he would always buy them for her. To him, she was “the cat’s meow.” Their love story was the stuff of legend and after his death in 1994 she refused to date anyone else, saying “when you’ve been with the best everyone else looks pretty boring.”

It was no secret to anyone who knew her that Delpha did not enjoy the harsh Utah winters. In 1980, after Val retired, they started traveling to Yuma, AZ every winter to escape the snow. She built a strong community of friends and family there and spent quite a bit of time at the Yuma flea markets and the colorful marketplaces of Los Algodones, Mexico. She was beloved by the friends she made in Mexico and when you were visiting, you were treated like a celebrity when shopkeepers found out that you knew Delpha. She was really something special and everyone saw it.

Delpha was never one to sit idle and had many hobbies that she filled her time with. She and Val were avid golfers and often traveled to play in tournaments. She also loved to read (voraciously), play the organ, travel, and garden. She regularly had a book (or two) by her side, organs in both Ogden and Yuma, travel stories and pictures galore, and tomatoes that were always delicious. And although she professed not to enjoy cooking, she also made the best hotcakes, a fact that many of her grandchildren can attest to.

Delpha was preceded in death by the love of her life, Val, her parents, her brother Wayne Johns, her sister Leah Frost, her daughter Sherril Melsheimer, three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. She is survived by her sisters Marilyn Alexander (Tom) and Sage (Sally Ann) Johns (David), her children Rod (Robin), Craig (Phyllis), and Anita Parker (John), and her 35 grandchildren, 84 great-grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren.

Delpha’s family would like to thank the caregivers and staff at Maple Springs in Brigham City for their warm and kind care, particularly Joanna and Leslie. A special thank you also goes out to Aegis Hospice and especially to Karl, her loving nurse, and Toni, her caregiver.

An indoor graveside/time of sharing service will be held on Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. at Lindquist's Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd. Ogden, Utah. A viewing will be held prior from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.at the mortuary. Interment will be at the Lindquist's Memorial Gardens of the Wasatch, 1718 Combe Road.