Arda Pritchett

Our sweet wife and mother, Arda Ann Hansen Pritchett, age 85, died August 25, 2023, from complications of aggressive B cell lymphoma in Taylorsville, Utah.

Arda was born in the family farm home in the Centerfield, Utah area, on October 23, 1937, to Ferdinand and Ella Rust Hansen. She was the first of five children and became big sister to Allan, Owen, Larry, and Sandra.

Arda attended schools in Centerfield and Gunnison, graduating from Gunnison Valley High School and continuing her education at Snow College on a PTA scholarship dependent on taking education classes. She later attended Brigham Young University, earning a BS degree in Elementary Education with minors in History and Geography. She also took Library Sciences classes post-graduation from BYU.

One of the classes Arda took at BYU was a genealogy class. On assignment from her ward, Arda taught a genealogy fireside where she met David Leigh Pritchett, and they were married a year later on August 15, 1959, in the Manti LDS Temple. They welcomed seven children into their home, naming them alphabetically Ann, Barbara, Clair, David, Edith, Forrest, and Gwen. In later years, others were invited and welcomed into their home.

As a young mother, Arda worked outside the home in the Salt Lake City Library Young Adult Department. She loved reading and entertained her children with stories of dirty dogs, the biggest bear, oobleck, wild things, little engines that could, and families that lived in trees, boxcars, and prairies.

She had a talent for remembering people’s names and histories, and no story she related ever ended without a few tangents about how someone was related to someone or a minute detail long forgotten. The skill of seeing connections helped in her professional genealogy work finding lost heirs.

Arda worked in different roles including janitor, cafeteria help, 4th grade teacher, phone book delivery person, retail clerk, University of Utah food services employee, immigrant nutrition specialist, and farmer’s market vendor. Her longest and most important role was that of raising children. Some of them took longer to raise than others.

She lived frugally and made do with what she had. Her time growing up on a farm showed as she tended a prolific garden. Summer visitors often took home a bag full of tomatoes or a zucchini – or two, or three, or four. Harvest season was often spent canning for the winter months, and she filled her pantry with jars of jams, corn, beans, pickles, grape juice, and watermelon rind relish. And apricots! Never has anyone seen such variety as was in her jars of apricots: apricot walnut jam, apricot pineapple jam, apricot walnut AND pineapple jam, and apricot rhubarb jam. And jars of golden, rose-kissed globes of apricots all grown in her own yard.

She wasn’t very coordinated. Nevertheless, she learned to dance with David, whose life involved dance. She exercised diligently throughout her life, faithfully attending Poplar Grove Ward old lady basketball practice on Thursday mornings at the Harold B Lee Hall for many years, until most of the other players had died of old age. One of the youngest, she was still shooting at hoops into her 80’s.

Much of Arda’s life revolved around her membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She had many callings but may be best remembered for her family history and genealogical work. She was a member of the International Society Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. She lived in the Pioneer Stake Poplar Grove Ward for 54 years, serving and loving the people with whom she came in contact. Her family expresses great appreciation for the ward members who loved and served her there, especially in the years when she struggled with mental illness.

Arda and David celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary just 10 days before her passing. They lived most of their lives together in the Poplar Grove area of Salt Lake City, moving to Summit Vista retirement community in Taylorsville in 2021, where Arda lived her best life – expanding her horizons with classes of all types and meeting new people who embraced her in love.

Arda is survived by her husband, David L Pritchett; children Ann (John) DeHeide, Barbara (Neil) Motter, David (Stephanie) Pritchett, Edith Hayden, Gwen (Russell) Armstrong; daughter-in-law Miriam Pritchett; 19 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren; brother Larry (Susan) Hansen, sister Sandra (Ron) Jones, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her sons “Did you miss me” Clair and Forrest, and grandson Hale.

A viewing will be held on Wednesday, August 30 from 6-8 pm. The funeral will be Thursday, August 31 at 10:30 am. Both the viewing and the funeral will be held at the Hazelhurst LDS Ward at 6030 South Prairie View Drive, Taylorsville, UT 84129. Funeral streaming service available through Jenkins-Soffe obituary link.

Interment will be at Centerfield Cemetery in Centerfield, Utah. Plant extra flowers and vegetables to share with others in your garden next spring in remembrance of Arda Pritchett.