September 4, 1919 ~ May 13, 2020 (age 100)

Marie Pope Weston passed away on May 13, 2020, in Garden City, Utah, at the age of 100. She was the daughter of Robert and Alice Teeples Pope.

She was born on September 4, 1919 in Garden City, Utah. She was the youngest of eight children. Alice Pope died when Marie was only eight years old so her Father raised her on his small farm. She loved him very much and often said, “he was so good to me.”

Marie married Benjamin Earley Weston on June 16, 1937, in the Salt Lake Temple. She was the mother of three children: Dale B. Weston (Pamela Porter), both deceased, Carolyn W. Davidson (Ted E. Davidson), and Anita Weston.

Marie graduated from North Rich High School. After Ben E. and Marie were married, they lived on a ranch in the Bear River Valley for two years where she cooked for 12 – 14 men three times a day. Marie was a good cook and always set a delicious meal on the table for her family and for others who may be working or visiting at their ranches. They moved to Laketown for a time and then settled on their own ranch at Pickleville in the Bear Lake Valley in 1941. Marie loved this beautiful place and made it even nicer with her flower and vegetable gardens, lovely handwork and quilts.

Then came a move to Sage, Wyoming. Marie helped make this ranch an outstanding place with her gardening, flowers, and quilting talents as well as adding lambs, pheasants, turkeys, geese, quail, peacocks, and a passel of grandkids. After Ben E. died on May 13, 1986, Marie meticulously remodeled her great-grandparents’ house in Garden City and made it her home. Because of her efforts, this place has become a showcase. A painting of her home is on a puzzle and is known as the white house with all the flowers.

Marie began a quilting group in Garden City that resulted in thousands of quilts being donated to the Church Welfare Program. The state of Utah awarded the Silver Bowl Award to her for being an outstanding citizen of Rich County two different years.

As an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Marie served in the Mutual program teaching the young women and was the director of the Junior Sunday School for a number of years. She was the President of the Primary for many years and always taught the older boys’ class at the same time. She was a councilor in the Relief Society for five years and enjoyed interacting with those who attended. Marie was especially talented in working with young children of primary and Sunday School age. She was a wonderful storyteller. Children and adults were mesmerized with her flannel board Bible stories. Her grandchildren recall many, many stories that she told that contained a moral relating to a particular problem they brought to Grandma. Marie was a genealogist. She loved her family and her heritage. She gathered many family pictures and histories. She made a history of the homes in Garden City for the past 100 years and the families who lived in them. She gathered current genealogy pictures and dates at every opportunity. She readily shared any of her information.

Marie was a pleasant, hard working, energetic, creative person who always made people and places better than they had been. She will be missed.

Marie was preceded in death by her parents, four brothers and 3 sisters, her husband, her son and her daughter-in-law, and a great-granddaughter. She is survived by her two daughters, Anita and Carolyn, her one granddaughter, June Marie Saxton, seven grandsons, Kevin and Lyn Weston, Weston, Robert, Glenn, Wayne and Michael Davidson, thirty nine great-grandchildren, and fourteen great-great-grandchildren.

A family dedicatory meeting and burial was held at the Garden City, Utah, Cemetery.

Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at Matthews Mortuary.

Into the Yonder

Filled with gratitude,

and amazed by grace

I think right now

of Grandma’s face.

Of the joy, when again,

she lay eyes on my dad—

her pride purely gleaming

for this was her lad.

Overtaken by wonder,

and thrilled to the core,

my own spirit quivers

as I think of some more—

like the welcome home greetings

from her dad and mother

cheers from her siblings,

each sister and brother.

She was the baby,

the darling, their dear!

Who somehow led out

from back in the rear.

Owning the traits

of her pioneer stock,

she determined her course

no matter the walk!

She thrived and survived

from old times, to new,

and taught by example

just how to push through.

“Be tough! Don’t flinch.

It is easy to quit!

Now you be the boss—

and you conquer it.”

No matter the problem,

and no matter the size,

work was the answer

and honest the prize.

And what of that cowboy

who rode on alone,

to open the gates

so we’d make it home?

He has waited and watched

from each ridge and swell

for Grandma to push us

along on the trail.

My mind is aligned

with my heart as I ponder

them riding together

into their yonder.

These thoughts are joyful!

Oh, why shouldn’t they be?

The cowboy was ready…

and so was Marie.

June Marie Saxton

5/13/2020

This article was written nearly a year ago by Bobbie Coray for the Rich Civic Times. We include it for you to enjoy.

Marie Pope Weston, whose home is a Garden City landmark, turns 100 this week! She was born in Garden City in 1919, just around the block from where she now lives. Her colorful flowers on her long white picket fence are a tourist attraction and a blessing to the community. Her daughter Anita Weston said “Mother has always planted flowers along the fence from the day she moved into the house. When we lived in Pickleville, she had flowers everywhere there as well. Mother loves flowers.”

As a matter of fact, Utah folk art painter Eric Dowdle, painted the Weston home in one of his early works. You can see Marie and Anita standing together with their hoes for planting. This home was built by Anita’s great-great Grandpa, Robert Calder. He came to Garden City in 1879. He was asked to move from Randolph to Garden City to be the first Bishop in Garden City.

Marie and her husband, Benjamin Earley Weston, farmed on Sweetwater Hillside for many years when it was part of a real city named Pickleville where he was the mayor of the city. Their three children, Dale Weston, Carolyn Weston Davidson, and Anita Weston were born in Garden City.

The cattle range was up and over Sweetwater Hill and a bit further into the mountains. When people started building homes on Sweetwater Hill, they didn’t like the cattle going up through that area. They were trying to have lawns and flowers. The cows enjoyed the green grass and flowers as well as the owners of the lots on the hill. It became too difficult to be good neighbors because of the cattle. The cows had gone over that area so long that Ben E. would only have to open the gates and let them go in the spring. When it was getting fall, the cows knew enough to come home. They would come down Sweetwater Hill. It got so the cows were getting nervous in traveling that trail so they would come through there at night. They decided that the ranch would have to move.

He bought the Ranch between Cokeville and Kemmerer, It was called the BQ Ranch. Anita tells stories of her Mother making several loaves of bread every day with hearty beef stews to feed the ranch hands dinner and huge breakfasts of eggs and pancakes. She also took time to take the three children arrowhead hunting in the wild and searching for wild berries for jams that she bottled giving them a love for being outside. They went to Logan for supplies a couple of times a year but most everything they ate or needed was either hunted or grown and bottled on the ranch. Marie is a crack shot too. When her husband passed away, Marie moved back to Garden City and into the oldest existing building here. It used to be a hotel and has many secrets in its walls. Now it is filled with beautiful antiques and hundreds of amazing orchids.

Marie was not only a rancher, she was also a painter. Her oil painting of Bear Lake is a treasure hanging in her living room.

Her wry sense of humor and love of the history of this area has entertained many visitors and friends as well as her eight grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. And now there are 14 great- great-grandchildren.

But her true artistry comes out in her intricate hand pieced quilts. At 100, she is still creating amazing patterns and colors. She shared her love of quilting for years being in charge of the Bear Lake Humanitarian quilting, first held in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Garden City and later moved to a special room for quilters above the Garden City Library still ongoing. Once a week 8-10 quilts were tied and bound by friends in Rich County and sent to LDS and other humanitarian groups. For this long term effort she was awarded two statewide awards for civic involvement. She was also involved in the first library in Garden City decades ago.



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