Blanche Taylor Brinkerhoff

Bicknell, Utah — Blanche Taylor Brinkerhoff, our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and sister passed away January 4, 2023, in Alpine, Utah. She was 97.

A daughter of Dortha May Morrell and Glen Ellison Taylor, she was born at the family home in Fremont, Utah, September 1, 1925. She was raised in Fremont in a large and hardy family, rich in heritage and enduring in legacy. She received her education in Fremont schools, Wayne High School in Bicknell, Utah, and LDS Business College in Salt Lake City.

On November 1, 1946, she married John Allen Brinkerhoff in the Salt Lake Temple, and devoted the rest of her life in service to her family, community, and Savior. John preceded her in death May 22, 2015.

Blanche was a 20-year board member of the Wayne Community Health Center, consistently volunteered her time serving on numerous civic committees and projects and was a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she had an unwavering testimony of the Gospel. Throughout her life she served in many callings in all auxiliaries, including Primary President and Relief Society President of the Thurber Ward, youth leader, and other supporting callings in the Loa Utah Stake. With her husband, she served as an ordinance worker in the Manti Temple.

She held her family at the center of her long, wonderful life. Never seeking the spotlight, rather she created her own light which she focused on those around her. She was a committed partner with her husband, a devoted and attentive daughter to her parents and parents-in-law and was the essence of all that is admired and needed in a mother. She taught her children their first and most recent lessons and instilled in them a sense of home built on a foundation of her faith and the surety of her love. She strongly advocated for and supported their education, world experience, spiritual welfare, and modeled for her family nearly a century of moderate and purposeful living. Her example is her legacy, and it is from these qualities her children and posterity will continue to draw without reserve.

She is survived by her six children: Allan Brinkerhoff (Mary), Diane Walter (Kent, deceased), Mary Jo Crook (Kenneth), Brad Brinkerhoff (Susan), Doris Madson (Dennis), and Ted Brinkerhoff; 24 grandchildren and 67 great-grandchildren; a sister, JoAnn Erickson; and a brother, M. Dent Taylor.

In addition to her husband, she is preceded in death by her parents; four sisters and eight brothers: Faye Behunin, Berta Taft, Mell Taylor, Arnold Taylor, Talmage Taylor, Leo Taylor, Glen Devoy Taylor, Loma Blackburn, May Taylor, Dick Taylor, Hyrum Taylor, and Kay Taylor.

Funeral service will be Friday, January 13, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. in the Thurber Ward Chapel in Bicknell, Utah, where friends may call for viewing Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. prior to the service.

Interment will be in the Bicknell Cemetery under the care of Springer Turner Funeral Home of Richfield and Salina, Utah.

Matthew 11:28-30