Mary Fern Peterson

It is with sorrow we announce this week the passing of our mother, Mary Fern Peterson, of causes incident to age. She was eighty-eight.

Mary Fern was born in Greenville, South Carolina to J.B. Parris and Mary Weatherford Parris. Both of her parents lost their first spouses to the great flu epidemic of 1918, and as J.B. and Mary Weatherford were both LDS and knew each other from church, they decided to marry and blend their families. Mary Fern and her twin brother, Vernal Lee Parris, were born to that union in 1920.

At a very early age, Mary Fern showed great affinity and talent for music and the piano. By the time she was twenty-one, Mary Fern was paying her own way through college by giving piano lessons at Anderson College in Anderson, South Carolina. Also at that time, she met Melvin M. Peterson of Taylor, Weber County, Utah. Melvin was in South Carolina training to fly B-24 bombers. Melvin and Mary Fern corresponded with each other while Melvin was stationed at an air base in Australia. When Melvin returned from his overseas assignment, Mary Fern and Melvin were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple in 1944. Mary Fern never stopped giving piano lessons, no matter where life took her and her family.

In 1952, Melvin and Mary Fern took their family of three children to Iran where Melvin was employed as an agricultural advisor to the Iranian government. Two more children were added to the family in Iran. This was Melvin and Mary Fern''s great world adventure. In 1957 they returned to Taylor, Utah where Melvin had built a house.

Shortly thereafter, Mary Fern finished her college degree and teaching certificate at Weber State College and Brigham Young University. She was hired by the Utah School for the Blind as a music teacher, but she also learned Braille and taught academic subjects as well as living skills. Her entire professional teaching career was spent at the Utah School for the Blind. She was well-known for her creative Christmas programs. Some of her colleagues became her life-long friends. Mary Fern also sang in the Ogden Chorale.

Mary Fern was a devoted member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Almost all of her church service was directed toward music. She was almost always involved as a ward chorister or organist or choir member. In 1961 she was chosen to join The Singing Mothers, a Church-wide Relief Society choir that traveled to London, England to sing at the dedication of the London Temple. This was one of the spiritual highlights of her life. Mary Fern also volunteered hours upon hours teaching many young men and women in the ward to play the church organ. Her creative rendition of "Come, Come Ye Saints" is well-known in the Taylor wards. One of her last assignments in the church was playing the organ in the chapel of the Ogden Temple, shortly before a heart attack left her energy and creativity greatly diminished.

Melvin and Mary Fern had five children. Melvin died in 1984. Her four surviving children are Melvin Lee (Aleene) Peterson, Mark P. (Ginger) Peterson, Melanie (Blaine) Clifford, and James Lance (Becky) Peterson - as well as many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nephews and nieces. Also surviving is a step-sister, Evelyn Toone.

One daughter and a son-in-law, Mary A''Lana and her husband Carl Smith, preceded her in death in 1981. Also preceding Mary Fern in death were her twin brother Vernal Lee and all of her half-brothers and sisters from her parents'' first marriage.

We give special thanks to all the loving and caring staff at Emeritus Estates Assisted Living facility where Mary Fern lived for the past eight years. She always felt loved and safe and secure there. We also appreciate the special care she received the last two months of her life at Lomond Peak Care Center (formerly Infinia).

Funeral services will be held Friday, May 1st at 11:00 a.m. at Lindquist''s Ogden Mortuary, 3408 Washington Blvd.

Family and friends are invited to a viewing on Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. and on Friday from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. at the mortuary.

Interment, Ogden City Cemetery.

Send condolences to the family at: www.lindquistmortuary.com /stop