Oretha Marie Snapp Deakins Obituary (1928 - 2015)

Oretha Marie Snapp DEAKINS died on March 8, 2015. She was 85. Oretha was born in her parents' Midvale, Idaho farm home on September 28, 1929, the seventh child and second daughter of John Flemon Snapp and Nellie Turnbaugh Snapp. She was a child of the Great Depression and the Second World War. Of her early years, she recollected, "I never remember being lonely or 'bored' and was usually content with what I had and what there was to do and loved the farm." She would possess this generally contented, optimistic and happy attitude throughout her life, along with a pastoral love for the earth's bounty, made manifest by her loving labors in her garden or beds of vibrant flowers. On November 7, 1948, Oretha married her handsome high school sweetheart, David Dean Deakins, in Midvale, Idaho. They began their married life in the Ontario, Oregon area and would later make homes in different parts of Idaho, Wyoming, and the Spokane Valley. In later years, after retirement, Oretha and David would move to Clayton, Washington where they lived until David's death in 2005. They were together for almost 57 years, raised eight children, and were the proud grandparents of close to 80 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Of her sweetheart, Oretha wrote (perhaps pointing to her well-noted strong will—and revealing a secret of her enduring marriage): "This man has more staying power than a Sears Die-Hard battery…He has shown his love for me in many ways, and treated me with kindness and respect…He has been secure enough to let me be myself and give me personal freedom…and there is no one else I [more] prefer to spend my time with." Oretha was a loving and conscientious daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She spent many years as a lunch cook and, later, a reading tutor for grade school children in the East Valley School District. In tutoring, she found great and lasting satisfaction. But even after a long day on her feet at work, she would be home when her children and husband returned, quick to give a hug, cook a meal, help with homework, or sew a dress. She was an active and engaged member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a source of joy and comfort for her throughout her life. Oretha battled Alzheimer's Disease in her later years, yet even as her memories dimmed and her body became frail, her disposition remained almost exclusively happy and her way of life one of service and kindness. "What does it mean to be a Mother?" she pondered in 1976. "It means learning when to be gentle and when to be tough; when to laugh and when to cry and when to laugh to keep from crying. It means taking time to watch a bug with a child, to look in his eyes when he tells you something, time to have a little fun while the housework waits. It means patience when he doesn't hear you the first time because he's daydreaming. Patience when she doesn't do things just the way you would. It means reading their favorite thing to them until you know it by heart. It means worrying over a sick child…holding, rocking, cuddling, comforting, bathing a feverish little body or brow…It means pretending you're not afraid so they won't be…" Such a mother was Oretha Marie Deakins. "…And her children arise up and call her blessed." She will be laid to rest on Saturday, March 14, 2015 in the Deseret Section of Greenwood Memorial Terrace Cemetery in Spokane, WA. Funeral Home: Jenkins-Soffe South Valley 1007 W. South Jordan Parkway South Jordan, UT 84095