Amy Jackson

In Memoriam

Amy Davies Jackson

My wife Amy passed away on Halloween at 3:00 PM. She had been a resident at Good Samaritan Stafholt Care Center in Blaine, Washington for the past three years, receiving excellent care there.

We were married for 64 years. She was born in Escalante, Utah on March 30, 1915, a remote town of less than 1,000 people, surrounded by part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, one of the most scenic spots in the state of Utah.

As a young child, she moved with her family to Panguitch where surrounding areas for sheep grazing. Her father was a mechanic and pioneer of tourism, construction the first two motels in Panguitch near the National Park areas of Bryce, Zions, Canyonlands and the North Rim of Grand Canyon.

He also owned and operated a Buick dealership, a full-service garage and three gas stations in town where Amy learned to change tires, do minor repairs and tune up cars as well as assume major responsibilities in the home as well as her father’s business.

She was second of ten children, surrounded in her early years by six brothers, Wayne, Foster, Keith, Ray, Calvin and Milton who died in infancy. She had three sisters, Lora, Lela and Margaret and was close to all of them in their growing up years.

I was a teacher at Panguitch High School when I met her. She enrolled in my business classes; I also taught speech and drama and she took over the directorship of a play we produced for the Chamber of Commerce, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” as well as a play produced at Brigham Young University on racial prejudice in our country.

We married in Evanston, Wyoming on August 8, 1949, and moved to nearby Parowan High School with her two children, Eugene and Barbara, where our daughter Diania was born in nearby Cedar City. I taught math and speech there and Amy directed several plays for the school and community as well as co-sponsoring a Junior Prom.

Our next move was to Salt Lake City where our son David was born. We eventually settled in the orchard area of Bountiful. Amy continued directing dramas, organized a literary club and served as PTA president. She also served on the Board of YWCA in Salt Lake and began her career in the food management business with Western Hotels where she managed the Royal Room at the Newhouse Hotel and their coffee shop.

The University of Utah recruited her as banquet receptionist planning menus for dignitaries and varsity athletes. When I was transferred by an advertising agency to Seattle, she worked for the Wharf and managed a bath shop in the downtown pier area selling antiques with considerable success.

Social wise, we traveled in Europe, Indonesia, South American, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Alaska and throughout the United States. She loved to dance and hike—swam, skied, rode horses, fished and hunted and was an avid gardener and homemaker and enjoyed entertaining and reading good books. She wrote an article publishing in Guideposts after rescuing her mother when they were stranded in remote area in the southwestern Utah.

Upon my retirement, we bought a home in Birch Bay Village where she directed the first dinner theater and was active in social events in her leadership capacities. She is survived by two daughters, a sister and brother in Utah, eleven grandchildren and more than 20 great grandchildren.

Our two sons lost their lives in early adulthood which was a devastating blow to her. She suffered a serious heart attack in 1994 and was in poor health since that time.

I miss her very much. She was a beautiful and courageous lady who loved people, the flowers she grew, all animals, people of every culture and never gave up in her struggle for a full and eventful life filled with numerous hardships and challenges she overcame. She was a fighter to the end of her life, resolute and determined to succeed in all her endeavors and admired by those who knew her.

Lowell Jackson