Katie W. Chappell

Loa, Utah - When Katie was a girl, if her Mother couldn’t find her, all she had to do was step to the kitchen door, pause and listen. Katie was often found sitting in one of the tall cotton wood trees in the yard. Katie born 17 June 1922 in Loa, Utah, the daughter of James Edwin and Mae Alberta Potter Webster. Her third birthday was three months away when her father died , 14 March 1925. She always remembered seeing her father in a box which was put in a red truck and taken away and she didn’t know why. Mae struggled for five years to provide for the six children until 11 December 1929 when she married Ephraim Taylor. The family expected to have an easier life, but the Great Depression was upon them. Katie often spent summers living with one of her aunts. When she was fifteen she went to work as a maid in Salt Lake City and never finished high school. Years later she went back to school and got her General Education Degree. Her theme song was, “I’ll be Loving You Always” when she married Blain Mansfield Chappell on March 6, 1940 in the Salt Lake Temple. Katie thought her life was going to be easier now, but the babies came fast and so did World War II. Hildred, Deanna and Bill put Blain on the deferred list along with his occupation, farmer, but his name was at the top of the list when the War finally ended. Farming didn’t provide much money so Blain did odd jobs, until he was hired as a helper at the Cheese Plant which gave them a regular pay check. Katie often sang, “Put your shoulder to the wheel move along, do your duty with a heart full of song.” She taught her children how to work and she worked too. She was very good at “pinching every penny.” She was able to save enough money in thirteen years to build a new brick house and pay for it without getting a loan. She was the general contractor, pay master and painted all the walls, sanded and stained the hardwood floors in the new house. Katie was always looking for new things to learn and do, not only for herself, but her children too. She learned to sew, became involved with 4-H as a teacher and President of the 4-H Counsel and received a 20 year service pin. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and loved the Gospel. She taught Primary, Cub Scouts, served as a counselor in a Relief Society Presidency and was the President of the Stake Young Women’s organization for 4 years. She and Blain served as Cove Fort Missionaries for four seasons. Blain loved it and she did too except she thought the wind was always blowing there. She served a Family History Mission in Salt Lake City when she was 79. Katie and Blain loved to dance and belonged to the Buckhorn Square Dance Club where they promenaded and do-se-dooed in a matching, red-plaid shirt and dress that she made. Katie enjoyed writing poetry which she put in letters and cards to her family. She also gave them lots of good advice with favorite sayings such as “by the inch it’s a cinch.” There were lots of inches in her life but the hardest was being a widow for seventeen years. During that time she had a good friend, Lowell Taylor, who visited her and phoned her daily, one of the things they did was sing old songs together. Katie lived with a son in St. George for the past four years, but she was always a member of the Loa ward. Mathew and Pat took good care of her. A week before her passing Katie said, “I am ready to die.” After two falls and a week of pain she joyfully passed on, 7 July 2016 in St. George, Utah. She is survived by her sisters: Faye Webster Hatch Taylor and Larna (Keith) Taylor Busenbark; four children: Hildred (LeRon) Cobia, William “Bill” (Susan), Mathew (Pat), Charles (Cathy) Chappell, 22 grandchildren, 37 great-grandchildren and 4 great-great-grandchildren. Those who proceeded her in death are her husband: Blain, her parents: Mae and Jim and step-father, Eph, her sisters: Eula Mae Westenskow and Elna Denney, her brothers: Brose and William “Bill” Webster; her daughters Alberta Sue Chappell Olcott Barnson and Deanna Chappell Maxfield; and a grandson, Travis Chappell. Funeral services will be held Saturday, July 16, 2016 at 11:00 A.M. in the Loa LDS Stake Center. Friends may call for viewing at the Springer Turner Funeral Home in Richfield, Friday evening from 6 to 8 P.M. or at the Stake Center in Loa, Saturday morning from 9:00 to 10:30 prior to the services. Burial will be in the Loa Cemetery under the care of the Springer Turner Funeral Home of Richfield and Salina, Utah.