JENSEN, MELBA EVANS RICE, December 22, 1913 – March 18, 2004

Melba Jensen, 90, longtime resident of Malad, Idaho passed away on March 18, 2004 in the Portneuf Hospital in Pocatello, Idaho. She was born December 22, 1913 in Malad, Idaho, a daughter of Richard j. and Rachel Jones Evans. She was raised and educated in Malad until her sophomore year of high school when the family moved to Smithfield, Utah in 1929. She and her step-brother, Dale Speed, who was her same age, attended North Cache high School in Richmond, Utah, and graduated in 1932.

Melba married Edmund Windson Rice on November 21, 1934 in the Logan LDS Temple. They had three children: Lorna Rae, Odell, and Richard Rice. Her husband died on April 7, 1939 in Logan, Utah. After his death Melba and her three children moved to Malad where they lived with her parents until 1944.

On May 15, 1944 she married Harvey Alvin Jensen in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had two children, Melba Lorene and Harvey Clayne Jensen. Her husband died December 4, 1979 in Malad.

She worked as a Deputy Oneida County Treasurer, secretary at the ASCS office, secretary at malad High School and Deputy Oneida County Clerk under Colen Sweeten for several years. She finished working as Oneida County Clerk to finish Colen’s term of office when Colen moved to Boise to work for the State of Idaho.

Melba worked to support her three sons ontheir LDS missions. She had many church callings n Young Women’s, Sunday School and Relief Society. She was currently a Relief Society visiting teaching supervisor.

She is survived by three sons and one daughters: Odell (Deanna) Rice, Malad; Richard (Evelyn) Rice, Ogden, Utah; Clayne (Julie) Jensen, West Bountiful, Utah; Lorene (Arlo) Summers, Idaho Falls, Idaho; 23 grandchildren; 45 great-grandchildren; and a son-in-law, Jerry Reed, Ririe, Idaho.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her two husbands, two sisters, one brother, one step-brother, Dale Speed, one daughter, Lorna Rae (Jerry) Reed, and one granddaughter, Karma Rice.

Funeral services were held March 22, 2004 in the Malad Sixth Ward church. Burial was in the Malad Cemetery.