Elaine McLean

Our beloved Mother, Grandmother, Great-grandmother, and Friend left us February 22nd 2020, for our eternal home to be with her husband of 59 years. Elaine was born on the 13th of April 1936 in Paris, Bear Lake, Idaho to Karl Sleight and Blanche Bateman Sleight. She is preceded in death by them, her husband Marvin Smith McLean, her brothers William Sleight and Clyde Sleight, sure to be a joyous reunion for all.

She would often tell us about everyone she knew, and whom they were related to in the Bear Lake Idaho area, or people she knew from Davis High School. She moved into the Salt Lake valley and worked for Beneficial Life Insurance for more than two years where she “demonstrated abilities which would classify her as one of the finer employees hired by the Firm. She has a fine spirit of loyalty, radiates a pleasing personality and is always punctual and dependable.”

She married Marvin on the 8th of April 1960 in the Salt Lake Temple. They lived in a basement apartment, where they had their first child, Wes. The Berlin Wall Crisis took Dad away to Texas for the Army, and left her alone with a child. A very scary time for her. After Dad returned, they found a lot for a house and had lived there ever since. Margaret and then Bruce were born and the family grew up in the home creating many cherished memories.

When her children were old enough, Elaine went back to work to use her talents at schools. First as an assistant for disabled children, then as a secretary, and then as the secretary for the Principal at Emerson Elementary. She excelled as “outstanding in the preparation of handouts, reports, copy work and a great capacity to organize, being innovative when meeting the needs of the resource room, always on time and always accurate. She has a lot of initiative when learning new ideas and how to apply them to students. She has the skills to work with three resource teachers and meet three sets of standards in terms of performance, relationship and initiative”.

Elaine was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Held many positions in Relief Society, seeing to others needs. She has the warmest heart and greatest spirit possible. She is always loving, caring and giving of herself to others. She struggled, as we all do sometimes, with understanding the scriptures, but in her later years was very keen to tie together stories and events from the scriptures. She would often see something in the news and would pull out the world atlas to look up the place an event was happening, and then would explain how it was happening just like in the scriptures.

She has enjoyed the blessing of many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her last adventure was to “go and see her great-grandkids one last time”. She lived her life with the warmest heart and greatest spirit possible. She perpetually sought knowledge and adventure to enrich her life, all the while nurturing and fulfilling the soul of everyone she met. She dedicated her life to her family and was famous for worrying about our well being. She loved all of us with all her heart, and we loved her back even more. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here, we might as well dance.

Funeral Services will be held on Monday, March 2, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. at the Winder West 4th LDS Church located at 951 E. 3825 S., with a viewing from 10:00-10:45 a.m. prior to services. A night viewing will be Sunday, March 1st, from 5-7 p.m. at Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Home, 4760 S. State Street. Interment: Elysian Burial Gardens.