Ida Lena Scarper Christensen
(Mrs. J. M. Christensen)
Malad was shocked Friday morning, 10 March 1922, when the report came that Mrs. J. M. Christensen had passed away. Late Thursday night she was reported as being a little better and out of danger.
About three weeks ago a baby girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. Christensen, and all seemed well. Mr. Christensen left for a trip to the Boise valley to arrange for the purchase of a home they had decided on. He had been gone but a day or so when called back by her condition, complications having arisen.
Dr. Merrill was called up from Ogden and gave all the assistance in his power to the local physician in charge but the call of the grim reaper was stronger than the thread of life, and she bade her loved ones goodbye.
Mrs. Christensen was a “mother” in the deepest meaning of the word, always looking to the comfort and pleasure of the happy family she was so carefully rearing, apparently centering her whole heart on her family. Loved by all who knew her, she will be greatly missed.
Deep sympathy goes out to the husband and daughters who most will miss her sympathetic and encouraging words and smiles, and as the wound heals they will realize more and more the loving care she bestowed upon them.
Mrs. Christensen was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 21, 1880, and was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Scarper. When she was five years of age, her parents moved to Denver, Colorado, and in 1896 they moved to Salt Lake City, where they lived until the time of their death.
In April of 1902 she was married to Mr. Christensen and left Salt Lake, coming to Malad to live. Three years later they moved to Elkhorn, where they made their home until three years ago, when they returned to Malad to live.
Besides her husband, she leaves five girls, Florence, Ethel, Elizabeth, Thelma and a three weeks old baby girl. Two sisters, Mrs. Mary Maurno, of Bingham, Utah , and Mrs. Call, of Oakland, Calif., and three brothers, Frank and Charles Scarper, of Oakland and Raymond Scarper, of Washington are left to mourn her.
Funeral services were held at the home Tuesday, with D. P. Woodland in charge, and a large crowd of sympathizing friends gathered to show their respect.
Bishop W. H. Thomas and R. J. Harding were the speakers, both of whom spoke of the splendid wife and mother Mrs. Christensen had been, and of the sterling qualities of the family, with added words of comfort to those left to mourn her departure. Musical sections were beautifully rendered by Mrs. Henry Jones, of St. John, Miss Bertha Jones, Harold Castleton and Prof. S. M. Powell.
Floral offerings were profuse and beautiful and were carried by the girls who had worked with her daughter, Florence, in the Evans Co-op store.
Internment was in the city cemetery.