Eliza LaRue DeWitt

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Eliza LaRue Call DeWitt died peacefully in Provo, Utah, on February 12, 2013. LaRue was born in Bountiful on December 30, 1927, to Milton H. and Ethel Thurgood Call. She grew up on the farm on "Call Street" in West Layton with her many cousins, and she graduated from Davis High School before attending Utah State Agricultural College as a business major. During her freshman year she met Donald F. DeWitt, also from Davis County, and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple May 8, 1947. Don and LaRue raised their four children in Layton, where they lived until retiring to St. George. In 2002 they moved to Utah County, where Don passed away in 2006.

LaRue contracted polio as a young woman and was never completely healthy again. Nevertheless, she loved life. She enjoyed the beauties of nature, her yard and flowers, her dogs, the birds singing outside her bedroom window. She dressed elegantly and decorated her home beautifully. She played piano and organ, enjoyed synchronized swimming. She and Don were members of the Layton Dance Club, and she enjoyed her Study Group friends and taking vacations to Bear Lake, Park City, and California. She loved visits in Layton from the grandchildren, where they watched movies in the basement and learned to swim in the pool. To the end she kept track of them all, and the increasing number of great-grandchildren, remembering the names and the dates.

A devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LaRue served as Stake Primary President. She worked at the Naval Supply Depot in Clearfield, spent a number of years as a doctor''s assistant at the Tanner Clinic in Layton, and later she managed the business office at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, where Don was Director of Social Services.

In the early years LaRue refinished furniture and painted murals on the walls; in mid-life she took up oil painting. All her life she sewed up a storm, and in her last active years she made quilts and matching pillows for each of her grandchildren and their spouses. To the very end she crocheted, decorating everything she could reach from her bed -- rings from the Ensure bottles, her stuffed animals, and the grab-bar overhead.

LaRue is survived by her children Donlu (Douglas) Thayer of Provo, Kevin (Marci) DeWitt of Leeds, Machiel (Brian) Williams of Huntsville, AL, and Camden (Sherrie) DeWitt, Spokane, WA. She leaves 19 grandchildren, 43 great-grandchildren, her brother Robert Call, sister-in-law Viola Call, and brother-in-law Dennis Wilson. She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her brother Dean Call, sister Vernetta Wilson, sister-in-law Shirley Call, and great-granddaughter London Machiel Miller.

The family are grateful for the people at Courtyard at Jamestown, Provo Rehabilitation and Nursing, and Inspiration and Bristol Hospice who helped care for LaRue in the years since Don''s death. And especially Cris Diaz, who was like a daughter.

Funeral services will be held Monday, February 18, 2013, at 2 p.m. at Lindquist''s Layton Mortuary, 1867 N. Fairfield Road. Friends may visit with family at the mortuary before the service, from 12:30 a€" 1:30 p.m. LaRue will be laid to rest at Lindquist''s Memorial Park at Layton, beside her beloved and devoted Don. Right next to them are their friends De J and June Cutler, and if there is pinochle in heaven, they''re playing it now.