Leora Peterson Sorenson

Salina, Utah - Our kind and beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and sister, Leora Simpson Peterson Sorenson, age 82, of Salina, died April 27, 2009 in Provo, Utah of complications from a stroke. She was born December 3, 1926 in Axtell, Utah, a daughter of Mike and Mable Leona Watts Simpson. She went to schools in Axtell and Gunnison. She graduated from Gunnison Valley High, where she was a cheerleader and a pacer for the boys track team. She married Milton Alonzo “Lefty” Peterson, September 25, 1945 in Salina, Utah while he was home on leave from the army for his grandmothers funeral. Their marriage was solemnized in the Manti LDS Temple September 25, 1993. He died March 16, 2001. She married Cecil A. Sorenson, May 3, 2003, for time, in the Manti LDS Temple. He died June 11, 2006. Leora worked in the turkey plant and nights in the Gunnison telephone office during high school, as a waitress, at the telephone office in Salina until they went to dial phones on March 1, of 1956, sewing plants, Perfect Pleat in Aurora until the age of 75. She was an active member of the LDS Church, where she and her visiting teaching companions, Lola Maxwell, and her sister, Arva Shaw, never missed checking of their sisters. On Tuesdays and Fridays, you could find her at the Senior Center in Salina or Richfield dancing. She was a woman who lived the word, charity. She was a gifted seamstress, and crocheted afghans for all of her children and grandchildren. She is survived by her children: SusAnn and Chad Beach, Loretta Quarnberg, all of Salina; step-children: Kerry W. and Karen Sorenson, Kim J. and Verna Sorenson, all of Aurora; Cherlyn and Will Taylor of Fremont; 26 grandchildren; 50 great-grandchildren; 2 great-great-grandchildren on the way; sister and brothers: Viola Larsen, Stanley and DeNeece Simpson, Bobby and Kenna Simpson, all of Salina; Arva (Deceased) and Carol Shaw of Aurora. She was preceded in death by two children: Gay and Paul Ivie, and Eugene Milton Peterson. Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 12 Noon in the Salina LDS Stake Center, 98 West 400 North in Salina, where friends may call for viewing Friday evening from 6 to 8 P.M. or Saturday morning from 10:30 to 11:30 prior to the services. Burial will be in the Salina Eastside Cemetery under the care of the Springer Turner Funeral Home of Richfield and Salina, Utah.