Elva Hackwell

Elva Louise Hackwell

1925 ~ 2016

Our beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother passed away peacefully in her sleep on July 10, 2016.  She was an extraordinary person who lived an extraordinary life.

She enjoyed 51 joyful years with her one true love, Richard L. “Lee” Hackwell.  After he returned from two years overseas in the Army Air Corps, they spent the next two years on military bases from Washington to Florida.  She relished it as a great adventure.  After Lee’s military service, they settled in Ogden and their adventure continued.  Side by side, working together, they remodeled their first little home and designed and built two more, including their dream home where they raised their two children, Kay and Richard, and lived there happily the rest of their lives.

Her dream was to teach young children.  She waited to start college until her youngest, Richard, started kindergarten so she would be home for her children when they came home from school.  She taught kindergarten and first grade for 23 years.  Even long after she retired, former students or their parents often stopped to express what a profound influence she had been on them.

Elva devotedly served her church and community, including many years as a “Pink Lady” at McKay Dee Hospital and by serving a three year service mission as a guide at the rooftop observatory of the LDS Church Office Building.

She found great joy in playing the piano and organ.  She served as Ward Organist for twelve Bishops over the span of several decades.  She passed her love of music on to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.   Her passion for music touched all of their lives.

Elva is survived by her children, Kay Kristine (Charles) Hawkins and Richard G. (June) Hackwell;  her grandchildren, Sara (Roger) King, Emily Hawkins, and Erik Hawkins; and her great-grandchildren Trevor, Baxter, Bianca, Walter, and Mollie King.  She was preceded in death by her loving husband, her parents and her four brothers.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 11 a.m. at the Burch Creek 6th Ward Chapel, 3680 Eccles Ave., Ogden.  Friends may visit with family on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lindquist’s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd. and Thursday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the church.  Interment, Ogden City Cemetery.